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Home , Being Beige, Billy Corgan, Cherub Rock, Dan Reed Network, David Pajo, Disarm

’s Timeline 1967

March 17

William Patrick Corgan was born to William Patrick Corgan Sr. and Martha Louise Maes Lutz in Elk Grove Village, .

1970

Parents divorce. Father soon remarried and moved Billy to Glendale Heights, Illinois.

"My family didn't fit into the culture we lived in, and then abuse made me feel even more alienated from what was going on. Plus, a lot of kids around me were being abused as well, so you didn't think, `Well, I'm different.' I cut myself, I stayed up all night. You know, I did things with sleep deprivation, and I got into I guess what you would call obsessive-compulsive behaviors these days."

1976

Jesse, Billy half-brother was born with Tourette’s and other disabilities.

“This song (Spaceboy) is about my little brother. He's an interesting character. It's kind of about how he's different. He has physical handicap, it's hard to explain. He has a rare chromosomal disorder; it gives him a somewhat different genetic make-up. He has different physical and mental problems and yet somehow by all accounts, I'm physically and mentally OK. But I feel our lives are the similar. (Similar in the way that we are both) Freaks of nature, freaks of society, I always keep going back to something by Henry Miller. No matter how much he smiled, told jokes, shook hands, and patted people on the back. People still looked at him funny; they still sensed something wasn't right. I've always felt that way, that no matter how normal I appear, I was treated differently.”

1985,

Billy graduates from Glenbard North High School and moves to St. Petersburg, Florida to form The Marked with Ron Roesing.

1987

Billy meets guitarist, James Iha. Their similar influences and interests caused both of them to collaborate and form a .

1988

May 7 Billy meets D’Arcy Wretsky after they get into an argument over The .

July 9 Smashing Pumpkins official debut at 21 Club (Billy, James and D’Arcy)

October 5 First gig at the Metro in Chicago as quartet. (Newly added drummer Jimmy

November 19 The band is interviewed by Northwestern University’s radio station. They announce that Jimmy Chamberlain is an official band member. The Pumpkins then head to Roselle for the taping for Pulse, a local cable access show.

November 23 open for Jane's Addiction. Jimmy is the permanent drummer and this is their fourth gig.

1989

March 17 The Smashing Pumpkins play the Light into Dark tour at the Cabaret Night Club.

April 12 Light into the Dark LP is released on Halo Records with two SP tracks: “Sun" and "My Dahlia.”

September The Smashing Pumpkins begin touring outside of Chicago. 1990

May 10 Billy Corgan solo performance at the Avalon in Chicago, IL.

June 29 Billy Corgan solo performance at the Avalon in Chicago, IL.

August 18 Billy’s side project, Starchildren, does first show.

September Billy categorized the Pumpkin sound as "We've been called everything from neo- glam to hypnotic drone ." Billy cites '60s mega-rock bands like Cream, , , , "your monsters of rock" as the band's influences.

November Pumpkins open for The Lemonheads for three dates.

December The Smashing Pumpkins sign with .

1991,

May

May 9: Smashing Pumpkins begin touring with Guns and Roses.

May 28: is released by Caroline Records.

"It`s a very spiritual ," he adds. "How Gish and spirituality tie together is something only I can figure out in my head." From “Smashing Pumpkins find a home at Caroline Records” Marc Caro. August 8 interview. Billy was quoted as saying “What the band does is so specific that we couldn’t dilute it in any way. We couldn’t put ourselves in the position where we were powerless.” From “Meticulously Calculated Chaos” Rolling Stone Magazine.

October 16 Smashing Pumpkins open for the (with ) at Oscar Meyer Theatre in Madison Wisconsin.

December 17 Smashing Pumpkins performance at Whiskey a Go-go in Los Angeles. Billy refers to himself as a “frustrated Midwestern ” per . (Pic from Google Images) 1992,

Smashing Pumpkins decide to leave Caroline Records after making their mark with Gish. The band signs with .

“Smashing Pumpkins fielded a flurry of major-label offers before opting to debut on independent Caroline Records. After making its mark as an indy band with last year's Gish, however, the Chicago-based band decided the time was right to move to the majors and signed with Virgin Records.” “Smashing Pumpkins Go Major Label Way” Orlando Sentinel Tribune. July 31, 1992. Parry Gettelman

January 23 Interview with Spiral Scratch Magazine “Fuck Off, We’re From Chicago” which discusses U.K. release of Gish.

