April 30

Births

1923: Percy Heath (Jazz Bassist)

1925: Johnny Horton (Country Singer)

1933: Willie Nelson (Country Singer)

1933: Willie Nelson (Singer)

1941: Johnny Farina (Santo and Johnny)

1943: Bobby Vee (Pop Singer)

1944: Richard Shoff (The Sandpipers)

1945: Mimi Farina (Singer-Songwriter)

1948: Wayne Kramer (Guitar and Lead Vocals in MC5)

1962: Robert Reynolds (Bass for The Mavericks)

1967: Turbo B (Snap!)

1968: Ben Ayres (Guitar & Vocals for Cornershop)

1969: Paulo 'Destructor' JR (Sepultura)

1971: Darren Emerson (Keyboards for Underworld)

1971: Chris Henderson(Guitarist for 3 Doors Down)

1982: Lloyd Banks (Rapper)

Events

1941: Jazz giant Charlie Parker makes his first appearance on wax, blowing on Jay McShann's song "Swingmatism” on Decca Records.

1953: Frank Sinatra begins working with his new arranger, Nelson Riddle.

1957: Elvis Presley recorded "Jailhouse Rock".

1960: Fats Domino recorded "Walking To New Orleans".

1965: Bob Dylan begins the tour immortalized in the documentary Don't Look Back, performing at the City Hall in Sheffield, England.

1965: Manchester group Herman's Hermits began their first US tour supported by The Zombies.

1965: Herman's Hermits make their US stage debut, with the Zombies as opening act.

1966: Richard Farina (Folk Singer) died in a motorcycle accident on this day.

1969: The Beatles recorded "Let It Be".

1968: Organist Al Kooper announces he's leaving Blood Sweat and Tears.

1968: The Cilla Black Show, featuring the theme song "Step Inside Love" written by Paul McCartney, debuts on the BBC, making Cilla the first Englishwoman with her own TV show.

1970: Allman Brothers tour manager Twiggs Lyndon is arrested for stabbing a club manager to death over a contract dispute. Incredibly, Lyndon gets off by pleading temporary insanity caused by being the tour manager for the Allman Brothers.

1976: The Who's Keith Moon pays $100 to nine different New York cabdrivers to block off a full city block, allowing the drummer to throw all his furniture through the hotel room window and onto the street.

1977: Led Zeppelin break the single-act attendance record for a concert when 76,229 fans pay to see them at the Silverdome in Pontiac, MI, breaking the previous record set by the Who, also set at the Silverdome.

1977: The Steve Miller Band released "Jet Airliner".

1980: Roger Daltrey of the Who premieres his first major acting vehicle, the crime drama film McVicar.

1982: Lester Bangs (Rock journalist for Creem and Rolling Stone Magazine) died of an overdose of Darvon, Valium and Nyquil.

1983: Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield) died in his sleep from Heart Failure, at his home in Westmont, Illinois.

1983: To celebrate the 25th anniversary of London's legendary Marquee Club, Manfred Mann reforms in their original Sixties incarnation to play the venue they (and so many others) started in.

1988: For the first time since its release 11 years earlier, Pink Floyd's landmark LP Dark Side Of The Moon leaves the Billboard charts, only to return a few months later.

1990: Prince played a concert at Rupert's Night-club, Minneapolis. The $100 a head ticket proceeds all went to the family of his former bodyguard Charles 'Big Chick.' Huntsberry who had died from a heart attack.

1991: Nirvana signed a recording contract with Geffen's DGC label for $290,000.

1998: Boyzone singer Ronan Keating married Yvonne Connolly on the Caribbean island Nevis.

1999: Darrell Sweet (Nazareth) died of cardiac arrest while on tour.

2001: A light aircraft carrying Sting went off the runway as it landed in Florence. None of the four aboard, Sting a friend and two pilots were hurt. Brake failure was suspected as the cause of the accident.

2002: Roger Daltrey guest stars a music teacher on tonight's "That '70s Musical" episode of Fox-TV's That 70's Show.

2003: Sixties soul icon Earl King is buried in his hometown of New Orleans with an authentic jazz funeral. Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton send their condolences.

