This Day in History: 2023-04-08

APRIL 8th

The Clash release their self-titled debut album. 1977

The importance of the Clash can’t be overstated. They were the lightning rod for the Punk movement preaching revolutionary politics. While they often appeared to be chasing the Sex Pistols, by the end of the game, they were far more successful, artistically. Their shows were ferocious.

Smash” is the third studio album by The Offspring.  The effort sells six million copies in the U.S. 1994

Finally! Deep Purple, Cheap Trick, Steve Miller and Chicago are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame during a ceremony at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.  2016

Guitarist Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple) and vocalist/bassist Peter Cetera (Chicago) are no-shows while guitarist Rick Nielsen (Cheap Trick) and Steve Miller are critical of event ticket prices. Miller also notes the absence of a single female inductee.

Fall Out Boy’s “So Much (for) Stardust” tops Billboard’s Rock Albums chart.   2023

The band’s first album in five years also debuts at #6 on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 64,000 album-equivalent units.  Fall Out Boy’s eighth album is their seventh consecutive Top 10 effort.   

MORE TODAY IN ROCK…

Steve Howe, guitarist for Yes and Asia, is born in Holloway, North London. 1947

Rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin (born Jeffrey Dean Isbell) starts his life in Lafayette, IN. He is best known for his tenure with Guns N’ Roses. 1962

L7’s Donita Sparks is born. She’s the band’s singer/guitarist.  1963

Late Slipknot bassist Paul Gray is born in L.A.  1972

Late Children Of Bodom guitarist Alexi Laiho is born in Espoo, Finland.  1979

Dire Straits’ “Sultans Of Swing” peaks at #4 on the U.S. singles chart. 1979

The 1975 singer, Matty Healy, has a birthday.  1989

The body of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain is found by an electrician working at the Cobain/Love house in Seattle. A suicide note, quoting Neil Young (“It’s better to burn out than to fade away”), is found next to his body; along with a shotgun. 1994

KISS frontman Paul Stanley’s autobiography “Face The Music: A Life Exposed” arrives.  It goes on to debut at #2 (behind “Flash Boys“) on The New York Times print hardcover non-fiction Best Sellers list. 2014

The Rolling Stones perform their first-ever concert in China. The Shanghai concert comes three years after the group canceled two shows in the country because of the SARS epidemic. However, the Stones are asked by Chinese censors to exclude certain tunes from their set list. The songs deemed too racy for Chinese audiences include “Beast Of Burden,” “Brown Sugar,” “Honky Tonk Women” and “Let’s Spend The Night Together.” 2006

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band cancel their concert in Greensboro, NC to protest the passing of the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, also known as the “bathroom bill.” Springsteen condemns lawmakers for passing a bill that “infringes so heavily on the rights” of the state’s LGBT community. “No other group of North Carolinians faces such a burden,” Springsteen writes. 2016

“Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll,” the first major exhibition in an art museum that is dedicated entirely to electric guitars, opens at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC.  More than 130 instruments dating from 1939 to 2017 — played by Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Don Felder (The Eagles), Jimi Hendrix, James Hetfield (Metallica), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Elvis Presley, Keith Richards (Rolling Stones), and Sheryl Crow, among others, are on display.  2019

Big day for Jack White (White Stripes).  First, White plays an instrumental version of the national anthem at Detroit’s Comerica Park as part of the Opening Day festivities for MLB’s Detroit Tigers.  That evening during his homecoming concert at the city’s Masonic Temple Theatre he marries Olivia Jean.  It’s White’s third marriage. 2022