1959, Buddy Holly, Richard Valens and The Big Bopper all appeared at the Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake, Iowa. This was all three acts last ever gig before being killed in a plane crash the following day.
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1962, The Beatles played their first professionally organised gig outside of Liverpool at The Oasis Club, Manchester. The groups set started with their version of 'Hippy Hippy Shake'.
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1963, Cliff Richard and The Shadows started a 14-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with 'Summer Holiday'.
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1963, The Beatles played at the Gaumont Cinema, Bradford on the opening night of the nationwide Helen Shapiro UK tour. The Beatles were at the bottom of the six-act bill playing just four songs, 'Please Please Me’, ‘Chains’, ‘Keep Your Hands Off My Baby’ and ‘A Taste of Honey.'
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1966, The Rolling Stones released '19th Nervous Breakdown' it peaked at No.2 on the UK singles chart.
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1967, The Jimi Hendrix Experience played live on UK TV show Top Of The Pops performing 'Purple Haze.'
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1969, Yoko Ono divorced her husband Tony Cox, Yoko was granted custody of their daughter Kyoko. John Lennon and married Yoko the following month on 30th March.
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1973, Keith Emerson of Emerson Lake and Palmer injured his hands when his piano rigged to explode as a stunt, detonated prematurely during a concert in San Francisco. |
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1974, Barbra Streisand started a four week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with the theme from the film 'The Way We Were'. The single won an Oscar and a Grammy for 'Song of the year.' |
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1974, The Carpenters started a four week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with 'The Singles 1969-73', featuring 12 hits and the US No.1 'Top Of The World' it went back to the top of the charts on three other occasions.
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1976, Genesis released 'A Trick Of The Tail', their seventh studio album and the first to feature drummer Phil Collins as full-time lead vocalist following the departure of original vocalist Peter Gabriel. After auditioning over 400 vocalists, which saw Collins teaching the potential lead singers the songs, the band decided that Collins should be the new vocalist. |
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1979, Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious died of a heroin overdose in New York City. There had been a party to celebrate Vicious' release on $50,000 (£29,412) bail pending his trial for the murder of his former girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, the previous October. Party guests, said that Vicious had taken heroin at midnight. An autopsy confirmed that Vicious died from an accumulation of fluid in the lungs that was consistent with heroin overdose. A syringe, spoon and heroin residue were discovered near the body.
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1980, The Specials were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'The Special A.K.A. Live E.P'. The lead track 'Too Much Too Young' was the shortest song to reach No.1 on the UK singles chart in the 1980s at 2'04". |
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1985, Foreigner started a two-week run at No.1 on the US singles charts with 'I Want To Know What Love Is', also a UK No.1. London-born Mick Jones wrote the song and sang lead vocals with the British-American rock band.
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1989, George Michael received undisclosed damages in excess of £100,000 ($170,000) from The Sun newspaper over articles printed that stated Michael had gatecrashed a party given by Andrew Lloyd Weber and was drunk and abusive.
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1991, KLF featuring The Children Of The Revolution were at No.1 on the UK single chart with '3am Eternal'. Also a No.5 hit in the US. |
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2001, Bad Manners singer Buster Bloodvessel was told he was 'too fat' to survive an urgently needed operation. Buster collapsed on stage during a show in Italy but Doctors felt that his huge 30 stone frame might not make it through surgery.
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2002, The Phonographic Performance Ltd launched performersmoney.com for artists to check if they were owed any of the £10 million ($17 million) in unclaimed money. It showed that Michael Jackson was owed over £100,000 ($170,000) for 'Say, Say, Say', Stevie Wonder had money owing for 'Ebony And Ivory' and Ray Davies of The Kinks was owed a six-figure fee for 'You Really Got Me'. Director Dominic McGonigal said "If anyone has seen Rick Astley please let him know, he is still earning money for his hits."
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2003, Russian girl duo Tatu started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'All The Things She Said'. The song had been a hit on the Russian charts three years earlier. Tatu were the first Russian act to score a UK No 1.
