September 3

Births

1934: Freddie King (Blues Guitarist & Singer)

1942: Al Jardine (Guitar & Vocals for The Beach Boys)

1947: Eric Bell (Guitar for Thin Lizzy)

1948: Don Brewer (Drums & Vocals for Grand Funk Railroad)

1950: Doug Pinnick (Bass for King’s X)

1955: Steve Jones (Guitarist for The Sex Pistols)

1963: Jonathan Segal (Guitar & Violin for Camper Van Beethoven)

1965: Vaden “Danger” Todd Lewis (Guitar & Vocals for Toadies)

1971: Mike Wengren (Drummer For Disturbed)

1975: Redfoo (Stefan Kendal Gordy) (Rapper in LMFAO)

1979: Tomislav 'Tomo' Milichevich Sarajevo (Lead Guitarist for 30 Seconds to Mars)

1980: Jay 'Cone' McCaslin (Bass for Sum 41)

1980: B.G. (Christopher Dorsey) (Rapper)

1982: Andrew McMahon (Singer & Pianist for Jack’s Mannequin & Something Corporate)

Events

1955: Bill Haley & his Comets turned down a $2,000 offer for a 15-date tour of Australia because of their fear of flying.

1963: Three years after its inception, Frank Sinatra's Reprise Records is bought by Warner Brothers.

1965: Yet another riot during a Rolling Stones concert as 30 fans rush the stage during their performance in Dublin, Ireland, knocking lead singer Mick Jagger to the floor and forcing the band to flee.

1966: After 14 years on TV (and ten years on radio before that), the last episode of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, which made Ricky Nelson a household name, airs on ABC.

1966: Donovan went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Sunshine Superman', a No.2 hit in the UK. The track featured then Yardbird and future Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page. The song was written for Donovan's future wife Linda Lawrence.

1968: Sly and the Family Stone's career gets another boost when the band wins the final round on NBC-TV's summer talent competition Showcase '68.

1968: Having quit the band in disgust a few weeks earlier due to endless band infighting during the "White Album" sessions, Ringo returns to Abbey Road Studios to find his drum kit covered in flowers.

1970: Alan Wilson (Lead Singer for Canned Heat) died in Topanga Canyon, California of a drug overdose at age 27. Although Wilson had reportedly attempted suicide twice before and his death is sometimes reported as a suicide, this is not clearly established as he left no note.

1970: The Dave Clark Band call it quits after ten years.

1970: An affair with Mick Jagger is cited in Marianne Faithfull's divorce proceedings from art dealer John Dunbar.

1970: The Crazy World of Arthur Brown suffers a setback when Brown is arrested after a performance at the Palermo Pop Festival in Italy for completely disrobing on stage. He spends four days in solitary confinement, during which he receives a petition signed by 200 locals advising him to leave the country immediately.

1970: The very first "bootleg" recording, a collection of Bob Dylan outtakes entitled Great White Wonder, reaches its peak sales figure of 350,000 copies.

1971: Paul McCartney decides to name his new band "Wings."

1977: The month after his death, Elvis Presley had 27 albums and 9 singles in the Top 100 charts in the UK. 'Moody Blue' was the No.1 album while 'Way Down' was No.1 on the singles chart, (putting him equal with the Beatles, each amassing 17 No.1 hits).

1983: UB40 had their first No.1 single with 'Red Red Wine'. Taken from their album Labour of Love the song was a cover of the 1968 Neil Diamond hit song.

1991: Ike Turner is released from his four-year stint in the California Men's Colony state prison in San Luis Obispo after serving 18 months, (Ike had been arrested ten other times). In an interview with 'Variety' he claimed to have spent over $11 million on cocaine.

1994: R&B Singer Major Lance died from heart failure at age 55.

1994: Brian Setzer (formerly of the Stray Cats) married Christine Schmidt.

1999: The largest music bootleg bust in US history was made. It was estimated that this one operation alone was responsible for $100 million in lost revenues. Recording equipment valued at $250,000 was confiscated, as were almost 1 million CDs and tapes.

2002: The Ronettes sue ex-producer Phil Spector for $3 million in unpaid royalties from movie, TV, and commercial usage of their big early-Sixties hits.

2005: Blues musician Fats Domino was rescued from New Orleans shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit the city. The 77-year-old singer had been reported missing since the storm in New Orleans which had flooding the city leaving thousands feared dead.

