2 MAY
In Music History
2014 '60s R&B/pop singer Jessica Cleaves (Friends Of Distinction) dies at age 65 of complications from a stroke.
2012 Greg Ham's funeral takes place at the Fitzroy Town Hall in Melbourne, Australia, with more than 300 mourners attending. The Men at Work flute player died two weeks earlier on April 19, at his home in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton North. Among the many mourners attending, are his partner, Linda Wostry, from whom he had recently separated, and Men At Work bass player John Rees. At the end of the service, to the strains of jazz music, Greg's 20-year-old son Max stands on the steps of the town hall, holding a framed photo of his father, while his sister, Greg's 17-year-old daughter Camille, releases a single white dove into the sky. The mourners then give the troubled musician a final round of applause as his coffin drives away down the streets of Melbourne.
2010 A flood in Nashville damages the Grand Ole Opry House and Country Music Hall of Fame. John Fogerty, Brad Paisley, Vince Gill and Keith Urban are among those who lose guitars and other equipment that is held in a storage facility. Also destroyed are the bass used on the Hank Williams song "Your Cheatin' Heart," and a Stratocaster owned by Jimi Hendrix.
2009 The TV series Jonas, starring the Jonas Brothers, debuts on the Disney Channel, where it runs for two seasons. The group already has three albums out, including the #1 A Little Bit Longer from 2008.
2006 Following up on their massively successful Lateralus album, Tool release 10,000 Days. In its first week 564,000 copies copies are sold, and by the end of 2007 the number is at 2.5 million.
2006 Neil Young releases Living With War, a very political album taking aim at the policies of US President George W. Bush.More
2003 Composer George Wyle, who wrote the theme song for the '60s TV series Gilligan's Island, dies at age 87.
2000 Aimee Mann releases her album Bachelor No. 2 Or, The Last Remains Of The Dodo independently after Geffen Records lets her go. It's a sluggish market for singer-songwriters; the "dodo" in the album title is a reference to how Mann thinks they're going extinct.
1998 Heavy metal guitarist Hideto "Hide" Matsumoto (of X-Japan) commits suicide at age 33 by hanging himself.
1995 Indie rocker Lucy Dacus, co-founder of the band Boygenius, is born. The "Night Shift" singer is raised by her adoptive parents in Mechanicsville, a suburb of Richmond, Virginia. Her upbringing inspires much of her musical output in her solo work, with her adolescence being the foundation of the 2021 album Home Video.
1995 Pink Floyd's album The Wall goes Diamond, with sales of over 10 million in the US. It later eclipses (oh wait, wrong album) that total with sales of well over 20 million.
1995 Jill Sobule releases "I Kissed A Girl," a song about a soon-to-be married woman who shares an intimate kiss with her female friend. It climbs to #67, becoming the first chart hit that's clearly about a romantic relationship among women. In 2008, Katy Perry releases a song with the same title and similar subject matter that becomes her first hit.
1994 Varg Vikernes, leader of the Norwegian black metal band Burzum, begins his trial for the murder of rival black metal musician (and former bandmate) Oystein Aarseth, co-founder of the band Mayhem. The two men had had a confrontation in August of 1993 which ended with the fatal stabbing of Aarseth. Vikernes was convicted at the trial and was sentenced to 21 years in prison; however he was released early in May of 2009 on probation and currently continues to do business as Burzum, with several albums released since then. He still has fans.
1992 Dance Floor, a horse owned by MC Hammer, comes in third in the Kentucky Derby.
1989 The Cure issue a gloomy record that's predicted to be commercial suicide, but ends up being their best seller: Disintegration. It boasts their biggest pop hits, "Lovesong" and "Lullaby."More
Austin Powers Emerges With Quincy Jones Theme Song
1997The James Bond spoof Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery hits theaters. The theme is "Soul Bossa Nova," a song by Quincy Jones from 1962 - the same year the first Bond movie appeared. Yeah baby!
Read more2 MAY
Featured Events
2005 Cream reunite for the first of four shows in London's Royal Albert Hall, the site of their farewell concert 36 years earlier. The band hasn't played together since their 1993 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.
2003 Dixie Chicks appear naked on the front cover of Entertainment Weekly, with slogans such "Traitors," "Hero," "Boycott," "Saddam's Angels" and "Proud Americans" printed across their bodies. The slogans represent the mixed reaction Dixie Chicks received following singer Natalie Maines' anti-George W. Bush comments.More
1989 Michael Jackson, wearing a wig and fake moustache, enteres a Zales jewelry store in Simi Valley, California. Security finds him suspicious and calls the police, who show up to explain that you shouldn't wear a disguise to a jewelry store.
1980 At the University of Birmingham, England, Joy Division play what transpires to be their final show, two weeks before singer Ian Curtis commits suicide at the age of 23. The show features the band's only live performance of the song "Ceremony," which is later released as the debut single by New Order - a new act formed from the surviving members.
1979 At the Rainbow Theatre in London, The Who play their first concert following the death of drummer Keith Moon. Their new stickman is Kenney Jones, formerly of Faces.
1971 It's day two of the Mayday protests, as demonstrators fed up with the war in Vietnam try to shut down the US government by blocking off streets and bridges in Washington, DC. Thousands of arrests are made, many to bystanders who have nothing to do with the protest. At the foot of the Washington Monument, where much of the action is taking place, Jonathan Edwards performs his new song, "Sunshine." As the arrests continue, he plays the song over and over, "because there's no better song for the soundtrack of that movie."
1950 Foreigner lead singer Lou Gramm is born Louis Andrew Grammatico in Rochester, New York. He and guitarist Mick Jones, the main songwriters in the group, are inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013.
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