“Head Pumpkin Billy Corgan's tortuous four months in the studio (he co-produced GISH) beats the hell out of paying a trick cyclist: "it's that perfection thing," he muses, and “it's that Todd Rungren thing. You name it, we did it-hard, intense- we did every part over until it was RIGHT! It's such an ambiguous thing, y'know, music, the band, you never know where you are, where to draw the line, until you get into the studio, to make a single, or album, or whatever; after years of thinking about it, writing and playing, then you have to draw the line somewhere, but where? I should've gone to see a psychiatrist!" flaxen haired groovy chick bassist D'Arcy giggles, "yeah, instead you went and got your palm read!"

March 28 Billy, James and D’Arcy go onstage during Pearl Jam’s encore for two songs. They played “Window Pain” and a cover of “I Got a Feeling” by

April 7 Interview with Reflex Magazine is released. “SMASHING PUMPKINS Best Case Scenario” by Marshall Gooch.

"You can't satisfy everyone," he says. "There is a path in life of self-realization. It doesn't even have to do with being a musician. I think you need to come to things--realizations-- as naturally as possible, because your mind and soul will be behind those things 100%. And what I found myself doing in reading press was going 'Oh, I'm not this? I'm not this either. Okay, well I'd better learn how to be this.' And then I was going 'Well, wait a second. This is stupid.' If it comes to me to be funny . . . or whatever, I will."

July Smashing Pumpkins play at the Tourhout/Werchter Festival in Tourhout Belgium. August 29 Smashing Pumpkins play show at the Reading Festival in the . The show nearly led to the band’s break-up. Billy later admitted that the band was upset at each other and "it was one of a handful of times where we've let each other down."

September Touring was taking its toll and tensions were high. Things were just generally bad. 1993

March

Smashing Pumpkins do show at Center Stage in , Georgia. Some of these performances later appear on “Vieuphoria.”

May

Billy buys his first home.

June

Pumpkins wrap up studio time for the new album. They record 25 songs, but choose 13 for the album. The songs were a reflection of Billy’s life.

Interview with Billy and Jimmy from “RAGE” music program in Australia.

BILLY: If I had my preference I'd just prefer people to listen to and make judgments on that. We're not just at competing at a musical level; we're competing with the media as well. And to pretend that there's not a media perception is deceiving, it's stupid. You can try to pretend that there's not a media machine that you have to feed into, that's lying you know. You know you have to deal with your MTV's and your Melody Makers, so, you make a choice of how you want to be in those mediums, and, my choice personally is be who I am and if it's misinterpreted then there's nothing I can do about that. If I'm trying to out guess some idiot who's never been on stage, never played a note in his life, and I'm not excluding some women from this, you know, who cannot understand the depth of what we do then that's their problem, and it's not my problem 'cause they can't understand.”

BILLY: “The reason I wrote was because, I didn't have the guts to kill my parents, so I thought I'd get back at them through song. And rather than have an angry, angry, angry violent song I'd thought I'd write something beautiful and make them realize what tender feelings I have in my heart, and make them feel really bad for treating me like shit.” (I included this because from a fan’s perspective, this is a beautiful, honest answer.)

July 13 “” is released as first single.

Interview discussing the release of “Danger..UXB…as in Unexploded Band.” By David Cavanaugh Select Pop Babylon (Article was sent to David Asselin as part of Siamese Dream press release kit.

“I DON'T THINK YOU HAVE TO suffer, for great art. It's just that we happen to." Smashing Pumpkins are a band that could snap apart at any minute, and take several people down with them. The singer thinks the others are not pulling their weight, and regularly threatens to commit suicide. They accuse him of being a hysterical neurotic. He says he's the one with the vision. They say he's a mentally unstable tyrant who should relax more.

The drummer fell horribly by the wayside on tour last year and had to be professionally cleaned out. The singer had to go into therapy. The bassist kept throwing up. The guitarist, whose quote you've just read above, was living on orange juice and humus. Their Reading Festival appearance last August at which they were, quote, “going to do what Nirvana had done the previous year”, embarrassed and depressed them so badly that the singer had to be talked out of splitting the band up there and then.

