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Rock and Metal History, a day like today June 18

1948: Columbia Records displayed its new 33 1/3 long-playing record in New York City. The new format allowed 23 minutes per side as opposed to 3 minutes for a 78 RPM record.

1965: The Grateful Dead performed at Frenchy’s in Monterey, CA, playing for the first time with Phil Lesh in the lineup.

1964: Touring Australia The Beatles played at Sydney Stadium in Sydney. This wasPaul McCartney 22nd birthday and after the show his guests included 17 girls who were winners of the Daily Mirrors 'Why I would like to be a guest at a Beatles birthday party' competition.

1967: The Jimi Hendrix Experience performed for the first time in the U.S. It was the final day of the Monterey Pop Festival. Jimi’s sensational set ended when he smashed and set his guitar on fire.

1972: Alice Cooper released his fifth studio album "School's Out", featuring his hit song School's Out!! School's Out reached #2 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart and #1 on the Canadian RPM 100 Top Albums chart, holding the top position for four weeks. The single "School's Out" reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, #3 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles Chart and went all the way to #1 in the UK Singles Chart.The original album cover (designed by Craig Braun)[6] had the sleeve opening in the manner of a wooden student desk. The vinyl record inside was wrapped in a pair of panties,[7] though this was later discontinued as thepaper panties were found to be flammable.[8] The actual desk is on display in the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas.

1973: Chicago released their single "Feelin' Stronger Every Day".

1977: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, supported by The Boomtown Rats appeared at Friars, Aylesbury, England.

-Johnny Rotten and Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols were stabbed and beaten when they were attacked in a car park outside a London pub. They objected to the Pistols' anti-monarchist song 'God Save the Queen'. The next day, another member of the Pistols, Paul Cook, was beaten by a gang armed with iron pipes.

-U2 and Oasis performed the first of two concerts at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum in California.

1984: "Panama" was released by Van Halen,a song from Van Halen's album 1984. It was the third single released from that record and is one of their most recognized songs.The song was reportedly written about a car. According to David Lee Roth this was because critics accused him of writing about nothing more than partying, sex, and cars, but Roth realized that he had yet to write a song about cars. "Panama" is featured in the opening title for the American version of the PlayStation 2 game Gran Turismo 4

-Judaspriest fans caused $250,000 damage to "The Garden"

1988: Van Halen had their hit single, Black And Blue, ranked at #34, on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart.

– Lita Ford had her hit single, Kiss Me Deadly, ranked at #12, on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart.

1989: Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, the Proclaimers and Hot House Flowers performed on the second day of the Glastonbury Festival in England.

2002: U2 lost a bid to prevent the demolition of Hanover Quay studio in Dublin.’Over 8,000 fans signed an online petition to preserve the studio, where the group recorded ‘All That You Can't Leave Behind’ and some of their 'Pop' album.

2012: At a Radiohead concert in a park in Toronto, metal rigging over a stage collapses one hour before show time. Various technicians were setting up the stage equipment when the incident occurred, injuring some and killing one drum technician, Scott Johnson, who was pinned under the rubble.

2015: Ozzy Osbourne’s Memoirs Of A Madman is ranked at #7, on the iTunes Top 100 Heavy Metal Albums Chart.

Born on this day

1942: Paul McCartney, The Beatles Wings, solo. The most successful rock composer of all time. McCartney first met John Lennon on July 6th 1957, who was impressed that Paul could tune a guitar. With The Beatles he scored 21 US No.1 & 17 UK No.1 singles plus McCartney has scored over 30 US & UK solo Top 40 hit singles. He has written and co-written 188 charted records, of which 91 reached the Top 10 and 33 made it to No.1 totalling 1,662 weeks on the chart.