Today In Music, April 25th

 
From the Rockmine Almanac for today (Friday 25th April):

Birth

1933. Jerry Leiber, one half of the legendary Leiber And Stoller songwriting partnership, born in Baltimore.

Front Page News

1999. Radio 2 DJ Johnnie Walker is pictured on the front page of the News Of The World snorting coke. During an obvious “sting” by the paper, Walker is alleged to have offered its reporters (who he believed to be media tycoons) drugs and vice girls.

In Court

2001. Tommy Lee appears in Manhattan Federal Court defending himself against charges that he plagiarized the name of his new band Methods Of Madness from a Swedish company that produces sound effects CDs. Whilst on the stand, Lee manages to extoll the virtues of prison. Exlplaining what he’d done during the four month sentence he’d received after pleading no contest in 1998 to charges of kicking his then wife, Pamela Anderson, said he’d recommend it to anybody. “Not Jail, but a four-month break from everything and everybody”. He’d spent the time writing lyrics and music and would use his telephone calls to sing the tunes into his ansafone at home.

In Hospital

2003. Rapper Freeky Zeeky, a member of Cam’ron‘s Diplomats is hospitalized after a shooting that leaves him injured and another man dead. Freeky, real name Ezekial Jiles was shot in the chest and abdomen after two cars were involved in a minor collision.

Witnesses said that after the shunt, the occupants of both cars started shooting each other. The dead man, Eric Mangrum was travelling with Jiles. Neither the other car, nor its occupants, have been found.

In Television

1978. It’s announced that Eurovision Song Contest Winners, Izhar Cohen and Alphabeta will not be allowed to appear live on this week’s “Top Of The Pops”. The ban stems from the actors union, Equity, which has a long standing agreement with the BBC to only allow foreign groups on the show if their record is already in the Top 30. The BBC is also required to give the union three weeks notice of any intended foreign guest appearances. With the competition only having been won at the weekend and an English version of the song only being released this week, neither condition can be met. It seems likely that a recording of the group’s winning performance will be aired instead.
 

Death

1974. Pamela Courson, heir to Jim Morrison‘s estate and his common-law wife, dies of a drug overdose.

 

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