Sunday, August 13, 2017

August 13th

Fleetwood Mac (then still a blues band) perform their first concert at The National Jazz and Blues Festival in London.  The band had just formed a month earlier when guitarist Peter Green decided to leave John Mayall's Bluesbreakers (where he had previously replaced Eric Clapton).  It was Peter Green who named the group Fleetwood Mac (after drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie), but McVie was at first hesitant to leave the friendly confines of John Mayall's band. (He was working steadily and making good money playing with The Bluesbreakers and thought leaving for a brand new start-up venture was just too great a risk).  Two weeks after seeing Fleetwood Mac perform at The National Jazz and Blues Festival, he quit the Bluesbreakers to come onboard.  (John Mayall's Bluesbreaker shared the bill with Fleetwood Mac that night … along with Cream, Jeff Beck, Donovan, and Denny Laine.)  Other artists performing over the three day event (August 11th - August 13th) included The Small Faces, Ten Years After, The Nice, The Move, The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown,  Marmalade and, as a member of the group Chicken Shack, a young female singer named Christine Perfect … who a few years later would marry John McVie and become world famous as another member of Fleetwood Mac.) 

The Daughters of the American Revolution make another impact on popular music today when they banned Joan Baez from performing at Constitution Hall in Washington, DC, because of her opposition to the Viet Nam War.  (A month earlier it was widely reported that they were instrumental in having Jimi Hendrix removed from The Monkees' Tour because of his lewd behavior in concert in front of The Monkees' young audience.) 

Speaking of The Monkees, this afternoon they make up for their cancelled appearance at Olympia Stadium in Detroit, MI, after riots forced the July 29th show to be postponed. 

We've got a brand new number one movie at the box office this week as the critically acclaimed classic "Bonnie And Clyde" starring Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty in the lead roles captivates American audiences.  It will go on to top the box office for an incredible eight weeks, although not consecutively … making it the longest running #1 Movie in America for 1967.  (In hindsight it is INCREDIBLE to think how many good, landmark movies were released in 1967 ... and nearly all of them hold up just as well today.)

 We rob banks