On June 23, 1971, at the crack of dawn, David Bowie took the stage at the second Glastonbury Festival and played an abbreviated set to about 6,000, mostly sleeping hippies, and live debuted what would become one of his best known songs of all, "Changes."
Pink Floyd was to be the headliner that year but their equipment was delayed so they were forced to cancel. The big acts that did perform were Joan Baez, Fairport Convention, Melanie, Traffic, and a pre-Lemmy Hawkwind.
On June 20, 1968, Carlos Santana and his band live-debuted what would be one of their most-played and beloved songs, "Soul Sacrifice."
The grooving, uplifting instrumental features the group's co-founder, keyboardist Gregg Rolie (who a few years later co-founded Journey); as well drummer Michael Shrieve and percussionists Mike Carabello and Jose Areas on congas.
In June 2002, the first Bonnaroo was held in a giant, unused "farm" about an hour's drive from Nashville, Tennessee. The 10,000 locals in Manchester, TN, where The Great Stage Park is located did not believe 70,000 music fans would pilgrimage to their town because the last time a huge festival was attempted it flopped miserably.
Likewise, after watching the news reports from the disastrous Woodstock '99, why would sweet souls subject themselves to the violence and mayhem that occurred in New York just a few years previously?
Sam Fender, after opening for Bruce Springsteen in Italy, returned home for two sold out gigs that were an entire weekend of revelry highlighted with special guests.
Fender, the rags to riches British phenom, with #1 UK releases on each of his two albums, sold out the 50,000 seat soccer stadium at St James' Park both nights. The award-winning singer-songwriter who grew up about 20 minutes from the stadium played almost identical crowd-pleasing sets except for Saturday night when he added two AC/DC covers.
Guns N' Roses kicked off their World Tour 2023 in Abu Dhabi with a 32-song set that included deep cuts, covers, an unreleased tune, and even a live debut.
Rocking the relatively new Etihad Arena in the UAE, Axl, Slash, Duff, Dizzy and the gang played for over two-and-half hours in the 18,000 capacity facility that's hosted the likes of Kevin Hart, Sting, and the Backstreet Boys since opening right after COVID.
Bruce Springsteen's biggest selling album, Born in the USA turned 39 years old on June 4, 2023. Over 30 million copies of the album were sold around the world and it produced a stunning seven top-ten singles. From May 1984 through November 1985, Columbia Records released "Dancing in the Dark," "Cover Me," "Born in the USA," "I'm on Fire," "Glory Days," "I'm Goin' Down," and "My Hometown" as singles and were rewarded at the register.
Looking back, the label could have also offered the public the anthems "No Surrender" and "Bobby Jean" as singles, with similar success. Regardless, the songs from that album are the most-performed of any of his 21 studio albums.
Boston Calling celebrated its 12th incarnation last weekend (May 26-28) at Harvard Athletic Complex in the Allston neighborhood of Boston. Headlined by the ubiquitous Foo Fighters, Paramore, Alanis Morissette, and The Lumineers, over 50 artists performed to 40,000 mostly-pleased fans.
Unless the Pats, Sox, Bruins and Celtics win it all in the same year, there is bound to be a furrowed brow somewhere. Also, no three-day rock fest will be without its hiccups. In this case it included some sporadic sound issues, long lines for merch, and lack of water stations. But one last-minute curveball ended up being a huge hit. When the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were forced to cancel at the last minute due to singer Karen O catching a nasty bug, organizers replaced the New York art punkers with local darlings, The Dropkick Murphys.
The legendary, Grammy-award winning, multi-platinum singer and dancer, Tina Turner, died this week in her home in Switzerland. She was 83 years old.
Turner's final concert was on May 5, 2009 at Sheffield Arena which has also hosted the likes of One Direction, Green Day, and the Arctic Monkeys, to name a few.
On May 23, 1988, Metallica rocked the cozy Troubadour in West Hollywood for a two-night club date at the historic venue that helped launch the careers of Elton John, David Bowie and the Eagles.
Metallica were poised to release their fourth studio LP, ...And Justice For All, which would be their first since Cliff Burton's untimely death in '86. James Newsted, with Burton's parents' blessing, was given the job as bassist, a role he would man through the year 2000.
Beyonce kicked off her Ressaisance World Tour last week in Stockholm Sweden with an epic three hour, nearly 40-song reminder of why they call her Queen. She even listed herself as the opener... for herself.
Showing little rust despite being her first solo tour in six years, Beyonce's show is divided into seven sections and nine costume changes.
