Rock History

2009 – Guy Babylon, keyboard player with the Elton John Band died of a heart attack while swimming in his pool at his home in Los Angeles, California.

2009 - Jake Brockman, former keyboard player with Echo and the Bunnymen was killed when his motorbike was in collision with a converted ambulance on the Isle of Man. In 1989 the band’s first drummer Pete De Freitas died in a similar crash.

Happy 4th of July from THIS DAY IN ROCK!

Stu Sweatman and John Myers!

http://www.stusweatman.com

http://www.myspace.com/stusweatman

2009 – The United States Mint launched a new coin featuring American composer, pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington, making him the second African-American to appear by himself on a US coin. There was a half-dollar minted in 1946 with Booker T. Washington on it, making him the first.

2009 – Lynyrd Skynyrd keyboard player Billy Powell died at the age of 56 of a suspected heart attack in Florida. Powell called police saying he was having trouble breathing and emergency services tried to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead an hour later. Powell had missed a doctor’s appointment on the day before his death; the appointment was for a checkup on his heart. He played piano on Kid Rock’s ‘All Summer Long’ (which sampled the Lynyrd Skynyrd song ‘Sweet Home Alabama’).

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Billy Powell, the original keyboard player with the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, died early Wednesday at his Orange Park home.

Powell was 56.

Orange Park police said Powell called 911 just before 1 a.m. complaining of difficulty breathing. Paramedics found him in his bedroom unresponsive with the telephone still in his hand.

Ross Schilling, a publicist with Vector Management, said they believe Powell suffered a heart attack.

Orange Park police told Channel 4 Powell had an appointment with his cardiologist on Tuesday, but he did not go. Because he was under a doctor’s care for a heart condition, police said no autopsy will be performed.

Powell is survived by his wife and son who were at the family home early Wednesday morning.

Powell moved to Jacksonville as a child and attended Bishop Kenny High School, where he met Leon Wilkenson, future bass player for Skynyrd. He originally joined the band as a roadie in the early ’70s. Before a gig playing at the The Bolles School prom, he sat down at the piano and impressed lead singer Ronnie Van Zant enough to be invited to join the band as its keyboard player.

Skynyrd went on to sign a national recording contract and become the best-selling southern rock band in history, with hits that included “Free Bird,” “What’s Your Name,” and “Sweet Home Alabama.”

In 1977, Van Zant, along with guitarist Steve Gaines, his sister, and backup vocalist Cassie Gaines and assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick were killed when the band’s chartered plane crashed in Mississippi. The pilot and co-pilot also died.

Powell suffered facial injuries in the crash, but eventually recovered. He was the only band member well enough to attend the funerals of those killed in the crash.

Powell played in a Christian band for several years, then rejoined Skynyrd for a tribute tour in 1987 and has toured with the band ever since. He and guitarist Gary Rossington were the only two original band members who continued to record and tour with the band.

In 2005, as the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Powell told Channel 4:

“The best thing is that I can speak for our brothers that can’t be here: Ronnie, Alan, Leon, Cassie, Dean and Steve. I know they’re smiling down on us from heaven.”

Channel 4′s Tom Wills, who traveled to Mississippi to cover the crash and has stayed in touch with members of the band ever since, said Powell was known for his smile.

“He was always cheerful; he was always friendly. He treated every single person like he was their dearest friend,” Wills said. “He loved that band, that music and playing those keyboards.”

Ronnie Van Zant’s widow, who continues to run Freebird Live, a nightclub at Jacksonville Beach, issued a statement about Powell’s death:

It’s another sad day for the Lynyrd Skynyrd family and their friends. We all loved Billy and he’s going to be missed.”

Skynyrd’s public relations firm announced that concerts planned Friday in Louisiana and Saturday in Mississippi were cancelled due to Powell’s death. Those shows were to be rescheduled in the near future.

2008 – Gilmour’s tribute to Floyd star Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Syd Barrett and Richard Wright
Gilmour said Wright (right) was “gentle, unassuming and private”.

Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour has praised late bandmate Richard Wright for his “vitality, spark and humour”.

Writing on his website, Gilmour said he had “never played with anyone quite like” the keyboardist, who has died from cancer at the age of 65.

