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Gerry Rafferty releases his biggest hit single, Baker Street, in the UK, where it will peak at No3.
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Dire Straits begin recording their debut album, Dire Straits, with producer Muff Winwood for Vertigo Records at Basing Street Studios, London, England, UK, Europe.Touring in support of his album Bat Out Of Hell, Meat Loaf plays the second of two nights at The Palladium, New York City, USA.
Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings' duet album, Waylon And Willie, is certified as a platinum disc by the R.I.A.A. in the USA.
Queen play
the first of two nights at The Forest Nationale, Brussels, Belgium, Europe.
Touring in support of his album Bat Out Of Hell, Meat Loaf plays at Cleveland Music Hall, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Touring in support of his album Bat Out Of Hell, Meat Loaf plays at Massey Hall, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Jackson Browne plays an unannounced free concert in Barnwell, South Carolina, USA, for protesters against the Savannah River Nuclear Plant.
Georgia
On My Mind by Willie Nelson reaches No1 in the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart in the USA
Bob Dylan's album Street Legal enters the UK albums chart where it will peak at No2 during a twenty week run.
Bob Dylan plays the fourth of five nights at the Pavilion De Paris, Paris, France.
Teddy Bunn, a top-rated American blues and jazz guitarist in the 1930s, dies in Lancaster, California, USA. In a long career, he had worked with Sidney Bechet, Hadda Brooks, Johnny Dodds, J.C. Higginbotham, Lionel Hampton, Jimmie Noone and others.
EMI's International Division is presented with the Queen's Award To Industry for Export Achievement - largely because of record sales by the band Queen - in the Cotswold Suite at The Selfridge Hotel, London, UK.
Wilko Johnson's Solid Senders play the first of two nights at The Marquee, London, UK, supported by The Young Ones. The support band will not last long, but one member, Paul 'Wix' Wickens, will go on to a lengthy career as MD in Paul McCartney's band.
British bandleader Victor Silvester dies while on holiday in La Lavandou, France, Europe, at the age of 78. In his lengthy career, Silvester sold over 75m records.The punk bard of Salford, John Cooper Clarke releases his debut album, Disguise In Love, on CBS Records in the UK.
Bob Dylan plays the first of two nights in Madison Square Garden, New York City, USA.
Sweet Talkin' Woman by Electric Light Orchestra (aka ELO) enters the UK Pop Singles Chart where it will peak at No6 during a run of eight weeks.
With punk still the UK's ruling rock ethic, a curious duo takes the stage at Eric's in Liverpool, England, UK, Europe. The pair litter the stage with keyboards, oscillators, signal generators and synthesizers. They call themselves Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark.
Sid Vicious, former bassist of The Sex Pistols, attempts suicide again in the bathroom of the Hotel Seville, Madison Avenue, New York City, USA, by slashing his wrists with a razor blade and a broken light bulb, then tries to jump out the window. He is admitted to the psychiatric ward of Bellevue Hospital.
Queen hold perhaps the most debauched rock'n'roll party ever, to launch their album Jazz in the Imperial Ballroom of The Fairmont Hotel, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. At a cost of £200,000, they entertain 600 guests. There are tales of free blowjobs for record company execs in the back room, a local strip joint shut for the night because Queen has hired all of its strippers, dwarves, snake charmers, tansvestites and much more. The band, of course, deny that most of it ever happened but contemporary reports of the event are unusually lurid.
After a fairly disastrous first recording experience, unsigned Irish band U2 go into Keystone Studios, Dublin, Eire, Europe, and record demos of Street Mission, The Fool and Shadows And Tall Trees.
Queen hold an outrageously decadent press conference to launch their latest album, Jazz, in Brennan's Restaurant, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. For the event, they fly in eighty reporters and journalists from around the globe plus 52 EMI company MDs. Entertainment includes The Olympia Brass Band, strippers, jugglers, a girl with a huge boa constrtrictor, a naked dwarf covered in chopped liver and transvestites.Echo and the Bunnymen play their first-ever live gig, at Eric's, Liverpool, UK, opening for The Teardrop Explodes.
Russian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo commits the first of 56 murders. He will become known as The Butcher of Rostov and his vile crimes will provide subject matter for such songs as Psychopathy Red by Slayer, Red Ripper Blues [Andrei Chikatilo] by Church of Misery, Sewers by Torture Killer and Ripper von Rostow by Eisblut.
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