Random selection from around 1,200 Facts

Sheet music for the song There's No Love Like The Old Love After All, written by Will Walters and composed by J. A. T. Noble, is given away as a supplement to the New York Herald, New York City, USA. The music was originally published by the Oliver Ditson Co. of Boston, Massachusetts in 1898.

The first issue of the UK music newspaper
Melody Maker goes on sale priced at 3d, promising news and information for "all who are interested in the production of popular music." The first issue includes dance band news, a feature about ukeleles and how to sight-read music.
Calypso star
Lord Invader flies out of Trinidad, West Indies, Caribbean, aboard a Pan Am clipper bound for New York City, USA. While there, he intends to pursue a legal action against comedian
Morey Amsterdam who has falsely copyrighted his hugely successful song
Rum And Coca Cola. When Lord Invader arrives at LaGuardia airport he is greeted by thirty members of the press waiting to interview and photograph him.

It is reported on the front page of today's edition of British music weekly
Melody Maker that vocalist Dick James has left the
Geraldo Orchestra.

A feature about singing star
Jo Stafford appears in Collier's Magazine in the USA, stating the Miss Stafford's patriotically-inclined broadcasts on the Voice Of America radio service in Europe, have "upset Joe Stalin". Communist newspaper The Daily Worker will take issue with the feature and argue that Stafford "delivers commercials for democracy the same way toothpaste companies deliver commercials for their product".
It is reported in the trade press in the USA that the song Sh-Boom has been bought from publishers Progressive Music by Hill And Range Music during the past week, "for a substantial sum of money". The song was first recorded by
The Chords on Cat Records, and had then been covered by The Crewcuts for
Mercury Records.

UK music weekly The NME [New Musical Express] reports that the music industry in the USA is 'shocked' that two 'country and western' artists,
Carl Perkins and
Elvis Presley, have become top popular music stars.
Flamboyant American pianist
Liberace wins '8,000 damages in the High Court, London, UK, against British newspaper the Daily Mirror, which had published an article implying that he was homosexual.
Ads placed in the UK music press by a top rock entrepreneur state, "
Don Arden is happy to announce that he has been appointed by Mr Manfred Weissleder as sole booking agent for
The Star Club, Hamburg, Germany, Europe.'

UK magazine Hobbies Weekly features instructions of how to make a marquetry image of pop idol
Cliff Richard.

Acclaimed record producer
Nick Venet is quoted making disparaging remarks about The
Beach Boys in the Saturday Evening Post newspaper. Before the month is out, Venet will terminate his relationship with
Capitol Records, for which The
Beach Boys record.
Daryl Quist is featured on the cover of today's edition of UK pop paper The New Musical Express (aka NME), in a paid-for advertisement for his single Goodbye To Love. Quist was part of a stable of artists promoted by entrepreneur
Larry Parnes.

With his 50th birthday imminent,
Frank Sinatra appears on the cover of the influential Newsweek magazine in the USA.
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Bob Dylan is featured on the cover of KRLA Beat magazine in Los Anbgeles, California, USA.

A feature in Time magazine in the USA examines the phenomenon now being called The Generation Gap, declaring, "The young have already staked out their own mini society, a congruent culture that has both alarmed their elders and, stylistically at least, left an irresistible impression on them."
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A+R man Ray Williams of Liberty Records places an advert in weekly UK music paper the New Musical Express, reading, "Liberty wants talent. Artists/composers/singers/musicians to form a new group." Among those who respond will be aspiring singer/songwriter/pianist Reg Dwight, laster to find global success as
Elton John.
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After being doorstepped by Leicester Student Arts Festival Organiser John Eades,
Paul McCartney of
The Beatles attends a press conference in London, England, UK, Europe, at which the students protest against the lack of backing from Leicester City Council for their event.
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A feature in the New York Times refers to
Jimi Hendrix as 'the black Elvis.'

At the office of ANIM management in London, England, UK, Europe,
Jimi Hendrix is interviewed by Alan Walsh of
Melody Maker.
Newsweek magazine in the USA carries a report on 'The Bosstown Sound', claiming that such Boston, Massachusetts-based bands as The Ultimate Spinach, Earth Opera and Phluph are the coming wave of rock giants.
Reporting on a collaboration between
The Byrds and legendary country music banjo virtuoso Earl Scruggs, on the album Earl Scruggs Performing With His Family And Friends, the newspaper The Nashville Tennessean reports : "Gary Scruggs' hair is longer than Randy's, and the hair of most of the members of
The Byrds is longer than that of Gary. In keeping with their acid rock tradition, theirs is very long. Wisps of it fall over the rims of their dark glasses. They got to know Earl Scruggs two years ago, just when country licks, especially on such instruments as the steel guitar, were first becoming a fad for hard rock groups."

The first ever interview with Prince is published, in the Central High School newspaper, illustrated with a picture of the afro-topped hopeful sitting at his piano.
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The Sun newspaper in the UK runs a feature questioning the sanity of
David Bowie, which includes the quote "I’m terrified of going mad."

The Jacksons hold a press conference at Tavern On The Green, Central Park, New York City, USA, to announce their upcoming Victory Tour, sponsored by Pepsi.
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Morrissey of
The Smiths holds an indie fanzine press conference at the offices of his record company, Rough Trade, in London, England, UK, Europe, to promote the release of the new album Meat Is Murder.
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Madonna appears on the cover of People magazine in the USA.

It is announced that
Mark Ellen is standing down as editor of
Smash Hits magazine in the UK, and will be replaced by Steve Bush.

Suggs of UK hitmaking 2-Tone band Madness denies allegations (in The Sun newspaper a week earlier) that he has racist sympathies.

Prince plays the fifth of seven non-consecutive nights at Wembley Arena, London, England, UK, Europe, on his Lovesexy tour. UK pop paper Record Mirror hails it as "the greatest show on Earth."
Bob Dylan starts the new decade with a small club date at Toads, New Haven, Connecticut, USA. He plays a four hour long set.
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The front page of tabloid newspaper The Sun reveals that teen pop sensations
5 Star have been evicted from their £2.5m Sunningdale, UK, mansion for not paying their mortgage.
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In an
interview in The Times, Robert Smith of
The Cure expresses his disagreement with
Radiohead's strategy of allowing fans to decide how much to pay for their album In Rainbows. "The
Radiohead experiment of paying what you want - I disagreed violently with that," he says. "You can't allow other people to put a price on what you do, otherwise you don't consider what you do to have any value at all, and that's nonsense. If I put a value on my music and no one's prepared to pay that, then more fool me, but the idea that the value is created by the consumer is an idiot plan. It can't work."
Readers of St Louis, Missouri, USA, newspaper the Riverfront Times choose singer
Erin Bode as the Best Jazz Artist in the weekly newspaper's
2008 Music Awards.

Actor Alexander Skarsgard is restrained by police at the
Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, USA, after he threatens paparazzi who are continuously taking pictures of him and his female companion Kate Bosworth.

Surf guitar pioneer
Dick Dale plays at The Press Club, Sacramento, California, USA.
Singer/songwriter Linda Perry, formerly of 4 Non Blondes,
apologises publicly for having recently criticized Lady Gaga's Academy Awards mention for collaborating with Diane Warren on the song Til It Happens to You. Perry had claimed to have it on good authority that Gaga simply performed the song, and did not deserve a writing credit. However, after Diane Warren confirmed Gaga's involvement, Perry decided to retract her comment.

After 66 years as a leading music newspaper, the NME (New Musical Express) publishes its
last print edition, although it will continue online.