Category Archives: AUGUST


1944: Roger Dean, English artist. Designed album covers for Yes, Atomic Rooster, Uriah Heep, Gentle Giant, Greenslade, Steve Howe, Asia.


1957: Elvis Presley appeared at the Empire Stadium in Vancouver, Canada.

1963: The girl trio Angels started a three week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘My Boyfriend’s Back’.

1963: The Ronettes first entered the US singles chart with ‘Be My Baby’ the girl group’s only top 10 hit.

1965: The Beatles’ current American tour winds up at San Francisco’s Cow Palace.

1968: The Move, The Pretty Things, The Crazy World Of Aurthur Brown, Orange Bicycle, Jefferson Airplane, Fairport Convention and Tyrannosaurus Rex all appeared at the first Isle Of Wight Festival held over two days.

1969: Decca Records released what has been called The Rolling Stones most political song, ‘Street Fighting Man’, written after Mick Jagger attended a March 1968 anti-war rally at London’s US embassy, during which mounted police attempted to control a crowd of 25,000.

1971: The Rolling Stones plus the father of Brian Jones, filed a high court writ against ex managers Oldham and Easton.

1974: “The Partridge Family” television show ends, leaving David Cassidy free to pursue a solo music career.

1974: The Rolling Stones release Goat’s Head Soup. It’s not remembered as one of their classics, but goes to No. 1 on the back of the hit single “Angie.” Goats Head Soup is an album by The Rolling Stones released in 1973.

1974: Traffic made their last live performance at the annual UK Reading Festival. Other acts appearing included; Alex Harvey, 10cc, Focus, Steve Harley and Procol Harum.

1984: ‘Purple Rain’ the movie-starring Prince opened at cinemas across the UK with special late night previews.

1985: ‘Brothers In Arms’ by Dire Straits started a nine-week run at No.1 on the US album charts.

1985: UB40 with guest vocals from Chrissie Hynde had the UK No.1 single with their version of the Sonny Bono song ‘I Got You Babe’ a hit for Sonny & Cher in 1965.

1987: The largest pre-order of albums in the history of CBS Records occurred as 2.25 million copies of Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ album were shipped to record stores in the US.

1990: Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Wonder sang ‘Amazing Grace’ at a memorial service held for guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan who had been killed in a helicopter crash 4 days earlier.

1991: Metallica started a four-week run at No.1 on the US album chart with, ‘Metallica’.

1995: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum opens in Cleveland. The city is argued to be the birthplace of rock beginning in the rooms of radio station WMMS, where disc jockey Alan Freed coined the term “rock ‘n’ roll” in the early 1950s.

1997: Oasis went to No.1 on the UK album chart with their third album ‘Be Here Now.’

2002: NASA announced that Lance Bass, singer with *NSYNC, was to become the first celebrity astronaut.

2003: Elton John went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Are You Ready For Love.’ The song was recorded in 1977 and released in 1979, when it reached No.42.

2004: Carl Wayne the singer with The Move died from cancer. They had the 1969 UK No.1 single ‘Blackberry Way.’

2005: Soldier-turned-singer/songwriter James Blunt tops the U.K. singles and an album charts with his debut Back to Bedlam and the song “You’re Beautiful.”

2005: Blondie and Public Enemy perform at a rally to save punk landmark CBGB, whose lease expires today.

2008: The Verve started a two week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with their final album ‘Forth’.