Alan Cross: Greatest New Rock Moments #90-81
This is Part 2 of the 10-part series started last week. As my brother says, the list is bound to be subjective in some way. That reminds me, I'll have to send him these lists.. we were talking about it last Friday at dinner. Maybe I'll put it up in the Subwoofer music forums, too.. that's assuming they cooperate with my computer!
90. Sept. 14, 1998: Diamond Multimedia announced the release of something called the Diamond Rio MP3 player. It was cheaper than the Korean version, and the first to go on sale in North America. The record company association filed a lawsuit against them, but the judges didn't agree with it.. soon, MP3 players were everywhere. Frank Black endorsed it, after all.
89. Nov. 11, 1987: U2 thought they'd play a free and unannounced concert in the middle of traffic in San Francisco. The stock market had crashed three weeks earlier, and they wanted to stage a "Save the Yuppies" concert. They played 10 songs, and Bono spray-painted the words "Rock and Roll Stops Traffic" on a fountain.. the civic officials weren't happy with this act of vandalism. In December, he apologized and paid to have it cleaned up.
88. Radiohead launches their career via a happy accident. Thom Yorke wrote a song about a girl he wanted to go out with, in an alcoholic stupor. Jonny Greenwood didn't like the song at all, and did everything he could to sabotage the song.. putting scratches on his guitar, and loud chords everywhere. Their producer liked the song, and recorded them in secret one day.. the song was Creep, which turned out to be a hit.
87. Allan Klein decides to take the royalties / copyrights off the Verve's song Bittersweet Symphony, on the 1997 album Urban Hymns. He decided to split the profits from the song 50-50, between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. (both of whom had no problem with the obscure 4.5-second song sample the song was built around) The Verve got only a flat $1000 for the song.. Richard Ashcroft will rue the day he picked up that old album of Stones cover songs.
86. Apr. 26, 1982: Joe Strummer disappeared, and the Clash comeback tour had to be scrapped. He was gone for eight weeks, and wasn't telling where he'd really been when he finally showed up. Was it a publicity stunt dreamed up by the manager, or something else? Whatever it was, it marked the beginning of the end for the Clash.
85. Feb. 1, 1995: What happened to Richie Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers? He had lots of problems with drugs and so forth. His dog died on Jan. 14, and he and James Dean Bradford checked into a hotel on Jan. 31. James wanted to go out, but Richie didn't. He stayed in and talked to his mom about how he really didn't want to go on his promo tour.
The next morning at 7, he went to his hometown.. dropped off Prozac and some money. His car was spotted 12 days later, near Petrie Bridge.. a favorite spot for suicide jumpers. Seven years later to the day, he was declared legally dead. Nobody knows what happened to him.
84. Feb. 19, 1996: Michael Jackson was on hand to pick up his Brit Award for Artist of a Generation. While he was on stage for a performance, Jarvis Cocker of Pulp decided to go on stage and protest in his own way. Michael found it inexplicable, and Jarvis was arrested (but not charged with anything).. he said it was a form of protest at how Michael viewed himself as a Christ-like figure.
He had the nerve to say what everyone else was thinking! It generated worldwide publicity for weeks when Jarvis Cocker decided to crash Michael Jackson's performance, all right.
83. 1989-1990: The Stone Roses were the next big thing in Britain. However, their old indie record company pushed them a little too far. They wanted a piece of the hype and re-released a song called Savage Cinnamon, but negotiations got nowhere. Richard Birch and his girlfriend ran FM-Revolver, and their office and cars were painted all over by the band taking revenge. The band was arrested and charged, but the judge said that prison time might lead to a lot of notoriety.
82. Oct. 19, 1993: Pearl Jam got around to releasing their second album Vs. The week after, they set a record for album sales at 952,078. Guns N' Roses were the next-closest band, with sales of some 750,000-odd albums in the week after the release of Use Your Illusion 1 and 2. Grunge / alt-rock / modern rock had arrived, and the mind-boggling record would stand for years until Garth Brooks and N Sync shattered it.
81. Sept. 1, 1990: The Cure debuts a new album in a most unusual way. They'd set up a pirate radio transmitter on the roof of their manager's building, and CURE-FM was on the air.. but it had technical difficulties. On Oct. 6, they tried again.. and had a five-hour show interspersed with traffic / weather reports.