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2005, Former Libertines frontman Pete Doherty was arrested on suspicion of theft and assault. He was held in custody at a north London police station after an alleged incident at a hotel in Clerkenwell, central London.
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2007, Billy Henderson, one of the founders of US soul group The Spinners, died aged 67 after complications from diabetes. Had the 1980 UK No.1 & US No.2 single 'Working My Way Back To You.' |
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2007, US keyboardist Joe Hunter, a veteran session musician as one of the Funk Brothers who helped craft the distinctive Motown sound, died in Detroit, Michigan, at the age of 79. Hunter performed with such legendary Motown acts as Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and Martha and the Vandellas. |
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2008, The Spice Girls cut short their reunion world tour, blaming "family and personal commitments". The band said they would end their tour in Toronto on 26 February, with planned shows in Beijing, Sydney, Cape Town and Buenos Aires being axed. A spokesman for the group said: "Sadly, the tour needs to come to an end by the end of February due to family and personal commitments." |
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February 2nd: Born on this day |
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1940, Born on this day, Alan Caddy, guitarist with The Tornadoes, who had a 1962 UK & US No.1 single with ‘Telstar’. This was the first major hit from a UK act on the American chart. Caddy died on August 16th 2000.
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1942, Born on this day, Graham Nash, guitarist, singer with The Hollies who he left in 1968. Became a member of Crosby Stills Nash & Young who had the 1969 UK No.17 single 'Marrakesh Express' and 1970 US No.1 album 'Deja Vu'.
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1943, Born on this day, Peter Macbeth from The Foundations who had the 1967 UK No.1 single 'Baby Now That I've Found You', and the 1969 US No.3 single 'Build Me Up A Buttercup'. |
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1945, Born on this day, Ronnie Goodson, from John Fred and His Playboy Band, who had the 1968 US No.1 & UK No.3 single 'Judy In Disguise'. |
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1946, Born on this day, Howard Bellamy from the Bellamy Brothers who had the 1976 US No.1 single 'Let Your Love Flow', and the 1979 UK No.3 single 'If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me'. |
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1947, Born on this day, Derek Sulman, Simon Dupree And The Big Sound who had the 1967 UK No.9 single 'Kites' and then became a member of Gentle Giant. |
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1948, Born on this day, Alan Mckay, guitar, Earth Wind and Fire, (1975 US No.1 single 'Shining Star', 1981 UK No.3 single 'Let's Groove'). |
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1949, Born on this day, Ross Valory, bassist with the Steve Miller Band, who had the 1974 US No.1 & 1990 UK No.1 single 'The Joker'. |
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1963, Born on this day, Eva Cassidy, US singer. She is the only artist to score three posthumous UK No.1 albums: 2001’s 'Songbird'; 2002’s 'Imagine' and 2003’s 'American Tune'. In 2001 she also had a UK No.42 single with ‘Over The Rainbow’ and the 2007 UK No.1 single 'What a Wonderful World' with Katie Melua. Eva died of skin cancer on November 2nd 1996, aged 33. |
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1964, Born on this day, Charlie Heather, drummer with The Levellers who had the 1995 UK No.12 single 'Just The One'. |
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1966, Born on this day in Montclair, New Jersey, was Robert DeLeo, bassist with Stone Temple Pilots, Talk Show and Army of Anyone. His elder brother, guitarist Dean DeLeo, was also a member of the band. |
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1966, Born on this day, Steve Firth, bassist with Embrace who had the 2006 UK No. 2 single ‘Natures Law’, and the 2006 UK No.1 album ‘This New Day’. |
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1969, Born on this day, John Spence, singer, and original member of No Doubt in the late 1980's. Committed suicide on December 21st 1987 by shooting himself. |
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1971, Born on this day, Ben Mize, drummer with Counting Crows who had the 1994 UK No.28 single 'Mr Jones', and the 1996 US No.1 album, 'Recovering The Satellites'. |
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1977, Born on this day, Shakira, (Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll), singer who had the 2002 UK No.2 single 'Whenever Wherever' and the 2006 world-wide No.1 single 'Hips Don't Lie'. She is the highest selling Colombian artist of all time, having sold over forty million albums. |