“In my view, all the greatest Pink Floyd moments are the ones where he is in full flow,” Gilmour added.

He hailed Wright for his songwriting talent, including on two tracks from 1973′s Dark Side of the Moon album.

Gilmour joined the band in 1968 – a year after the group’s first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick’s enormous input was frequently forgotten
David Gilmour

“No-one can replace Richard Wright – he was my musical partner and my friend,” Gilmour said.

“In the welter of arguments about who or what was Pink Floyd, Rick’s enormous input was frequently forgotten.

“He was gentle, unassuming and private but his soulful voice and playing were vital, magical components of our most recognised Pink Floyd sound.”

Gilmour said the blend of his and Wright’s voices, together with their “musical telepathy, reached their first major flowering” on 1971 track Echoes, which took up the whole of the second side of album Meddle.

Gilmour, Waters, Mason and Wright in 2005
The band performed together at Live 8 in 2005 for the first time in 24 years

Released in 1973, The Dark Side of the Moon went on to become one of the best-selling and most influential albums in rock history.

Wright helped write much of the album, but was responsible for two songs in particular, Gilmour said.

He added: “After all, without Us and Them, and The Great Gig in the Sky – both of which he wrote – what would The Dark Side Of The Moon have been?”

Gilmour has now pulled out of the premiere of a concert film, David Gilmour Live In Gdansk, in London on Tuesday.

But the guitarist has asked for the event to go ahead without him in memory of Wright, his spokesman said.

Joe Boyd, who produced the band’s early records, said Wright’s keyboards were “an integral part of the Pink Floyd sound”.

“He was a very nice and easy going person,” he said. “It’s very sad to hear of his untimely passing.”

‘Influential musician’

Neil Portnow, president of The Recording Academy, which organises the Grammy Awards in the US, added his tribute.

“Richard Wright was an exceptional instrumentalist, whose distinctive keyboard style was essential to the musicality of this world-renowned band,” he said.

“He also scored films and recorded his own instrumental compositions and solo albums.

“Our deepest sympathies go out to his family and fans at this difficult time, as we remember this influential musician.”

The group played at the Live 8 event in Hyde Park in London in 2005, when Roger Waters rejoined his bandmates for a one-off, more than two decades after they fell out.

The four musicians all also played at a tribute concert for Syd Barrett in 2007, with Waters playing a solo set and Wright, Gilmour and Nick Mason making a separate appearance.

Wright’s death was announced in a statement by his spokesman on Monday.

The spokesman said Wright died after “a short struggle with cancer” but declined to give further details.

2008 – Associated Press – LONDON – Richard Wright, a founding member of the rock group Pink Floyd, died today… this day in rock! He was 65.
ADVERTISEMENT

Pink Floyd’s spokesman Doug Wright, who is not related to the artist, said Wright died after a battle with cancer at his home in Britain. He says the band member’s family did not want to give more details about his death.

Wright met Pink Floyd members Roger Waters and Nick Mason in college and joined their early band, Sigma 6. Along with the late Syd Barrett, the four formed Pink Floyd in 1965.

The group’s jazz-infused rock and drug-laced multimedia “happenings” made them darlings of the London psychedelic scene, and their 1967 album, “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn,” was a hit.

In the early days of Pink Floyd, Wright, along with Barrett, was seen as the group’s dominant musical force. The London-born musician and son of a biochemist wrote songs and sang.

The band released a series of commercially and critically successful albums including 1973′s “Dark Side of the Moon,” which has sold more than 40 million copies. Wright wrote “The Great Gig In The Sky” and “Us And Them” for that album, and later worked on the group’s epic compositions such as “Atom Heart Mother,” “Echoes” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.”

But tensions grew between Waters, Wright and fellow band member David Gilmour. The tensions came to a head during the making of “The Wall” when Waters insisted Wright be fired. As a result, Wright was relegated to the status of session musician on the tour of “The Wall,” and did not perform on Pink Floyd’s 1983 album “The Final Cut.”

Wright formed a new band Zee with Dave Harris, from the band Fashion, and released one album, “Identity,” with Atlantic Records.

