Rock history.. a day like today... October 18th

1957:  Paul McCartney performed with the Quarrymen for the first time at the New Clubmoor Hall in Liverpool, England.  McCartney, who played lead guitar, didn't perform well in his solo, which eventually led to George Harrison being invited into the group and Paul switching to bass.

1964:  The Animals set out on their first tour of the United Kingdom at the ABC in Manchester, England.  Carl Perkins, Gene Vincent and the Nashville Teens opened. 

1969: Rod Stewart and Rod Wood joined The Faces, formerly The Small Faces after leaving the Jeff Beck Group.
1975: Sweet had their second top ten single with “Ballroom Blitz.”
Simon and Garfunkel reunite on Saturday Night Live

1985: The Cult released – Love
1986:  Genesis had the top Adult Contemporary song again with "Throwing It All Away".
1988: Traveling Wilburys – Vol. 1
1988: The Traveling Wilburys, a supergroup which included Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison & Tom Petty released their debut album Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1.
1989:Bruce Springsteen fires the E Street Band 
1989 Rolling Stones play first of four shows with Guns N’ Roses

1989, During a gig at The Los Angeles Coliseum, California, (opening for the Rolling Stones),   Guns nRoses front man Axl Rose announced that this would be the last Guns N' Roses concert unless the band members "got their shit together." He was referring to their use of heroin. He later wrote a song about a heroin dealer, 'Mr. Brownstone.'
1994:  In 1980, the members of the supergroup the Eagles vowed they would get back together "when hell freezes over."  Here it was 14 years later and that is what happened, and the band jokingly called their album Hell Freezes Over.  It contained live tracks from an immensely successful tour and four new songs.  On this date, they released their first single in 14 years--"Get Over It".
Birthday
1926:  Chuck Berry was born in St. Louis, Missouri
1949 Gary Richrath-guitarist for REO Speedwagon was born 

1975:  The Eagles performed at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the One of These Nights tour.

1975:  The fine album Windsong by John Denver took over from Pink Floyd'sWish You Were Here as the top album.  Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run was third with Jefferson Airplane cruising in with Red Octopus.

1980 Queen had the biggest hit of their career with "Another One Bites the Dust" which remained #1 for a third week.  Emotional Rescue by the Rolling Stones was #9 and AC/DC logged a third straight week at #10 with Back in Black.

1982:  Toto released the single "Africa".

1982:  Don Henley released one of The Most Important Songs of the Rock Era--"Dirty Laundry", a seething satire on the media and specifically, television news.

2013: Paul McCartney gave an impromptu gig in Covent Garden, London to a crowd of more than 2,000 fans during the lunchtime rush. McCartney's latest solo album 'New' was released in the same week.