Rock/Pop Tidbits

Here is our last installment of this interesting feature, I hope that you have enjoyed the trivia and have learned something about our wonderful musicians and bands!


Ray Davies of the Kinks once tried to be like Keith Moon (the Who) and destroy his hotel room. “I threw a Guinness bottle against the wall,” he explained. “It bounced back and hit me in the head and knocked me out.” That plan failed.

At a Monkees’ concert in 1968, Keith Moon jumped up in the crowd just before the show started and started chanting “We Want the Who!”

Alice Cooper is famous for his stage antics. In 1988, while he was rehearsing for his onstage hanging routine, the safety rope broke and Cooper would have hung himself if not for the quick thinking of a roadie; who cut the dangling rock star down.

Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue fame once claimed he shot whiskey into his arm when he ran out of heroin.

In a related story, Sixx shot up too much heroin in 1987, in addition to consuming Valium, Cocaine, whiskey, and beer. Sixx stated, “I kinda remember waking up and a paramedic telling me that I had died, and had to be revived.” He got that part right, as paramedics did indeed have to administer two shots of adrenaline to restart his heart. Upon his release from the hospital, he hitchhiked back home, shot up more heroin, later writing the song, “Kickstart My Heart.” How appropriate.

In the early days of Queen, rocker Freddie Mercury would hit himself so hard with the tambourine that he suffered a severely bruised leg.

Frank Zappa booked the London Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to play a concert of his music at the Royal Albert hall. But the show was canceled due to “lyrical obscenity.” Zappa sued, but lost the case when he couldn’t convince the British judge that the song “Shove It Right In” was not obscene.

Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys spent 1971-1975 in bed.

Mamas and the Papas founder John Phillips was kind of careless with his drugs. His dog, Trelawny (a.k.a Mr. T) once gobbled up a whole bag of mescaline capsules. The poor pooch ran in circles for three days. Then he stared at himself in the mirror for over twelve hours. “He was more human than anything else after swallowing all that mescaline,” mused Phillips.

In the 60’s, the Who made instrument smashing a part of every show that they did. Trouble was, the band was destroying 700 pounds of equipment per night and only earning about 500 pounds per show. Bass player John Entwistle screamed: “We’d come out ahead just by not showing up!”

Ex-Boomtown Rats member Bob Geldof once lost his job at a photo-processing plant because he had smoked a few joints in the darkroom, ruining a batch of film.

Jim Morrison was a freak’s freak. In March of 1969, he was arrested for exposing himself during a Miami concert. The ‘flashing’ rocker eventually had to go to court with a long list of charges that included: profanity, indecent exposure, lewd behavior, and public drunkenness. While in court the prosecutor asked Morrison if he had exposed himself, to which Morrison replied: “I don’t remember. I was too drunk.” He was later found guilty of exposing himself but actually found not guilty of public drunkenness. Oh, our lovely legal system at work.

After the very public trail, a friend asked Morrison what compelled him to expose himself onstage. “I wanted to see what it looked like in the spotlight,” explained the Lizard King. I guess he remembered that part!

While out and about, Jim Morrison spotted one of his friend’s sister standing in a boutique. “Whooopppeee, look at those tits!” he hollered. An elderly lady thought that Morrison was yelling at her. The feisty senior proceeded to chase the stunned rocker around the store, hitting him with her purse.

For their tour to promote the “Rumours” album, Fleetwood Mac spent thousands of dollars on a giant inflatable penguin. They only used it once.

In 1997, Mick Fleetwood estimated that he had spent the staggering total of 8 million dollars on the drug of choice: Cocaine.

At an Alice Cooper concert, he was chopping and smashing a watermelon onstage and when someone handed him a crutch, he continued his onslaught. Then he threw the disgusting mess out into the audience, followed quickly by a mass of feathers. He thought ‘This group of dummies just sat there and took it.” It was later that the shock-rocker learned that the first five rows of the audience were filled with disabled fans, they couldn’t move.