2006: Hundreds of Paris Hilton albums were tampered with in record stores in Bristol, Brighton, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow and London in the latest stunt by "guerrilla artist" Banksy. Banksy had replaced Hilton's CD with his own remixes and gave them titles such as ‘Why am I Famous?’, ‘What Have I Done?’ and ‘What Am I For?’. He had also changed pictures of her on the CD sleeve to show the US socialite topless and with a dog's head.

2007: During a US tour with Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance singer Gerard Way married Mindless Self Indulgence bassist Lyn Z after a gig in Colorado.

2008: R&B singer Ne-Yo was awarded $700,320 after he was dropped from a US tour with R. Kelly. The singer claimed he was fired as Kelly's opening act last November because fans and critics preferred him - an allegation his co-star denied.

2008: Heavy metal band Slipknot scored their first US number one album - but only after a recount put them ahead of rapper The Game's latest release. Slipknot topped the US chart with their fourth studio album All Hope Is Gone which, according to analysts Nielsen SoundScan, sold 239,516 copies - 1,134 more than the Games album.

2010: Mike Edwards a founding member of ELO was killed in a freak accident when a giant bale of hay tumbled down a hill and crashed into his van. The 62 year-old cellist died after the 1,323 lb. bale rolled down a steep field in Devon, southern England, smashed through a hedge and on to the road. Edwards played cello with ELO, the seven-piece band led by Jeff Lynne, from their first live gig in 1972 until he left in January 1975. He quit the band in 1975 to become a Buddhist, changing his name to Deva Pramada and making his living by teaching the cello.

September 2

Births

1925: Hugo Montenegro (Orchestra Leader & Composer)

1939: Sam Gooden (Singer in The Impressions)

1943: Joe Simon (R&B Singer)

1943: Rosalind Ashford (Singer in Martha and the Vandellas)

1946: Billy Preston (Singer & Keyboard player)

1951: Mik Kaminski (Violin for Electric Light Orchestra)

1953: John Zorn (Avant-Garde Musician)

1957: Steve Porcaro (Keyboards for Toto)

1958: Jerry Augustyniak (Drummer for 10,000 Maniacs )

1964: Randy Bennett (DJ)

1969: Cedric Hailey (K-Ci) (Vocals for Jodeci & K-Ci & Jojo)

1977: Sam Rivers (Bass for Limp Bizkit)

1987: Spencer Smith (Drummer for Panic at the Disco)

Events

1931: CBS radio makes Bing Crosby a star overnight when it debuts his new show, accurately titled 15 Minutes With Bing Crosby.

1963: The Angels become the first white all-female group to have a No.1 record. The song was "My Boyfriend's Back."

1964: The Beatles are shocked to find their audience of 13,000 at Philadelphia's Convention Hall is completely white, management's response to the race riots the city had suffered days earlier.

1965: The Doors recorded their first demo’s at World Pacific Jazz Studios in Los Angeles, California, where they cut six Jim Morrison songs.

1970: An unknown art-rock band named Genesis runs an ad in Britain's Melody Maker magazine looking for a drummer, an audition 19-year-old Phil Collins will pass by mentioning that he played percussion on George Harrison's All Things Must Pass.

1971: The Rolling Stones sue former manager Andrew Loog Oldham for back royalties; on the same day, the Grateful Dead have their former manager, Lenny Hart, arrested for embezzling $70,000 from the group's coffers.

1975: Sixty people are arrested when over 500 attempt to crash the Great American Music Fair in Syracuse, NY, in order to see Jefferson Starship and the Doobie Brothers for free.

1978: Teddy Pendergrass promotes his latest album, Life Is A Song Worth Singing, by staging a "Ladies Only" concert at Avery Fisher Hall in New York. The crowd, which is indeed restricted to females, receives white chocolate lollipops shaped like teddy bears; the gimmick is so successful Pendergrass repeats it often during his solo career.

1978: George Harrison married Olivia Trinidad Arias. She was a secretary at his Dark Horse record company.

1982: Rolling Stone Keith Richard's house burns down.

1989: Ozzy Osbourne was charged with threatening to kill his wife Sharon. Ozzy was released on the condition that he immediately went into detox, the case was later dropped when the couple decide to reconcile.

1989: Ric Ocasek of the Cars married Paulina Porizkova.

1995: Michael Jackson went to No.1 on the US singles chart with a song written by R. Kelly 'You Are Not Alone'. It holds a Guinness World Record as the first song in the 37 year history of the Billboard Hot 100 to debut at No.1.

