February 29, 1964 - DUSTY SPRINGFIELD, THE SEARCHERS & BOBBY VEE kicked off a 29-date twice-nightly concert tour 48 years ago tonight. At this time packaged live tours were the rage, each act performing a short set of, say, 30 minutes of their hit songs, leaving the stage with the next act immediately following and performing their hit songs for around the same period. Each of the aforementioned acts had hits on the charts so it was good value for punters, and lots of hit songs. There is no available footage of this night's event but we have a short medley of Dusty Springfield on the Russ Conway Show, and Ed Sullivan show singing her massive hit; this is followed by the Searchers singing the Ray Charles hit, What'd I say, and finally, American teen idol Bobby Vee performing one of his hits of the day, Run To Him.
1932 - BING CROSBY AND THE MILLS BROTHERS teamed up to record what turned out to be a hit record of the day, Shine, but being exactly 80 years to the day, the video - if there was one - appears to have disappeared from sight. however, we do have a video of the Mills brothers doing a song called Nagasaki from five years later, and we have Bing crosby singing Empty Saddles from the 1936 movie, Rhythm On The Range. For more Bing Crosby vids and history go to *MUSICBACKTRACK* archives.
1968 - THE BEATLES' SERGEANT PEPPERS won seven awards at this year's Grammys ceremony honouring the best of contemporary music. Prior to the recording of Sgt, Peppers, the band, understandably, had grown tired of touring and could not appreciate how they had developed as a live act with the hoards of screaming - predominantly female - concert-goers that had been packing stadiums and auditoriums around the world. Following their 3rd and final world tour, ending at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, the Beatles said goodbye to live touring and returned to Abbey Road, the process allowing them to further develop the studio techniques they had learned on their previous Revolver album. Here they'd discovered multiple tape reversing at different speeds, studio reverb, recording with a full orchestra, tabla drums and sitar, Terpsichore and harpsichord. Their eighth studio album, Sgt. Pepper was the result, subsequently becoming the benchmark for future albums, not only with musical and production standards, but with art and packaging aspects, such as the Peter Blake-inspired album cover. With it's daring musical structures and ideas as well as the Peter Blake album cover, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band picked up seven Grammy Awards; Best Album; Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts; Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist; a pretty remarkable achievement even by today's standards. But there was another album being made by the Beach Boys in America which became a major influence on the Beatles's studio efforts, and the following short pieces show aspects of that fact, as described by Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson.
1976- 10CC kicked off a 30-date UK tour at the Fairfield Hall, Croydon, tonight promoting their new album How Dare You. The band came to prominence a year earlier, though, with their breakthrough sounding hit song, I'm Not In Love, guaranteeing them a successful tour. Production on the song was a new sound, brought about by new recording techniques. It was originally written around a boss nova beat, but group member Lol Creme suggested slowing the tempo, while another group member, Kevin Godley, suggested replacing the beat with a built-up wall of voices. The ethereal sound was created by laboriously building up multiple overdubs of the four voices of Stewart, Graham Gouldman, Godley and Creme singing a single note in unison. This multi-track was then mixed and dubbed down onto 16-track tape. This process was repeated across all 16 tracks to create a luscious 256-voice 'virtual' choir that could 'sing' chromatic chords. A number of these prepared multi-tracks were then cut into several endless loops, each of which contained the basic notes of the main chords used in the song. The chorus loops could then be played by using the mixing desk rather like a keyboard, that is, each chord could be sounded by bringing up the fader for that loop. The instrumental break featured the repeated spoken phrase, "Be quiet, big boys don't cry. This had been the softly-spoken voice of Kathy Warren, the receptionist of the group's Strawberry Studios. This was a long time before sampling but the group was able to simulate a large polyphonic choir, creating a dramatic tonal effect similar to that produced by the well-known choir sounds of the Mellotron and Birotron - but with a richer full stereo sound. Godley and Creme's "Gizmo" (also known as "Gizmotron") guitar effects device invention also is used to create a bowed cello effect that surfaces in the middle and closing sections of the song, heard underneath the endless looped voices.
1992 - U2 kicked off their north American leg of the Zoo TV Tour, at The Lakeland Civic Centre Arena, Florida, tonight. One of the most difficult of tasks for any music act is to survive and progress, and to do so absolutely requires a reinvention, a fresh look, and nobody has reinvented themselves more successfully than U2. Like and assault on the senses, The Zoo TV Tour was in support of their 1991 album, Achtung Baby, the tour visiting arenas and stadiums from 1992 through 1993. To mirror the new musical direction that the group took with Achtung Baby, the tour deviated from the band's past, hence confounding expectations of the band. In contrast to U2's previous and relatively austere stage setups, the Zoo TV Tour was an elaborately-staged multimedia event. It satirised television and media over-saturation by attempting to instill 'sensory overload' in its audience. To escape their reputation for being overly serious, U2 also embraced a more lighthearted and self-deprecating image on tour. Following are two excerpts from the tour, both of them live from Sydney in 1993.
