Births
1895 Laurens Hammond, inventor of the Hammond organ. The sound of the Hammond was used by many rock artists including; Procol Harum, Keith Emerson, Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers and The Faces. Hammond died on 3rd July 1973.
1924 Don Cherry, singer, (1955 US & 1956 UK Top 10 single 'Band Of Gold').
1924 Slim Harpo, blues musician, (1966 US No.16 single 'Baby Scratch My Back'). Died of a heart attack on 31st January 1970 aged 46.
1942 Clarence Clemons, saxophonist, E Street Band, (1987 UK No.16 single 'Born To Run').
1946 Tony Kaye, keyboards, Yes, (left in 1971).
1949 Frederick Dennis Greene, Sha Na Na, US rock 'n' roll group.
1958 Vicki Peterson, guitar, vocals, The Bangles, (1986 UK No.2 single with the Prince song 'Manic Monday', 1986 US No.1 single 'Walk Like An Egyptian').
1968 Tom Dumont, No Doubt, (1997 UK No.1 single 'Don't Speak').
1971 Mary Jane Blige, American R&B soul singer, songwriter, actress. (1997 US No.1 album, 'Share My World', 1999 UK No.4 single' As', 2001 US No.1 single,' Family Affair', 2006 US No.1 album 'The Breakthrough'). Sold over 60 million records world-wide known as the "Queen of hip-hop soul."
1971 Tom Rowlands, The Chemical Brothers, (1996 UK No.1 single 'Setting Sun', 2007 UK No.1 album 'We Are The Night').
1981 Thomas Meighan, lead singer, Kasabian, (2005 UK No.8 single 'Cutt Off', 2006 UK No.1 album 'Empire').
1981 Chris Edwards, Kasabian, (2005 UK No.8 single 'Cutt Off', 2006 UK No.1 album 'Empire').
1981 Jamelia, UK R&B singer, (2003, UK No.4 album 'Thank You').
1985 Newton Faulkner, UK singer, songwriter, (2007 UK No.1 album 'Hand Built By Robots', 2007 UK Top 10 single 'Dream Catch Me').
Deaths
1999 Barry Pritchard guitarist and singer with The Fortunes died of a heart attack. (1965 UK No.2 & US No.7 single 'You've Got Your Troubles').
2002 Mickey Finn from T Rex died of kidney and liver problems aged 55. (1971 UK No.1 single 'Hot Love', plus over 20 other UK Top 40 singles).
2005 Former Bread guitarist and Academy Award-winning songwriter James Griffin died at his home in Nashville at the age of 61 after suffering from cancer.
2008 Rod Allen, lead singer of The Fortunes, died aged 63 after battling liver cancer. The group's biggest hit was 'You've Got Your Troubles' which was a UK number two hit in 1965, also reaching number seven in the US.
Events
1928 "Ol' Man River" was recorded by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra. Bing Crosby was the song's featured vocalist. The song is from the Broadway musical, "Showboat".
1958 The release date for the Elvis Presley single 'Jailhouse Rock' was put back a week after Decca Records pressing plant in the UK were unable to meet the advance orders of 250,000.
1962 Cliff Richard was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'The Young Ones'. It stayed at the top of the charts for six weeks and made Cliff the first UK artist to enter the chart at No.1.
1963 The Beatles recorded their first national TV show 'Thank Your Lucky Stars'. They mimed to their new single 'Please Please Me' which was released on this day.
1963 The Whiskey-a-Go-G0 nightclub opened in Los Angeles, CA. It is recognized as the first disco in the U.S.
1964 "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash became the first country album to top the U.S. pop album chart.
1965 The Righteous Brothers arrived in Britain for a promotional visit appearing on three TV shows, Ready Steady Go! Scene At 6.30. and Discs A Go-Go
1965 The Beach Boys recorded "Do You Wanna Dance."
1967 The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded 'Purple Haze'. Jimi also signed to the new record label Track Records on this day.
1968 The Daily Mirror of London reported that Jimi Hendrix had moved into the London townhouse where George Frederick Handel was believed to have composed "Water Music" and "Messiah."
1969 "This Was" was released by Jethro Tull.
1977 Rolling Stone Keith Richards was tried in London for possession of cocaine, found in his car after an accident, and fined L750.