Danny Bonaduce of Partridge Family fame was a hazard to his own health. While in Florida in 1990, he was arrested on a drug charge. In 1991, he was arrested for assaulting a transvestite prostitute in Phoenix, Arizona. Seems he had paid for his/her services and then tried to get a refund when he discovered the truth. He left the scene traveling over 125 miles per hour in a 25 miles per hour zone.

After Ringo Starr joined up with the Beatles, his band mates didn’t think too much of Starr’s mental abilities. “If anything goes wrong, we can all blame it on Ringo,” explained John Lennon. “That’s what he’s here for.”

While playing a gig in Buffalo, New York, the Allman Brothers Band showed up fifteen minutes late and the club owner refused to pay them. Roadie Twiggs Lyndon wasn’t amused so he stabbed the man three times with a fishing knife. The club owner died and Lyndon was arrested for first-degree murder. The band then continued their tour.

Music News & Notes

AC/DC To Make 'Exciting Announcement' Next Tuesday

Iconic Australian hard rockers AC/DC have launched a special web site, ACDCBacktracks.com, featuring a countdown to an "exciting announcement" that will be made on September 29.

A short video clip promoting the new web site can be viewed below.

AC/DC is rumored to be releasing a box set later this year that will come in a package that doubles as a working amplifier. The set will contain three CDs, two DVDs and a vinyl record. One CD will contain studio rarities and the other two will feature live cuts, while the DVDs will contain the third volume of the band's "Family Jewels" video collections. The vinyl disc will hold the studio rarities. The set will also come with a 164-page book, three black-and-white lithographs of unpublished band photos from 1977, a flyer for a 1976 British tour and a poster from a 1977 European trek. The complete package will be sold only through AC/DC's web site, while a CD/DVD-only version called "Best Of The Box Set" may also be made available.


AC/DC Backtracks Sneak Peek 9/24


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OK Go readies new album, sets club dates

OK Go has set a Jan. 12 release date for its new album, "Of the Blue Colour of the Sky," and will pave the way with a series of club dates.

The tour, which focuses on the Midwest and currently includes nine dates, gets underway Nov. 5 in Millvale, PA.

The upcoming 13-song album will be the OK Go's first full-length release since the Grammy Award-winning, treadmill-centric video "Here It Goes Again" launched the band into the mainstream consciousness.

In a statement, lead singer Damian Kulash said the new album springs from a different departure point than the band's previous releases. "It's not so much that we headed in a new direction," he said. "I think we've just expended the guitar-rock ideas from our teens and we're starting to get at more root-level influences." Kulash said the new songs were heavily influenced by Prince's "Purple Rain," an album he hasn't stopped listening to since he first got it at the age of 11.

In addition to being danceable, Kulash said "Of the Blue Colour of the Sky"--which was named after an 1876 book promoting the erroneous theory that blue light cures all ills--is contemplative and introspective with a vein of surrealism running through it. He said the album "embodies contradiction in a way I feel connected to. It's both the saddest and the most hopeful music we've made, and both the danciest and most thoughtful."

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PICTURE: New Album Details Revealed


30 years after the release of the group's debut LP, reunited '80s Dutch metal band PICTURE will release a new album, "Old Dogs New Tricks", on October 1. According to a press release, the new CD "contains a wide variety of hard rock and old-school metal songs, complete with a breath-taking ballad."

"Old Dogs New Tricks" was produced by Nico Verrips, who "kept the Eighties feeling, but gave the record a contemporary modern sound."

PICTURE was the first "real" Dutch heavy metal band. Formed in 1979, they were especially popular in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy for their live performances. They still supposedly have a huge fan base in South America, Mexico and Japan.

PICTURE supported AC/DC, TED NUGENT and SAXON in the Netherlands. With SAXON, they did a full European tour in 1981. Later on they toured with ROSE TATTOO in Germany and headlined tours in Italy and Israel.

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Tom Petty & Heartbreakers Announce Live Anthology Box Set Release

Tom Petty is releasing a multi-format live anthology that spans his entire career. The collection brings together material from 1978-2007, chosen by Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Ryan Ulyate, from hundreds of hours of live recordings.

