STACK #181 Nov 2019

MUSIC FEATURE

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Ozzy grabs a thief, The Hooties settle beef, and a runaway hay bale brings grief then relief: We've combed the dusty archives to assemble this calendar of notable dates, events, and oddities of music history for November.

NOV 21, 1965 Björk Guðmundsdóttir is born in Reykjavik, Iceland. Two years later on the same day, Margrét "Magga" Örnólfsdóttir – who will later learn keyboards and become Bjork’s bandmate in alt-rock group The Sugarcubes – is born. NOV 22, 2004 Ozzy Osbourne finds a masked burglar inside his Buckinghamshire mansion, and reportedly grabs him into a headlock. The thief breaks free and jumps nine metres to the ground out of a first floor window, taking about $2 million in jewellery with him. NOV 25, 1992 Whitney Houston makes her acting debut as her film The Bodyguard – also starring Kevin Costner – opens in cinemas. Its soundtrack remains the best-selling soundtrack of all time.

NOV 2, 1996 A relatively unknown Eva Cassidy passes away from skin cancer at age 33. Two years later, BBC Radio 2 plays her song Fields Of Gold , and Cassidy goes on to achieve three posthumous #1 records. NOV 3, 1995 South Carolinian band Hootie and the Blowfish pay Bob Dylan a large out-of-court settlement for referencing the latter’s song titles, and directly quoting lyrics, on smash hit Only Wanna Be With You . NOV 5, 1988 Carole King-penned track The Locomotion becomes the first song to reach the US Top 5 in three different versions, when Our Kylie’s iteration hits #3 on the chart. The previous two versions which charted in the Top 5 were by Little Eva (1962) and Grand Funk Railroad (1974). NOV 7, 2014 At the Stand Up For Heroes charity concert event, Bruce Springsteen plays an acoustic set and then offers his guitar to the highest bidder. When bidding gets to $60,000, Bruce chucks a guitar lesson into the deal, and bids leap to $250,000. Gobsmacked, Bruce adds in a lasagne dinner at his own house, a ride in the sidecar of his motorbike, and the shirt he’s wearing at that very moment. The hammer goes down at $300,000, every penny of which is sent to the Bob Woodruff Foundation, which aids injured servicemen and their loved ones. NOV 9, 1966 John Lennon meets Yoko Ono for the first time when he attends her exhibition Unfinished Paintings and Objects at London’s Indica Gallery.

NOV 15, 1990 Milli Vanilli producer Frank Farian confirms rumours which had been swirling for years, telling reporters at a press conference that bandmembers Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus hadn’t sung a note on any of their albums.

NOV 17, 2010 Patti Smith wins the National Book Award for her memoir Just Kids . NOV 19, 2012 Two farmers are found not guilty in the death of former ELO cellist

NOV 28, 1991 Nirvana deliberately mangle a live

performance of Smells Like Teen Spirit on the BBC’s Top Of The Pops . In protest at being asked to mime their instruments to a pre-recorded track, Kurt Cobain sings a whole octave lower than usual and all three bandmembers make sarcastic instrumental performances which clearly don’t match up with the audio.

Mike Edwards, who was crushed to death when an enormous (600kg) hay bale owned by the farmers rolled down

a hill and landed on the musician’s van two years previously.

NOV 30, 1996 Ukelele singer-songwriter Tiny Tim dies on-stage in Minneapolis, from a heart

NOV 20, 2015 Justin Bieber’s Sorry hits #1 on the UK singles chart, which earns him a record for most tracks inside the top 40. The previous record holder was Elvis Presley who had seven songs in the chart in 1957, but Bieber beats him with eight.

attack. He was in the middle of performing the last song of his set, his 1968 hit Tiptoe Through The Tulips .

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NOVEMBER 2019

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