More About Music History On This Day
6 Aug 1982
Pink Floyd's The Wall starring Bob Geldof opened in movie theatres in New York. The film was conceived alongside the double album by Pink Floyd's, Roger Waters.
6 Aug 1983
Avant-garde musician and former backing singer with David Bowie Klaus Nomi died at the age of 39 of Aids in New York City aged 38. Nomi was one of the first celebrities to contract AIDS.
6 Aug 1988
Appetite For Destruction Guns N' Roses debut album went to No.1 in the US, after spending 57 weeks on the chart and selling over 5 million copies. Singles from the album, ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine,’ ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and ‘Paradise City’ were all US top 10 hits. Worldwide sales now stand in excess of 28 million and the album is the best-selling debut album of all-time in the US, beating Boston's debut album Boston, which has gone 17x platinum..
6 Aug 1994
Lisa Loeb started a three-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Stay (I Missed You), a No.6 hit in the UK. Actor and friend Ethan Hawke had asked her to provide a song for the upcoming movie Reality Bites and 'Stay' was featured in the film.
6 Aug 1994
Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards booked into a private clinic to be treated for nervous exhaustion.
6 Aug 1999
Dick Latvala died aged 56 after being in a coma caused by a heart attack. Latvala had worked with the Grateful Dead since the early 80s looking after their archives of live performances which became a series of 'Dick's Picks' albums.
6 Aug 2001
Whitney Houston became one of the highest-paid musicians in the world after signing a new deal with Arista records, said to be worth more than $100m.
6 Aug 2004
Rick James was found dead at his Los Angeles home. Known as 'The King of Punk-Funk' James scored the 1981 US No.3 album ‘Street Songs’ and 1981 US No.16 single ‘Super Freak part 1’. In the late 60s James worked as a songwriter and producer for Motown, working with Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. Addicted to cocaine, he once admitted to spending $7,000 a week on drugs for five years.
6 Aug 2007
Marilyn Manson was being sued by a former band member who said he was owed $20m in shared profits. Stephen Bier, who played keyboards under the stage name Madonna Wayne Gacy, claimed he was not paid properly over a period of almost two decades. In legal papers filed in Los Angeles, Bier claimed Manson falsely told him the band was not making much money and used band money to buy a $2m home and collect Nazi memorabilia, including coat hangers used by Adolf Hitler.
6 Aug 2009
Willy DeVille died at the age of 58 following a battle with pancreatic cancer. The band he formed, Mink Deville, appeared at the legendary CBGB club in New York in the 1970s and scored the 1977 hit 'Spanish Stroll.' Doctors discovered he had cancer earlier this year as he was preparing to undergo treatment for hepatitis C.
6 Aug 2012
Forbes declared Beyoncé and Jay-Z the highest-paid celebrity couple, with earnings of $78 million ($40 million for her, $38 for him).
6 Aug 2016
Swedish music streaming service Spotify reported that 'The Girl From Ipanema' was streamed more than 40,000 times after it was played while supermodel Gisele Bundchen walked onstage during the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The song first became a hit for Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz in 1964 when it peaked at No.5 on the US chart.
6 Aug 2019
Members of Korn, Tool, Judas Priest, Linkin Park and several other bands signed a brief in support of Led Zeppelin, whose years-long copyright case over the opening guitar riff of 'Stairway To Heaven' was set to return to court. In response to the court order, 123 music-makers filed an amicus brief, aiming to “elucidate the effect of the panel’s decision… on all songwriters, composers, musicians and producers in the United States and around the world”. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2014 by the estate of the late Randy California, the singer/guitarist of Spirit and the composer of ‘Taurus’.
6 Aug 2020
British music producer and sound engineer Martin Birch died age 71. He became renowned for engineering and producing albums recorded predominantly by British rock bands, including Deep Purple, Rainbow, Fleetwood Mac, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden.
6 Aug 2020
Wayne Fontana died from cancer at the age of 74. The English rock and pop singer is best known for the 1965 hit ‘The Game of Love’ with the Mindbenders. He took his stage name from Elvis Presley's drummer, D. J. Fontana.
