Pick a Day

10 AUGUST

In Music History

2020 Split Enz hit #1 in their native New Zealand with the 40th anniversary reissue of their album True Colours, knocking off Folklore by Taylor Swift, who was born nine years after the album was first released.

2013 Singer Eydie Gorme dies six days before her 85th birthday. She is survived by her husband of 56 years, Steve Lawrence, and a son, composer David Nessim Lawrence.

2013 Jody Payne (guitarist for Willie Nelson's band, The Family) dies of cardiac problems at age 77 in Stapleton, Alabama.

2012 Insane Clown Posse takes exception to the FBI naming their fans, collectively known as "Juggalos," as a criminal gang in the FBI's "2011 National Gang Threat Assessment Report." At the annual Gathering of the Juggalos event in Illinois, they announce intentions to sue the FBI. Despite this, the FBI continues to list Juggalos as an organized gang in later years.

2012 The bands Kiss and Motley Crue donate $100,000 together to the families of the victims of the Aurora, Colorado, "Dark Knight" shooting. The massacre occurred Friday, July 20 at a movie theater showing The Dark Knight Rises. James Eagan Holmes burst into the theater with guns blazing, killing 12 and wounding 58. The story rocks the United States and the ensuing trial of shooter Holmes, who was inspired by the actions of The Joker, a famed villain in the Batman franchise played by Heath Ledger, is to generate top headlines for many months yet.

2008 Soul singer/actor Isaac Hayes dies of a stroke in Shelby County, Tennesee, 10 days before his 66th birthday.

2007 Jon Foreman, frontman of Switchfoot, announces the band have left Columbia Records. Switchfoot goes on to create their own record label, lowercase people records.

2007 Laura Marling shares the stage with other Indie artists like Crystal Castles and Mystery Jets at the first-ever Underage Festival in Victoria Park, London. The festival, which grew out of a series of club nights in the Elephant and Castle district of South London, is open only to 13-17 year olds. At 17, Marling fits right in.

2006 R&B singer-songwriter Barbara George dies of a lung infection, paired with a history of liver disease and Hepatitis C, at age 63 in Chauvin, Louisiana. Known for the 1961 hit "I Know (You Don't Love Me No More)."

2005 The Rolling Stones build a buzz for their A Bigger Bang tour with a surprise warm-up show at the Phoenix Concert Theatre in Toronto, which holds about 1,000 people. Tickets are just $10, but many had to wait in line many hours to get them after hearing rumors of the show.

2004 The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts confirms that he is undergoing treatment for throat cancer, which eventually goes into remission.

1997 Rush drummer Neil Peart loses his 19-year-old daughter Selena to a car accident. A year later, Selena's mother Jackie (Peart's common-law wife) dies of cancer, leading Peart to take a long sabbatical from the band where he rides his motorcycle across North America.

1996 Oasis play the first of two shows at Knebworth, England. One in 20 of the UK's population applies for a ticket, and the band plays to 125,000 people per night in what are the biggest gigs of the Britpop era.

1993 Ed Roberts (of Ruby & the Romantics) dies of cancer at age 57.

1987 Wilson Pickett is found guilty of threatening patrons at a New Jersey bar with a loaded shotgun after a brawl inside the club. He is given two years' probation and fined $1000.