Meanwhile the new Smashing Pumpkins album, the one that's surely going to break them worldwide, is 33 days behind schedule, the drummer's gone down with food poisoning, the singer's cut most of his hair off and the rest of the band are wondering how long they can go on like this.

July 27

Siamese Dream is released by Virgin Records

August Interview with Alternative Press “Psychic Reliquaries and Separation “

"You could look at my record collection and literally everything in it has influenced me, ' argues Billy, " I never said to myself I want to be Led Zeppelin, I said I want to be power, that muscular, rhythmic power. The influences were somewhat of a parental influence on the first album, but now I feel that voice is no longer in my head. I found my own voice."

August 13 Smashing Pumpkins play at The Metro and give a “shattering performance” according to the Chicago Tribune.

Interview with Rolling Stone Magazine. “Smashing Pumpkins’ Sudden Impact.” By, Michael Azzerrad.

“But Corgan sees his music as an antidote to his generations well documented apathy.”Some people want to express that apathy with noise and brutality, “he says "But for me, my sensibility is to reflect in a way that transcends it. It's the want to transcend all of that, to find some deeper essence in life that drives me. That's why I try to make ultimately beautiful music."

October 30 Smashing Pumpkins first appearance on . They play “Cherub Rock” and “Today.”

November 17 Recording Industry Association of America announces that Siamese Dream was certified platinum. It sold 1million copies.

December 12 Smashing Pumpkins play acoustic show at Universal Amphitheater in Lost Angeles for KROQ’s “Acoustic Christmas.”

1994

January 23 Smashing Pumpkins does Festival in Australia.

March 1 36th , The Smashing Pumpkins,

Best Alternative Music Performance: Siamese Dream (Nominated) Best Hard Rock Performance: “Cherub Rock” (Nominated)

March 11 Recording Industry Association of America announces Siamese Dream has gone double platinum.

March 14 Gish certified gold.

March 25 First public performance of “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” at Palmer Auditorium in Davenport, Iowa.

April 21. Interview with Rolling Stone “Strange Fruit: Success Has Come at a High Price for This Chicago Band.” By Chris Mundy. (Picture retrieved from Google Images.)

"To be in my hometown onstage in front of 5,000 people and rock the way I wanted to rock, that was a religious satisfaction," Corgan will say about this precise moment in the collective unconscious. "We were nobody. Nobody said we'd be the next big thing. And somehow between cunning and manipulation, motivation, belief and faith, we made it work. I came and [ like Sinatra] 'I did it my way.'" He'll be right. For Smashing Pumpkins, there's no time like the present, if only because no one would be crazy enough to want to relive their past. For those of you unfamiliar with this particular prime-time soap opera, meet the cast:

May The Smashing Pumpkins stop granting interviews.

June 18 Billy Corgan’s side band Starchildren performs at the with The Frogs.

July

Billy reveals plans for possible to Musician Magazine.

July 7-September 5 The Smashing Pumpkins star on main stage on the Tour. Rumors of Billy Corgan and rekindling a prior romance begin circulating.

September 8 The Smashing Pumpkins perform “Disarm” for the 1994 MTV Music Awards in New York City. Billy presents the Video Vanguard award to Tom Petty.

Also in the month of September, Spin Magazine names The Smashing Pumpkins “Artist of the Year.

October 4 Pisces Iscariot and Earphoria are released. The Pumpkins take a break and Billy begins composing lyrics and music for new album.

November Pisces Iscariot goes platinum. 1995

February

Work begins on Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness. Producer is replaced with for this venture. Billy states the band felt they “could do better on this crazy album” with Flood.

October 17, MTV airs Veuphoria, a rockumentary staring The Smashing Pumpkins.

October 24 Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is released. (Pic from Google Images)

November 11 Smashing Pumpkins second Saturday Night Live Performance. They played “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” and “ Zero.”

November 16, Interview with Rolling Stone. By David Fricke.

BC: “I'm a confused person. It's that simple. I'm certainly battling my own idealism. With love, there's a lot of issues: respect, intuitive love, attraction, shifts in nature. It's such a complicated thing, I don't know what to make of it. And what complicates it even more is that the goals two people have are not always common ones. You end up dealing with these hidden agendas. “

RS: Do you think if you'd had a more stable family environment as a child that you would be less confused about what love is?