The most impressive package will only be available at Best Buy, and will feature:

A deluxe box set featuring 62 tracks on 5 CDs; two previously unreleased DVDs including the 1978 New Year's Eve concert from Santa Monica, CA, and the Martyn Atkins documentary 400 Days shot during the recording and tour for Wildflowers; a re-mastered vinyl of the 1976 Official Live 'Leg bootleg; and a Blu-ray audio disc featuring all 62 tracks in both stereo and 5.1 surround sound.

If you fancy the black discs (don't we all?) there is a seven LP vinyl box set of 51 tracks mastered directly from the uncompressed 24-bit 96K files and pressed on 180-gram audiophile quality high performance vinyl.

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Austin City Limits Announces It's 2009-10 Schedule

The producers of Austin City Limits have announced the schedule for their 35th season on PBS stations across the country. It's one of my favorite shows, where I found great bands like Death Cab for Cutie and Arcade Fire.

Included will be the return of Willie Nelson, who appeared on the very first ACL show back in 1975. This time around, he'll be with another Austin City Limits favorite, Asleep at the Wheel, performing Texas swing music from their Willie and the Wheel album.

As usual, the season will offer an eclectic mix of music from veteran and modern artists, ranging from country (Kenny Chesney, Kris Kristofferson) to rock (Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam) to its first foray into Rap (Mos Def, K'Naan).

The schedule (check your local listings for exact date and time):

•October 3, 2009 - Dave Matthews Band
•October 10, 2009 - Ben Harper and Relentless7
•October 17, 2009 - Kenny Chesney
•October 24, 2009 - Andrew Bird / St. Vincent
•October 31, 2009 - M. Ward / Okkervil River
•November 7, 2009 - Elvis Costello / Band of Heathens
•November 14, 2009 - Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel
•November 21, 2009 - Pearl Jam
•November 28, 2009 – January 2, 2010 - Encore episodes
•January 9, 2010 - Allen Toussaint
•January 16, 2010 - Mos Def / K’Naan
•January 23, 2010 - TBD / Heartless Bastards
•January 30, 2010 - Steve Earle / Kris Kristofferson
•February 6, 2010 - Them Crooked Vultures (Josh Homme, Dave Grohl & John Paul Jones)
•February 13, 2010 - Madeleine Peyroux / Esperanza Spalding

This Date In Music History-September 25

Birthdays:

Ian Tyson - Ian and Sylvia (1933)

Wade Flemons - Earth, Wind & Fire (1940)

Gary "Jules" Alexander - Association (1943)

John Locke - Spirit/Nazareth (1943)

Onnie McIntyre - Average White Band (1943)

Jerry Penrod - Iron Butterfly (1946)

Steve Severin - Siouxsie and the Banshees (1955)

Will Smith (1968)

Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. (T.I. and also by his alter ego T.I.P.) (1980)


They Are Missed:

The late Eric Darling (sang with the Tarriers and Weavers and as leader of the Rooftop Singers-- "Walk Right In") was born in 1933.

In 1980, Led Zeppelin drummer John "Bonzo" Bonham died of asphyxiation on his own vomit after drinking forty shots of vodka on the eve of the band's US tour. The group decided he cannot be replaced and disbands. John Bonham was 32. During live sets his drum solo, ‘Moby Dick,’ would often last for half an hour and regularly featured his use of his bare hands. In 2007, Ludwig issued a limited edition drum kit in Bonham's memory.

Born today in 1946, Bryan MacLean, guitar, vocals, Love. He died of a heart attack on December 25, 1998.

Stephen Canaday of The Ozark Mountain Daredevils was killed in 1999 when the vintage WW II plane he was flying in, rolled, inverted and crashed into a tree. The pilot failed to maintain speed which resulted in a stall.

Robert Palmer died in Paris of a heart attack in 2003. Best known for the hits "Bad Case Of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)" and "Addicted To Love," Palmer also fronted Power Station. He was 54.


History:

Elvis Presley's second single, "Good Rockin' Tonight," was released in 1954. That night, Presley makes what would be his final appearance on the Grand Ole Opry — after which he was advised to go back to truck driving.

