Proving yet again that anything the Beatles touched turns to gold, John Lennon’s toilet from his British Tittenhurst Park estate sold on Saturday,August 28th for a whopping $14,740. Back in the day, Lennon reportedly told builder John Hancock to keep the porcelain toilet and “use it as a plant pot.” Hancock held on to the bowl until his recent death. The auction, which featured 295 lots of Beatles memorabilia, was held in Paul McCartney and George Harrison’s old high school, which is now the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts.

On August 26, 1990, guitar prodigy Stevie Ray Vaughan opened for Eric Clapton at the Alpine Valley Music Theater in East Troy, WI. The show ended with a powerful on-stage collaboration between Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, brother Jimmie Vaughan, Buddy Guy, and Robert Cray.

In the morning hours of August 27, Stevie Ray boarded a helicopter headed for Chicago with members of Clapton’s personnel: tour manager Colin Smythe, bodyguard Nigel Browne, and agent Bobby Brooks. Just outside of East Troy, the helicopter encountered very thick fog and crashed into a mountain, killing all four men and the pilot, Jeffrey Brown. Clapton continued on with the tour, deciding that those on board the helicopter would have wanted such action.

I was filling for Fredrocks doing Middays on KY-102 in Kansas City and we didn’t know who was on board or who was dead, everyone was speculating that Clapton or Robert Cray was dead. I went next door to the WDAF-AM news room and asked Charles Grey if anything came across the wire about the crash, I remember him saying to me ” all rock and rollers die like this, why is that?” I had no f*c#kin’ clue, but that always been stuck in my head to this day.

We found out about Noon the conformation of Stevie’s death, and the members of Eric Clapton staff. Hell we had Clapton in concert the next night at Standstone Amphitheater, we thought it would be cancelled. Clapton went on as promised, and played his heart out. the only reference to the crash, was a little riff of “Pride & Joy”. It was a tough night for the band and all of in the audience, especially during “Wonderful Tonight”. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house. Twenty years ago today, damn..

****WARNING ADULT CONTENT****

It was 41 years ago today,August 18th, 1969 that the Woodstock Music and Art Fair wrapped with Jimi Hendrix’s incendiary set after more than three days of music in Bethel, New York. More than 450,000 people converged upon the small upstate town to hear rock’s biggest bands perform. Although Woodstock was neither the first nor last major festival concert, the fact that the youth of America were able to congregate in one place with no violence during one of the most turbulent years of the decade, gave birth to the notion of the “Woodstock Nation” and gave a voice — and a face — to the hippie ideal.

The first day of the festival served to ease the crowd into the music and feature folk groups. The headliner the first day was Joan Baez, who talked about her expectations during the helicopter ride to the grounds: http://blogs.wroq.com/files/2010/08/Joan…

Creedence Clearwater Revival performed on the second day of Woodstock, when the bill featured harder rock acts. CCR’s Doug Clifford recalled the feeling of the crowd at that time: http://blogs.wroq.com/files/2010/08/CCRs…

Photographer Elliott Landy was commissioned by Michael Lang, one of the festival’s organizers, to take photos of the three-day event. Chances are if you’ve seen a photo from the festival, Landy was the one who took it.

Landy said he believes that Bob Dylan had a huge influence on the transformation of the now-legendary small town in upstate New York http://blogs.wroq.com/files/2010/08/Elli…

Pete Townshend has been able to look back on the experience with the clarity that hindsight provides, and he explains what he felt then, and what he’s learned since:
 http://blogs.wroq.com/files/2010/08/cr08…

He still regards the Who’s 1969 Woodstock as a watershed event in the Who’s live career:
 http://blogs.wroq.com/files/2010/08/Pete…

Artists who performed at the legendary festival included Joan Baez, Country Joe McDonald & the Fish, Arlo Guthrie, Richie Havens, Mountain, Janis Joplin, the Who, the Band, Canned Heat, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Grateful Dead, Sly & the Family Stone, Jefferson Airplane, Santana, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Sha Na Na, John Sebastian, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, Joe Cocker, and many, many more.

And Jimi Hendrix!

I’ve got way too much time on my hands, but this is really cool!!
 http://wimp.com/dolphinbubbles/

Did you hear this one about a flight attendant that had had enough with nasty ass passengers, grabbed a couple of beers, and popped the emergency slide and said “see ya!”

This isn’t a joke, but a true a story!  Steven Slater, a 20 year plus vet flight attendant with Jet Blue had one of those flights.  Arriving into JFK everything was fine until just before the gate, as you know you can NOT move about the cabin until the aircraft come to a complete and full stop at the gate, right?  Not for this passenger she thought the rules did not apply to her,  Slater instructed the person to remain seated and the passenger defied him.  Slater reached the passenger just as the person was pulling down the luggage, which struck Mr. Slater in the head.

Slater asked for an apology and the passenger instead cursed at him, so  Slater got on the plane’s public-address system and cursed out the passenger for all to hear.

This is where it gets weird,  now Slater says in the microphone, after declaring that 20 years in the airline industry was enough,  he blurted out,  “It’s been great!”  He activated the inflatable evacuation slide at a service exit grabbed a couple of beers from the beverage cart, and left the world of flight attending behind.

Hero, or the last straw?  You’ve had those days, what was your last straw?

I say, he’s a hero!  Here’s his fan page on Facebook, tell him what you think!!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Steven-Slater/145469768806134?ref=search&v=wall

A classic from the re-mastered Stone’s “Exile On Main Street”  Directed by Julian Gibbs, “Following the River” is an atmospheric blend of film, animation and archive footage. Follow the river, and take a ride from Chicago to the Deep South. Dreamy, nostalgic sepia production enhances Nicky Hopkins’ melancholy piano, while Mick sings with pain and gratitude of love slipping away.

The video charts in reverse the journey many musicians made from the South to Chicago, the spiritual home of the Blues. By road, by train, by Greyhound, along the Mississippi itself, the people travel, following the river to their own journey’s end.

It’s a great look back with the young lads, check it out.

It was 30 years ago today, AC/DC released their biggest selling album ever, Back In Black. It was their first album without lead singer Bon Scott, who had died a few months earlier after passing out and choking on his own vomit following a long night of drinking.
The group quickly decided to press on and hired Brian Johnson from the band Geordie to take over on vocals, and they headed to the Bahamas for about six weeks to do the album. AC/DC had made some serious headway in America before Scott’s death, but no one knew how Back In Black would be received. The album took off, and eventually sold over 21 million copies in the U.S.

Johnson told us that he didn’t have a clue how successful Back In Black would turn out to be: Brian_Johnson_on_lucky_with_Back_In_Black

Heart has just uploaded it’s new promo video featuring new material from the upcoming studio album Red Velvet Car and it’s accompanying live DVD, which will be released on August 31st. Check out the video it features vintage footage of the band and the new material.