BC: “Yes. If you don't have good examples, you don't know what you're shooting for. That's why I deal with idealism, because I don't have real solid examples to work from. I grew up with my stepmother. My parents were nowhere to be found. There's no getting around that. It definitely makes you go, "What is love?" They say they love me; love me means don't live with me. I don't understand. “

Billy Corgan begins dating Yelena Yemchuck

1996

January 17 Billy Corgan with at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, NY. They performed “Wish You Were Here.”

May

Bernadette O’Brian killed at Dublin concert due to injuries sustained in mosh pit.

May 19 Smashing Pumpkins appear on “” episode of . (Picture retrieved from Google Images.)

July

July 12 Jimmy Chamberlain and Jonathan Melvoin overdose in hotel room. Melvoin dies.

July 17 Smashing Pumpkins fire Jimmy Chamberlain, Billy and the band issue a press release stating they have "decided to sever our relationship with our friend and drummer ." The group decided to search for a replacement to complete the tour, which was to resume in August.”

July 21 Billy Corgan performs with at Park West in Chicago, IL. They perform “Auf Wiedersehen.”

September

September 4 Video Music Awards, The Smashing Pumpkins (Picture retrieved from MTV.com) Video of the Year: “Tonight, Tonight” (Won)

Best Alternative Video: “1979” (Won) Breakthrough Video: “Tonight, Tonight” (Won)

Best Direction in Video: “Tonight, Tonight” (Won) Best Special Effects: “Tonight, Tonight” (Won)

Best Cinematography in a Video: “Tonight, Tonight” (Won) Best Editing in a Video “Tonight, Tonight” (Nominated)

VMA’s Post-show interview: (Starla.org).

Kurt: How are you gonna divide seven statuettes among three people exactly?

D'Arcy: We're gonna have to cut those things up, those awards.

Billy: We'll give the flags to the families, and we'll just cut off the arms and like...

D'Arcy: Cut the heads off. Cut the legs off.

Billy: No disrespect to MTV.

Kurt: Oh God, no. Does this sort of thing mean something to you, I mean, do you take it seriously or is it just a nice thing, or...

D'Arcy: That's a hard question.

Billy: Um, I mean, we've never been nominated for much of anything, so we have that kind of cynical-like award show thing.

D'Arcy: It's like, "Oh, we're not gonna win, who cares," and then when you do, it's like, "Wow!"

Billy: "This is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me."

Billy: Nah, it's nice because, I mean, we're at a point where, it's like, we're still trying to convince people who wouldn't normally buy alternative music that our kind of music...

D'Arcy: Still trying to convince people that we don't suck.

Billy: ...to listen to our music. And things like this do get people to go, "well, maybe I'll listen to it." So, we like it.

James: We're down with that. We're down with that.

Billy: Totally down with that.

Kurt: Now, you guys have started Scratchie Records and you're signing new bands that don't sound...

Billy: Wait, I've gotta say, I can't believe how much press this label's getting. I'm stunned being an observer...

D'Arcy: We have good bands! They rock!

James: Let's get a close-up. Scratchie Records is... [laughs]

Kurt: You're signing bands that don't sound like, for example, what we hear every day on the radio, I would assume, right? Are there lots of those bands out there?

James: No, not necessarily. I mean, they're really good. We've signed a couple of rock bands, but they're not very run-of-the-mill bands. One of them being the Frogs, whose drummer/singer Dennis is now our keyboard player. And they're definitely not like your average alternative band. They sing about interesting subjects. [laughs]

Kurt: [laughing] what could you possibly mean by that?

Billy: As it said in a recent Rolling Stone, "the controversial band, the Frogs"

James: And actually, Billy might produce that.

Billy: No. But, ... no.

Kurt: Well, perhaps. Billy: Move on.

Kurt: So, the possibility opens up now, you at some point will have new musicians in the band. Will the music change?

Billy: Oh, we were planning on doing that anyway. I mean, if anybody's really paid attention over the course of our three records, I mean, even though it's basically been rock, we've been evolving in a grander and grander scheme, and we've reached a point where the things really can't serve the depth of the music, so, we're getting more into technology, and, we're going dub, dance house, techno...

James: is so passé.

November 26 The Aeroplane Fies High Box Set is released. (Pic from Google Images)

December

Billy Corgan’s mother dies of cancer.

