April 27th: The Biggest Music Headlines

2021
Australian singer-songwriter Anita Lane died age 61. She was briefly a member of the Bad Seeds with Nick Cave and Mick Harvey. Lane released two solo albums, Dirty Pearl (1993) and Sex O’Clock (2001).

2020
Guitarist Scott Taylor died at the age of 58 from a brain tumour. He was a member of the English rock band Then Jerico. ‘Big Area’ achieved their greatest chart success, peaking at number 13 in the UK Singles Chart in 1988.

2020
American R&B, rock and roll and jazz singer and songwriter Young Jessie died age 83. He recorded as Young Jessie in the 1950s and 1960s, and was known for his solo career, work with The Flairs and a brief stint in The Coasters. He later performed and recorded jazz as Obie Jessie.

2016
Beyoncé kicks off her Formation tour with a show in Miami. Her first solo stadium tour, it features new tracks from her album Lemonade and new takes on many of her old hits.

2015
Journey keyboard player Jonathan Cain marries celebrity preacher Paula White and begins recording worship music, releasing the album What God Wants To Hear in 2016. It’s the third marriage for both.

2013
A blue plaque was unveiled at Swansea railway station, Wales, honouring Peter Ham who co-wrote ‘Without You’, a hit for both Harry Nilsson and Mariah Carey. Ham who was a member of Badfinger were signed to The Beatles Apple Records label, (and enjoyed their biggest hit in 1970 with a Paul McCartney penned, ‘Come And Get It’. Ham took his own life in 1975 at the age of 27.

2012
Bob Dylan receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor awarded to a United States civilian citizen, from US President Barack Obama. Dylan is only the 29th musician to receive the award; previous recipients include Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin, and Irving Berlin.

2010
Music sales in the UK had grown for the first time in six years, according to music industry body the British Phonographic Institute (BPI). Revenue increased by 1.4%, bringing the total income for 2009 to £928.8m. Download sales provided the shot in the arm, rising by more than 50% to earn £154m, compared with £101.5m in 2008.

2009
Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament was the victim of a robbery outside Southern Tracks Recording studios in Atlanta, where the band were recording. Ament and a band employee had arrived at the rear of the studio when three assailants brandishing knives emerged from the woods wearing black masks and smashed the windows of a rented Jeep. The robbers grabbed a BlackBerry and Ament’s passport and stole $3,000 in cash and $4,320 worth of goods.

2009
Aerosmith were to hold a free concert in Hawaii to placate angry fans who brought a legal case against them. Fans filed a class action case, which claimed the band had cancelled a sold-out show in Maui two years ago, leaving hundreds of fans out of pocket in favour of a bigger gig in Chicago. Lawyers for the would-be concert-goers said Aerosmith had now agreed to put on a new show, and would pay all expenses. Everyone who bought a ticket to the original concert would receive a free ticket.

2008
The Last Shadow Puppets went to No.1 on the UK album charts with ‘The Age of the Understatement’, a side project of Alex Turner of Sheffield band Arctic Monkeys and Miles Kane of Liverpool band The Rascals.

2008
A nearly naked photo of 15-year-old Miley Cyrus makes the entertainment news when it appears in Vanity Fair. Shot by Annie Leibovitz, the photo is more tasteful than scandalous, revealing Miley’s back but not much else. Cyrus, under contract with Disney, later claims she was coerced into taking the photo.

2008
Prince makes the crowd go crazy by covering Radiohead during an epic headlining set after being a last-minute addition to the Coachella Festival.

2006
62-year-old Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones falls out of a palm tree while vacationing in Fiji and goes to the hospital with a concussion, creating a rare news event on the island.

2003
Madonna went to No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘American Life’, the singers eighth No.1 album. Also a US No.1 album.

2000
Vicki Sue Robinson, who had a disco hit with “Turn The Beat Around,” dies of cancer at age 45.

1999
UK band The Verve announced that they had split. They scored the 1997 UK No.1 single ‘The Drugs Don’t Work’ and their 1997 UK No.1 album ‘Urban Hymns’ spent over 100 weeks on the UK chart. Leader of the group Richard Ashcroft went solo scoring the 2000 UK No.3 single ‘A Song For The Lovers’ and the 2000 UK No.1 album ‘Alone With Everybody.’

