June 26: Girls at Glastonbury
In 2015, Florence + the Machine became the first female-fronted band to headline the Glastonbury festival since 1999. This record began in 1992, when the last female-fronted band headlined, Shakespear’s Sister.
June 28: A Saucerful Of Secrets
June 28th, 1968 was the day when British progressive rock band Pink Floyd release their second album in the UK, A Saucerful Of Secrets. Still captained by Syd Barret (this was his last project with the band before they sadly parted ways) but also with the participation of David Gilmore to “fill the gaps,” the album became the “Middle Earth release,” and represented the band going from one kind of music – more psychedelic and experimental – to a new one – much more intense and focused on the ambience of the music.
June 29: Bad Luck for Lynyrd Skynyrd
Sometimes it’s hard to understand what brings people to do certain things. On this day in 2000, someone stole the casket holding Lynyrd Skynyrd lead singer Ronnie Van Zandt from its mausoleum in Jacksonville, Florida. The thieves, however, weren’t able to open it, and therefore left soon after. The same day, someone vandalized the band’s guitarist Steve Gaines’ urn, who died in the same plane crash. The thieves spilled his ashes and stole the urn.
June 30: System Of A Down
It was 1998 when Armenian-American alternative metal band System Of A Down released their self-titled debut album. The release included singles “Sugar” and “Spiders,” which were played all over radios and MTV. Despite not being the band’s most famous album, it still was a very important one for the group to get the first bits of recognition. The album went on to sell over a million copies in America.
July 1: Diana Tribute
On July 1st, 2007, a concert was held at the newly built Wembley Stadium in London in honour of the then recently passed Diana, Princess of Wales. Performing at the event were all of Diana’s closest friends. From Duran Duran to Elton John, from Nelly Furtado to Lily Allen, from Pharrell Williams to Kanye West.
The concert was hosted by Diana’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
July 2: The Grateful Dead (and in Jail)
On this day in 1980, Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart and Bob Weir are arrested. The charge? Inciting a riot at San Diego Sports Arena to break up a drug bust.
Bob Weir commented the accusation with Rolling Stone saying:
“On my way back to the dressing room I saw about half a dozen cops standing on a kid who was lying face down in a pool of blood. About six feet from them were Mickey and Danny. Mickey said, ‘It doesn’t take all of you to do that job.’ One of the cops said to him, ‘You’re under arrest.’ Danny said, ‘No, you don’t understand. This is our show.’ At that point, a door burst open and maybe a dozen more cops came in, all with their clubs up. Four cops grabbed Mickey and Danny and started choking them and dragging them off.
“I stepped into the fray and said, ‘Wait a minute.’ I was concerned that there was the potential for a riot. Before I could do anything I was grabbed, handcuffed and dragged off to jail.”
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