Today in rock history 1st April

1945 – John Barbata (Jefferson Starship) is born

1946 - Ronnie Lane-bassist for The Faces is born today

1955 – George Martin became the head of A&R for EMI’s Parlophone label

1970 – 50 musicians recorded the orchestral scores for The Beatles tracks ‘The Long And Winding Road’ and ‘Across The Universe’ for the Phil Spector produced sessions.

1970 – Earls Court in London received over one million postal ticket applications for The Rolling Stones forthcoming six concerts as part of the group’s European tour.

1973 – Curved Air kicked off a 12-date UK tour at Birmingham Town Hall.

1976 – Making their live debut in the UK, AC/ DC played at The Red Cow, Hammersmith, London.

1976 – The Buzzcocks played their debut live gig when they appeared at Bolton Institute Of Technology. The power was turned off after three numbers.

1985 - David Lee Roth left Van Halen to begin a solo career. Roth later re-joined Van Halen briefly in 1996 & 2000 before re-joining permanently in 2006.

1992 – Billy Idol is fined $2,000 by a Beverly Hills, Calif. judge after pleading no contest to charges he hit a woman in the face as they left a restaurant together the previous October.

1992 – Singer Jimmy Buffett and wife Jane Slagsvol have their second child, which they name Sarah Delaney, in Nashville, Tenn.

2000 – Santana started a nine week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with, ‘Maria Maria.’

2002 – Paul McCartney kicked off the first leg of his 19 date ‘Driving USA’ North American tour at The Oakland Arena, Oakland.

2004 – Paul Atkinson, veteran record executive and guitarist for the Zombies, dies in his sleep after a long battle with cancer and kidney disease. He is 48.

2009 – In what appears to be an elaborate April Fools joke, Nine Inch Nails have announced the release of a new Timbaland-produced album called ‘Strobe Light’.

2015 -  John Lennon's first wife, Cynthia, died of cancer at the age of 75. The couple, who met just before Beatlemania swept the music world, divorced in 1968 after Cynthia discovered her husband's affair with Japanese artist Yoko Ono.