Today in rock history 16th June

Tuesday June 16th

1954 – Born on this day, Gerry Roberts, guitar, The Boomtown Rats,

1966 – John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers (featuring guitarist Eric Clapton), appeared at The Marquee Club, London, England.

1967 – Canned Heat performs at the Monterey (Calif.) Pop Festival, leading to a contract with Liberty Records.

1969 – Free appeared at Friars, Aylesbury, England

1973 – Suzi Quatro had her first UK No.1 single with the Nicky Chinn & Mike Chapman song ‘Can The Can’.

1979 – The Electric Light Orchestra started a five-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘Discovery’ their first No.1 LP,

1982 – Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott dies following a period of cocaine and heroin addiction.

1982 – Donny Vanzant of 38 Special was arrested on stage in Tulsa, Oklahoma, (a dry town) for drinking alcohol in a public place.

1985 – No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Heaven,” Bryan Adams.

1989 – the first day of the UK three day Glastonbury Festival took place featuring Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Throwing Muses, Pixies, All About Eve, Hot House Flowers, The Waterboys, Suzanne Vega and Fairground Attraction. Tickets cost £28 ($48).

1994 – Kristen Pfaff is found dead in her bathtub with syringes and other suspected drug paraphernalia nearby. The 26-year-old was the bass player for Hole, the band of Kurt Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love.

1996 – Metallica went to No.1 on the UK album charts with their album ‘Load’.

1996 – Rage Against The Machine, Beastie Boys, Smashing Pumpkins, Fugees, Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Lee Hooker, Beck, Sonic Youth, Yoko Ono, De La Soul and Richie Havens all appeared at the two-day Tibetan Freedom Concert, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco: A sell-out crowd of over 100,000 made it the largest US benefit concert

1999 – Screaming Lord Sutch was found dead after hanging himself. The singer turned politician was 58

2004 – Velvet Revolver, the rock group made up of Stone Temple Pilots singer Scott Weiland and ex-members of Guns N’ Roses, top the U.S. album charts with their debut, Contraband.

2006 – Deep Purple perform a concert to inspire the Croatian soccer squad after their 1-0 defeat to Brazil in the World Cup.