1973

Britain, Ireland and Denmark joined the European Economic Community on New Year's Day, and VAT arrived in the UK that April. Elsewhere, the Paris Peace Accords ended US involvement in the Vietnam War, Martin Cooper made the first handheld mobile phone call in New York, and the Watergate committee learned that Nixon had been secretly taping conversations.

Rock was getting bigger, stranger and louder all at once. Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon came out on 1 March, reached number one on the Billboard 200 at the end of April and went on to log a record 741 weeks on that chart. Led Zeppelin followed with Houses of the Holy at the end of March, and Queen made their debut in July. Black Sabbath closed the year with Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, which stretched heavy metal towards progressive rock, while Pink Floyd squeezed in the compilation A Nice Pair in December. Glam was riding high too, with The Sweet's "Block Buster!" holding the UK top spot for five weeks. Meanwhile the next generation was forming: AC/DC, Kiss, Journey, Cheap Trick, Kansas and Bad Company all began in 1973, and Kiss played their first gig in Queens on 30 January.

The shake-ups were considerable. Rob Halford took over as vocalist of Judas Priest, while Deep Purple lost Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, ending the Mark II line-up, with David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes stepping in. Michael Schenker left Scorpions for UFO, and Scorpions drummer Helmut Eisenhut died. Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead was arrested for drug possession, and Mick Jagger's 1969 drug conviction scuppered the Stones' Japanese dates.