Births
1936 Roger Miller, singer, guitarist and TV star. (1965 UK No.1 & US No.4 single 'King Of The Road'). He won four Grammy awards in 1965 including Best Country & Western Album. Roger died of lung cancer on October 25th 1991, aged 56. The Proclaimers had the 1990 UK No.9 hit with their version of 'King Of The Road' in
1942 Chick Churchill, keyboards, Ten Years After, 1970 UK No.10 single 'Love Like A Man.'
1954 Glenn Gones, Parliament, Funkadelic, Died 29/7/78. 1978 US No.16 album 'One Nation Under A Groove.'
1957 Ricky Van Shelton, US country singer, scored 10 country No.1s, including duets with Dolly Parton and Brenda Lee.
1963 Keith Gregory, bass, The Wedding Present. During 1992 the UK band released one single every month giving them 12 top 30 hits. Making them the only group ever to score more than 10 new UK hits in one year.
1967 Robert Gregory, drums, Babybird, (1996 UK No.3 single 'You're Gorgeous', 1996 UK No. 9 album 'Ugly Beautiful').
1975 Douglas Seann Robb, Hoobastank, 2004 US No.2 hit 'The Reason.'
Deaths
1974 US country singer, actor and radio presenter Tex Ritter died of a heart attack when he was trying to bail a member of his band from a jail in Nashville.
1980 Larry Williams was found dead in his home in Los Angeles, CA. The gunshot wound to the head was never confirmed as the result of a murder or suicide.
1981 David Lynch of The Platters died of cancer. (1959 UK & US No.1 single 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes').
Events
1926 The first issue of The Melody Maker went on sale priced at 3d. The monthly magazine was for 'all who are interested in the production of popular music'. In the first issue, Dance Band news, a feature on Ukuleles and how to read music by sight.
1932 Freddy Martin formed a new band and was hired to play the Roosevelt Grill in New York City. Merv Griffin later became Martin's lead vocalist.
1941 The Andrews Sisters recorded "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy."
1954 Eddie Calvert started a nine-week run at No.1 on the UK singles with 'Oh, Mein Papa.'
1965 Elvis Presley went to No.1 on the US album chart with the soundtrack from 'Roustabout,' Presley's eighth No.1.
1968 The entire shipment of John and Yoko's album 'Two Virgins' was seized by authorities in New Jersey due to the full frontal nude photograph of the couple on the cover. The album was eventually wrapped in plain brown paper in record stores.
1969 Led Zeppelin played the first of four nights at the Whisky A Go-Go, Los Angeles during the bands first North American tour. Support group was the Alice Cooper band.
1969 Filming began at Twickenham studios in England of The Beatles rehearsing for the 'Let It Be' album. The project ran into several problems including George Harrison walking out on the group on January 10th.
1971 The George Harrison album 'All Things Must Pass' started a seven week run at No.1 on the US album chart, making Harrison the first solo Beatle to score a US No.1 album.
1971 BBC TV aired the first of a 13-week series, 'Its Cliff Richard' featuring resident guests singer and actress Una Stubbs and Shadows guitarist Hank Marvin.
1975 U.S. District Court Judge Richard Owen ruled in New York, that John Lennon and his lawyers will have access to Department of Immigration files pertaining to his deportation case.
1975 The Allman Brothers Band were named "Outstanding Community Organization" by the Georgia Department of Corrections.
1976 Appearing at the second day of the Great British Music Festival at London's Olympia were Bad Company, Nazareth, Ronnie Lanes Slim Chance, Pretty Things and Be Bop Deluxe. Tickets L3.50 ($5.95).
1979 *** Pistol's bass player Sid Vicious went on trial in New York accused of murdering his girlfriend Nancy Spungen three months earlier.
1979 The trial of ex-*** Pistol, Sid Vicious for the October 1978 murder of his girlfriend Nancy Spungen, opened in New York City. Vicious died of a heroin overdose, thereby not living to hear the verdict.
