Some days, a lot of significant things happen. On this particular day, five (or more) big things have happened that have been covered on this blog! Days such as this are referred to as banner days, and this is one of them.
(As a personal note, December 4 has special meaning as the first day to achieve banner day status on this blog in December 2019. Just goes to show just how much was going on that even on my first go-around, I found so much.)
In terms of life and death, today is a day of no insignificant loss of life. On the same sad day in 1976, both Benjamin Britten and Tommy Bolin passed away. These two British musicians may have walked very different paths, but nonetheless left symphonic music and rock ‘n roll respectively better for their presence.
In the concerts corner, blog favorites were out in full touring force on this day throughout history. In 1970, Emerson, Lake & Palmer performed a rollicking concert in Zurich (not Brussels, as I’m obliged to say every time it comes up!). As they’d only written one album at the time, there was still room on the setlist for non-ELP songs. At this date, they did a song known as “Preacher Blues”.
Rainbow was also out on tour on this day in 1979, selling Down to Earth to eager American concert-goers. On this particular day in history, their stop was at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
There was another concert worth talking about today, though the fallout falls squarely under major historical events. You already know the whole story of the Frank Zappa concert at which a loony fan brought a flare gun, however…
You can read more about each of the following topics below:
- 1970–Emerson, Lake & Palmer perform at Limmathaus in Zurich
- 1971–The Montreux Casino burns down during a Frank Zappa Concert
- 1976–Tommy Bolin Dies at 25
- 1976–Benjamin Britten Dies at 63
- 1979–Rainbow Performs at the Stanley Theater in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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