December 29 Billy Corgan and Chris Fabian separate.

1997

Billy Corgan and Chris Fabian divorce is final.

January 27 24Th Annual , The Smashing Pumpkins

Favorite Alternative Artist (Won)

Favorite Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Artist (Nominated)

January 31 Interview with CNN

“One of the best bands of 1996 almost didn't survive 1996. A drug overdose and an arrest almost brought about the end of the Smashing Pumpkins. But now the group is basking in the glow of 7 Grammy nominations. The Chicago rockers told Mark Sheerer how they made it through a year that was both the best of times and the worst of times. “

CNN: When the Smashing Pumpkins played Long Island's the other night, it was something of a minor miracle, because six months ago drug abuse and death nearly did in this band.

BC: Well, we almost felt that kind of pressure to… to adhere to that cliché. You know... be your own inevitable exploding machine.

CNN: Now they top year-end best band lists, 7 Grammy nominations, and have the bestselling double CD in history. Lead singer Billy Corgan, his marriage ending, is linked falsely with supermodel Helena Christensen. He has arrived as gossip column fodder.

BC: Well, you know...... it's just Every time we come to New York we're reminded of that.... you know, in Chicago it's not as bad, but..... But in New York it's we're always reminded of this kind of pressure.. like, I mean it goes back... back to the...to the Summer of Tragedy.

CNN: The Tragedy? The July death from a heroin overdose of touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin and the drug arrest of drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and Chamberlin’s dismissal from the band.

JI:At that time it would have been... it definitely would have been the easy thing to do to just call it quits.

BC: People who knew the situation and knew us really kinda came to our side and said "You guys are doing the right thing, and just don't let it freak you out too much." And that really kinda gave us the courage to go on.

CNN: The band Billy Corgan and James Iha started in 1987 is surprised to find that almost a decade has slipped past.

CNN: Coming up on your tenth anniversary, did you all... did it happen just as you thought it would?

BC: I think... no. No, not all of it, but most of it, but... it's not what you think it's going to be... perfect...or it went as planned, but... What we got were the things we thought we would get, but what we got wasn't what we thought it was going to be.

CNN: Some people say that the future of rock and pop is dance beats. Is that the future of the Smashing Pumpkins?

BC: Yes. Don't be afraid. We'll meet you halfway.

CNN: Mark Sheerer, CNN entertainment news, New York.

February 26

39th Grammy Awards, The Smashing Pumpkins

Best Hard Rock Performance:” Bullet with Butterfly Wings” (Won)

Album of the Year : Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness (Nominated)

Record of the Year : “1979” (Nominated)

Best Rock Vocal Performance : “1979” (Nominated)

Best Short Form: “Tonight, Tonight” (Nominated)

March 24

Billy does solo performance of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” on “The Sportswriters on TV.” 1998

February 26

40th Grammy Awards, Smashing Pumpkins

Best Hard Rock Performance: “The End is the Beginning is the End” (Won)

March Interview with Rolling Stone “The Soft Parade” by David Fricke.

"Shame" also features a but was actually recorded live. "I was feeling really sad one morning," Corgan explains. "I got up, wrote the song. We went in that day and did it in three hours. What you're hearing is what I felt that day."

“But, Corgan insists, "the energy around the new record is going to dictate what happens. Fuck, everybody might hate it. I don't know. I'd be lying if I said, 'The record company hates it, the fans hate it - right, I'm going to go out on tour.' I'll just stay home."

June 2 Adore is released.

August 3 Billy Corgan goes on the Show for an interview and a performance of “Perfect.”

August 11 CNN interview.

Promoting Philanthropy…Smashing Pumpkins Style. NEW YORK (CNN) -- The Smashing Pumpkins don't really have a persecution complex. They're just fighting back after finding themselves in an awkward give-and-take situation this summer.

"We're a cantankerous group," explains lead singer Billy Corgan. "We don't take sh-- from anybody. (But) the minute we go one step down, the knives come out and that's it."

Corgan is referring to the fact that even though the group is giving away 100 percent of their shows' ticket sales -- amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars -- to charities on their 14-city summer tour, they're getting blasted by critics who say their new album, "Adore," is an underperformer because it isn't selling as well as their previous album, "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness."