2004: Michael Jackson is arraigned on his child molestation charges, pleading not guilty to ten different criminal counts, also including extortion and false imprisonment.

2004: In Los Angeles, CA, Courtney Love (Hole) entered a plea of "not guilty" for two charges of felony drug possession.

2004: Ray Charles appears at his Los Angeles recording studio to attend a ceremony marking it as a national historic landmark. It will be the last public appearance he ever makes.

2005, The Dave Matthews Band agreed to pay $200,000 after their tour bus dumped human waste on a boatload of tourists in Chicago in August 2004. Bus driver Stefan Wohl who was alone on board the bus at the time the sewage was dumped was fined $10,000, the band had already donated $100,000 to two group's that protect the Chicago River and its surrounding area. The Dave Matthews Band offered their "deepest apologies" to more than 100 boat passengers who were on an architectural tour.

2005: American guitarist Norma-Jean Wofford died. Known as 'The Duchess', she worked with Bo Diddley as a Bo-ette from 1962 to 1966.

2007: Zola Taylor (The Platters) died in Los Angeles at age 69, from pneumonia.

2008: Mariah Carey married actor Nick Cannon in the Bahamas following a whirlwind two-month romance. The pop diva met Cannon, 27, while shooting the music video for her single 'Bye Bye.' It was the second marriage for Carey, who married Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola in 1993, which ended in 1998.

2008: A giant inflatable pig which floated away during a Roger Waters concert was recovered in tatters in California. Two families from La Quinta who found what was left of the inflatable, decided to share four life tickets to the Coachella festival that were offered as part of the reward.

2008, Gail Renard, who was given the hand written lyrics to 'Give Peace A Chance' by John Lennon in 1969, announced plans to sell the lyric sheet at a Christie's auction. At the time, Lennon told Renard to hang on to the piece of paper, saying "It will be worth something someday." The piece of music history was expected to fetch around $400,000, but when it was actually sold in July of this year, it went for $790,000.

April 29

Births

1899: Duke Ellington (Composer & Bandleader)

1903: Bob Hope

1928: Carl Gardner (The Coasters)

1936: Sylvia Vanderpool (Mickey and Sylvia)

1942: Sir Monti Rock III (Singer in Disco Tex and his Sex-O-Lettes)

1942: Klaus Voorman (Bass for Manfred Mann & The Plastic Ono Band)

1945: Tammi Terrell (R&B Singer)

1945: Gary Brooker (Singer & Piano in Procol Harum)

1947: Tommy James (Singer in The Shondells)

1949: Francis Rossi (Guitar & Vocals in Status Quo)

1950: Joey Levine (Singer in Ohio Express, Reunion)

1955: Mike Porcaro (Bass player in Toto)

1960: Phil King (Bass for Lush)

1968: Carnie Wilson (Wilson Phillips)

1970: Master P (Rapper)

1973: Mike Hogan (Bass for The Cranberries)

1981: Tom Smith (Bass guitarist for Editors)

Events

1942: Bing Crosby recorded "White Christmas".

1958: Little Anthony and the Imperials recorded "Tears On My Pillow".

1959: Herndon Stadium in Atlanta holds one of the first outdoor rock concerts, featuring Ray Charles, Jimmy Reed, and B.B. King. Nine thousand people attend.

1967: The 14 hour Technicolour Dream benefit party for The International Times was held at Alexandra Palace in London. Seeing the event mentioned on TV, John Lennon called his driver and went to the show. Coincidentally, Yoko Ono was one of the performers. Other acts to appear included The Flies, Pink Floyd, Arthur Brown, The Move and Susie Creamcheese.

1967: Aretha Franklin's single "Respect" was released.

1971: Three dozen audiences members attending today's Grateful Dead show at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom are treated for hallucinations after drinking apple juice purposefully spiked with LSD (some say by the band themselves).

1972: After seeing his protest song "Give Ireland Back To The Irish" banned by the BBC for its content, Paul McCartney puckishly rush releases a version of the nursery rhyme "Mary Had A Little Lamb" as the followup. In the US, where no one is in on the joke, it actually makes it to #28.

1973: The Byrds officially disband for good (or so it seems) when founder and leader Roger McGuinn performs his first solo concert at New York's Academy of Music.

