Hair Band History (July 3rd)

Happy Birthday to RATT founder, singer, songwriter and sole remaining original member, Stephen Pearcy (July 3, 1959).

July 3, 1988: Van Halen's "Monsters Of Rock" Tour landed in Dallas. During the VH set, Sammy Hagar lost his voice and promised the crowd the band would play a free concert there at a later date. They made good three years later.

July 3, 1986: With first single "Why Can't This Be Love" a Top 5 hit in America and second single "Dreams" now receiving heavy radio airplay, Van Halen's first album with Sammy Hagar was a smash and the band made the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine.

July 3, 1987: Twisted Sister released their fifth studio album "Love Is For Suckers" in North America, their last before breaking up. Glam influenced to "fit in with every other hair metal band out there at that time", single "Hot Love" was a Top 40 rock hit. Release date source: [US] Billboard Magazine - July 4, 1987; [UK] Kerrang! spotlight - July 9, 1987.

Summer 1989: Released in April the debut single from New Jersey hard rockers Saraya, "Love Has Taken It's Toll", was getting a lot of love from American pop radio because great rock songs sound even more awesome in the summertime. HITS US radio trade publication ad - July 3, 1989

July 3, 1989: On the road with Winger and BulletBoys, Cinderella's "Long Cold Winter" Tour was diverted to Akron, Ohio to open for Bon Jovi for one night only. Frontman Tom Keifer was interviewed by Kerrang! and featured in the UK magazine a month later.

July 3, 1989: With support from Cinderella and BulletBoys, Bon Jovi brought the "Jersey Syndicate Tour" to Rubber Bowl in Akron, complete with pyrotechnics, a catwalk elevated above the crowd, and an elevator in the middle of the stage that allowed Jon Bon Jovi to seemingly materialize out of nowhere during a pyro blast.

July 3, 1981: Van Halen brought the "Fair Warning" Tour to Cobo Arena in Detroit for the first of three sold out shows that translated to 50,000 fans between ages 15 and 25, "with tremendous amounts of emotion given when the band had arrived on stage" to which a review in the Windsor Star described the VH entrance "as if they appeared in a blaze of flashing light," adding that he thought Armageddon had arrived.

July 1988: Two months after the release of their second album "Open Up And Say...Ahh!" and first single "Nothin' But A Good Time" in the Top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100, Metal Edge Magazine gave Poison their own issue.