A Brief History On February 12, 1967, British police raided the home of Rolling Stones member Keith Richards at Redlands, confiscating illegal drugs, a pistol, and a shotgun along with ammunition. Richards and bandmate Mick Jagger were arrested, along with singer Marianne Faithfull. Also present were Dennis Hopper, Polish Prince Jean Christien Stanislaus Klossowski, and George Harrison of the Beatles. Digging Deeper Richards was charged with 25 crimes and was sentenced to a year in jail with Jagger earning a six month stay in the slam. A prompt appeal resulted in charges against Richards being dropped and Jagger’s sentence being…
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A Brief History On February 9, 1964, Beatlemania hit the US when the Fab Four made their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, snagging 73 million American viewers. The Ed Sullivan Show, at a time when most Americans had a choice of only three channels, was the big time for performers, a rite of passage. Digging Deeper The Ed Sullivan Show ran from 1948 to 1971 for over 1,000 episodes, making it one of the building blocks of TV history. Some of the other iconic appearances on the “shew…” included: Elvis Presley in 1956, although Ed had vowed to never…
A Brief History On December 4, 1971, rock legend Frank Zappa and his band, The Mothers of Invention, were holding a concert at the Montreux Casino in Switzerland, on the shores of beautiful Lake Geneva, when disaster struck. Digging Deeper A misguided fan thought it was a good idea to launch a flare from a flare pistol into the ceiling of the place, causing a fire that brought the building down. The fire was significant enough on its own, but was immortalized by the Deep Purple hit, “Smoke on the Water,” since Deep Purple was at a nearby hotel waiting…
A Brief History On November 15, 1968, the Cleveland Transit System of Cleveland, Ohio linked downtown with the metro airport, becoming the first city in the western hemisphere to link its downtown and its main airport by rapid transit. Digging Deeper CTS ran the buses and the Rapid Transit electric trains in Cleveland, linking the East and West sides of the city and its inner suburbs with the downtown area. Later, CTS would become the Regional Transit Authority. Despite jokes about its burning river and the “Mistake on the Lake,” and of course the recent history of alleged pro football, Cleveland…
A Brief History On November 5, 2021, the Astroworld Festival in Houston, Texas, a rap fest, went horribly wrong when a crowd fueled by drugs and alcohol overwhelmed insufficient concert security and created a “crowd crush” that cost eight lives and injured over 300 people. Digging Deeper An enormous crowd tried to tear down barricades and storm into the concert venue, creating a crushing wave, as well as the crowd already inside rushing the stage. Many accusations and lawsuits followed, but other concerts have ended badly as well. In 2003, a Rhode Island concert by Great White was the scene…