1978 Appearing at Newcastle City Hall, England, Elvis Costello and the Attractions.
1981 Advertised in this weeks NME, the Top Ten Badges; 1, CND, 2, Echo and The Bunnymen, 3, Ant Music, 4, Jam pop art, 5, Ants no. 3, 6, Jam Start, 7, Dead Kennedy's, 8, Siouxsie, 9, Ants no.2, 10, The Beat stand down Margaret. All Badges cost 20p
1981 Appearing at the Hope & Anchor, London were Blancmange and support Depeche Mode. Tickets cost L1 ($1.7).
1985 A Brazilian rock Festival held in Rio, claimed to be the biggest ever staged. The festival featured featuring; Queen, Rod Stewart, AC/DC, Whitesnake, Yes and Iron Maiden.
1986 The Pet Shop Boys scored their first UK No.1 single with 'West End Girls.'
1987 During a UK tour Motley Crue appeared at the Edinburgh Playhouse.
1987 Frankie Goes to Hollywood began what would be its final tour in Manchester, England.
1990 Paul McCartney played the first of 11 sold out nights at Wembley Arena, London, England.
1992 Nirvana appeared on NBC-TV's Saturday Night Live. Also on this day 'Nevermind' went to No.1 on the US album chart.
1992 Prince's future wife Mayte made her first live appearance with his Purpleness in Minneapolis.
1992 Paul Simon began a concert tour in South Africa. He was the first international star to perform in South Africa following the end of the UN cultural boycott.
1995 Michael Jackson released a statement saying, "I will no longer stand by and watch reckless members of the media try to destroy my reputation." The statement was a response to unsubstantiated rumors of a video depicting Jackson fooling around with a young boy.
1996 Appearing at Bath Moles Club, Catatonia, the first night of a 16 date UK tour.
1998 Rolling Stone magazine readers poll picked 'Be Here Now' by Oasis as album of the year.
1999 Ex Mighty Wah singer Pete Wylie appeared in a Liverpool Court charged with making threats to kill his ex girlfriend.
1999 *NSYNC won the Favourite Pop / Rock new artist award at the 26th Annual American Music Awards in Los Angeles.
1999 Sean "Puffy" Combs and Dwight "Heavy D" Myers, along with the City University of New York (CUNY), were found negligent in a 1991 celebrity basketball game that killed nine people and injured dozens.
2000 Gary Glitter was released from prison after serving half of a four-month sentence for possessing child pornography downloaded from the internet. Glitter was told he would have to go on the *** offenders' register for seven years.
2000 It was reported that Whitney Houston was under investigation after allegedly trying to smuggle 15.2 grams of Marijuana out of Hawaii. A security officer found the drug in the singer's handbag, Houston then walked away when he tried to detain her.
2001 Whitney Houston was stopped for possessing marijuana at Keahole-Kona International Airport.
2003 Britain's oldest rockers came out winners in The Pollstar listing of the Top 10 grossing US tours of 2002: Paul McCartney $68m (L40m), The Rolling Stones $58m (L34m), Elton John $47m (L27.6m), The Who $20m (L11.8m), Ozzy Osbourne $18m (L10.6m), Peter Gabriel $10m (L5.88m), Yes $6m (L3.5m), Elvis Costello $5m (L2.94m), The Moody Blues $4m (L2.35m) and Jethro Tull $3m (L1.76m).
2003 Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Tweedy was arrested after an alleged attack in a nightclub in Guildford. The Popstars Rivals winner was accused of punching a lavatory attendant.
2003 Pete Townshend issued a public statement denying being a paedophile after his name was linked with a police Internet **** inquiry. But The Who guitarist did admit studying child pornography for research into a campaign against it.
2008 Robbie Williams' manager told The Times newspaper that the singer would refuse to make another album for his record label EMI, saying he was unhappy after the label was taken over by Terra Firma. Tim Clark told the paper Williams would not deliver a new album because he had no idea how the label would handle it. Williams had sold 47 million albums around the world since leaving Take That in 1995, making him one of EMI's most successful artists.
2008 Ringo Starr helped launch the celebrations for Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture. He was joined by acrobats who dangled on wires from cranes as the opening party kicked off a year-long programme of more than 350 events. Organisers hoped the Capital of Culture tag would attract an extra two million visitors to Liverpool and boost the economy by L100m.
