On This Day

On August 16th, 2010, Iron Maiden unleashed their fifteenth studio album, The Final Frontier, via EMI Records — a sprawling, ambitious heavy metal voyage packed with huge riffs, progressive twists, sci-fi atmosphere and classic Maiden storytelling. Sixteen years later, it still feels like one of the most adventurous records of the band’s modern era. And considering this is Iron Maiden...

16 August 1986. Donington Park. Around 70,000 rock fans. Six bands. One absolutely monstrous day of heavy music. Today marks the 40th anniversary of Monsters of Rock 1986, a festival that still reads like somebody raided a metalhead’s record collection and decided to book the entire thing in one go. The running order? Bad News. Warlock. Motörhead. Def Leppard. Scorpions....

Peace, Love, Mud & Absolutely Monumental Riffs 🤘🌼🔥 There are music festivals… and then there’s Woodstock. Held from 15–18 August 1969 on Max Yasgur’s dairy farm near Bethel, New York, the Woodstock Music & Art Fair became far more than another weekend of bands playing in a field. More than half a million people descended on the site for four...

15–18 August 1969 | Bethel, New York There are music festivals… and then there’s Woodstock. From 15 to 18 August 1969, hundreds of thousands of people descended upon a dairy farm in rural New York for an event that would become one of the most famous gatherings in the entire history of popular music. It had legendary bands. It had...

15–18 August 1969 | Bethel, New York There are music festivals… and then there’s Woodstock. From 15 to 18 August 1969, hundreds of thousands of people descended upon a dairy farm in rural New York for an event that would become one of the most famous gatherings in the entire history of popular music. It had legendary bands. It had...

Between 15 and 17 August 1972, Deep Purple walked onto stages in Japan and proceeded to capture three nights of hard-rock history. Those performances would become the foundation of Made in Japan — an album now regularly mentioned whenever the conversation turns to the greatest live albums ever recorded. And 54 years later? It still sounds absolutely bloody enormous. 🤘🔥...

On August 15, 2014, German heavy metal legends Accept unleashed their 14th studio album, Blind Rage — a record packed with crushing riffs, enormous choruses and enough old-school metal muscle to knock the doors off the venue. 🔥🎸 Twelve years later, it still hits like a runaway freight train. And today, the big question being thrown out by The Metal...

14 August 1981. Genesis were about to enter a very different era. Forty-five years ago today, Genesis released “Abacab” as a single in the UK, firing the opening shot for the album of the same name and signalling that Phil Collins, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford weren’t interested in simply repeating what had worked before. And what a strange, glorious...

10–11 August 1996. Knebworth Park. Oasis. There are big gigs. There are legendary gigs. And then there’s Oasis at Knebworth. Thirty years ago this week, the Gallagher brothers and their bandmates walked onto a stage in Hertfordshire and played to an astonishing 250,000 people across two nights, creating one of the defining moments in British rock history. A quarter of...

There are collaborations… and then there are those gloriously bonkers moments in music where two completely different worlds collide and somehow create absolute magic. Freddie Mercury teaming up with legendary Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé was most definitely the latter. 🤘🎼 The original “Barcelona” single was released in 1987, but following Freddie Mercury’s death and with the Barcelona Olympic Games putting...

There are great gigs. There are legendary gigs. And then there’s Queen at Live Aid. On 13 July 1985, Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon walked onto the stage at Wembley Stadium and proceeded to deliver what has become one of the most celebrated live performances in rock history. No massive Queen stage production. No elaborate lighting...

There are headlines… And then there are headlines that punch you square in the ribs and steal the air out your lungs. February 1980 delivered one of those. Bon Scott — the snarling, grinning, tattoo-flashing frontman of AC/DC — was found dead in London. Just 33 years old. Thirty-three, mun. That’s nothing. That’s “still causing chaos in the pit” age....

Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper & Ritchie Valens – Gone Too Soon, Never Forgotten Sixty-seven years ago today, rock ’n’ roll took one of its cruellest gut punches.A small plane went down just outside Clear Lake, Iowa, and with it went three young men who were only just getting started — three voices that helped light the fuse on modern...

Every so often, history gives us a moment where the volume knob snaps clean off and refuses to be fixed. 20 January 1992 was one of those days, butt. 🇬🇧🐉 That’s when Manic Street Preachers unleashed You Love Us, the third single from their snarling, confrontational debut album Generation Terrorists — and British rock was never quite the same again....

The Riff Report Blog Edition — where even the history lessons come with riffs and chaos December 5th might look like any other chilly winter day… But in the world of rock ’n’ roll? This date is absolutely heaving with legendary moments, iconic releases, outrageous musical milestones, and one very important rock-baby arrival. Grab your battle-jacket, pour a festive pint,...