If there's a cooler birthday than October 31st, Listening Post doesn't know what it is. Usually, holiday birthdays suck, but free candy and madcap role-playing make Halloween stand out like a sore sweet tooth.
The list of musicians who share a Halloween birthday is long indeed, and spans the sonic spectrum. Legendary guitar hero, and professor, Johnny Marr (pictured) of The Smiths, The Cribs, Modest Mouse, Talking Heads, The The, The Pretenders and – stop me if think that you've heard this one before – many more was born on October 31, 1963. My Bloody Valentine's powerhouse drummer Colm O' Ciosoig was born in Ireland one year later. Meanwhile, Guided By Voices' hyper-prolific front man Robert Pollard beat those two whippersnappers by several years, screaming to life in 1957.
Pollard and his Guided By Voices pals reportedly beat The Beastie Boys in a basketball game once, which gives Pollard two sets of bragging rights over Beastie Adam Horovitz, who was born on Halloween in 1966. But he's not the only notorious white rapper born on October 31st: Vanilla Ice, arguably the worst white rapper of all time, was born the next year.
this audio or video is no longer availableThe creepy list goes on. Other Halloween babies include U2 drummer Larry Mullen, Motorhead drummer Mikkey Dee, Bow Wow Wow singer Annabella Lwin, Napalm Death guitarist Mitch Harris and many more. What a bunch of freaks.
Photo: Marr @ MySpace
See also:
- October Rocks: R.I.P. Gravediggaz
- October Rocks: Who is Little Tibia and the Fibias?
- October Rocks: David Pajo's Imeem Helloween
- October Rocks: Tool's Maynard James Keenan Takes Puscifer Into the Weird
- October Rocks: Metric's 'Monster Hospital' Resuscitates Repulsion
- October Rocks: Priest's Decibels Decapitate Squares
- October Rocks: Elvira Guest DJs, Dishes on Jimi, Elvis
