This Day in Music
On this day in music, April 27, 1999, The Verve announced their split. The neo-psychedelic Britpop band had gone their separate ways once before, after completing their second album, A Northern Soul, in 1996. After reconvening in 1997 to record arguably their greatest work – the chart-topping Urban Hymns, containing the singles “The Drugs Don’t Work” and “Bitter Sweet Symphony” – they disbanded again. Frontman Richard Ashcroft, who went on to enjoy a successful solo career, stated to the press that the band would never reunite but in 2007, the group put aside their differences to record Forth.
In 1963, Little Peggy March became the youngest female singer to top the US singles chart when her second single, “I Will Follow Him,” took the top slot on Billboard’s Hot 100. March was just 15 years, one month, and 13 days old. Though she placed five singles in the Hot 100, all in 1963, she was a one-hit-wonder in the UK, where her single “Hello Heartache, Goodbye Love” went to No.29.
In 2008, British supergroup The Last Shadow Puppets scored their first of two UK No.1 albums with their Mercury Award-nominated debut platter, The Age Of The Understatement. A quartet comprised of Artic Monkeys’ Alex Turner, The Rascals’ Miles Kane, Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford, and Zach Dawes of Mini Mansions, the group reconvened in 2016 for a second album, Everything You’ve Come to Expect.
In 2021, Australian singer-songwriter Anita Lane died aged 61. She had a long association with Nick Cave, writing songs with him when he was in the early 80s post-punk group The Birthday Party and briefly joining his band The Bad Seeds during the same decade. She also recorded two solo albums (1993’s Dirty Pearl and 201’s Sex O’Clock) which highlighted her distinctive noirish style.
In 1996, Oasis headlined at a stadium for the first time when they played the first of two homecoming gigs at Manchester City football club’s Maine Road ground in front of 80,000 fans. The concert marked the first time that Noel Gallagher played his iconic Union Jack-clad Epiphone guitar, which became synonymous with the Britpop movement.
In 1990, British movie The Krays opened. It starred Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp and Martin Kemp as the notorious London gangster twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray.
BORN ON APRIL 27
1944: Cuba Gooding (Main Ingredient)
1947: Peter Ham (Badfinger)
1947: Ann Peebles
1948: Kate Pierson (The B-52’s)
1951: Ace Frehley (Kiss)
1959: Sheena Easton
1959: Marco Pirroni (Adam and the Ants)
1979: Will Boyd (Evanescence)
1984: Patrick Stump (Fall Out Boy)
1988: Lizzo