1996
Oasis played the first of two nights at Manchester’s Maine Road football ground as a ‘thank you’ to their fans, the 80,000 tickets sold out in hours.

1990
The British film drama The Krays opened. Based on the lives and crimes of the English gangster twins Ronald and Reginald Kray, the film starred Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp as Ronnie Kray Martin Kemp as Reggie Kray.

1994
Ace of Base’s Jenny Berggren is attacked in her parents’ home by Manuela Behrendt, a 21-year-old German “fan” wielding a hunting knife. After stabbing Berggren’s mother in the hands during a scuffle, Behrendt is arrested and banned from returning to Sweden.

1994
San Francisco’s legendary rock venue the Fillmore Auditorium reopens with performances by The Smashing Pumpkins and American Music Club.

1992
Go-Go’s singer Belinda Carlisle and husband Morgan Mason have their first child in Los Angeles. They name the boy after his grandfather, actor James Mason.

1991
LeAnn Rimes, a pint-sized country music prodigy from Garland, Texas, competes as a junior vocalist on Star Search, where she wins the round singing the Marty Robbins classic “Don’t Worry.”

1985
USA For Africa started a three-week run at No.1 on the US chart with ‘We Are The World’. The US artists’ answer to Band Aid had an all-star cast including Stevie Wonder, Tina Turner, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, Bob Dylan, Daryl Hall, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Kim Carnes, Ray Charles, Billy Joel and Paul Simon plus the composer’s of the track, Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie.

1985
The Judds’ “Girls’ Night Out” goes to #1 Country, where it stays for one week. It’s the second chart-topper from the duo’s debut album, Why Not Me.

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1984
Blues singer Arziel “Z.Z.” Hill, known for the 1982 Down Home album that was a fixture on the soul album chart for nearly two years, dies at age 48 when a blood clot caused by a car accident months before spurs a heart attack.

1981
Ringo Starr married actress and one time ‘Bond girl’ Barbara Bach. The pair met while filming the movie, Caveman, with Dennis Quaid and Shelley Long. In attendance at the wedding were George Harrison and Paul McCartney.

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1976
Customs officers on a train at the Russian/Polish Border detained David Bowie, after Nazi books and mementoes were found in his luggage. Bowie claimed that the material was being used for research on a movie project about Nazi propaganda leader Joseph Paul Goebbels.

1974
A free afternoon event was held in the parking lot of the University of Connecticut, Ice Hockey Arena in Storrs. The four acts that appeared, Aerosmith Bruce Springsteen, Fairport Convention and Fat Back. Springsteen then went on to play another gig that evening at the University of Hartford in Connecticut.

1971
The Grateful Dead appeared at the Fillmore East in New York City. The Beach Boys also appeared on stage with the Dead, who together performed a short set of Beach Boys songs.

1969
Pink Floyd appeared at Mothers Club in Erdington, Birmingham, England. Radio 1 DJ John Peel reviewed the gig as ‘…sounding like dying galaxies lost in sheer corridors of time and space’. Recordings from this show were included in the group’s 1969 album Ummagumma.

1967
Sandie Shaw was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Puppet On A String’, her third UK No.1 and the Eurovision Song Contest winner of 1967.

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1966
The Beatles started recording the new John Lennon song ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ at Abbey Road studios London, England. The song features the then-unique sound of a reversed guitar duet played by George Harrison. It was released two months earlier in the United States on the album Yesterday And Today and did not feature on the original US version of Revolver .

1965
Bob Dylan was interviewed by BBC journalist and radio presenter Jack DeManio in the Savoy Hotel, London, for the BBC’s Home Service, which was broadcast on the Today programme the following day. Later on the 27th, Dylan and Joan Baez were filmed singing the traditional song Wild Mountain Thyme in the Savoy. Parts of the interview and the song were used in the film Dont Look Back.

1963
Little Peggy March started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘I Will Follow Him’. At 15 years, 1 month and 13 days old, Little Peggy March became the youngest female singer to have a US No.1 record.

1957
In a rare appearance outside the United States, Elvis Presley performed at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Canada where he wore his full gold lame suit for the last time.

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