What’s your favorite Tom Jones tune?

To find out what’s new with Tom Jones visit his official site http://www.tomjones.com

Today’s The 5 on Friday is all about the year 1970 because my birthday is tomorrow May 16th. I was born in 1970. Yes that means I’m in the last year of my thirties. Do you remember the show Thirty Something?

I’m almost out of my thirty somethings so I’m celebrating this 5 on Friday with 5 Cool Happenings in 1970.

1. Isle of Wight Festival 1970

This musical event in 1970 was the largest of early music festivals. At the time, it was said to be one of the largest human gatherings in the world, surpassing the attendance at Woodstock. With a list of over 50 performers including The Doors, The Moody Blues, The Who, Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix.

Leonard Cohen performed his song “Suzanne”, how convenient was that?

For information about this year’s Isle of Wight Festival click here.

2. M*A*S*H

The movie MASH premiered in 1970. My father was in Vietnam just a few years before. For reasons he’s never fully explained, he didn’t like the movie or the television show. I’ve always been intrigued by the movie because it seemed a bit taboo at our house. Are you a MASH fan?

3. The First Earth Day

“. . . on April 22, 1970, Earth Day was held, one of the most
remarkable happenings in the history of democracy. . . ” -American Heritage Magazine, October 1993

Visit earthday.wilderness.org for more info about Earth Day

4. PBS Begins Broadcasting

I’ve been happily watching PBS since I was a kiddo. With unique programming made possible by viewers like me, such as Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Cyberchase, Arthur, Masterpiece Theater, Nature, Independent Lens, and Tavis Smiley.

In my opinion Tavis Smiley has one of the best interview shows on TV.

5. Big Bird on Time

Speaking of Sesame Street, one of my favorite characters, Big Bird, was on the cover of Time Magazine in October of 1970. Here’s a bit about Big Bird from the man who knows him best Caroll Spinney.

I found them while searching for songs with my name in the title. Rocket joins the list of musicians with a song called Suzanne, such as Leonard Cohen, Weezer, Lou Reed and Journey.

Reality TV viewers might remember them as finalists on The Next Great American Band, a FOX talent show that featured judges Shelia E., Ian Dickson, and John Rzeznick.

“Mixing 60′s girl group innocence with 70′s decibel-damaging boulevard beat and 80′s glam wham swagger, Rocket can only be described as a volatile combination that brings to mind The Shangri-Las crashing the stage during an early Motley Crue gig.” —Rocket MySpace profile

This all girl band is sugar and spice, and everything rock-n-roll wrapped up in a big neon bow of color. So here’s a New Year’s gift for you, my Q&A with Rocket:

Give us the history of Rocket. How did it all start?

Rocket started with three high school friends all named Lauren. But when one moved away to go to school, Lauren Rocket and I (Lauren C.) decided to bring more girls on board. We dragged Kristin-another high school friend of ours-out to play bass, found the other girls…and the rest is history!

When I think about “all girl bands” I get images of Josie and the Pussycats, The Go-Go’s, and fictional band The Carrie Nations. What’s your favorite all girl band from the music history vault?

We always feel like The Runaways are our sisters in crime. Our favorite cartoon girl band is, of course, Jem and the Holograms. And from the 90′s…The Spice Girls! I don’t care that they didn’t play instruments.

Do you feel girl bands have a tougher time breaking into the industry?

We are asked questions like this pretty often and it is always hard to say because it’s not like we’ve ever been in an all-guy band trying to make it. I think that at this point breaking into the music industry is hard, no matter who you are. The only annoying part about being a girl in a band is when people backstage ask, “who’s merch girl are you?”

Inquiring minds want to know, did you meet Johnny Depp while performing at the Viper Room?

We did not meet Johnny Depp while at the Viper Room. But we love him and if anyone ever sees him out, please call us.

Tell us about your experience on The Next Great American Band show.

The TV show was one of the most surreal things ever to happen to us. I’m glad we did it though; we now have a great cover version of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”

I thought you guys really rocked the show but you were eliminated. Sometimes I wonder if being the winner of these shows is really a good thing or not. What’s your take on that?

Thanks! I actually don’t know what happened to the winners of the show, so I guess that answers that question. But they were really nice boys!

You guys, I mean gals, live in one happy rock-n-roll house. Which one of you is the housewife?

Lauren and Kelly compete for housewife. Lauren Rocket is a great cook but Kelly Rocket loves to sew.

My favorite song of yours is Suzanne because I’m completely narcissistic when it comes to my name. Who wrote this song and why the name Suzanne?

That’s top secret information that we are not at liberty to divulge. But I’m glad you like the song. Maybe it’s about you?!?!

You have a new album out early 2009. Give us the inside scoop on that?

The inside scoop on our new album is that it will be our first full-length release. We can’t wait to get it out and start playing the new songs and touring. We’re taking over! I should also mention we have some fun guests on the record. You’ll have to wait and see…

If you could tour with any band who would that be?

Since we all have different tastes in music, it would be different for each of us. I would love to tour with The White Stripes but Kristin Rocket would love to tour with Motorhead-She loves Lemmy!!!

You can purchase and download Rocket music by clicking here.

Then I found out they made a song called Suzanne. You may remember it from the closing theme to the 1995 movie Mallrats. I’m a sucker for songs with my name in it so the admiration carried on.

Their latest album, Weezer, a.k.a. The Red Album was released in June, 2008. My favorite song on this album is the catchy tune, Troublemaker. Listening to this makes doing dishes fun again! Ironically this video is all about breaking world records which I recently tried to do. Looks like they had more success than I did.

Here’s internet celeb, Tay Zonday helping Brian Bell with an acoustic version of Weezer’s song Pork & Beans: