STACK #180 Oct 2019

MUSIC

NEWS

Billy flings fish, James ends his mish, and Sinead's gig enrages the Communications Commish: We've combed the dusty archives to assemble this calendar of notable dates, events, and oddities of music history for October.

OCT 17, 1995 Keith Moore, former accountant of Sting, is sentenced to six years in jail for stealing six million pounds from the musician’s 108 bank accounts. OCT 22, 2000 George Michael outbids Robbie Williams and the Gallagher brothers at auction to win the piano on which John Lennon wrote Imagine . He pays £1.45 million pounds. “I know that when my fingers touch the keys of that Steinway, I will feel truly blessed,” he says. OCT 23, 2002 Kanye West shatters his jaw after being involved in a head-on car accident; West had fallen asleep at the wheel while travelling home from a West Hollywood recording studio. Two weeks later, with his jaw still wired shut, West records his break-out track Through The Wire . OCT 26, 1996 The Spice Girls get their second UK #1 with Say You’ll Be There . The track features a harmonica solo played by Judd Lander, who also played the harmonica solo in Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon (1984). OCT 27, 2013 Lou Reed – singer-songwriter and poet, and frontman of proto-punk rock band The Velvet Underground – passes away at the age of 71. He’d undergone a liver transplant earlier in the year to combat hepatitis. His widow Laurie Anderson tells fans Reed’s last days were spent peacefully at home. OCT 28, 2001 American rapper Joseph Foreman finds sudden notoriety after his song Because I Got High – released under the musician’s stage name, Afroman – goes viral on the web, and is featured on The Howard Stern Show . It’s chosen to be the theme song for the film Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back (2001). OCT 29, 1996 Madchester band The Stone Roses announce their split, with vocalist Ian Brown telling reporters: “Having spent the last 10 years in the filthiest business in the universe, it’s a pleasure to announce the end of The Stone Roses.” OCT 31, 1990 In an affectionate prank, Billy Idol dumps 600 dead fish into Faith No More’s dressing room, while the latter were performing their support slot for the English musician in Seattle. The band respond by dancing naked in a conga-line around Idol during his headline set.

OCT 3, 1992 At the end of her performance on Saturday Night Live , Sinead O’Connor produces a photograph of Pope John Paul II and rips it up into pieces, in protest over the Roman Catholic Church’s cover-up of sexual abuse within the organisation. NBC immediately cuts to commercial, but is soon fined $2.5 million dollars by the US Federal Communications Commission. OCT 6, 2007 Florida man Todd Minikus sues Bruce Springsteen $755,000 for backing out of a contract to buy a horse named Pavarotti. OCT 10, 1999 At 19 years old, Christina Aguilera gets her first #1 single with Genie In A Bottle , which sits at the US chart's peak spot for five weeks. Aguilera later wins the Best New Artist Grammy. OCT 11, 1991 Apple Computers pays $29 million dollars to settle a suit launched by The Beatles’ record company, Apple Corporation. OCT 13, 2016 Bob Dylan wins the Nobel Prize for Literature, “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

OCT 1, 2002 Having completed six years of service, James Blunt leaves the British Army. The following year sees him record his debut album Back To Bedlam , which goes to #1 around the world. OCT 2, 1995 Kylie Minogue and Nick Cave release their duet Where The Wild Roses Grow , which goes on to win three ARIA Awards.

OCT 16, 2015 A bag of personal items is returned to

Patti Smith by a fan, 36 years after it was stolen from outside a hotel in Chicago. The items include a transparent white shirt Smith wore on a 1978 cover of

Rolling Stone magazine, and a bandanna gifted to Smith by her brother Todd, who died from a stroke in 1994.

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