Today in rock history: on this date in 1979, Comiskey Park, home of the Chicago White Sox baseball team, held a “Disco Demolition Night” promotion. As a backlash to the popular genre of the day, the stadium scheduled the event to take place in between the two games that were to make up the double-header the Sox were scheduled to play. Fans who brought a disco record to the stadium were admitted for $.98 and were invited to throw their unwanted record into a pile that was to be detonated. Madness struck when the bonfire caused massive damage to the field and fans jumped onto the baseball diamond to riot and cause chaos. The local team were forced to forfeit the second game they’d been scheduled to play that night.
Today in rock history: on this date in 1954, a 19-year old up and coming singer quit his day job as a truck driver for Crown Electric Company in hopes of making a career in music. Elvis Presley’s resignation came after he’d been offered a recording contract with Memphis record label, Sun Records.
Today in rock history: on this date in 1962, The Rolling Stones made their live debut at the Marquee Jazz Club in London, England. The final lineup of the band had not yet been formed and, at the time, the band consisted of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones and Mick Avory, who’d later join The Kinks, and Dick Taylor, who’d become a member of The Pretty Things.
This article appears in Jul 6-13, 2017.