SPRING 1920: The structure that is now Linda's Doll Hut is built. Dec. 16, 1951: Blasters drummer Bill Bateman is born in Orange. May 15, 1954: Leo Fender produces his first electric guitars and ships them out of Fender Sales in Fullerton. Jan. 17, 1957: Bangles lead singer Susanna Hoffs is born in Newport Beach. Summer 1962: Balboa's Dick Dale and the Del Tones release Surfer's Choice. 1963: Some weenie coins the phrase “Behind the Orange Curtain.” Nobody's amused. June 1965: Jackson Browne graduates from Fullerton's Sunny Hills High School. Jan. 27, 1968: The Bee Gees make their U.S. concert debut at the Anaheim Convention Center, rake in $50,000, and fly home to England immediately after. Aug. 3-4, 1968: A year before Woodstock, the Orange County Fairgrounds hosts the Newport Pop Festival; 100,000 turn out for sets by the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and Tiny Tim, who's so popular he needs a police escort to the stage. Oct. 3, 1969: Gwen Stefani is born in Anaheim. July 1972: The kids from The Brady Bunch headline at Knott's Berry Farm. 1973: In an Anaheim hotel room, Al Green finds Jesus and becomes born-again. November 1977: Fullerton's Middle Class are the first OC punk band to get airplay on KROQ. Mid-1978: OC's godfather of punk, Jerry Roach, opens the Cuckoo's Nest in Costa Mesa. Spring 1978: Punk band the Crowd form in Huntington Beach. Summer 1978: Jim Decker (a.k.a. Jim Trash), lead singer of the Crowd, claims to have created slam dancing while “being drunk and falling all over people.” Spring 1979: Placentia's Mike Palm forms Agent Orange; they release their debut, Living in Darkness, two years later. August 1979: Social Distortion play their first gig at a house party in Yorba Linda with Agent Orange; Mike Ness spits in a cop's face, goes to jail, and gets a tattoo. Summer 1980: Jan Ackerman buys a guitar from a member of the Crowd and forms the Vandals, who go on to become OC's clown princes of punk. Spring 1981:TSOL release their politically charged debut EP to critical acclaim but are remembered only for Dance With Me, a Gothic horror album released later that year. Summer 1981: The Adolescents release their self-titled debut. Aug. 21, 1981: Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre opens. Fall 1981: Adolescents guitarist Rikk Agnew and bassist Casey Royer form D.I. as a side project; the name comes from the fact that they played their first gig under the influence of “seven or eight different intoxicants”-thus Drug Ideology. Spring 1982:Stone Temple Pilot-in-training Scott Weiland, 12, moves to Huntington Beach, where he meets Robert and Dean DeLeo. May 1982: The Adolescents' Rikk Agnew writes “OC Life,” one of the greatest songs about our county. When he scrawled “Designer jeans and malls are all you'll ever have to gain,” he meant it, man. Summer 1982: Mike Ness gets one of his earlobes bitten off in a fight outside the Cuckoo's Nest; he celebrates by getting a tattoo. April 1983: Social Distortion releases Mommy's Little Monster; Mike Ness celebrates with a tattoo. June 1983: Costa Mesa's Pacific Amphitheater opens for business. Summer 1984: The Vandals play a tongue-in-cheek benefit gig for the Young Republicans. November 1985: Guitarist Billy Zoom plays his final show with X at the Universal Amphitheater and sets up an amp-repair shop in Orange. August 1986: OC popstress Stacey Q enters the Billboard Top 40 with “Two of Hearts.” July 1987: I see Agent Orange at Raging Waters and realize '80s punk is over. Spring 1987: Scott Weiland and the DeLeo Brothers form Mighty Joe Young in Newport Beach; they claim they're from San Diego. Summer 1987: Eric Stefani forms No Doubt as a ska band in Anaheim; they sign to Interscope three years later. Fall 1988: Dr. Dream Records is founded in Orange. April 1989: N.W.A, famous for their song “Fuck tha Police,” get bounced from a Celebrity Theatre show because the Anaheim cops want it that way. August 1989: Linda Jemison buys the Doll Hut and starts to book bands. Spring 1990: Reel Big Fish form. They play hairspray metal; when that's not fashionable anymore, they turn to ska. Spring 1991: Korn move from Bakersfield to Huntington Beach; nobody blames them. Spring 1992: Farside release their debut of anthems, Rochambeau; original guitarist Zack de la Rocha has already left the band, opting to work on his politics. April 1, 1992: Atlantic Records wants a Pearl Jam of their own. They sign Mighty Joe Young, who are soon forced to change their name to Stone Temple Pilots. Summer 1992: Rage Against the Machine release a self-produced tape; it's a blueprint for their Epic debut the next year. Summer 1992: Orange's Kim Shattuck forms the Muffs after the Pandoras break up because their lead singer committed suicide. Fall 1992: Sublime record 40 Oz. to Freedom for less than $1,000. Spring 1994: The Offspring release Smash, but a nation shudders at Dexter Holland's cornrows. Dec. 16, 1994: A punk fan is stabbed outside Fullerton's Ice House while waiting for a Vandals gig. The venue closes. Summer 1995: Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal break up way too many times, resulting in the lyrics for Tragic Kingdom. June 1995: During a set at the Blockbuster Pavilion, Huntington Beach band Guttermouth's lead singer Mark Adkins verbally assaults security, starts a free-for-all melee, and spends two days in jail, marking his biggest musical accomplishment ever. July 29, 1995: A paltry 2,300 people show up to see 100 local bands on 10 stages at the second annual Independents Day fest at Irvine Meadows. May 25, 1996: Sublime's Brad Nowell shoots horse for the last time in a San Francisco hotel. July 1996: Brea's Zebrahead form. October 1997: Home Grown play a showcase at Fullerton's Global Village, fool everyone, and get signed. Spring 1998: Social Distortion gets dropped from Epic; Mike Ness cheers himself up with a tattoo. March 1998: Spin proclaims Sugar Ray's “Fly” the single of the year in its readers poll but loses credibility when the same issue picks ska as the Next Big Thing. April 1998: Mike Ness helps local boys Wank produce their debut Maverick album; he then goes out and celebrates with a tattoo. Aug. 2, 1998: Dave Wakeling plays the Tiki Bar for the 2,523rd time. July 1998: Jeffries Fan Club throw their 576th release party for their new album. January 2000: Mike Ness celebrates the new millennium with a tattoo. August 2005: The OC Weekly receives its 5 millionth demo tape. Staffers use them as bricks in the new office wing. July 30, 2010: Sotheby's auctions off Gwen Stefani's first midriff for $1.2 million.