2008 - THE DAVE CLARKE FIVE LEAD SINGER, MIKE SMITH, died from pneumonia at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire, England, tonight. He was 64. The Dave Clark Five had 19 worldwide Top 40 hits, including Bits and Pieces and the #1 song, Glad All Over. The band, which broke up in the 1970s, sold more than 100 million records and recorded 23 albums. A phenomenon in the world of music. For more Dave Clarke five, go visit *MUSICBACKTRACK*archives.
1932 - BING CROSBY AND THE MILLS BROTHERS teamed up to record what turned out to be a hit record of the day, Shine, but being exactly 80 years to the day, the video - if there was one - appears to have disappeared from sight. however, we do have a video of the Mills brothers doing a song called Nagasaki from five years later, and we have Bing crosby singing Empty Saddles from the 1936 movie, Rhythm On The Range. For more Bing Crosby vids and history go to *MUSICBACKTRACK* archives.
1968 - THE BEATLES' SERGEANT PEPPERS won seven awards at this year's Grammys ceremony honouring the best of contemporary music. Prior to the recording of Sgt, Peppers, the band, understandably, had grown tired of touring and could not appreciate how they had developed as a live act with the hoards of screaming - predominantly female - concert-goers that had been packing stadiums and auditoriums around the world. Following their 3rd and final world tour, ending at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, the Beatles said goodbye to live touring and returned to Abbey Road, the process allowing them to further develop the studio techniques they had learned on their previous Revolver album. Here they'd discovered multiple tape reversing at different speeds, studio reverb, recording with a full orchestra, tabla drums and sitar, Terpsichore and harpsichord. Their eighth studio album, Sgt. Pepper was the result, subsequently becoming the benchmark for future albums, not only with musical and production standards, but with art and packaging aspects, such as the Peter Blake-inspired album cover. With it's daring musical structures and ideas as well as the Peter Blake album cover, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band picked up seven Grammy Awards; Best Album; Best Album Cover, Graphic Arts; Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist; a pretty remarkable achievement even by today's standards. But there was another album being made by the Beach Boys in America which became a major influence on the Beatles's studio efforts, and the following short pieces show aspects of that fact, as described by Paul McCartney and Brian Wilson.
1976- 10CC kicked off a 30-date UK tour at the Fairfield Hall, Croydon, tonight promoting their new album How Dare You. The band came to prominence a year earlier, though, with their breakthrough sounding hit song, I'm Not In Love, guaranteeing them a successful tour. Production on the song was a new sound, brought about by new recording techniques. It was originally written around a boss nova beat, but group member Lol Creme suggested slowing the tempo, while another group member, Kevin Godley, suggested replacing the beat with a built-up wall of voices. The ethereal sound was created by laboriously building up multiple overdubs of the four voices of Stewart, Graham Gouldman, Godley and Creme singing a single note in unison. This multi-track was then mixed and dubbed down onto 16-track tape. This process was repeated across all 16 tracks to create a luscious 256-voice 'virtual' choir that could 'sing' chromatic chords. A number of these prepared multi-tracks were then cut into several endless loops, each of which contained the basic notes of the main chords used in the song. The chorus loops could then be played by using the mixing desk rather like a keyboard, that is, each chord could be sounded by bringing up the fader for that loop. The instrumental break featured the repeated spoken phrase, "Be quiet, big boys don't cry. This had been the softly-spoken voice of Kathy Warren, the receptionist of the group's Strawberry Studios. This was a long time before sampling but the group was able to simulate a large polyphonic choir, creating a dramatic tonal effect similar to that produced by the well-known choir sounds of the Mellotron and Birotron - but with a richer full stereo sound. Godley and Creme's "Gizmo" (also known as "Gizmotron") guitar effects device invention also is used to create a bowed cello effect that surfaces in the middle and closing sections of the song, heard underneath the endless looped voices.
1992 - U2 kicked off their north American leg of the Zoo TV Tour, at The Lakeland Civic Centre Arena, Florida, tonight. One of the most difficult of tasks for any music act is to survive and progress, and to do so absolutely requires a reinvention, a fresh look, and nobody has reinvented themselves more successfully than U2. Like and assault on the senses, The Zoo TV Tour was in support of their 1991 album, Achtung Baby, the tour visiting arenas and stadiums from 1992 through 1993. To mirror the new musical direction that the group took with Achtung Baby, the tour deviated from the band's past, hence confounding expectations of the band. In contrast to U2's previous and relatively austere stage setups, the Zoo TV Tour was an elaborately-staged multimedia event. It satirised television and media over-saturation by attempting to instill 'sensory overload' in its audience. To escape their reputation for being overly serious, U2 also embraced a more lighthearted and self-deprecating image on tour. Following are two excerpts from the tour, both of them live from Sydney in 1993.
2008 - THE DAVE CLARKE FIVE LEAD SINGER, MIKE SMITH, died from pneumonia at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire, England, tonight. He was 64. The Dave Clark Five had 19 worldwide Top 40 hits, including Bits and Pieces and the #1 song, Glad All Over. The band, which broke up in the 1970s, sold more than 100 million records and recorded 23 albums. A phenomenon in the world of music. For more Dave Clarke five, go visit *MUSICBACKTRACK*archives.