Waters left Pink Floyd in 1985 and Wright began recording with Mason and Gilmour again, releasing the albums “The Division Bell” and “A Momentary Lapse of Reason” as Pink Floyd. Wright also released the solo albums “Wet Dream” (1978) and “Broken China” (1996).

In July 2005, Wright, Waters, Mason and Gilmour reunited to perform at the “Live 8″ charity concert in London — the first time in 25 years they had been onstage together.

Wright also worked on Gilmour’s solo projects, most recently playing on the 2006 album “On An Island” and the accompanying world tour.

Richard William Wright (28 July 1943 – 15 September 2008) was a self-taught pianist and keyboardist best known for his long career with Pink Floyd. Though not as prolific a songwriter as his bandmates Syd Barrett, Roger Waters and David Gilmour, he did write significant parts of the music for classic albums such as Meddle, Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, as well as for Pink Floyd’s final studio album The Division Bell. Wright’s richly textured keyboard layers have been a vital ingredient and a distinctive characteristic of Pink Floyd’s sound. In addition, Wright frequently sang background and occasionally lead vocals onstage and in the studio with Pink Floyd (most notably on the songs “Time,” “Echoes,” and on the Syd Barrett composition “Astronomy Domine”). Wright died on 15 September 2008, following a short battle with cancer.

Biography

Pink Floyd career

Wright was educated at the Haberdashers’ Aske’s School and the Regent Street Polytechnic College of Architecture, where he met fellow band members Roger Waters and Nick Mason. He was a founding member of The Pink Floyd Sound (as they were then called) in 1965, and also participated in its previous incarnations, Sigma 6 and The (Screaming) Abdabs.

In the early days of Pink Floyd, Wright was seen as a dominant musical force in the group (though not as much of one as Syd Barrett, the band’s chief songwriter and front man at the time) and he wrote and sang several songs of his own during 1967–68. While not credited as a singer on The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, he sung lead on Barrett-penned songs like “Astronomy Domine” and “Matilda Mother,” as well as notable harmonies on “Scarecrow” and “Chapter 24.” Examples of his early compositions include “Remember a Day”, “Paintbox” and “It Would Be So Nice”. As the sound and the goals of the band evolved, Wright became less interested in songwriting and focused primarily on contributing his distinctive style to extended instrumental compositions such as “Interstellar Overdrive”, “A Saucerful of Secrets”, “Careful with That Axe, Eugene”, “One Of These Days” and to musical themes for film scores (More, Zabriskie Point and Obscured by Clouds). He also made essential contributions to Pink Floyd’s long, epic compositions such as “Atom Heart Mother”, “Echoes” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”. His most commercially popular compositions are “The Great Gig in the Sky” and “Us and Them” from 1973′s The Dark Side of the Moon. He also contributed significantly to other mid-period Floyd classics like “Breathe” and “Time”.

Wright recorded his first solo project, Wet Dream, and released it in September 1978 with little fanfare. However, the album is regarded with some acclaim among Pink Floyd fans. Battling both personal problems and an increasingly rocky relationship with Roger Waters, he was forced to resign from Pink Floyd during The Wall sessions by Roger Waters, who threatened to pull the plug on the album’s tapes if Wright did not leave the band. However, he was retained as a salaried session musician during the subsequent live concerts to promote that album in 1980 and 1981. Ironically, Wright became the only member of Pink Floyd to profit from those hugely spectacular shows, since the net financial loss had to be borne by the three remaining “full-time” members. He was the only member of the band not to attend the 1982 première of the film version of The Wall. In 1983, Pink Floyd released the only album on which Wright does not appear with The Final Cut.

During 1984, Wright formed a new musical duo with Dave Harris (from the band Fashion) called Zee. They signed a record deal with Atlantic Records and released only one album, Identity, which was a commercial and critical flop. Wright rejoined Pink Floyd following Waters’ departure. Because of legal and contractual issues from his “hired gun” status during The Wall world tour, Wright’s photo was not included in the 1987 album A Momentary Lapse of Reason and his name was listed in smaller letters than Mason and Gilmour. By the time of the Momentary Lapse world tour and the 1988 live album The Delicate Sound of Thunder, Wright was contractually a member of Pink Floyd once again. In 1994, he co-wrote five songs and sang lead vocals on one song (“Wearing the Inside Out”) for the next Pink Floyd album, The Division Bell. This recording provided material for the double live album and video release P*U*L*S*E in 1995. Wright, like Nick Mason, has performed on every Pink Floyd tour.

