The Biggest Music Headlines On This Day In Music: June 18th

2020
Jamaican guitarist Hux Brown died in Oakland, California, aged 75. He featured on many successful rocksteady and reggae records in the 60s and 70s, and was later a member of Toots and the Maytals.

2020
English singer, songwriter and entertainer Vera Lynn died at her home in East Sussex aged 103. She was popular during the Second World War and was widely referred to as the “Forces’ Sweetheart” giving outdoor concerts for the British troops overseas. The songs most associated with her are ‘We’ll Meet Again’, and ‘(There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover’. On their 1979 album The Wall, Pink Floyd released a song titled “Vera”, referencing Vera Lynn and the song ‘We’ll Meet Again’.

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2016
Adele was named songwriter of the year at the prestigious Ivor Novello Awards, which recognise achievement in songwriting. The singer was honoured for her multi-million selling album, 25, which emerged last year after a long struggle with writer’s block.

2015
Van Morrison, Cyndi Lauper and Toby Keith were among the inductees into the Song Writers Hall Of Fame at a star-studded gala in New York City. The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia was also inducted posthumously alongside the band’s lyricist Robert Hunter.

2011
Leslie West of Mountain has his right leg amputated below the knee at a Biloxi, Mississippi, hospital the day after performing at the Hard Rock Cafe in the city. West later says, “when I play ‘Mississippi Queen’ now, I think about Jesus Christ.”

2010
John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics to The Beatles song ‘A Day In The Life’ sold for $1.2m (£810,000) at an auction at Sotheby’s in New York. The double-sided sheet of paper with notes written in felt marker and blue ink also contained some corrections and other notes penned in red ink.

2008
A Lost Angeles hotel filed a lawsuit against Phil Spector for failing to pay more than $100,000 (£61,000), in outstanding bills for lawyers and expert witnesses in his murder trial. The Westin Bonaventure Hotel claimed that by the time Spector’s trial ended with a hung jury, the defendants owed the hotel more than $104,000 (£63,400).

2007
American singer and record producer Hank Medress died of lung cancer at 68. He was the vocalist on The Tokens 1961 US No.1 hit ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’, Medress was also in the vocal quartet The Linc-Tones with Neil Sedaka and produced the hit single ‘He’s So Fine’ by The Chiffons, as well as Tony Orlando’s ‘Knock Three Times’.

2004
Ray Charles’ funeral is held at Los Angeles’ First AME Church. Willie Nelson sings “Georgia On My Mind” and Glen Campbell does a gospel song. Also on hand: Stevie Wonder, Clint Eastwood, Janie Fricke, B.B. King, Bill Clinton and Little Richard

2003
Pop Idol creator Simon Fuller became the first British music manager since The Beatles Brian Epstein to hold the top three positions in the US singles chart. Fuller, who steered the Spice Girls and S Club 7 to success, was in charge of bestselling artists Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard, together with the American Idol 2 Final 10. During 2003 Fuller sold more than ten million records around the world and has had 96 No.1 singles and 79 top-placed albums in both the US and UK during his career. He was named in the latest Sunday Times Rich List as the 359th wealthiest person in the UK with assets of £90 million ($153 million).

2002
U2 lost a bid to prevent the demolition of Hanover Quay studio in Dublin.’Over 8,000 fans signed an online petition to preserve the studio, where the group recorded ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind’ and some of their ‘Pop’ album.

2002
The ex-husband of Spice Girl Mel B appeared in court on a charge of assaulting a three year-old boy. Dancer Jimmy Guizar denied assaulting the child in a play area at London Zoo.

1993
A&aM Records chairman Jerry Moss and vice-chairman Herb Alpert announced they were leaving the company they founded more than 30 years earlier. They had sold A&M in 1990 to Polygram for $500 million. Moss and Alpert started the label in the garage of Alpert’s Los Angeles home in 1962. The label was the home to such acts as The Police, Bryan Adams, Joan Baez, Flying Burrito Brothers, The Carpenters, Joe Cocker, Supertramp and Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass.

1988
‘Doctorin’ The Tardis’ by The Timelords was at No.1 on the UK singles chart. The Timelords were Scottish duo Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, who formed KLF. The song was a mash-up of the Doctor Who theme music, Gary Glitter’s ‘Rock and Roll (Part Two)’ with sections from ‘Blockbuster!’ by Sweet.

1983
Swiss band Yello released the first three- dimensional picture disc, complete with 3-D glasses.

1978
Grace Slick takes the stage with Jefferson Starship at the Lorelei Festival in Hamburg, Germany, in a state of drunkenness. After she taunts the crowd with comments about Nazis and World War II, the crowd riots, destroying much of their equipment. Slick does not return to the band until 1983.

1977
Fleetwood Mac went to No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘Dreams’, the group’s first and only US No.1, was also a No.24 in the UK. Stevie Nicks has stated she wrote the song at the Record Plant studio in Sausalito, California, in about 10 minutes.

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1977
Johnny Rotten and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols were stabbed and beaten when they were attacked in a car park outside a London pub. They objected to the Pistols’ anti-monarchist song ‘God Save the Queen’. The next day, members of the Pistols were beaten by a gang armed with iron pipes.

1977
Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz, the bass player and drummer (respectively) of Talking Heads, get married. It sticks, and in 2002 they become the first married couple inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when the band is inducted.

1976
ABBA gave a special live performance in Stockholm for Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Silvia Sommerlath on the eve of their wedding.

1964
Touring Australia The Beatles played at Sydney Stadium in Sydney. This was Paul McCartney 22nd birthday and after the show his guests included 17 girls who were winners of the Daily Mirrors ‘Why I would like to be a guest at a Beatles birthday party’ competition.

1955
Jimmy Young was at No.1 on the UK singles chart with his version of ‘Unchained Melody’, (a theme for the obscure prison film Unchained and a hit for the Righteous Brothers in 1965). Young scored another ten Top 40 hit singles and went on to become one of UK’s favourite radio DJ’s

18 Jun 1948
Columbia Records started the first mass production of the 33-RPM long player. The new format could contain a maximum of 23 minutes of music per side versus the three minutes that could be squeezed on to a 78 RPM disc.

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