29 August

Pick a Day

29 AUGUST

In Music History

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2021 Lee "Scratch" Perry, a transgressive reggae musician who produced albums for Bob Marley, The Clash, and many others, dies at 85.

2013 Fergie and her husband Josh Duhamel have their first child: a boy named Axl. She says the name came to her in a dream where she was watching Axl Rose perform.

2011 Delta bluesman David "Honeyboy" Edwards dies of congestive heart failure in Chicago, Illinois, at age 96.

2009 Two months after Michael Jackson's death on what would have been his 51st birthday, 13,597 people in Mexico City perform the Thriller dance, establishing a new Guinness World Record.

2006 Rockabilly singer/songwriter Jumpin' Gene Simmons dies after a long illness in Tupelo, Mississippi, at age 73.

2004 Jet take home the award for Best Rock Video for "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" at the MTV Video Music Awards and perform the song live during the strangely un-hosted ceremony at American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida.

2002 Pepsi pulls their commercial with Ludacris after Bill O'Reilly blasts the rapper on his show The O'Reilly Factor for "peddling antisocial behavior." Luda does just fine: His next three albums go to #1 and he lands a role in the Fast & Furious franchise.

2002 Enrique Iglesias and the tennis star Anna Kournikova show up as a couple for the first time when they attend the MTV Video Music Awards, where Eminem takes Video Of The Year for "Without Me."

1999 HBO premieres Cher: Live In Concert From Las Vegas. The singer performed at the sprawling MGM Grand Las Vegas, the second largest hotel in the world (by number of rooms).

1998 Country/rockabilly musician Charlie Feathers dies of complications from a stroke-induced coma in Memphis, Tennessee, at age 66. Known for '50s hits like "Peepin' Eyes."

1995 The US Internal Revenue Service places a lien on Aretha Franklin's home for $600,000 in back taxes.

1994 During the Meat Puppets set opening for Stone Temple Pilots at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, the famous DJ Howard Stern joins them on stage to jam on "Lake of Fire."

1993 Liam Payne of One Direction is born in Wolverhampton, England.

1990 After soundcheck for her concert in Saratoga Springs, New York, Sinead O'Connor dons a disguise and joins protesters outside the venue. The hubbub is over her concert from a week earlier when she asked that the National Anthem not be played before her performance.

1980 UB40 release their seminal debut, Signing Off. It climbs to #2 in the UK, becoming the first reggae album to reach those heights. In 2010, to mark the group's 30th anniversary and Signing Off's far-reaching influence, the band performs the record in its entirety during a series of intimate concerts across the UK.

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Fans Respond To Clapton's Racist Rant

1976

The British music magazine Sounds publishes letters responding to Eric Clapton's racist rant at his Birmingham concert earlier in the month. "Own up, half your music is black," one of them states. "You are rock music's biggest colonist." This particular missive includes a call to action with an address to join Rock Against Racism, "A rank and file movement against the racist poison in rock music." Rock Against Racism soon becomes a viable movement, holding a series of concerts and festivals in support of tolerance.


Another letter points out the hypocrisy of British musicians going into tax exile to avoid paying their dues in their home country: "Clapton talks about 'foreigners' in our country. Well who do you think are the 'foreigners'? The British of Asian descent who pay their taxes like the rest of us? Or the rock stars, who like Clapton and Bowie, live in the USA so they don't have to pay tax on the profits they make from the money they screw out of their fans with exorbitant record and concert prices?"

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