Not to be outdone, Corgan blames the Pumpkin's fans for not following them in their new musical direction. "Adore" debuted at the top of international sales and stayed there for six straight weeks, according to CNN's World Beat Top 30 chart. But U.S. sales have been less brisk.

"At this point, they should have enough faith and confidence in us just like I have faith and confidence in the bands that I admire. And if they don't, then they're not fans," Corgan says.

'Great, moving music'

"We're not about a style of music, we're about putting out great, moving music," adds bass player D'arcy.

Guitarist James Iha maintains the band couldn't just keep doing the same thing.

"We wouldn't be a band anymore if we made just a retake of our last record," he says.

And while most bands would be thrilled at the prospect of having New York's 53rd Street shut down for a performance on "Late Night With David Letterman," it's visits to places like Harlem's Hale House that mean more.

Band's benevolence widespread

The Pumpkins have donated more than $419,000 to the Hale House, a home for abandoned babies. Charitable causes in 13 other cities on their tour have also benefitted from the band's benevolence.

"You walk into a place and you see these babies and you see the love that they're getting and you also know that situation they're coming from and it makes you want to cry," Corgan says.

Corgan says any industry attention they receive is secondary to the charitable work they're doing. In his own caustic manner, he challenges others to make the same generous gestures.

"This is really a big 'F--- you' to everybody," Corgan says. "It's like, 'OK, if we can do it, what about you, Mr. Making-$20- million-a-movie, Mr. Sports-star-earning-$10-million-for-playing-162-games.'"

That's philanthropy, Smashing Pumpkins style, as they face less-than-charitable treatment from critics.

"We've proved everyone wrong before," Corgan says. "We'll prove them wrong again."

September 26 The Smashing Pumpkins third Saturday Night Live Performance. They played Perfect and participated in a skit with Cameron Diaz. 1999

February 24 41st Grammy Awards

Best Alternative Music Performance: Adore (Nominated) Best Rock Song: Billy Corgan () for Hole’s “” (Nominated)

April 10 The Arising! Tour beings.

April 24: Billy and the band are honored by Make a Wish Foundation at the annual charity ball for raising a half-million dollar donation for the charity. This was the largest single donation for the foundation.

August 27 Stigmata opens in theaters in the U.S. Film score by Billy Corgan.

“The idea of writing a title song came from trying to do something a little different. Back in the day, people used to write songs that were directly connected to a movie score… so the music for ‘Indentify’ came from one of the love scenes in the movie.” Billboard Online “Billy Corgan Bears A ‘Stigmata.’”

October 10 Sharon Osborne is hired to manage the band.

October 30 Billy and James play the hosted by . 2000

January 11, Sharon Osborne resigns as manager of the Smashing Pumpkins.

February 17, Billy Corgan does solo performance at Tree Studio on Atlanta, GA. It was a local broadcast which included “I of the Mourning,” “Age of Innocence,” “,” “Rock on [Essex]” and “Bullet with Butterfly Wings.”

Februrary 19 Billy does solo performance with James at the Cat’s Cradle in Carrbaro, NC.

February 29 Machina/Machines of God is released. (Pic of Machina from Google Images)

March 17 Fans make effort for Thirty-Three to be played on Total Request Live for in honor of Billy Corgan’s 33rd birthday.

April 3 Billy does solo acoustic performance of “I of the Mourning” at WKQX-FM in Chicago.

May 25 Billy announces breakup of The Smashing Pumpkins during an interview with KROQ in Los Angeles.

Billy: Right. Um, it's true I am here to finally announce that the band is going to break-up at the end of this year.

Tami: Why?

Billy: That's a very good question. Um, we felt that before the start of this album that we had sort of come to the end of our, sort of, road - emotionally, spiritually, musically. So we wanted to make one more album, together. That was the intention of getting Jimmy back in the band was to make one more album and sort of end on a good note - you know, between each other, more importantly than the public part of it.

September 5 Machina II/ Friends and Enemies of Modern Music is released digitally.

November 17 The Smashing Pumpkins’ final television performance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” They play “Cash Car Star.”

December 2 The Smashing Pumpkins play farewell show at the Metro in Chicago (taken by Reuters) from Bing Images). Also the release date for 10-5-88 Live at the Cabernet Metro.

