December 25th
1959 Ringo Starr gets a set of drums for Christmas.
After a spell with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, he lands with The Beatles.
1996 The film “The People Vs Larry Flint,” starring the ever-charming Courtney Love (Hole), premieres.
2003 The film “Cold Mountain” opens in theaters.
Jack White (White Stripes) has a bit part in the movie. He also contributes five songs, including two originals, to the soundtrack.
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1964 George Harrison’s future ex-wife, Patti Boyd, is attacked by fans at The Beatles Christmas concert.
1965 Pretty good day on the Billboard pop chart. The Dave Clark Five’s “Over And Over” pushes The Byrds’ “Turn! Turn! Turn!” to #2 while James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good)” shimmies at #3.
1971 The Cranberries’ guitarist, Noel Hogan, is born in Moyross, Limerick, Ireland.
1977 Ironically, a charity gig, playing for an audience of children, is the Sex Pistols last U.K. concert.
1991 The J. Geils Band plays a Christmas concert for inmates at Norfolk Correctional Center near the band’s Boston hometown. Vocalist Peter Wolf shouts “We want to be the first ones to buy you a drink on the outside.” At least he didn’t say the “Norfolk Correctional audience is the best audience in the world.”
2006 The Godfather of Soul, the hardest working man in show business, James Brown, passes away in Atlanta at age 73. Brown had an immeasurable impact on Rock. But his greatest legacy was as a driving force behind Soul and a key influence in the development of Funk, Hip-Hop, and Rap. “He was a whirlwind of energy and precision, and he was always very generous and supportive to me in the early days of the Stones,” says Mick Jagger. “His passing is a huge loss to music.”
2010 X-mas baby! Elton John and his partner David Furnish welcome their son into the world via a surrogate mother. Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John weighs 7 lbs. 15 oz.
2013 Iggy Pop is the DJ on a BBC 6 Christmas Day special. “I’ve had to dig back to things that I haven’t heard in a long, long time, but that still carry memories of joy and compulsion,” says Pop.
2013 Too much Christmas cheer. Former Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz is arrested after police responded to a call at the Spitz house in Lake Worth, FL. Spitz and his wife Candi had reportedly been drinking when things turned contentious.
