B-52s, Margaret Court Arena, 7th February 2017

On February 14 (Valentine’s Day) 1977 five aspiring musicians from Athens, Georgia played their very first gig at a friend’s house.

Naming themselves after Southern slang for exaggerated ‘bouffant” hairdos, the newly-christened B-52s (Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, Keith Strickland, Cindy Wilson and Ricky Wilson) soon began weekend road trips to New York City for gigs at CBGB’s. Their first single, the garage rock party classic “Rock Lobster,” received instant attention from the pop world and tapped into a growing audience for new music that was much larger than anyone could have anticipated.

The rest, as they say, is history!

40 years, 20 million albums and countless classic songs later, the B-52s are acclaimed as one of the most unique, influential and much-loved artists of the post-punk period.