More About Music History On This Day
30 May 1987
David Bowie kicked off his 87-date Glass Spider world tour at the Feyenoord Stadium, Rotterdam, Holland. The tour's set, described at the time as "the largest touring set ever," was designed to look like a giant spider. It was 60 feet high, 64 feet wide and included giant vacuumed tube legs that were lit from the inside with 20,000' of color-changing lights. A single set took 43 trucks to move.
30 May 1996
Alan Whitaker from Penzance appeared on the UK TV quiz show Mastermind, his specialist subject being the Sex Pistols. He won a place in the semi-final of the show answering all but one of the 18 questions correctly.
30 May 2002
Diana Ross voluntarily entered a Malibu drug and alcohol rehabilitation center called Promises to "clear up some personal issues" before setting out on a summer concert tour.
30 May 2003
Record producer Mickie Most died aged 64. Member of The Most Brothers during late 50s, and Mickie Most and the Playboys, produced hits for The Animals, Hermans Hermits, Donovan, Kim Wilde, Lulu and Jeff Beck. Most ran his own record label RAK in the 1970s, having hits with Hot Chocolate, Suzi Quatro and Mud.
30 May 2003
Singer Finley Quaye was threatened with jail after his mobile phone rang when he was in the dock waiting to be sentenced on charges of assault. After being found guilty of assaulting his former girlfriend he was ordered to attend a six-month domestic violence program by a district Judge.
30 May 2004
Madonna was forced to pay out $250,000 in a lawsuit after copying ideas by the late French erotic photographer Guy Burton. Madonna had admitted that the video for her song 'Hollywood' was inspired by Burton.
30 May 2005
Coldplay's new album was illegally put on the internet a week before its UK and US release. The leak took place on the day copies were sent to UK radio stations and the day before it went on sale in Japan. Security measures around the release included hosting album playbacks at Abbey Road studios for journalists instead of sending them copies of the album, any CDs that were sent out were labelled with a false name - The Fir Trees - to throw would-be pirates off the scent.
30 May 2007
A leaked copy of the new White Stripes album 'Icky Thump' was played completely on Chicago's radio station Q101-WKQX. Jack White personally called the US radio station from Spain, where he was touring, to voice his displeasure.
30 May 2007
A coroner told the murder trial of music producer Phil Spector that US actress Lana Clarkson's death was a homicide. Dr Louis Pena said bruising suggested the barrel of a gun may have been forced into Ms Clarkson's mouth before she was fatally shot in 2003. Spector was accused of murdering Clarkson on 3 February 2003 at his home in California.
30 May 2008
Music mogul Simon Fuller married his long-term girlfriend Natalie Swanston at a ceremony in California's Napa Valley. Guests at the wedding included Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and Annie Lennox. Earlier this year Billboard magazine named him the "most successful British music manager of all time", with an estimated fortune of $450m.
30 May 2009
Mick Jagger offered to buy an ice cream van but was turned down by its owner - who'd promised his daughter he would drive her to her wedding in it. Guiseppe Della Camera had spent ten years restoring the rusting van to perfection after he spotted it on a farm - being used as a chicken shed. The restoration was such a success Sir Mick offered to buy the vehicle when he saw it at a show on Wandsworth Common. Camera said, 'Jagger told me he'd really fallen in love with my van and asked me if I would consider selling it. I was stunned when he offered me $100,000.
30 May 2009
Ozzy Osbourne was suing the band's guitarist Tony Iommi over royalty payments. The 60-year-old had accused Iommi of falsely claiming to have sole rights to the band's name which has cost him royalties from merchandise sales. Osbourne was seeking unspecified damages, lost profits and a declaration he is a half-owner of the trademark. Iommi claims Osbourne legally relinquished rights to the band's name in the 1980s. Osbourne said he believed all four original members of the band should share Black Sabbath's name equally.
30 May 2010
American R&B singer, songwriter, Ali-Ollie Woodson died from cancer aged 58. Woodson was best known for singing with The Temptations from 1984 to 1996 and also worked with Aretha Franklin, Jean Carn, and Bill Pinkney.
30 May 2013
A new museum dedicated to the life of Johnny Cash staged its official opening. The museum in Nashville, Tennessee, was set up by wife and husband team Shannon and Bill Miller and features the largest and most comprehensive collection of Johnny Cash artifacts and memorabilia in the world.
30 May 2014
Aretha Franklin received an honorary degree from Harvard University. The Soul legend became an honorary Doctor of Arts at the Harvard ceremony, which came a year after she was forced to cancel a string of concerts due to ill health.
30 May 2015
Jeremy Brown, guitarist for Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts, died of unknown causes at the age of 34. Brown began playing with the Stone Temple Pilots singer in 2008.
30 May 2015
Enrique Iglesias's sliced his fingers open when he tried to grab a drone camera, which was taking pictures of the audience, at a concert in Tijuana, Mexico. He was "semi-treated" at the side of the stage to stop the bleeding,and was advised to end the show.
30 May 2016
Germany's highest court ruled in favor of a hip-hop artist who used a two-second sample of music from the pioneering electro-pop band Kraftwerk. Kraftwerk's Ralf Hutter sued Moses Pelham, alleging that his use of the clip, without asking, infringed the band's intellectual property rights. But the German Constitutional Court decided that the impact on Kraftwerk did not outweigh "artistic freedom".
30 May 2019
Singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor Leon Redbone died age 69. Redbone rose to fame in the '70s folk scene when Bob Dylan sought him out at a Canadian music festival. He later performed in several TV commercials, including Budweiser beer, in which he lay on a surfboard singing "This Bud's for You.”
