Today in rock history 21st April

1947 – Punk rock pioneer Iggy Pop (James Jewel Osterburg) is born 1959 – Robert Smith of the Cure is born in Sussex 1961 – The Beatles debut at the Cavern Club in Liverpool 1963- Beatles and Rolling Stones meet for the first time during a Rolling Stones performance at Crawdaddy Club. ‘We got all nervous’, says Bill Wyman, ‘but then we had a chat with them afterwards and stayed up all night rapping and became really good mates.’ 1967 – Working at Abbey Road studios in London, The Beatles completed the sessions for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The final recordings were a short section of gibberish and noise which would follow ‘A Day in the Life’, in the run-out groove. 1969 – Janis Joplin and the Kozmic Blues Band play London’s Royal Albert Hall. 1970 – Tyrannosaurus Rex, Spooky Tooth, Jackie Lomax, Elton John (making his solo concert debut) and Heavy Jelly all appeared at The Roundhouse, London, tickets cost 25 shillings. 1973 – Alice Cooper went to No.1 on the US album chart with ‘Billion Dollar Babies.’ Also a No.1 album in the UK. 1978 – Folk singer Sandy Denny dies at age 31 after falling down a flight of stairs. You can hear her on Led Zeppelin IV‘s “Battle of Evermore” and with her band Fairport Convention 1981 – A car crash in Seattle hospitalizes Eric Clapton with bruised ribs and a lacerated shin. 1982 – Joe Strummer disappeared for three weeks, which resulted in The Clash cancelling a tour. He was found living rough in Paris. 1990 – Fleetwood Mac scored their fourth UK No.1 album with ‘Behind The Mask.’ 1990 – Paul McCartney played in front of 184,000 fans at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, creating a new world record for the largest crowd attending a rock concert. 1993 – Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann saves a young surfer from a California riptide. 1993 – Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman marries the 33-year-old Suzanne Accosta in the south of France. 1994 – Courtney Love turns in the shotgun Kurt Cobain used to kill himself to a guns-for-tickets trade-in program. 2001 – R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck is arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport for allegedly assaulting two crew members on an overnight flight from Seattle to London. 2004 – California rockers Hoobastank top the American singles chart with “The Reason.” 2005 – Onstage in Asbury Park, N.J., Bruce Springsteen takes a stand against hunger by donating all of the proceeds from a tour rehearsal show to World Hunger Year. 2007 – Doris Richards died of cancer. The 91-year-old mother of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards bought her son his first guitar for his 15th birthday.