STACK #183 Jan 2020

FEATURE MUSIC

Ozzy nearly gets rabies,

Britney’s wedding is hazy, and BBC won’t concede that Relax rules the ‘80s: We've combed the dusty archives to assemble this calendar of notable dates, events, and oddities of music history for January.

JAN 15, 1996 American singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett and U2 frontman Bono escape injury when Buffet’s seaplane is shot at

JAN 1, 2004 At 23 years old, Britney Spears marries her childhood friend Jason Alexander in a surprise ceremony at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas. Fifty-five hours later the union is annulled. Spears’ lawyers said the singer “lacked understanding of her actions to the extent that she was incapable of agreeing to the marriage.” JAN 5, 1969 Brian Warner is born in Ohio. In 1989 he begins performing as Marilyn Manson, and goes on to release 10 studio albums, including the #1 1998 title Mechanical Animals .

by Jamaican police. The authorities had mistaken the musician’s vehicle for a drug trafficker’s plane. Buffett later pens a track named Jamaica Mistaica after the incident.

told him he’d never play guitar again, instead using the fused fingers for chord work and adapting his style to focus on the index and middle fingers. Reinhardt became one of the most revered musicians of the entire twentieth century. JAN 24, 1980 In a genius marketing move, Pink Floyd spruik their upcoming album The Wall with a special advertisement on West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. The billboard depicts a featureless brick wall, but each day one brick is unpeeled from the scene, so as to slowly reveal the album’s title and interior artwork. JAN 26, 1965 English singer Petula Clark is at #1 on the US singles chart with her hit Downtown . Recorded in just three takes, the track features a 20-year-old Jimmy Page as session guitarist.

JAN 18, 1997 The Armand Van Helden remix of Professional Widow by Tori Amos

hits #1 on the UK singles chart. The

track was rumoured to be about musician (and widow of Kurt Cobain) Courtney Love, although Amos has repeatedly denied the suggestion. JAN 20, 1982 The notorious bat-biting episode occurs at an Ozzy Osbourne show in Iowa. A crowd member throws a live bat onto the stage, and Osbourne retrieves the stunned creature, believing it to be fake. He theatrically bites its head, at which point the animal starts flapping its wings and Osbourne realises it’s alive. Post-show, the musician is rushed to a hospital for rabies shots. JAN 23, 1910 Gifted jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt is born in Belgium. At age 18, Reinhardt was beginning to make a name for himself in France, and was head-hunted by British bandleader Jack Hylton. One night he knocked over a candle inside the wagon he shared with his young wife, and the wooden structure was quickly engulfed. Reinhardt suffered burns to over 50% of his body, most notably to the last two fingers of his left hand. He refused to listen to doctors who

JAN 8, 2000 News Of The World report that police had thwarted a plot to kidnap ex-Spice Girl Victoria Beckham and her then-infant son, Brooklyn. The case is later thrown out of court because the main witness was unreliable; Florim Gashi was found to be a “serial fantasist” with a history of mental health problems, who wished to claim a £10,000 pay-out from the tabloid. JAN 11, 1986 The Pet Shop Boys burst from the club scene into mainstream electro, when their hit West End Girls goes to #1 on the UK charts.

JAN 28, 1984 BBC Radio declares it

will not play Frankie Goes

To Hollywood’s wildly popular track Relax , citing its suggestive lyrics and sleeve art.

The song wins Best British Single at the 1985 Brit Awards, and hits #1 across the world.

43