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I am never shocked to learn facts about bands and musicians that I didn't know about as I follow this daily trek into music's past.  There are of course the things that I will have known and then there are the ones that seem to come at me from left field.  Out of today's facts, there is only one that I knew the rest of them, I had no clue, and some of them even made my eyebrow raise up and all I could think was, "well, how bout that."

Making their stage debut in London, in 1967 was the Jeff Beck Group, which featured bassist Ron Wood, (Rolling Stones), drummer Aynsley Dunbar, and an unknown vocalist (well, at the time anyway) by the name of Rod Stewart.

In 1971, radio stations in South Africa lifted it's five-year ban on Beatles' music.  Now, while I knew that there were people who didn't like the Beatles and thought their music was from the devil, I had no idea that an entire country who had banned them.

1973 holds the fact that I DID know.  In 1983, Quiet Riot rocked everyone with the hit Cum on Feel the Noize, and most people assume that they were the originators of the song.  Not so.  In 1973, the band Slade is who origianlly released the hit, which would enter at #1 on the UK Singles Chart.

Now, while I know that a lot of bands have quirky idiosyncrasies, here's one I didn't know about.  In 1978, Van Halen's first tour opened at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago.  Part of this tour was to open for Black Sabbath.  In the band's contract, it was specified that the band was to be provided M&M's and that all the brown ones were to be removed.

What drives people to assassination attempts?  Especially that of a musician?  What grievious wrong would a musician commit that would cause someone to want to take them out?  Well, in 1983, Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones had two confirmed attempts on his life that failed, when a member of a motorcycle gang told a US Senate Judiciary hearing that his friends had a contract out on the singer.

Metallica is without a doubt one of metals most driving, and infulencial bands.  In 1986, they released thier album, Master of Puppets, which many in the metal realm believe is the best metal album of all time.  I persoanlly liked And Justice For All better.

Our final fact for today, and I was going to use a very bad pun at this juncture, but decided it would be in bad taste, so refrained, falls in the year 1995.  After collapsing during a concert in Switzerland due to a brain aneurysm, R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry underwent brain surgery, that was a success.

So, did you know very many of today's facts?  Well, that makes two of us.  Come back tomorrow to see if there are new facts that you didn't know.