15 June

Pick a Day

15 JUNE

In Music History

Page 1
1 2 3

2017 Shania Twain releases "Life's About To Get Good," her first single in five years.

2014 American Top 40 host (and voice of Shaggy on Scooby Doo) Casey Kasem dies at age 82.

2013 Roger LaVern (keyboardist for The Tornados) dies at age 75.

2012 The conservative radio and TV personality Glenn Beck announces plans for launching a competitor to the popular TV series Glee, which revolves around a high school glee club with many musical numbers. Beck, incensed at the show's liberal portrayal of issues such as homosexuality and bullying, tells a Faith & Freedom Coalition conference in Washington that the left "won't know what hit them" when he launches his own conservative version of the show. The show never materializes.

2008 Lionel Richie is given a TV Land Icon Award by the cable network.

2007 Ferlin Huskey undergoes leg surgery in a Springfield, Missouri, hospital to improve his circulation.

1999 Peso Pluma, whose music combines corridos and hip-hop, is born Hassan Emilio Kabande Laija in Zapopan, Mexico. His stage name means "featherweight" in English, a reference to his slight build.

1997 Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson appear on VH1's Storytellers.

1996 Ella Fitzgerald dies of complications from diabetes at age 79.

1996 Aurora is born Aurora Aksnes in Bergen, Norway.

1995 Five years after their successful debut After the Rain, Nelson release their second album, Because They Can, which tanks.More

1991 Paula Abdul hits #1 in America with the ballad "Rush, Rush," her fifth chart-topper. A young Keanu Reeves is in the video.

1991 MC Hammer kicks off his Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em world tour in Louisville, Kentucky. About 70 people, who perform various duties on stage, are in the entourage. Rolling Stone reports that Hammer is a taskmaster, fining dancers for missing steps and insisting that everyone go directly to their hotel rooms after shows.

1990 At Lake City Concert Hall, in Seattle, Washington, bassist Ben Shepherd plays his first show with Soundgarden.

1989 The Offspring's self-titled debut album is released only on vinyl. A CD and cassette reissue are eventually released in 1995.

Page 1
1 2 3

Beastie Boys Stage Massive Concert To Free Tibet

1996

The Beastie Boys host the first Tibetan Freedom Concert, with performers that include Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins and John Lee Hooker. About 100,000 attend the two shows, raising money for the Milarepa Fund.

The concert is the brainchild of Beastie Boy Adam Yauch (MCA), who became interested in Buddhism and Tibet when he took an excursion to the Himalayas in 1992 and learned about the history of the region: The Chinese government had long been persecuting the people of Tibet, but held fast to a policy of nonviolence in line with their religious beliefs. When he returned to America, Yauch learned more, and met with the Dalai Lama when he was visiting the US in 1993. When the Beastie Boys played Lollapalooza in 1994, Yauch arranged for Buddhist monks to open each day's festivities with some chanting, bringing enlightenment and alternative rock together for the first time. On the group's 1994 album Ill Communication, he used a sample of Tibetan monks chanting. The Tibetan Freedom Concert takes place at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, raising about $800,000 for the Milarepa Fund, which Yauch set up to aid the people of Tibet. Mixed in with sets by the likes of John Lee Hooker, Fugees, De La Soul, Foo Fighters and Björk, monks take the stage to offer messages and prayers. The next year, the festival returns, this time for a one-day show at Randall's Island in New York City with about 50,000 in attendance and many of the same acts. In 1998, it heads to RFK Stadium in Washington, DC for two days and about 120,000 attendees. It goes international in 1999, with four shows on the same day in Wisconsin, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Sydney. "Free Tibet" becomes a rallying cry thanks to the concerts.

Categories

Comments

send your comment
Be the first to comment...

©2024 Songfacts®, LLC