2006: Lead singer of the Isley Brothers, Ronald Isley was sentenced to three years in a US prison for multiple counts of tax fraud. The 64-year-old, was also ordered to pay more than $3.1m to the US tax service for "pathological" evasion. The court heard he cashed royalty checks belonging to his brother O'Kelly, who died in 1996 and also spent millions of dollars made from undeclared performances on a yacht and two homes.

2010: Brooks & Dunn play their final concert at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena with proceeds earmarked for the Country Music Hall of Fame. Reba McEntire guests on "Cowgirls Don't Cry." Their last song: "Brand New Man".

September 1

Births

1925: Art Pepper (Alto Saxophonist)

1931: Boxcar Willie (Country Singer)

1933: Conway Twitty (Country Singer)

1944: Archie Bell (Singer for Archie Bell and the Drells)

1946: Barry Gibb (Singer & Guitar for The Bee Gees)

1948: Greg Errico (Drums for Sly and the Family Stone)

1955: Bruce Foxton (Bass & Vocals for The Jam & Stiff Little Fingers)

1957: Gloria Estefan (Singer)

1973: J.D. Fortune (Singer for INXS)

1984: Joseph Mark Trohman (Guitarist for Fall Out Boy)

Events

1887: Emile Berliner files the first patent for the gramophone, beating Thomas Edison to the punch.

1952: Ray Charles signs to Atlantic after leaving Swingtime Records; the label will take him in a harder R&B direction than the crooner-style pop and West Coast Blues he had been recording.

1953: Buddy and Bob, a country duo from Lubbock, TX, audition at local radio station KDAV, earning themselves a weekly Sunday afternoon show and officially kicking off the career of rock legend Buddy Holly.

1955: Legendary DJ Alan Freed holds his "First Anniversary Rock 'n Roll Party" at Brooklyn's Paramount Theater, featuring Chuck Berry, and for some reason, Tony Bennett.

1956: Elvis Presley shared his success with his family by purchasing his mother a pink Cadillac.

1957: A young Jimi Hendrix catches Elvis Presley's performance at Seattle's Sicks Stadium.

1965: James Brown introduces America to "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag," his latest single, on tonight's episode of ABC-TV's Shindig!

1967: A young guitarist named Boz Scaggs joins the blues band led by his childhood friend, Steve Miller.

1971: After their successful summer-replacement series, Sonny and Cher begin their fall TV variety series on CBS-TV.

1977: Blondie, featuring former Playboy Bunny Debra Harry, signed their first major record company contract with Chrysalis Records.

1979: U2 released their very first record, an EP titled 'U2-3.'

1979: INXS made their live debut in Sydney, Australia.

1983: Mick Jones, lead guitarist with The Clash, was fired by the other three members who claimed he'd 'drifted apart' from the original idea of the group.

1984: After a 25-year career, Tina Turner had her first solo No.1 single in the US with 'What's Love Got To Do With It'.

1986: Madness announced they were splitting up. They re-formed in 1992 and again in 1999.

1989: A judge in Dublin, Ireland, decided not to convict U2's Adam Clayton of marijuana possession, even though he had admitted to the crime. Clayton agreed to contribute money to a women's center in Dublin.

1995: Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum was opened with a seven-hour concert with dozens of stars.

1998: Ian Gillan (Singer for Deep Purple) was charged with assault and battery for allegedly hitting a security guard in the head with a microphone during a concert in August.

2000: The last remaining original member of the Platters, Herb Reed, is awarded a court injunction against a group using the same name but containing no actual original members.

2005: Barry Cowsill, bass guitarist for The Cowsills, died from injuries caused by Hurricane Katrina. His body was not recovered until December 28th, 2005, from the Chartres Street Wharf, New Orleans. He was 51.

2006: While still fighting his first murder trial for the death of actress Lana Clarkson, Phil Spector marries his fourth wife, Rachelle.

2006: Ronald Isley of the Isley Brothers is sentenced to 37 months in jail for federal income tax evasion.

2006: Taylor Swift performs "Tim McGraw" in her first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.

2009: Jake Brockman, former keyboard player with Echo and the Bunnymen was killed when his motorbike was in collision with a converted ambulance on the Isle of Man. In 1989 the band's first drummer Pete De Freitas died in a similar crash.

2011: Green Day front man Billie Joe Armstrong is thrown off a Southwest Airlines flight because his pants are sagging too low.