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Today in rock history: on this date in 2008, Radiohead was scheduled to appear at London record shop Rough Trade to play a free concert for fans in support of the band's In Rainbows album. The crowd that showed up hoping for a chance to see the band at the shop was larger than anyone had expected; it was estimated that over 1,500 fans showed up to see the band perform. Local police threatened to shut down the event for safety reasons but, instead, the band decided to move the show to a nearby club that was large enough to accommodate everyone who showed up. The particular Rough Trade location where the show was to take place vowed to not host live performances until further notice.
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Today in rock history: on this date in 1968, San Francisco hard rock trio Blue Cheer released its incredibly heavy debut album, Vincebus Eruptum. The record is often cited as being one of the earliest catalysts for the birth of heavy metal music. The band's loud, thunderous sound has been credited with influencing acid rock, stoner rock and grunge as well. The album was a commercial success too. It peaked at No. 11 on Billboard's pop albums chart and spawned a hit single- the band's hard, heavy cover version of Eddie Cochran's rockabilly classic "Summertime Blues," which too is referred to as the first heavy metal hit single. The band went on to release nearly a dozen albums (with six of those being released by 1971) but none of them had the same commercial impact that Vincebus Eruptum had.
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Today in rock history: on this date in 1971, Texas-based boogie and blues rock trio ZZ Top released its very first album. Aptly titled ZZ Top's First Album, the record served as the introduction to an often humorous trio that was as comfortable playing hard rock as it was unleashing traditional blues. The trio has been made up of the same three members — songwriter and guitarist Billy Gibbons, bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard — since itsformation in 1969 and is still together. The record made little impact on sales charts and neither did the one and only single released from it, "(Somebody Else Been) Shakin' Your Tree." The band would continue to gain a reputation as a great live band and would steadily release more blues-inspired rock and roll records for many years with 1983's Eliminator being its greatest success with sales in excess of ten million copies.
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Today in rock history: on this date in 1972, New York hard rock band Blue Öyster Cult released its self-titled debut album. While the album was met with enthusiastic praise from rock press, sales were moderate with the album barely scraping the bottom of Billboard's Top 200 album chart. Featured on the album are BÖC classics like "Then Came the Last Days of May," "Stairway to the Stars" and the FM rock radio hit, "Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll". Often serving as an opening act for a variety of hard rock bands in its early days, the band would be hailed as bona fide arena headliners by the time its million-selling live concert album Some Enchanted Evening was released in 1978.
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This article appears in Jan 11-18, 2018.