In a promotional stunt that would later be repeated by The Rolling Stones in Manhattan in 1975, rock-a-billy band The Blue Moon Boys...who were Elvis Presley and his eventually rock and roll hall of fame inducted sidemen Scotty Moore and Bill Black...played on a makeshift stage on the back of a flatbed truck in front of a Memphis drugstore today in 1954.
British actress and Juke Box Jury panelist Jane Asher was on the BBC TV show Dee Time today in 1968 to drop this bomb: Her engagement to Paul McCartney was off. The couple were the Brad and Angelina of their day in the British tabloids. Paul watched the show at a friend's and was said to be surprised by the news, though he had been caught by Jane just days earlier in bed with American scriptwriter Francie Schwartz. Asher would continue acting, publish 3 best-selling novels, a series of lifestyle and cooking books and eventually become the Martha Stewart of Britain.
Sid and Nancy, a film about Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, girlfriend Nancy Spungen, and their short druggie lives together premiered in London tonight in 1986. Actor Gary Oldman portrayed Sid, while Chloe Webb was cast as Nancy much to the dismay of the future Mrs. Cobain Courtney Love, who had lobbied hard for the part, sending an audition video to director Alex Cox in which she exclaimed "I AM Nancy Spungen!!". She was cast as Nancy's friend "Gretchen" in a part created for her by Cox.
Perhaps one of the northwest's most famous music venues, The Evergreen Ballroom in Lacey was totally destroyed by a fire today in 2000, after a run of nearly 70 years. The impressive list of performers who played there after it opened in 1932 includes Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Duke Ellington, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Bill Haley and His Comets, B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Hank Williams, Ike and Tina Turner, The Sonics, The Kingsmen, Foghat, Culprit, Sir-Mix-A-Lot, and a country singer who lived in the kitchen for a while before he got famous: Glen Campbell. "The Green" as it was affectionately known had been burned by an arsonist before in the late 30's, when the owners realized they had a large untapped audience just to the north with the many African American soldiers being stationed at Fort Lewis, and started booking black acts...but there were still quite a few rednecks in the area.
Jackson Browne settled his lawsuit against the Republican Party and Presidential candidate John McCain out of court today in 2009. McCain's campaign paid an undisclosed sum and apologized for the unauthorized political use of Browne's 1977 hit Running On Empty.
Rock and Roll Birthdays
Moody Blues singer, songwriter, and bassist John Lodge is 75.
Guitarist #20 on the Rolling Stone Top 100 list Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is 73.
Sex Pistols drummer Paul Cook is 64.
Seattle's Chris Cornell, frontman, guitarist, and songwriter in Soundgarden, Temple of The Dog, Audioslave, and the occasional solo album, would be 56 if he hadn't apparently taken his own life back on Mt. St. Helens Day, May 18th of 2017.
Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog, Brad (who's wonderful lead singer Shawn Smith died back in April), and Green River guitarist, songwriter, and good friend of Chris Cornell Stone Gossard is 54.