Today in 1954 the song "Hey There" by Rosemary Clooney topped the charts and stayed there for 6 weeks.

In 1956, Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender" became the first single to sell a million copies before its release.

Sam Cooke's "Chain Gang" peaked at #2 on both the R&B and pop charts in 1960. It's his biggest hit since "You Send Me."

In 1964, Beatles manager Brian Epstein turned down a 3½ million pound offer for the Beatles contract from a group of US businessmen to buy out his management contract.

"The Beatles," a half hour Saturday morning cartoon show featuring genuine Beatles songs but not their real voices, premiered on ABC in 1965. The show runs through September 7, 1969. The first story was titled 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' and had the group exploring the ocean floor in a diving bell where they met a lovesick octopus.

Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction" hits #1 on the pop chart in 1965, while the Yardbirds' "Heart Full of Soul" peaks at #9 and the Animals' "We Gotta Get Out of this Place" peaks at #13.

In 1967, the Beatles began recording the new Paul McCartney song ‘The Fool on the Hill’ at Abbey Road, London. John and George played harmonicas, Paul played a recorder and recorded his lead vocal and Ringo played drums.

In 1969, John Lennon recorded "Cold Turkey" with a backing band that includes Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman, Yoko Ono and Ringo Starr.



Janis Joplin recorded "Me And Bobbie McGee" in 1970.

The first episode of The Partridge Family was shown on TV in 1970, featuring Shirley Jones, David Cassidy, Susan Dey and Danny Bonaduce.

Cat Stevens "Peace Train" was released in 1971. The song was later covered by 10,000 Maniacs, who pulled the tune from 1987's In My Tribe after Stevens declared his support for the fatwa against Salman Rushdie.

Soul singer Jackie Wilson suffered a heart attack while performing at the Latin Casino in Cherry Hill, New Jersey in 1975. He suffered brain damage and lapsed into a coma and spends the rest of his life in hospitals before dying in 1984.. Ironically, he was in the middle of singing one of his biggest hits, "Lonely Teardrops," and was two words into the line, ". . . my heart is crying" when he collapsed. He was 41 years old.

Boston's debut album entered the album chart in 1976. It eventually climbs up to #3 and became the fastest-selling album debut album in history.

The Eagles LP, "The Long Run" was released in 1979.

In 1981, the Rolling Stones played the first show of their U.S. tour at Philadelphia's JFK Stadium. The show opened up with "Under My Thumb." The tour was filmed by director Hal Ashby and later released in 1983 as the concert documentary "Lets Spend the Night Together."

Don Henley's solo debut album, "I Can't Stand Still" entered the charts in 1982. The LP includes the hit "Dirty Laundry."

The Who's final album, "It's Hard" entered the charts in 1982.

Drummer Dave Grohl auditioned for Nirvana in 1990 and was instantly given the job. Grohl’s last band Scream had recently split-up.

In 1992, two fans were stabbed and 20 arrests were made after trouble broke out at a Ozzy Osbourne gig in Oklahoma City. The sale of alcohol at the concert was blamed for the incident. Ya think?

In 1995 - Miriah Carey's "Fantasy" became only the second single to debut at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The first artist to accomplish this feat was Michael Jackson with "You Are Not Alone."

In 2000, Ozzy Osbourne formally requested that Black Sabbath be removed from the nomination list for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Calling the inclusion "meaningless", Osbourne went on to say "Let's face it. Black Sabbath have never been media darlings. We're a people's band and that suits us just fine."

The Strokes released their debut album "Is This It" in 2001. It featured their signature songs "Last Night" and "Someday".

In 2008, Paul McCartney played Tel Aviv, his first-ever performance in Israel, to commemorate the country’s 60th anniversary. Dubbed the Friendship First concert, the highlights included a rendition of John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" with the audience joining in. “Tonight you sang it, you want it,” says McCartney. A planned mid-60’s Beatles concert was cancelled due to fears the Fab Four might corrupt the Israel's youth. This time around, Palestinian groups protested the concert and there is even a death threat. Fortunately, the show goes off without a hitch.