1981 Abba were enjoying their sixth week at No.1 on the UK album chart with 'Super Trouper.'
1983 The musical "Annie" closed on Broadway at the Uris Theatre after 2,377 performances.
1985 Rolling Stone Ron Wood married his girlfriend Jo in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England. Guests included Keith Richard, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Ringo Starr, Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck.
1988 Michael Jackson and Bono shared first place in an American poll of 'The Most Beautiful Lips.'
1989 Record Mirror published a chart of last years Top UK singles artists. No.1 was Kylie Minogue, No.2, Bros, No.3, Yazz, No.4 Tiffany, No.5, Phil Collins, No.6, Cliff Richard, No.7, Erasure, No.8, Pet Shop Boys, No.9, Belinda Carlisle, and No.10, Wet Wet Wet.
1993 The musical "Gypsy Passion" closed after 55 performances.
1993 Brett Anderson from Suede was quoted in a Melody Maker interview 'I honestly think lack of *** is vital to my writing process. I don't know if the same goes for Aerosmith.'
1994 Dannii Minogue married Julian McMahon, (the son of Billy McMahon, Australia's Prime Minister during the 1970s), in Melbourne, Australia. Dannii's new mother in law, Lady Sonia McMahon was unhappy with the wedding and was quoted as saying, 'I hope I break a leg so I don't have to go.'
1994 Meat Loaf started a three-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with 'Bat Out Of Hell 2-Back Into Hell.'
1996 Arrested Development announced they had split up. The US group released two albums and scored the US No.1 single 'Tennessee.'
1997 Guitarist Randy California from US group Spirit drowned when rescuing his 12-year old son when he was sucked into a riptide in surf off Hawaii.
2000 Travis started a six-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with 'The Man Who.'
2002 Backstreet Boy Nick Carter was arrested in a Tampa, Florida night-club after being involved in a fight. Police said that Carter was arguing with a woman and when they asked him to leave, he continued arguing. He was arrested on a misdemeanour count of resisting a law enforcement officer without violence.
2003 50 Cent was arrested by police in New York after guns were found in his vehicle, after his SUV was searched when it had been left in a no-parking zone. Police found a .25-calibre handgun and a .45-calibre pistol in the vehicle, officers said both guns were loaded.
2004 Daniel Bedingfield suffered two fractured vertebrae in his neck after the jeep he was driving rolled over and crashed when on holiday in New Zealand. Emergency workers had to cut the singer free before he could be taken to hospital.
2005 UK TV's X Factor winner Steve Brookstein went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with his version of 'Against All Odds.'
2005 Green Day were at No.1 on the UK album chart with their seventh album 'American Idiot.' The album went on to be nominated for seven Grammy Awards, winning the Best Rock Album of 2005.
2007 Kylie Minogue played the first of two nights at Wembley Arena in London during her re-scheduled Showgirl world tour. The tour was postponed last year after Kylie was diagnosed with breast cancer, for which the singer had since received treatment.
2007 Cristin Keleher who once broke into former Beatle George Harrison's Hawaii home was found dead after an apparent murder-suicide in California, aged 34. She made headlines in December 1999 by entering Harrison's Maui estate and then cooking herself a frozen pizza. Police said her body had been found with that of a 48-year-old man in a car, both had gunshot wounds to their heads.
2007 Gnarls Barkley's song 'Crazy' was confirmed as the biggest selling UK single of 2006 selling over 700,000 copies. The track, which was the first to reach number one on downloads alone, held off the challenge of X-factor winner Leone. Snow Patrol's album 'Eyes Open' topped the album chart with estimated sales of 1.5m while Take That's comeback release 'Beautiful World' came in just behind. Singles sales had doubled to over 65m since the download chart was launched in September 2004.
2008 Josh Groban was America's top selling artist of 2007, the 26-year-old whose hits included 'You Raise Me Up', had the best-selling album of the year with the Christmas compilation Noel, which sold close to 3.7m copies. The second biggest seller was the soundtrack for Disney's High School Musical 2. The Eagles were 2007's biggest selling group with sales of 3.58m albums.
