This Day in Music – 10th Aug

On this day in 1985, Simon Le Bon singer from Duran Duran was air lifted to safety when his boat ‘Drum’ overturned while racing off the English coast. The singers boat lost her keel and capsized during the Fastnet race, along the southern coast of Cornwall. Before being rescued, Le Bon and other crew-members were trapped underwater, inside the hull, for forty minutes.
A few years back accident prone Ozzy Osbourne was admitted to hospital after being injured in a quad bike accident at his UK home. The 55 year-old singer broke his collarbone, eight ribs and a vertebra in his neck.
Dire Straits guitarist, singer Mark Knopfler once broke his collarbone after crashing in a celebrity car race before the Australian Grand Prix.
Some multimillionaire rock legends dabble in fast cars or saving rainforests. The more sensible rock stars enjoy more leisurely and less dangerous pursuits.
Canadian rocker Bryan Adams will do everything for you when it comes to his hobby of taking pictures. He’ll turn out for weddings, concerts and, well anything. He’s very good at it too. He’s had his pics published in fashion magazines Vogue and Harpper’s Bizaar. He’s shot many of his musical peers: Mick Jagger, Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Rod Stewart, Robert Plant, Amy Winehouse, Annie Lennox, Peter Gabriel and Morrissey.
When not on his ‘never ending tour’ Bob Dylan takes him-self to the bottom of his garden and sits in his workshop where he likes nothing more than to work as a sculptor. Former Runaway Cherie Currie also likes to sculpt, except she does hers with a chainsaw? The former Runaway guitarist shapes logs into things like mermaids or dolphins or dogs. Now that sounds extremely dangerous.
Stevie Vai keep’s Bees. (it’s getting dangerous again). The guitarist is the proud owner of several thriving colonies. Every Christmas, he harvests his signature Fire Garden Honey, giving jars to friends and family, and selling the rest for charity.
Former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman is an amateur archaeologist and trinket collector. Apparently so obsessed with the hobby that he even markets the Bill Wyman Signature Metal Detector.
Slash is a pinball enthusiast. The guitarist is an avid player and has built two pinball machines, but his own words illustrate his passion; “When you’re playing a guitar solo you have to try and get from your head to your fingers in the fastest amount of time possible so you can get the point across, in time … same thing with pinball.”
Brian May, has a love of animals and has set up the Save Me charity. The Queen guitarist nurses back to health hedgehogs, badgers and fox cubs in a state-of-the-art animal rescue centre he has built in his garden.
Take That singer Robbie Williams disappeared from public view at the end of 2006 to further his search for alien life. Mr. Williams who spent 3 years sat in his back yard looking at the night sky has claimed to have seen three UFOs.
Jack White’s passion is Taxidermy. White recently revealed himself as a taxidermy enthusiast who has a large, collection of taxidermied animals, including a zebra head, two gazelles and a giant white elk.
Now that Stones guitarist Ron Wood is on the wagon, we hear that he’s taken to philately (better known as stamp collecting). So instead of downing another pint of Guinness, Ron spends his days poring over his impressive collection of rare postage stamps.
If Rod Stewart isn’t asking us if we think he’s still sexy anymore is because he’s in his attic playing by him-self. Rod the Mod is rock’s biggest model train fan. The singer boasts of his massive 23 x 124-foot “Three Rivers City” train layout, which was featured on the cover of Model Railroader Magazine in 2007.
Stewart said, “I pity a man who doesn’t have a hobby like this one.”