March 27, 1986 – Sammy Hagar sings his first concert with Van Halen at the Hirsch Memorial Coliseum in Shreveport, LA. Nicknamed “Van Hagar”, the show sells out in five minutes. Hagar says, “We had made the commitment that we weren’t going to play any of the old material – only ‘You Really Got Me,’ ‘I Can’t Drive 55,’ ‘One Way To Rock’ and ‘Jump.’ Two of mine and two of theirs. When you’re rich and famous rock stars and young and really in the middle of it, you make some stupid mistakes and ironically you get away with it half the time, which makes you even stupider. I thought ‘Man, this could bomb.’”
March 27, 1965 – Jeff Beck replaces Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds.
March 27, 1979 – Eric Clapton marries Patti Harrison (George Harrison‘s ex) in Tucson, Arizona. Harrison attends the wedding and remains Clapton’s good friend.
March 27, 1958 – The stereo LP record is invented by CBS. Records never sound the same again – think a pair of headphones and “Dark Side of the Moon”.
March 27, 1987 – U2 play a rooftop concert on top of the Republic Liquor store at 7th and Main in downtown Los Angeles. (The location is now a Mexican restaurant called Margarita’s Place.) They’re there to film the video for “Where The Streets Have No Name,” when police are forced to close down the streets and stop the filming due to the large crowd of fans who swarmed the video shoot.
12 Rock & Roll Romances That Inspired the Music
Classic Rock Birthdays
March 27, 1950 – Tony Banks, keyboards (Genesis)
March 27, 1959 – Andrew Farriss, keyboards (INXS)
March 27, 1965 – Johnny April, bass (Staind)
March 27, 1946 – Andy Bown, keyboards, bass (Status Quo)
Rock Remembrances
March 27, 2006 – Pete Wells, slide guitarist and co-founder of Australian band Rose Tattoo, dies of prostate cancer. He was 59.
March 27, 2000 – Ian Dury, of Ian Dury and the Blockheads, dies of colorectal cancer. He was 57. Dury spent almost two years recovering from polio as a young child, and went on to not only front several bands, but also to act, paint and become a Unicef ambassador in the fight against AIDS. “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll” and “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick” were two of his biggest songs.
