1970

Nineteen-seventy was a year of big stories on every front. Apollo 13 lost an oxygen tank and limped home safely, the Kent State shootings left four students dead at a protest against the incursion into Cambodia, and Biafra surrendered to end the Nigerian Civil War. Expo '70 opened in Osaka, and Richard Branson started Virgin as a discount mail-order record seller.

Heavy metal was taking shape. Black Sabbath's self-titled debut arrived in February and is regarded as the first major album in the genre, and Paranoid followed in September, sharpening the whole idea. Led Zeppelin turned acoustic and bluesy on Led Zeppelin III in October, with "Whole Lotta Love" still ringing in everyone's ears, while Pink Floyd went orchestral and odd on Atom Heart Mother, a few days earlier, and a compilation, The Best of The Pink Floyd, tidied up the back catalogue. Mountain released Climbing!, and the future was quietly assembling: Aerosmith, Queen and Heart all formed this year, and Klaus Meine and Michael Schenker joined Scorpions. In November, Rolling Stone's Mike Saunders used the words "heavy metal" in a review of Humble Pie's debut.

Endings came thick and fast. Paul McCartney announced he had left The Beatles, tucked into a mock interview in the promotional copies of his first solo album. Jimi Hendrix walked out of a Band of Gypsies show after two songs, then died on 18 September at 27, the Experience already disbanded. Keith Moon ran over his chauffeur outside a pub, a death later ruled an accident, and Simon & Garfunkel signed off with Bridge over Troubled Water.