Pink Floyd's The Wall starring Bob Geldof opened in movie theatres in New York. The film was conceived alongside the double album by Pink Floyd's, Roger Waters.
6 Aug 1983
Avant-garde musician and former backing singer with David Bowie Klaus Nomi died at the age of 39 of Aids in New York City aged 38. Nomi was one of the first celebrities to contract AIDS.
6 Aug 1988
Appetite For Destruction Guns N' Roses debut album went to No.1 in the US, after spending 57 weeks on the chart and selling over 5 million copies. Singles from the album, ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine,’ ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ and ‘Paradise City’ were all US top 10 hits. Worldwide sales now stand in excess of 28 million and the album is the best-selling debut album of all-time in the US, beating Boston's debut album Boston, which has gone 17x platinum..
6 Aug 1994
Lisa Loeb started a three-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Stay (I Missed You), a No.6 hit in the UK. Actor and friend Ethan Hawke had asked her to provide a song for the upcoming movie Reality Bites and 'Stay' was featured in the film.
6 Aug 1994
Manic Street Preachers guitarist Richey Edwards booked into a private clinic to be treated for nervous exhaustion.
6 Aug 1999
Dick Latvala died aged 56 after being in a coma caused by a heart attack. Latvala had worked with the Grateful Dead since the early 80s looking after their archives of live performances which became a series of 'Dick's Picks' albums.
6 Aug 2001
Whitney Houston became one of the highest-paid musicians in the world after signing a new deal with Arista records, said to be worth more than $100m.
6 Aug 2004
Rick James was found dead at his Los Angeles home. Known as 'The King of Punk-Funk' James scored the 1981 US No.3 album ‘Street Songs’ and 1981 US No.16 single ‘Super Freak part 1’. In the late 60s James worked as a songwriter and producer for Motown, working with Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. Addicted to cocaine, he once admitted to spending $7,000 a week on drugs for five years.
6 Aug 2007
Marilyn Manson was being sued by a former band member who said he was owed $20m in shared profits. Stephen Bier, who played keyboards under the stage name Madonna Wayne Gacy, claimed he was not paid properly over a period of almost two decades. In legal papers filed in Los Angeles, Bier claimed Manson falsely told him the band was not making much money and used band money to buy a $2m home and collect Nazi memorabilia, including coat hangers used by Adolf Hitler.
6 Aug 2009
Willy DeVille died at the age of 58 following a battle with pancreatic cancer. The band he formed, Mink Deville, appeared at the legendary CBGB club in New York in the 1970s and scored the 1977 hit 'Spanish Stroll.' Doctors discovered he had cancer earlier this year as he was preparing to undergo treatment for hepatitis C.
6 Aug 2012
Forbes declared Beyoncé and Jay-Z the highest-paid celebrity couple, with earnings of $78 million ($40 million for her, $38 for him).
6 Aug 2016
Swedish music streaming service Spotify reported that 'The Girl From Ipanema' was streamed more than 40,000 times after it was played while supermodel Gisele Bundchen walked onstage during the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. The song first became a hit for Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz in 1964 when it peaked at No.5 on the US chart.
6 Aug 2019
Members of Korn, Tool, Judas Priest, Linkin Park and several other bands signed a brief in support of Led Zeppelin, whose years-long copyright case over the opening guitar riff of 'Stairway To Heaven' was set to return to court. In response to the court order, 123 music-makers filed an amicus brief, aiming to “elucidate the effect of the panel’s decision… on all songwriters, composers, musicians and producers in the United States and around the world”. The lawsuit was originally filed in 2014 by the estate of the late Randy California, the singer/guitarist of Spirit and the composer of ‘Taurus’.
6 Aug 2020
British music producer and sound engineer Martin Birch died age 71. He became renowned for engineering and producing albums recorded predominantly by British rock bands, including Deep Purple, Rainbow, Fleetwood Mac, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden.
6 Aug 2020
Wayne Fontana died from cancer at the age of 74. The English rock and pop singer is best known for the 1965 hit ‘The Game of Love’ with the Mindbenders. He took his stage name from Elvis Presley's drummer, D. J. Fontana.
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