Pick a Day

Music History Events: Memorable Concerts

July 9, 1978 Andy Gibb and his brothers, the Bee Gees, perform together for the first time when Barry, Robin and Maurice join him at his concert in Miami to sing his hit "Shadow Dancing," which they wrote together.

March 18, 1978 Cal Jam II takes place at Ontario Motor Speedway outside of Los Angeles. The largest festival of the late '70s, performers include Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Foreigner, Santana and Heart. An estimated 350,000 fans attend; the Los Angeles Times reports that 700 of them were treated for overdoses of Angel Dust.

August 26, 1977 Kiss play the first of three nights at The Forum in Inglewood, California. The shows are compiled for their Alive II album, released in October.

May 24, 1977 At Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky, Emerson, Lake & Palmer begin an extravagant, 11-month tour with a 70-piece orchestra, 63 roadies, a choir and a karate instructor for drummer Carl Palmer. The tour is a stunning spectacle, but a financial disaster.

April 21, 1977 Elvis Presley begins his last concert tour in Greensboro, North Carolina.

February 18, 1977 Kiss play Madison Square Garden (in their hometown, New York City) for the first time.

December 5, 1976 Two days after he is shot in an assassination attempt, Bob Marley performs at the Smile Jamaica concert, which he organized in an effort to promote peace in the country. The concert becomes more of a political event after the shooting, which was carried out by a political party who saw Marley as a threat. About 80,000 Jamaicans attend the concert, where Marley takes the stage for 90 minutes.

October 25, 1976 Bruce Springsteen plays the Philadelphia Spectrum. It's a big deal because Bruce has said that he'd never play a large sports arena. Concerned about getting the sound right, he orders a 2-hour soundcheck before the show.

July 4, 1976 In a defining moment for punk rock in Britain, the Ramones play the Roundhouse in Camden. Local acts like The Sex Pistols and The Clash soon gain notoriety.

June 26, 1976 With his breakout album Live Bullet climbing the charts, Bob Seger plays his first headlining stadium show, performing to 59,000 at the Pontiac Silverdome.

April 28, 1976 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band play the Grand Ole Opry at the Opryland USA theme park in Nashville. It's the first time a rock band has played the Opry since The Byrds in 1968.

October 24, 1975 Heart get a big break when they fill in as opening act for Rod Stewart's band Faces at the Forum in Montreal. Thanks to support from local radio station CHOM, many in the crowd know their songs "Magic Man" and "Crazy On You." They continue to build support in Canada before making their move in America in 1976.

October 16, 1975 Bruce Springsteen begins a series of shows at The Roxy in Los Angeles, where he earns adulation from many celebrities and a glowing review in the L.A. Times. This leads to cover stories on Springsteen in both Time and Newsweek on October 27th.

April 29, 1975 Hawkwind begin their North American Warrior On The Edge Of Time tour at the Ambassador Theatre, St. Louis.

April 13, 1975 It's the last date of Hawkwind's A Dead Singer Tour in the UK at Queensway Hall in Dunstable.

December 10, 1974 Hawkwind begins their UK tour, A Dead Singer, at Assembly Hall Theatre in Tunbridge Wells, England.

July 13, 1974 Eric Clapton invites Todd Rundgren to play guitar during the encore of Clapton's concert at Madison Square Garden. Todd's guitar rig isn't working, so Clapton takes off his guitar, hands it to Todd, and steps aside to listen.

June 22, 1974 Madonna, 15, goes to her first concert: David Bowie at Cobo Arena in Detroit. "I recognized myself in him somehow and he gave me license to dream a different future for myself," she says.

January 5, 1974 Bruce Springsteen performs "Rosalita" for the first time at a concert at Joe's Place in Boston. The song becomes a live favorite that Bruce often plays as an encore.

January 16, 1973 Bruce Springsteen performs at Villanova University, Philadelphia, to an audience of 25 people. His concert had not been advertised due to a strike by Villanova's school newspaper The Villanovan.

April 22, 1972 A crowd of 25,000 attend "Roberta Flack Human Kindness Day" at the Washington Mall in honor of the singer. Human Kindness Day becomes an annual event until 1975, when it turns violent.

February 10, 1972 At the Toby Jug pub in London, David Bowie plays his first gig as Ziggy Stardust.

September 5, 1971 While Wishbone Ash are on stage at an outdoor concert in Austin, Texas, hot dog vender Francisco Carrasco is shot dead. The tragedy inspires the song "Rock 'N' Roll Widow."

September 10, 1970 B.B. King plays for inmates at Cook County Jail in Chicago. The show is released the following year as the album Live at Cook County Jail.

June 7, 1970 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young play the Fillmore East in New York City, where Graham Nash debuts his song "Simple Man," written about his breakup with Joni Mitchell the day before. The show is broadcast live on WNEW-FM and later released as the album Fillmore East 1970.

May 25, 1970 Fleetwood Mac founder Peter Green plays his last official show with the band, although he does fill in a few years later when they lose their lead guitarist.

September 24, 1969 At Royal Albert Hall in London, Deep Purple play their Concerto for Group and Orchestra, written by their keyboard player Jon Lord, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. In December, it is released as a live album.

August 30, 1969 It's the first day of the two-day Isle of Wight Festival. Performers include Bob Dylan, the Moody Blues and The Who. This is the second Isle of Wight Festival - it goes on again next year, but doesn't return until 2002.

August 18, 1969 Local upstart band Rush see Led Zeppelin perform in Toronto. In 1974, when Rush get airplay in America with the song "Working Man," radio stations field lots of calls asking if it's a new Led Zeppelin song.

August 16, 1969 The Beckenham Arts Lab holds the Free Festival in Beckenham, London. One one of the performers is David Bowie, who memorializes the concert in his song "Memory of a Free Festival." The festival is largely forgotten by history, probably because it happened at the same exact time as Woodstock in the United States.