Road Crew Magazine
Music Magazine with News, Reviews, Photos and Video

Happy January 8th to you, and to kick it off, we have another Road Crew birthday today.  Hailing all the way from Sweden, our international writing sensation Tess is celebrating one today, so be sure to go by her blog or myspace and leave her some birthday love!!  Tess, hope it's awesome and I know this goes for all of us when I say, I wish we were there to celebrate it with you.!!



I'm so excited about today's column as today’s facts feature some bands with a little more of a bite   to them.  At the same time, it's a day of remembrance for one particular guitarist, but we'll get to that in a few.

Airing on ABC in 1964, Shindig was a rock and roll variety show, featuring everyone from the Rolling Stones, to Jerry Lee Lewis, from Rick Nelson to the Moody Blues.  Appearing and performing on the show's final episode on January 8, 1966 was the Who and The Kinks.



After playing a show with Blue Oyster Cult and Iggy Pop, now legendary rockers KISS was signed by Casablanca Records on this day in 1974.  Their first album, which would reach #87 on the US Album Charts was released only a few weeks after their signing.

 I love Queen.  They were unique and their musicality was brilliant.  Bicycle Race has been one of my favorite songs as far back as I can remember.  Their music has been used in multiple movies and in multiple ways.  When my older brother was in high school, his class used Another One Bites the Dust for the theme song for their homecoming float, which had my cousin dressed up as a cheerleader and my younger brother dressed up as a yellow jacket (the mascot) with a toy Tommy gun.  Of course, if that was tried today, the parade would be shut down due to mass panic because of a psycho mascot with a gun.

On this day, in 1977, the band's album A Day At the Races went to #1 on the UK album chart.  Another little tidbit to throw at you concerning the albums title is this:  The band got the name for the album from a Marx Brother's film of the same name that came out in 1937.

Today's final fact is one that is close to my heart.  In a previous column I had mentioned that when I was a teenager, Def Leppard was my favorite band.  I had followed them from pretty much the beginning, when they released On Through The Night.  I can still see in my mind's eye, the wallpapering job made up from posters and pictures from various metal magazines.  I remember thinking they were one of the greatest bands to ever hit the rock scene, and still do to this day.

I remember when I was a senior and when I got to school that day.  My first hour was band, and one of my friends, who sat close to me who knew how big of a Lep fan I was, told me that Rick  Savage had died the previous day.  Well, I had been at work the afternoon and evening before with no access to rock news, and I was thinking, there's NO way.....NO FREAKING WAY.....I anxiously made it through the first four hours of the day and rushed home at lunch so that I could turn on MTV to see if I could verify what I had been told.  To my dismay, I found out that although Rick Savage was very much alive, it was in fact Def Leppard's Steve Clark that had died on the 8th of January, 1991.  I was horrified, and numb and sat in disbelief.  I honestly don't remember how I made it through the rest of that day.  I didn't talk to anyone, I just kept to myself in a state of shock.

When I got home I remember putting in the video for their concert In The Round, In Your Face and just sat and cried.  Cried for a great loss in music, for a guitarist that I idolized, for a band I lived and breathed, for a family who had lost a son.  The next Sunday, a radio station here in Oklahoma called The Katt played Hysteria on it's 7th Day program.  A program that plays 7 albums in their entirety.

I still to this day mourn his loss, in my opinion a huge loss to the music industry.  Steve was a guitarist that while never seeming to put his thoughts or emotions into words, he would pour them forth through his music.  It was like you could hear the very depth of his soul crying out through each note that he played.  May his memory be forever honored and may the music of a truly amazing musician live on forever.