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Today in rock history: on this date in 1980, post-punk giants Siouxsie and the Banshees released its third album, Kaleidoscope. Breaking away from the more jagged punk sound of earlier records, the band instead opted to experiment with synthesizers, drum machines and some hints of electronic music for this substantial release. The record marked the appearance of unconventional yet powerful drummer Budgie who’d add so much to the Banshees sound throughout his tenure with the band until its demise in 1996. In the band’s native England, the album was a huge success; it peaked at no. 5 on British album charts and featured the hit singles and Siouxsie classics “Christine” and “Happy House”. Kaleidoscope is often referred to as the very best and the most important of all the Siouxsie and the Banshees releases.
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Today in rock history: on this date in 1963, the very first issue of the Beatles Book (more commonly known as the Beatles Monthly) was published in the UK. To meet the rising success of the Fab Four, it was decided that a monthly magazine devoted exclusively to them would be published. The initial run consisted of 80,000 copies and by the end of its debut year, the monthly circulation number grew to over 300,000 magazines. The publication lasted until December 1969 with a total of 77 monthly magazines being published during the lifespan of The Beatles.
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Today in rock history: on this date in 1971, two benefit concerts were held at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. Ex-Beatle George Harrison organized the two charity concerts for the benefit of Bengali victims of war and famine and vowed to donate all the proceeds from the shows to those affected residents of Bangladesh. Participating musical artists included Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Eric Clapton, Ravi Shankar and fellow former Beatle, Ringo Starr. The day’s two performances were both sellouts. The performance was filmed and released as a full-length cinematic motion picture and was recorded and released as a highly successful 3-LP set that peaked at #1 in the UK and #2 in the US. Long before Live Aid, Farm Aid and other similar charitable concerts, it was Harrison who was the first to organize such an event.
Born on this date in 1942 in San Francisco, California: Jerome John Garcia, soon to be known as Jerry Garcia. Garcia served as lead singer and guitarist of legendary California band The Grateful Dead for the length for its 30-year duration, from 1965 through 1995 as one of the band’s founding members. The band knew no boundaries and was as comfortable playing bluegrass and country as they were with improvisational jazz rock and space rock. GArcia & co. are the forefathers of the jam band movement and their traveling band of happy devotees, known as Deadheads, were the first to go to great lengths to follow a band all over the world every time they’d embark on a lengthy concert tour. Garcia passed away at the age of 53 in 1995 but left behind an enormous amount of recorded music as a member of The Dead, as a solo artist, as a member of bluegrass band Old & In the Way and as a collaborator with several other musicians.
Today in rock history: on this date in 1981, a brand new type of cable television channel was born. MTV, Music Television, the all day/all night video network was designed to broadcast music video clips on a 24-hour a day basis and in turn, broke a lot of new bands and unknown artists by given them exposure that mainstream radio wasn't prepared to do at the time. MTV helped launch the careers of so many bands and singers who'd later be mainstays on pop radio airwaves thanks to the popularity they'd achieved via the channel. Hosted by a team of five "VJ's", the channel also engaged in broadcasting full length music concerts as well. The very first video MTV played on their first broadcast date was "Video Killed The Radio Star" by The Buggles.
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