Tommy’s Coffee Break Calendar for April 19th

It's a "Gigs-Before-They-Were-Famous" edition of the Calendar today...

4/19/1969 (47 years ago today) - The band Smile played the Revolution Club in London, where a producer offers them a recording contract with Mercury Records which leads...nowhere. A year from now they re-name themselves Queen, and their fortunes quickly change!!!

4/19/1974 (42 years ago today) - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band headline the (then) 550-seat State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The band was getting loads of attention for their live shows, so the promoter took a chance: instead of paying for advertising, he gambled that word-of-mouth would be enough to fill the venue. Tickets cost $4.50 and $5.50 -- only 250 people ended up going to the show.

4/19/1980 (36 years ago today) - It's the first time R.E.M. plays under their-now-official-name of R.E.M. -- a whopping 150 people attend the show at the 11:11 Koffee Club in Athens, Georgia. It ends up going rather well actually, and the local police have to close things down at 2 am when it's found out the venue was unlicensed!

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"Put that, put that, put that in your wall/That this isn't country at all...", xoxo!