So there you have it! Stay tuned for the next eight weeks! :)
90. Sept. 14, 1998: Diamond Multimedia announced the release of something called the Diamond Rio MP3 player. It was cheaper than the Korean version, and the first to go on sale in North America. The record company association filed a lawsuit against them, but the judges didn't agree with it.. soon, MP3 players were everywhere. Frank Black endorsed it, after all.
89. Nov. 11, 1987: U2 thought they'd play a free and unannounced concert in the middle of traffic in San Francisco. The stock market had crashed three weeks earlier, and they wanted to stage a "Save the Yuppies" concert. They played 10 songs, and Bono spray-painted the words "Rock and Roll Stops Traffic" on a fountain.. the civic officials weren't happy with this act of vandalism. In December, he apologized and paid to have it cleaned up.
88. Radiohead launches their career via a happy accident. Thom Yorke wrote a song about a girl he wanted to go out with, in an alcoholic stupor. Jonny Greenwood didn't like the song at all, and did everything he could to sabotage the song.. putting scratches on his guitar, and loud chords everywhere. Their producer liked the song, and recorded them in secret one day.. the song was Creep, which turned out to be a hit.
87. Allan Klein decides to take the royalties / copyrights off the Verve's song Bittersweet Symphony, on the 1997 album Urban Hymns. He decided to split the profits from the song 50-50, between Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. (both of whom had no problem with the obscure 4.5-second song sample the song was built around) The Verve got only a flat $1000 for the song.. Richard Ashcroft will rue the day he picked up that old album of Stones cover songs.
86. Apr. 26, 1982: Joe Strummer disappeared, and the Clash comeback tour had to be scrapped. He was gone for eight weeks, and wasn't telling where he'd really been when he finally showed up. Was it a publicity stunt dreamed up by the manager, or something else? Whatever it was, it marked the beginning of the end for the Clash.
85. Feb. 1, 1995: What happened to Richie Edwards of the Manic Street Preachers? He had lots of problems with drugs and so forth. His dog died on Jan. 14, and he and James Dean Bradford checked into a hotel on Jan. 31. James wanted to go out, but Richie didn't. He stayed in and talked to his mom about how he really didn't want to go on his promo tour.
The next morning at 7, he went to his hometown.. dropped off Prozac and some money. His car was spotted 12 days later, near Petrie Bridge.. a favorite spot for suicide jumpers. Seven years later to the day, he was declared legally dead. Nobody knows what happened to him.
84. Feb. 19, 1996: Michael Jackson was on hand to pick up his Brit Award for Artist of a Generation. While he was on stage for a performance, Jarvis Cocker of Pulp decided to go on stage and protest in his own way. Michael found it inexplicable, and Jarvis was arrested (but not charged with anything).. he said it was a form of protest at how Michael viewed himself as a Christ-like figure.
He had the nerve to say what everyone else was thinking! It generated worldwide publicity for weeks when Jarvis Cocker decided to crash Michael Jackson's performance, all right.
83. 1989-1990: The Stone Roses were the next big thing in Britain. However, their old indie record company pushed them a little too far. They wanted a piece of the hype and re-released a song called Savage Cinnamon, but negotiations got nowhere. Richard Birch and his girlfriend ran FM-Revolver, and their office and cars were painted all over by the band taking revenge. The band was arrested and charged, but the judge said that prison time might lead to a lot of notoriety.
82. Oct. 19, 1993: Pearl Jam got around to releasing their second album Vs. The week after, they set a record for album sales at 952,078. Guns N' Roses were the next-closest band, with sales of some 750,000-odd albums in the week after the release of Use Your Illusion 1 and 2. Grunge / alt-rock / modern rock had arrived, and the mind-boggling record would stand for years until Garth Brooks and N Sync shattered it.
81. Sept. 1, 1990: The Cure debuts a new album in a most unusual way. They'd set up a pirate radio transmitter on the roof of their manager's building, and CURE-FM was on the air.. but it had technical difficulties. On Oct. 6, they tried again.. and had a five-hour show interspersed with traffic / weather reports.
So there you have it! Stay tuned for the next eight weeks! :)
Labels: 1995, 1996, 1998, alan cross, australia, computer, death, drugs, history, james, joe, jon, keith, lists, maxed-out tags limit, michael, music, news, restarts, rich
posted by Flami at 11:55:00 PM
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