On this day in 1964, The Beatles, who you may have heard of, played their first ever show in New Zealand at Wellington Town Hall. The local Chief Constable for reasons unknown, refused a police escort for The Beatles leaving just two policemen to control over 5,000 fans. History has not recorded how well behaved the fans were.
American singer, actress, Judy Garland, (pictured) died of a barbiturate overdose aged 47, she was found on the floor of her Chelsea home, in London. She made more than two dozen films, but was obviously most famous for playing Dorothy in the 1939 film ‘Wizard Of Oz’ and being the mother of Liza Minnelli. The song ‘Over The Rainbow’ from Wizard of Oz was voted the ‘Song Of The Century’ in a 2001 poll published in America.
In slightly lighter news, U2 guitarist ‘The Edge’ (so named because of his angular appearance) married his girlfriend of ten years Morleigh Steinberg in Eze in the south of France. The couple first met when she was a belly dancer on the band’s Zoo TV tour and having seen them twice on that tour I can testify he’s a lucky boy. The band have a nickname for the permanently beanied minstrel, they call him ‘the Hedge’, so he’s effectively been nicknamed twice…
Good day for Scottish music today as both Jimmy Somerville and Bobby Gillespie celebrate their 51st and 50th birthdays respectively. There was discussion on Six live the other day about how when Bronski Beat first emerged, no-one sang like Jimmy and now there’s loads of soundalikes, Anthony Hegarty of Anthony and the Johnsons being a good example. Bobby is famous for having invented the dance that was, in the early nineties known as “stroke victim”.
Thoughts on the day by Chris Mackinnon of Freak Music, one of the UK’s leading music agents.
