The Manics win big, Bruce Springsteen, Hall & Oates and Edison Lighthouse all hit the top spot and Jimi Hendrix has the promoters excited. It’s This Week In Rock!

#OnThisDay January 27, 2009
Bruce Springsteen releases ‘Working On A Dream’, his sixteenth studio album. His ninth No. 1 album in the US, it also tops the charts in a further 17 countries including the UK, New Zealand and Sweden.

#OnThisDay January 28, 1997
Manic Street Preachers win big at the NME Awards when they scoop the gongs for Best Album (‘Everything Must Go’), Best Single (‘A Design For Life’) and Best Live Act. Commenting on the band’s success, frontman James Dean Bradfield says, “It has been a good year for us, but obviously it’s hard for us to say that too enthusiastically.”

#OnThisDay January 29, 1978
ELO climb 23 places to enter the UK Top 20 singles at No. 16 with ‘Mr Blue Sky’, the second single from their seventh studio album, ‘Out Of The Blue’. It eventually peaks at No. 6.

#OnThisDay January 30, 1982
Hall & Oates seize the top spot for the fourth time on the US singles chart with ‘I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)’. The single reaches No. 8 in the UK singles chart.

#OnThisDay January 31, 1970
Edison Lighthouse top the UK charts with the smash-hit single, ‘Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)’, where it remains for five weeks. Selling 250,000 copies in the UK, it shifts over a million units in the US, where it reaches No. 5.

#OnThisDay February 1, 1992
George Michael tops the US charts with ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’, his celebrated duet with Elton John. Also topping the charts in Canada, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and of course the UK, all the proceeds are donated to AIDS charities.

#OnThisDay February 2, 1967
Barely containing their excitement, the promoters of the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s show at the Blue Pad Club in Darlington advertise the show saying: “Don’t miss this man who is Dylan, Clapton and James Brown all in one!” And who could disagree?