Modern days

In 1996, inspired by his successful input into The Division Bell, Wright released his second solo album, Broken China, including contributions from Sinéad O’Connor on vocals, Pino Palladino on bass, Manu Katché on drums, Dominic Miller (known from his guitar work with Sting) and Tim Renwick, another Pink Floyd associate, on electric guitar. Broken China was considered to be a more focused and artistically successful work than Wet Dream and marked a new phase in Richard Wright’s modus operandi, with extensive use of computer-based recording and production techniques, assisted by Anthony Moore with whom he co-wrote the album’s lyrics.

On 2 July 2005, Wright, Gilmour, Mason were joined by Waters on stage for the first time since the Wall concerts for a short set at the Live 8 concert in London. Wright underwent eye surgery for cataracts in November 2005, preventing him from attending Pink Floyd’s induction into the UK Music Hall of Fame. Roger Waters, who was also unable to attend the band’s induction due to rehearsals for the opening of his opera Ça Ira in Rome, appeared in video link and stated, tongue-in-cheek:
“     Rick actually hasn’t had an eye operation, he and I have eloped to Rome and we’re living happily in a small apartment off the Via Venuti!     ”

Wright contributed keyboards and background vocals to David Gilmour’s most recent solo album, On an Island, and performed with Gilmour’s touring band for over two dozen shows in Europe and North America in 2006 . On stage with Gilmour he performed piano, electric piano and synth leads with his Kurzweil K2600 workstation, Hammond organ and even his long-inactive Farfisa organ, which was resurrected especially for performing “Echoes” and a couple of Pink Floyd’s and Syd Barrett’s older numbers that Gilmour chose to revisit in his recent concerts. He also provided backing vocals and lead vocals (notably on “Echoes”, “Time”, “Comfortably Numb”, “Wearing the Inside Out” “Astronomy Domine” and “Arnold Layne” – the latter released as a live single). He declined an offer to join Roger Waters and Nick Mason on Waters’ The Dark Side of the Moon Live tour in order to spend more time working on an upcoming solo project (which may be an instrumental album released in 2008).

On 4 July 2006, Wright joined Gilmour and Mason for the official screening of the P•U•L•S•E DVD. Inevitably, Live 8 surfaced as a subject in an interview. When asked about performing again, Wright replied he would be happy on stage anywhere. He explained that his plan is to “meander” along and said about playing live:
“     …and whenever Dave wants me to play with him, I’m really happy to play with him. And  you’ll play with me, right?     ”

However, Wright stated that he had no desire to perform as part of an officially-reformed ‘Pink Floyd’ again, saying that the Live 8 concert was nice as a “one off.”

Wright had the lowest profile of any member of a band known for their lack of individual attention seeking. Unlike the three other surviving band members who have emerged as public figures, Wright rarely spoke in public. Wright was very rarely seen in the live footage from the Live 8 reunion performance; with a few exceptions he was only shown in wide shots. Some have suggested that the director of the broadcast did not know which musician was the fourth member of Pink Floyd until the very end when they got together for a group shot.

Personal

He married his first wife, Juliette Gale, in 1964 and they divorced in 1982 after having two children. He married his second wife Franka in 1984 and they divorced in 1994. Wright married his third wife Millie (to whom he dedicated his second solo album Broken China) in 1996; their one child is named Ben.

In 1996 Wright’s daughter Gala married Guy Pratt, a session musician who has played bass for Pink Floyd since Roger Waters’ exit.

Wright died on 15 September 2008 after a battle with cancer.

