This Month in Rock and Roll - February

This Month In Rock and Roll - February

By Hunter60

February 20, 2003: A fire at a Great White concert kills 100. It started out to be a night of fist pumping rock and roll at the Station Club n Warwick, Rhode Island and ended up being the 4th most catastrophic night club fire in United States history. Great White had taken the stage and started their opening number "Desert Moon' when their then manager, Daniel Biechele, set off a pyrotechnic display on the stage. The ceiling, only ten foot high, was covered in a highly flammable synthetic foam and within 30 seconds, the ceiling was totally engulfed in flames. Although there were four exits in the club, most of the patrons headed for the main doors. In the melee, 100 people were dead and 200 had been injured. Most of the deaths and injuries occurred in the crowd rushing for the door, crushing many of them underfoot although several did succumb to the flames and smoke. Those who died included Great White guitarist Ty Longley. Biechele was eventually sent to prison for three years for the fire while the club owners escaped jail time by striking plea deals. It was later stated by the Fire Marshall that had the club been equipped with a sprinkler system, the fire could have been easily extinguished. This tragic event changed the way that concerts are handled regarding pyrotechnics, safety, fire codes and liability issues.

February 25, 1984: Van Halen's "Jump" reaches #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It's hard to believe but hard rock icons Van Halen have only had one number #1 hit in the United States, 'Jump' in February 1984. Aside from it being their only number #1, the song has an interesting spot in the history of the band. According to Eddie Van Halen, 'Jump' was the first song that he recorded at his newly built home recording studio and it quickly became a point of contention between Eddie and David Lee Roth and their producer Ted Templemen. Eddie had wanted to record away from the influence of Roth and Templemen as he was more interested in expanding the sound of the group and Roth/Templemen were trying to push the band back towards a more hard rock sound. The song employs the use of a synthesizer (an Oberheim OB-Xa) played by Eddie on the recording and with his standard screaming guitar leads blended the prevalent music sounds of the day; synth pop, hair metal and arena rock. The way Eddie tells the story, Roth disliked the song so much that it ended lighting the fuse which ended with Roth leaving the band to pursue his own solo work. Roth missed the call on that given that 'Jump' is often cited by many rock and roll critics as being one of the most influential recordings in modern rock and roll and a heavy favorite of fans of the band.

February 14th, 1970: The Who play Leeds. The Who approached their gigs at Leeds University on Valentines Day and Hull City Hall the following day with one objective in mind – to record a definitive live album. As it worked out, the tapes from the second day were rendered unusable by a technical glitch so they were left with the tapes from the Valentines Day performance at Leeds. Playing in a relatively small and sparse space for approximately 2000 people, The Who gave one of the most remarkable performances of rock and roll ever recorded. Pete Townsend, leaping back and forth on stage, slicing and slashing away at the guitar strings with full armed windmills turned in some stunningly clean and fluid guitar work. Roger Daltrey, dressed in a buckskin jacket, strutted along the edge of the stage, twirled the microphone and sang, screamed and howled through the entire performance and Keith Moon left perfect evidence as to why he is almost always noted as being the best drummer in rock and roll's history. Interestingly, only a small amount of the 33 song set made the single LP with much of it left on the cutting room floor including a complete live performance of the rock opera 'Tommy' that the band performed that night. It was and is what the band had hoped for; the definitive live album of one of rock and rolls greatest live acts at the peak of their live performances.

Noted February Birthdays:

2/2/1942: Graham Nash
2/3/1947: Dave Davies
2/4/1962: Clint Black
2/4/1948: Alice Cooper
2/5/1964: Duff McKagan
2/6/1962: Axl Rose
2/7/1962: Garth Brooks
2/9/1942: Carole King
2/11/1962: Sheryl Crow
2/12/1939: Ray Manzarek
2/13/1961: Henry Rollins
2/14/1972: Rob Thomas
2/18/1933: Yoko Ono
2/19/1948: Tommy Iommi
2/20/1966: Kurt Cobain
2/21/1893: Andres Segovia
2/23/1944: Johnny Winter
2/25/1943: George Harrison
2/26/1932: Johnny Cash
2/27/1954: Neal Schon