Today in rock history 9th December

Today in rock history Wednesday 9th December
1948 – Dennis Dunaway, bassist with the Alice Cooper band, is born in Cottage Grove, Ore.
 1961 – The Beatles play their first concert in the South of England when they play with Ivor Jay & the Jaywalkers in Aldershot. Despite the gig being billed as a “Battle of the Bands – Liverpool Vs. London,” only 18 people show up.
  1962 – Future Beatles producer George Martin is taken to the Liverpool Cavern by the group’s manager Brian Epstein to see the band perform live.
  1967 – Cream’s second album, ‘Disraeli Gears’, enters the U.S. charts.
 1967 – Police arrest Jim Morrison as he performs onstage in New Haven, Conn. It’s the culmination of a wild night for the Lizard King, who clashed with a cop trying to hassle him and his lady before the gig. The cop in return maced him. When Morrison began complaining about his treatment by the New Haven police to the crowd, the house lights were turned up and Morrison was busted for breaching the peace.
 1968 – Born on this day, Brian Bell, Weezer.
 1971 – Richie Havens receives a role in the orchestral stage version of the Who’s rock opera “Tommy.”
 1972 – The Moody Blues started a five-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Seventh Sojourn’.
 1972 – Pete Townshend is the narrator for an orchestral performance of Tommy featuring contributions from Roger Daltrey (of course), Richie Havens, Steve Winwood and comic actor Peter Sellers. Only Daltrey and Winwood, who played Tommy’s dad, escape the critical lash of the papers the next day. Townshend is accused of being drunk during the performance.
 1974 – George Harrison releases Dark Horse, his first album on the label of the same name. His cover of the Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love” is a backhanded farewell to wife Patti Boyd, who took up with his friend Eric Clapton. Even weirder, Boyd and Clapton join Harrison on the track. Rolling Stone is perplexed enough to decide, “Dark Horse is ultimately something more than an embarrassingly bad record.”
 1974 – On tonight’s edition of Monday Night Football, John Lennon stops by booth during a match between L. A. Rams and Washington Redskins. While he’s there guest Ronald Reagan explains the rules of football to him.
  1975 – The Sex Pistols appeared at Ravensbourne College, Chistlehurst, London.
 1976 – John Lennon purchases a Renoir painting valued at half a million dollars.
  1991 – Guns N’ Roses play the first of three standing room only concerts at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
 1992 – Bassist Bill Wyman formally announces he is leaving the Rolling Stones.
 1995 – No. 1 in the album charts today, the Beatles with Anthology Vol. 1. It’s the group’s 16th No. 1 album.
 2000 – Sting receives a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
  2003 – Ozzy Osbourne was admitted to Wexham Park Hospital in Slough, Berkshire after being injured in a quad bike accident at his UK home.
2003 – A Rhode Island grand jury gives three indictments of involuntary manslaughter in the case surrounding the February fire at a Great White concert to the club’s two owners as well as Great White’s road manager.