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Noteworthy Then

6/27/1969 Denver Pop Festival opens

 

 

The Denver Pop Festival opened on this day in 1969 at Mile High Stadium with sets from Big Mama Thorton, The Flock, Three Dog Night, Iron Butterfly and Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. Day two featured Zephyr, Poco, Johnny Winter, Tim Buckley and Creedence Clearwater Revival and the final day included sets from Zephyr (filling for a no-show), Joe Cocker, Three Dog Night and the Jimi Hendrix Experience.

The three day event averaged around 50,000 the first two days, but swelled considerable on Sunday, the final day when organizers decided to stop checking tickets, which had been scaled at $6 per day, or $15 for all three days. The festival's closing Sunday performance would turn out to be the final concert set the Jimi Hendrix Experience would do together, as bassist Noel Redding quit the trio soon after the group left the stage after waves of tear gas wafted onto it after police fired canisters of it in an effort to to disperse increasingly rowdy fans.

 

Other Noteworthy Classic Rockevents on June 27 include...
 

1970 The Trans-Continental Festival with the Grateful Dead, The Band, Janis Joplin, Buddy Guy, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, Ian and Sylvia and the Flying Burrito Brothers begins  by train. The tour is captured in the movie Festival Express.

1942 Bruce Johnston of the Beach Boys born.

1967 Mick Jagger convicted on drug charges stemming from arrest at a Keith Richards party.

1970 Freddie Mercury makes his live debut with Smile, soon to become Queen, in Cornwall, UK.

1971 Allman Brothers, J. Geils Band and Mountain do the last concert at Fillmore East in New York.

1974 Grateful Dead release From The Mars Hotel.

1976 US issues John Lennon a Green Card.

1978 Perter Gabriel II released.

1980 John Bonham collapses during Led Zeppelin's set at a Nuremberg, Germany concert.

1989 Don Henley releases End Of The Innocence.

1989 Who perform the Rock opera Tommy for first time in 17 years in a benefit for the Rock Hall of Fame at Radio City Music Hall in New York.

1991 Carlos Santana busted in Houston airport, charged with holding a small amount of marijuana.

1994 Aerosmith becomes first major band to offer song download through Compuserve.

2002 John Entwhistle dies in a Las Vegas hotel the night before a Who tour opens.

2006 Axl Rose arrested after allegedly biting a security guard on the leg.

2009 Paul McCartney makes surprise appearance at Glastonbury Festival, joining Neil Young on A Day In The Life.

2009 Eddie Van Halen marries Jane Liszewski in LA.

2014 Bobby Womack dies of a heart attack.

2015 Chris Squire of Yes dies of Leukemia.

2019 Guns N' Roses drummer Steven Adler stabs himself in the stomach.