On this day in 1981: The Rolling Stones played a secret pre-tour warm-up show at the Sir Morgan’s Cove club in Worcester, Massachusetts. Billed as Little Boy Blue & The Cockroaches, a local radio station announced that the Stones were in town, resulting in the club being besieged by over 4,000 fans attempted to get into the 350-person venue. Police were called in to control the crowds, which resulted in eleven fans being arrested.
On this day in 1984: The first ever MTV Video Music Awards were held in New York City. The show was hosted by Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler at Radio City Music Hall.
Herbie Hancock was the night’s biggest winner, taking home five awards, followed by Michael Jackson, who won three. The night’s main award went to The Cars for “You Might Think” making this the first of a very few number of times in which the winner of Video Of The Year did not take home any other awards.
In terms of nominations, Hancock’s “Rockit” and The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” were the year’s most nominated videos, with each receiving eight nominations apiece. Meanwhile, the most nominated artist of 1984 was Cyndi Lauper, who aside from winning the Best Female Video Moonman received nine nominations that year for two of her videos: six for “Girls Just Want To Have Fun” and three for “Time After Time.”
Other major nominees that night included the aforementioned Michael Jackson and The Cars, both of whom received six nominations for their videos “Thriller” and “You Might Think”, respectively; ZZ Top also received six nominations for their videos “Legs”, “Sharp Dressed Man”, and “Gimme All Your Lovin”; and Billy Idol got five nominations for “Dancing With Myself” and “Eyes Without A Face.” Lastly, David Bowie had four nominations for his “China Girl” and “Modern Love” videos, and he was also one of the night’s honorees for the Video Vanguard award.
Madonna performed “Like A Virgin” as she emerged from a 17-foot wedding cake gowned in a wedding dress. Not long into the performance, Madonna accidentally kicked off one of her white high heel shoes and she rolled around on the ground in order to cover up the mistake. She told Billboard after the incident, “So I thought, ‘Well, I’ll just pretend I meant to do this,’ and I dove onto the floor and I rolled around”
