Pick a Day

Music History Events: Memorable Concerts

September 5, 1971 While Wishbone Ash are on stage at an outdoor concert in Austin, Texas, hot dog vender Francisco Carrasco is shot dead. The tragedy inspires the song "Rock 'N' Roll Widow."

September 10, 1970 B.B. King plays for inmates at Cook County Jail in Chicago. The show is released the following year as the album Live at Cook County Jail.

June 7, 1970 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young play the Fillmore East in New York City, where Graham Nash debuts his song "Simple Man," written about his breakup with Joni Mitchell the day before. The show is broadcast live on WNEW-FM and later released as the album Fillmore East 1970.

May 25, 1970 Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green plays his last official show with the band, although he does fill in a few years later when they lose their lead guitarist.

September 24, 1969 At Royal Albert Hall in London, Deep Purple play their Concerto for Group and Orchestra, written by their keyboard player Jon Lord, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In December, it is released as a live album.

August 30, 1969 It's the first day of the two-day Isle of Wight Festival. Performers include Bob Dylan, the Moody Blues and The Who. This is the second Isle of Wight Festival - it goes on again next year, but doesn't return until 2002.

August 18, 1969 Local upstart band Rush see Led Zeppelin perform in Toronto. In 1974, when Rush get airplay in America with the song "Working Man," radio stations field lots of calls asking if it's a new Led Zeppelin song.

August 16, 1969 The Beckenham Arts Lab holds the Free Festival in Beckenham, London. One one of the performers is David Bowie, who memorializes the concert in his song "Memory of a Free Festival." The festival is largely forgotten by history, probably because it happened at the same exact time as Woodstock in the United States.

September 27, 1968 Flatt & Scruggs play the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco, bringing bluegrass to a city known for its psychedelic sound. "The hippies were coming up and touching Scruggs and saying 'You're for real,'" producer Bob Johnston recalls.

August 31, 1968 Jefferson Airplane headline the first Isle of Wight Festival, a one-day event that grows to two days the following year and five in 1970.

April 7, 1968 Three days after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Nina Simone performs "Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)" at the Westbury Music Fair in Long Island, New York, in his honor. The song was written by her bassist, Gene Taylor, less than 24 hours earlier.

January 20, 1968 Roughly three months after the death of Woody Guthrie, a tribute concert is put on in the folk hero's name by Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, the Band, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Tom Paxton, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Odetta, and Richie Havens at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

October 22, 1966 Chain Reaction, which would later become Aerosmith, opens for The Yardbirds at Staples High in Westport, Connecticut.

March 26, 1966 The Strangeurs, featuring future Aerosmith frontman Steven Tallarico (later Steven Tyler), open for The Byrds at the Westchester County Center in White Plains, New York. The Strangeurs arrange for girls to sit in the front row and scream for them, but it's hardly necessary as the crowd goes nuts during their set, where they play six songs instead of their allotted two.

July 29, 1965 The Supremes begin a three-week run at the famous Copacabana night club in New York City, a prominent showcase for Motown's hottest act, which has tallied five #1 hits. During the run, they play 16 shows each week, with three on Saturdays and Sundays.

July 10, 1965 The Kinks play the Seattle Center Coliseum in what turns out to be their last show on American soil until December 1969, as the powerful American Federation of Musicians union bans them. The group fell afoul of the union with petulant behavior, canceled concerts, and an indifference toward their audiences - at a Sacramento show on June 26 they filled their set with an extended jam of "You Really Got Me." Poor ticket sales and disputes with their management set the stage for their ill-fated American trek.

July 3, 1965 The Beach Boys Summer Spectacular tour stops at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. This date includes performances by The Byrds, Sonny & Cher, The Righteous Brothers, and of course, The Beach Boys. Also on the bill: The Kinks, who are having a miserable time in America and at war with their manager Larry Page, who flies back to England the next day.

June 5, 1964 The Rolling Stones play their first show in America when they begin a nine-date tour at the Swing Auditorium in San Bernardino, California.

December 31, 1961 The Beach Boys perform live for the second time, appearing on a bill with Ike & Tina Turner at the Ritchie Valens memorial dance in Long Beach, California. They earn $300 for their efforts.

September 25, 1961 Bob Dylan plays a show at Gerde's Folk City in New York that earns him a glowing review in the New York Times, giving him his first major media exposure.

January 7, 1955 Marian Anderson is the first African-American singer to appear at the Metropolitan Opera. Her performance as Ulrica in Giuseppe Verdi's Un ballo in maschera breaks barriers for black artists in the States.

October 4, 1922 Marie Lloyd collapses on stage at the Empire Hall, Edmonton. She dies three days later.