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On This Day in Music History
2015
In a field just outside of Cesena, Italy, 1000 musicians and singers play Foo Fighters “Learn to Fly” simultaneously with the dream of attracting the band to play a show in their city for the first time in nearly 20 years.
Rockin’ 1000, the group behind the idea, led by Fabrio Zaffanini, assemble hundreds of volunteers and a video crew to orchestrate the epic video shoot of the performance with the intention of getting Dave Grohl, frontman of Foo Fighters, to see it, and respond.
After a full day of shooting, and few more for editing, the video includes a plea for the band to play in the city of less than 100,000 people. Within hours of the video being uploaded to YouTube, it goes viral, garnering over 10 million views, and is shared across Twitter and Facebook worldwide. Dave Grohl responds personally on Foo Fighters Twitter account with, “Ci vediamo a pressa, Cesena…. XXX Davide #Rockin1000.” (Translation: “See you soon, Cesena”).
The following day, proving the power of viral video, Dave posts a personal cell-phone video titled “Per Cesena & #Rockin1000,” and speaking in Italian, he praises the video and ends with, “Stiamo arrivando, prometto,” which translates to “We are coming. I promise.”
In a true storybook ending, on November 3, Foo Fighters take the stage at Nuova Teatro Calisport in Cesena, Italy. Appropriately, the band opens with “Learn to Fly,” and delivers surprise covers over the course of a marathon set, culminating in Grohl asking Fabio and a drummer from the video known as “Mohawk guy,” to sit in on a cover of “Under Pressure” with the band they successfully convinced to come play.
2013 Oklahoma guitarist J.J. Cale, who wrote the songs “Call Me The Breeze” and “After Midnight,” dies at age 74.
2012 Searching For Sugar Man, an Academy Award-winning documentary about Detroit Rocker Sixto “Sugar Man” Rodriguez, is released in the UK.
2000 The file-sharing service Napster is ordered by a US federal judge to cease trading copyrighted music files in the next 48 hours.
1987 With the Cold War winding down, American export Billy Joel plays a concert in Leningrad – something that would be impossible a few years earlier. The show is released as the album KOHUEPT (Concert).
1986 Peter Gabriel hits #1 in the US with “Sledgehammer,” bumping his old band, Genesis (with “Invisible Touch“) out of the top spot.
1977 While touring the US with Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant learns that his 5-year-old son, Karac, has died of a stomach virus. The tour abruptly ends, and Led Zeppelin never again play in the United States.
1943 Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones is born Michael Philip Jagger in Dartford, Kent, England.