David Bowie kicked off his 87-date Glass Spider world tour at the Feyenoord Stadium, Rotterdam, Holland. The tour's set, described at the time as "the largest touring set ever," was designed to look like a giant spider. It was 60 feet high, 64 feet wide and included giant vacuumed tube legs that were lit from the inside with 20,000' of color-changing lights. A single set took 43 trucks to move.
30 May 1996
Alan Whitaker from Penzance appeared on the UK TV quiz show Mastermind, his specialist subject being the Sex Pistols. He won a place in the semi-final of the show answering all but one of the 18 questions correctly.
30 May 2002
Diana Ross voluntarily entered a Malibu drug and alcohol rehabilitation center called Promises to "clear up some personal issues" before setting out on a summer concert tour.
30 May 2003
Record producer Mickie Most died aged 64. Member of The Most Brothers during late 50s, and Mickie Most and the Playboys, produced hits for The Animals, Hermans Hermits, Donovan, Kim Wilde, Lulu and Jeff Beck. Most ran his own record label RAK in the 1970s, having hits with Hot Chocolate, Suzi Quatro and Mud.
30 May 2003
Singer Finley Quaye was threatened with jail after his mobile phone rang when he was in the dock waiting to be sentenced on charges of assault. After being found guilty of assaulting his former girlfriend he was ordered to attend a six-month domestic violence program by a district Judge.
30 May 2004
Madonna was forced to pay out $250,000 in a lawsuit after copying ideas by the late French erotic photographer Guy Burton. Madonna had admitted that the video for her song 'Hollywood' was inspired by Burton.
30 May 2005
Coldplay's new album was illegally put on the internet a week before its UK and US release. The leak took place on the day copies were sent to UK radio stations and the day before it went on sale in Japan. Security measures around the release included hosting album playbacks at Abbey Road studios for journalists instead of sending them copies of the album, any CDs that were sent out were labelled with a false name - The Fir Trees - to throw would-be pirates off the scent.
30 May 2007
A leaked copy of the new White Stripes album 'Icky Thump' was played completely on Chicago's radio station Q101-WKQX. Jack White personally called the US radio station from Spain, where he was touring, to voice his displeasure.
30 May 2007
A coroner told the murder trial of music producer Phil Spector that US actress Lana Clarkson's death was a homicide. Dr Louis Pena said bruising suggested the barrel of a gun may have been forced into Ms Clarkson's mouth before she was fatally shot in 2003. Spector was accused of murdering Clarkson on 3 February 2003 at his home in California.
30 May 2008
Music mogul Simon Fuller married his long-term girlfriend Natalie Swanston at a ceremony in California's Napa Valley. Guests at the wedding included Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and Annie Lennox. Earlier this year Billboard magazine named him the "most successful British music manager of all time", with an estimated fortune of $450m.
30 May 2009
Mick Jagger offered to buy an ice cream van but was turned down by its owner - who'd promised his daughter he would drive her to her wedding in it. Guiseppe Della Camera had spent ten years restoring the rusting van to perfection after he spotted it on a farm - being used as a chicken shed. The restoration was such a success Sir Mick offered to buy the vehicle when he saw it at a show on Wandsworth Common. Camera said, 'Jagger told me he'd really fallen in love with my van and asked me if I would consider selling it. I was stunned when he offered me $100,000.
30 May 2009
Ozzy Osbourne was suing the band's guitarist Tony Iommi over royalty payments. The 60-year-old had accused Iommi of falsely claiming to have sole rights to the band's name which has cost him royalties from merchandise sales. Osbourne was seeking unspecified damages, lost profits and a declaration he is a half-owner of the trademark. Iommi claims Osbourne legally relinquished rights to the band's name in the 1980s. Osbourne said he believed all four original members of the band should share Black Sabbath's name equally.
30 May 2010
American R&B singer, songwriter, Ali-Ollie Woodson died from cancer aged 58. Woodson was best known for singing with The Temptations from 1984 to 1996 and also worked with Aretha Franklin, Jean Carn, and Bill Pinkney.
30 May 2013
A new museum dedicated to the life of Johnny Cash staged its official opening. The museum in Nashville, Tennessee, was set up by wife and husband team Shannon and Bill Miller and features the largest and most comprehensive collection of Johnny Cash artifacts and memorabilia in the world.
30 May 2014
Aretha Franklin received an honorary degree from Harvard University. The Soul legend became an honorary Doctor of Arts at the Harvard ceremony, which came a year after she was forced to cancel a string of concerts due to ill health.
30 May 2015
Jeremy Brown, guitarist for Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts, died of unknown causes at the age of 34. Brown began playing with the Stone Temple Pilots singer in 2008.
30 May 2015
Enrique Iglesias's sliced his fingers open when he tried to grab a drone camera, which was taking pictures of the audience, at a concert in Tijuana, Mexico. He was "semi-treated" at the side of the stage to stop the bleeding,and was advised to end the show.
30 May 2016
Germany's highest court ruled in favor of a hip-hop artist who used a two-second sample of music from the pioneering electro-pop band Kraftwerk. Kraftwerk's Ralf Hutter sued Moses Pelham, alleging that his use of the clip, without asking, infringed the band's intellectual property rights. But the German Constitutional Court decided that the impact on Kraftwerk did not outweigh "artistic freedom".
30 May 2019
Singer-songwriter, guitarist, actor Leon Redbone died age 69. Redbone rose to fame in the '70s folk scene when Bob Dylan sought him out at a Canadian music festival. He later performed in several TV commercials, including Budweiser beer, in which he lay on a surfboard singing "This Bud's for You.”
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