Pick a Day

1 AUGUST

In Music History

2015 Rush play their last concert, closing out their R40 Live tour with a show at The Forum near Los Angeles. It's not announced as their farewell, but the band has hinted it might be. At the end of the show, drummer Neil Peart uncharacteristically comes to the front of the stage to take a bow with his bandmates.

2014 The BBC screens Elvis: That's Alright Mama 60 Years On to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the recording of the song: July 5, 1954.

2012 Tony Sly (frontman for No Use For a Name) dies in his sleep at age 41. No cause of death is revealed.

2006 30-year-old Andy Richardson dies after he is beaten in the mosh pit during the Deftones' set at the Family Values tour in Atlanta.

1996 Bill Buchanan, known for a songwriting partnership with Dickie Goodman that produced the 1956 hit "The Flying Saucer," dies of cancer at age 81.

1994 The Rolling Stones politely refuse an invitation to play at the Bill Clinton White House, though they play his 60th birthday party in 2006.

1994 The Rolling Stones begin their Voodoo Lounge tour with a show in Washington, D.C. Their first tour without bass player Bill Wyman, it goes for 134 shows and finishes as the top-grossing tour of all time.

1989 The Rolling Stones release their album Steel Wheels, which contains the hit "Mixed Emotions."

1988 Mudhoney's first-ever single is released: "Touch Me I'm Sick" b/w "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More," via Sub Pop Records.

1988 Cincinnati AM radio station WCVG changes its format, becoming the first US all-Elvis radio station. The burning love for the format dies out after a year, and on August 16, 1989, it switches to talk.

1988 Soundgarden release their second EP, Fopp, on Sub Pop Records. Its title comes from the name of an Ohio Players song, which they cover on the set.

1987 MTV Europe makes its debut. The first video shown is Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing," a song where Sting proclaims, "I want my MTV."

1987 Guns N' Roses head to Park Plaza and 450 South La Brea in Hollywood and shoot their first video, for "Welcome To The Jungle."

1985 Tom Waits releases Rain Dogs, widely considered one of his most important and innovative works. Synthesizers and samples - very common in the 1980s - are deliberately absent as Waits develops the unique approach he began on Swordfishtrombones.

1984 Jermaine Jackson appears on an episode of CBS's long-running soap opera As The World Turns.