This Week in Rock History: Stupid With a Flare Gun
Rock music has a robust history, so every Wednesday, J.A. Bartlett of the Hits Just Keep On Comin' talks about the biggest and most intriguing moments from years past...
This week in 1979, 11 fans were killed in a stampede before a concert featuring the Who at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati. The incident ended the then-common practice of general admission or "festival" seating for rock concerts.
... in 1971, fire ravaged the Montreux Casino on the shore of Lake Geneva in Switzerland while Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention were playing a concert inside. Watching the fire from a hotel across the lake, members of Deep Purple were inspired to write a song, eventually titled Smoke on the Water. (This week in 1993, Zappa died of prostate cancer just a couple of weeks shy of his 53rd birthday.)
... in 1948, John Michael Osbourne was born in Birmingham, England. As the frontman of Black Sabbath, Ozzy became one of the icons of heavy metal, and eventually a reality TV star in The Osbournes. He continues to record and to appear in TV commercials, most recently for cellular phone service and video games.
... in 1944, Dennis Wilson was born. The only member of the Beach Boys who actually surfed, Wilson became friendly with Charles Manson in the late '60s, appeared in the cult film Two-Lane Highway with Warren Oates and James Taylor in 1971, and was romantically involved with Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac in the late '70s. He drowned off the California coast in 1983 at age 39.
Did we miss something this week? Add it to the comments below...
The tragic incident at Wal-Mart recently led us to a conversation over dinner the other night which, in turn, brought up the Who concert in Cincinnati. Something very strange about the fact that both events happened on almost the same day, almost 20 years apart.
Posted by: Fusion 45 | December 05, 2008 at 03:58 PM