Today in rock history 13th February

1950 – Peter Gabriel is born on This Day In Rock in Surrey. 1952 - Ed Gagliardi-bassist for Foreigner is born 1965 – The Rolling Stones played the last night on a 16-date tour of Australia and New Zealand at the Capital Theatre in Perth. Also appearing on the tour was Roy Orbison, The Newbeats and Ray Columbus and the Invaders. 1967 – The Beatles released the double A sided single ‘Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane’ on Capitol Records in the US. 1967 – The Monkees announced that from now on they would be playing on their own recordings instead of session musicians. 1969 – Bob Dylan recorded ‘Lay, Lady, Lay’ at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. 1969 – A launch party was held for Mary Hopkin at the Post Office Tower in London, guests included Jimi Hendrix, Donovan and Paul McCartney with his new girlfriend Linda Eastman. 1970 - Black Sabbath’s self-titled debut album was released in the U.K. They recorded and mixed the album in just three days & to this day, the album is recognized as one of the main albums credited with the development of heavy metal music. 1972 – Led Zeppelin fans in Singapore are disappointed when the group is forced to cancel a concert there. The reason? The conservative country’s officials wouldn’t let the band members off the plane because of their long hair. 1974 – David Bowie turned down an offer from the Gay Liberation group to compose ‘the world’s first Gay National Anthem.’ 1976 – Genesis released their first album since the departure of Peter Gabriel, ‘A Trick Of The Tail’ featuring eight new tracks with drummer Phill Collins taking on the role 1980 – Police raided the home of former Sex Pistol John Lydon who greeted them waving a ceremonial sword, the only illegal item they found was a canister of tear gas, 1981 – Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon becomes the longest-running rock album on the Billboard albums chart. It’s been there for 402 weeks. 1982 – A 300-pound marble slab marking the grave of Ronnie Van Zant of Lynyrd Skynyrd is stolen. 1989, This year’s Brit Awards was hosted by Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood in which just about everything went wrong – lines were fluffed and bands mis-cued onto the stage. 1992 – Motley Crue announces Vince Neil is leaving the heavy metal group. 1997 – During their The Alive Worldwide tour, Kiss played the first of three sold out nights at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia. 2000 -David Bowie announces that his wife, Iman, is pregnant with his baby. 2001 – Rock guitarist Peter Frampton receives the Orville H. Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award, considered the Oscar for the guitar industry. 2004 – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club cancel the remainder of their tour of Great Britain and Ireland after guitarist Peter Hayes breaks his thumb.