1973: John Denver began a weekly live UK BBC 2 TV special, 'The John Denver Show'.

1973: Mike Oldfield released the Album Tubular Bells.

1975: The Osmonds' appearance at Wembley Pool in London sets off a riot amongst fans.

1976: After a gig in Memphis Bruce Springsteen took a cab to Elvis Presley's Graceland home and proceeded to climb over the wall. A guard took him to be another crank fan and apprehended him

1977: Elvis leaves his show in Baltimore, MD for a full half-hour, angering and bewildering fans.

1980: Black Sabbath began their first tour with vocalist Ronnie James Dio, who had replaced Ozzy Osbourne.

1983: KISS play their last concert in their traditional makeup (although, reformed with all original members, they would return to the painted faces in 1996).

1987: Michael Jackson's reputed offer of $50,000 for the bones of John Merrick, the infamous "Elephant Man," is first made public.

1988: Eric Clapton filed for a divorce from Patti "Layla" Boyd.

1989: John Cipollina (Guitarist for Quicksilver Messenger Service) died on from chronic emphysema at the age of 45.

1989: Elvis Presley's first grandchild, Danielle Riley Keough, is born to Lisa Marie Presley.

1990: Floyd Butler of The Friends of Distinction, died of a heart attack at the age of 49. Had the US No.3 single ‘Grazing In The Grass’ in 1969.

1992: After the recent AIDS-related death of lead singer Freddie Mercury, the Queen song "We Are The Champions" is banned from the graduation ceremony at Sacred Heart private school in Clifton, NJ.

1992: Singer Paula Abdul and actor Emilio Estevez were married in a judge's chambers in Santa Monica, California. One of Abdul's managers and Estevez's mother witnessed the ceremony. Abdul filed for divorce two years later.

1993: Guitarist, producer, Mick Ronson died of liver cancer aged 46. Ronson recorded and toured with David Bowie from 1970 to 1973.

1993: An animated Barry White was a guest on "The Simpsons."

1995: Rapper Tupac Shakur married Keisha Morris inside the Clinton Correctional Facility, where he was serving a four-year jail term for sex abuse.

1998: Steven Tyler broke his knee at a concert in Anchorage, Alaska delaying Aerosmith's 'Nine Lives' tour and necessitating camera angle adjustments for the filming of the video for 'I Don't Want to Miss a Thing.'

1999: Tommy Lee announced that he had quit Motley Crue to devote time to his new band, Methods of Mayhem, and his family.

1999: Photographers taking shots of old cars wrecked at the bottom of Malibu's Decker Canyon discover the body of Iron Butterfly bassist Philip Kramer, who had gone missing on February 12, 1995. His death is ruled a suicide.

2003: A $5 million lawsuit against former Creedence Clearwater Revival leader John Fogerty was dismissed after a personal-injury lawyer claimed that he suffered hearing loss in his left ear from attending a Fogerty concert. The Judge said the plaintiff assumed the risk of hearing damage when he attended the concert in 1997.

April 28

Births

1926: Blossom Dearie (Jazz Singer & Pianist)

1941: Ann-Margret (Singer & Actress)

1945: John Wolters (Drummer for Dr. Hook)

1953: Kim Gordon (Bass for Sonic Youth)

1955: Eddie Jobson (Keyboards & Violin for Curved Air & Roxy Music)

1968: Daisy Berkowitz (Scott Mitchell Putesky) (Lead Guitar in Marilyn Manson)

1968: Howard Donald (Take That)

1969: Mica Paris (R&B Singer)

1973: Bigg Gipp (Cameron Gipp) Rapper in Goodie Mob

Events

1940: Glenn Miller recorded "Pennsylvania 6-5000".

1963: London hustler and PR man Andrew Loog Oldham gets his first glimpse of the Rolling Stones onstage at the Crawdaddy Club; the very next day, he becomes their manager.

1964: Elvis Presley released the single "Viva Las Vegas".

1964: The Beatles recorded the TV special ‘Around The Beatles’ at Wembley studios England. As well as performing songs they played Act V Scene 1 of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’ with John playing the female role of Thisbe, Paul as Pyramus, George as Moonshine and Ringo as Lion. Paul later named his cat Thisbe.