Influence

Wright’s style fuses jazz and neoclassical influences that complemented the simple harmonic structures of the more blues and folk-based songs written by Roger Waters and David Gilmour. As a keyboardist, he is more interested in complementing each piece with organ or synthesizer layers and tasteful piano or electric piano passages. Unlike his contemporaries Rick Wakeman, Tony Banks or Keith Emerson, only occasionally did he opt for solo playing, notably in “Atom Heart Mother”, “Echoes”, “Any Colour You Like”, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” Parts 1-5 and 6-9, “Welcome to the Machine”, “Dogs”, “Run Like Hell” and “Keep Talking”. Another notable solo is the first solo in Syd Barrett’s song “Love Song”. Wright is known for his ghostly atmospheric textures such as the Leslie piano arpeggios at the beginning of “Echoes”, the echoed Farfisa Organ in the live versions of “Careful with That Axe, Eugene” and “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”, the distinctive Minimoog solos in “Any Colour You Like” and, more famously, “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and the jazzy electric piano passages in “Money”, “Time” and “Sheep”. In “A Saucerful of Secrets” and “Sysyphus” he experimented with ‘treated piano’. “Sysyphus” also made extensive use of Mellotron sounds, something of a rarity in the Pink Floyd canon. Wright also used Indian modal scales in “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” and “Matilda Mother”. Although he is not often mentioned among the ‘synthesizer greats’, it is widely acknowledged that Wright’s inventive use of keyboards and synthesizers with Pink Floyd has been pioneering.

Equipment

In the early days of the band, Wright dabbled with brass before settling on the Farfisa organ as his main instrument onstage (in addition to piano and Hammond Organ in the studio). For a brief period in 1969, Wright played vibraphone on several of the band’s songs and in some live shows, and he even played trombone on “Biding My Time” (also dating from this experimental period). During the formative years of Pink Floyd with Syd Barrett, Wright relied heavily on his Farfisa organ, fed through a Binson Echorec platter echo, to achieve distinctive sounds that helped the band gain their “psychedelic rock” edge. He started using a Hammond organ regularly onstage thereafter, and a grand piano later became part of his usual live concert setup when “Echoes” was added to Pink Floyd’s regular set-list. For tours in the 1970s centering around The Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall, the Farfisa was dropped (although it was brought back when Wright toured with David Gilmour on his On An Island tour), and an array of other instruments were added to the lineup, such as: Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer and Hohner electric pianos, VCS 3, Minimoog, ARP String Ensemble and Prophet 5 synthesizers. Since 1987 Wright favoured Kurzweil digital synthesisers for reproducing his analogue synthesiser sounds, even though he still used his favourite Hammond C-3 organ. However, the one that he used with Pink Floyd at Live 8 and with David Gilmour was a “chopped” version (being stripped down of unnecessary weight and put into a more compact casing).

Discography

Further information: Pink Floyd discography

Solo albums

* Wet Dream – 15 September 1978
* Broken China – 26 November 1996

Zee albums

* Identity – 9 April 1984

With David Gilmour

* David Gilmour in Concert (DVD) – October, 2002
o Appears on two tracks: “Breakthrough” (Keyboard / Vocals) & “Comfortably Numb (With Bob Geldof)” (Keyboard)
* On an Island – 6 March 2006
o Appears on two tracks: “On an Island” (Hammond organ) & “The Blue” (Keyboards / Vocals)
* Remember That Night (DVD) – September, 2007

With Syd Barrett

* The Madcap Laughs – 3 January 1970
* Barrett – 14 November 1970

2008- Coldplay appear on Comedy Centrals Daily show, having the the number one album in the US.

2008 – Danny Federici, the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen and a member of The E Street Band, died of cancer at the age of 58. Federici had worked with Springsteen for over 40 years, starting with Steel Mill and Child with Springsteen.

2007 – Stu Sweatman begins prototyping the idea for “THIS DAY IN ROCK” website, where you can find many facts about musicians and what happend on a given day in history!

He joined forces with John Myer’s to create the information base you see. Although the site contains facts from all genres, we tried to focus in on Rock in all forms.

Rock On.

LISTEN TO ENTIRE ALBUM AT CDBaby!

2006 – Elton John begs his record label to drop him, claiming they barely promoted new album The Captain & The Kid. “F*ck Universal,” he tells the audience at a New York show. “Please drop me. I’m 58 and I don’t care anymore.”

2006 – Billy Preston, the so-called “Fifth Beatle” dies aged 59. Preston played keyboards on “Get Back,” and during the 1970s scored solo No. 1s with “Nothing From Nothing” and “Will It Go Round in Circles.”