1965: Barbra Streisand's first television special, My Name Is Barbra, airs on CBS.

1966: The Beatles recorded "Eleanor Rigby”.

1968: The musical Hair opens on Broadway, running for 1,729 performances, spinning off several hit covers of its soundtrack songs (Three Dog Night's "Easy To Be Hard," The Cowsills' "Hair," Oliver's "Good Morning Starshine" and 5th Dimension's "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In") and inspiring a major motion picture.

1968: The Seeds guest star as "The Warts" on tonight's "How Not To Manage A Rock Group" episode of the NBC-TV sitcom The Mothers-In-Law.

1973: Pink Floyd's album 'Dark Side Of The Moon' went to No.1 on the US chart, it went on to enjoy a record breaking 741 weeks, selling over 20 million copies world-wide.

1975: John Lennon is the guest on tonight's episode of NBC-TV's Tonight Show, while Ringo Starr appears on NBC's Smothers Brothers Show to sing his latest hit, "No No Song."

1979: Blondie scored their first US No.1 single with “Heart Of Glass”.

1980: Tommy Caldwell died from injuries suffered in a Jeep crash.  He was bassist and original frontman for The Marshall Tucker Band between 1973 and 1980.

1981: Steve Currie (T. Rex) died in a car crash whilst returning to his home near Vale de Parra, Algarve, Portugal. He was 33 years old, and his death came less than four years after T.Rex lead singer Marc Bolan had died in a car crash.

1982: The California State Assembly consumer-protection-committee heard testimony from "experts" who claimed that when ‘Stairway To Heaven’ was played backward, contained the words: "I sing because I live with Satan. The Lord turns me off, there's no escaping it. Here's to my sweet Satan, whose power is Satan. He will give you 666. I live for Satan."

1987: Ray Charles appears before Congress to urge more funding for hearing research, stating "My eyes are my handicap, but my ears are my opportunity."

1987: The Art Of Excellence by Tony Bennett becomes the first album to be initially released on CD instead of the traditional vinyl format.

1987: On a plane that was returning to Boston, from Miami, Ozzy Osbourne bought three rounds of drinks and sang "Crazy Train" over the PA system.

1988: Country Pop singer B.W. Stevenson died undergoing heart valve surgery at the age of 38.

1989: Jon Bon Jovi and Dorothea Hurley were married. They had been high school sweethearts.

1991: Bonnie Raitt marries her first husband, actor Michael O'Keefe, in New York. The couple would divorce in 1999.

1994: Lisa Marie Presley separates from Danny Keough.

1999: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999: The Verve announced that the band members had mutually agreed to break up the band.

1999: Marilyn Manson walked off stage during a concert in Des Moines, Iowa, when he realized that someone had put a large yellow "smiley face" on a stage prop. 23 arrests were made in the aftermath.

2000: James Brown Enterprises, which handles tours for the Godfather of Soul, has its offices destroyed by fire, destroying music and memorabilia. An employee is later charged with arson in connection with the incident.

2000: Paul Atkinson was jailed for three years after being found guilty of stealing more than $40,000 from Rolling Stone Charlie Watts. Atkinson had been the manager of an Arabian stud farm owned by Watts.

2002: Vince Neil allegedly attacked a record producer outside the Rainbow Room in West Hollywood. Neil pled guilty to the misdemeanor charge of battery on September 27, 2002.

2003: Ozzy Osbourne's son Jack went into rehab. The 17 year old was a patient at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, California.

2003: The iTunes Music Store opens with over 200,000 items to purchase.

2004: The iTunes Music Store marked its first anniversary with over 70 million songs sold.

2006: ABBA member Bjorn Ulvaeus is accused by the Swedish government of $12 million US in delinquency of back taxes.

2009: A TV commercial for insurance featuring Iggy Pop was ruled as misleading by the Advertising Standards Authority. In the advert, the singer was seen exclaiming that he had an insurance policy with Swiftcover but the company did not cover musicians at the time of the ad being shown. Swiftcover had since started to offer policies to musicians, and stated that Mr Pop would continue to endorse the company.