Set 1: Bringing down the sound Rocket Rhinoceros Shame Porcelina of the Vast Oceans The Everlasting Gaze Bullet with Butterfly Wings Spiteface (tease) Thru the Eyes of Ruby Blissed and Gone (with the Frogs) To Sheila (with Linda Rowberry and the Frogs) Mayonaise I of the Mourning

Set 2: The Shambling Orchestra plays on Muzzle Stand Inside Your Love Perfect This Time Go The Last Song Last Instrumental Age of Innocence Thirty-three

Set 3: Let it all come down Tonight, Tonight Siva Fuck You Drown Starla If There Is a God Cash Car Star Rock On [Essex] > Heavy Metal Machine Today

Encore 1: Note: with Billy Corgan, Sr. For Martha Born Under a Bad Sign [Jones/Bell]

Encore 2: Note: with Cherub Rock

Encore 3: Disarm 1979

Encore 4: Silverfuck

2001

April Billy Corgan forms along with Jimmy Chamberlain, Paz Lechantin, Matt Sweeny, and .

May 10 Billy Corgan performs with Royal Bliss at Liquid Joes in Salt Lake City, Utah.

June 12 Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlain, Chris Holmes, Eddie Roeser, and Linda Rowberry perform “Forever Young (Dylan)” for “Bozo, 40 Years of Fun” at WGN Studios in Chicago.

"I was actually here on my 11th birthday. Nothing has changed," Corgan said after the taping. "We were in rehearsal yesterday just watching and ... childhood memories are obscure, but certain things will really trigger them. Watching the videotape and hearing the music, all these cobwebs were coming off."

November 14 Zwan tour begins at the Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica, California.

November 20 Greatest Hits Collection is released and The Smashing Pumpkins- Greatest Hits Video Collection (1991-2000) is released. 2003

Billy Corgan and Yelena Yemchuck split.

January 28, Mary Star of the Sea (Zwan) released.

March Billy Corgan’s interview with NYROCK. By Talia Soghomonian

NYROCK:

Your music has gone from rage to mellow. It's less gloom and more bloom. Is it a sign of the times? How reflective is it of you?

BILLY:

I think it's more reflective in that it's probably closer to who I am as a person. Zwan is probably closer to me. Pumpkins were more something we did, that the band made. Zwan's probably more like how I feel, and I probably didn't feel this way then.

NYROCK:

You sing a lot about God and your faith. In "Lyric," for example, you sing: "Here comes my faith to carry me on."

BILLY:

Well, I think faith is everything. Faith is the will to get out of bed, to write songs.

NYROCK:

Your faith is also defined by the album's name, Mary Star of the Sea.

BILLY:

I just wanted to give a – what do you call it, a shout-out? I just wanted to give a shout-out (laughs) to the Creator, the Mother of the Universe. It's pretty Christian. It's Christian theology.

April 12 Zwan performs on Saturday Night Live. They play “Lyric” and “Settle Down.”

June 13 Zwan tour wraps up in St. Paelten, Austria at the Pielachtal Fesitvalgelaende.

September 15 Billy Corgan announces the breakup of Zwan citing “lack of family loyalty” as the reason for the split.

EW: “Which of your two bands is more likely to reunite?” CORGAN: “Pumpkins. You’ll never see Zwan. I’ll never go anywhere near those people. Ever. I mean, I detest them. You can put that in capital letters. Bad people. James and D’Arcy are good people. They might be misguided people, but they’re good people.” -from

September 17 Billy Corgan does poetry reading and solo performance at Rubloff Auditorium, Art Institute of Chicago.

October 15 Billy Corgan sings “Take Me out to the Ballgame” at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

December 10 Billy Corgan does solo performance at Second City in Chicago. Songs include “For Your Love,” Prairie Song,” and “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.” 2004

February 26 Billy Corgan does solo performance at Harry Caray’s Restaurant.

April 12-17 Billy Corgan does solo performances/appearances at Dimitre Photography (The Temple) in Chicago.

April 19 Billy Corgan does solo performance at the Metro in Chicago.

May 25 Billy Corgan does solo performance of “El-A-Noy” at Neuqua Valley High School in Napierville, IL.

October 1 Billy Corgan’s book of poetry Blinking with Fists is published by Faber & Faber. (first publication) 2005

June 1 Billy’s solo tour begins at the Aula Magna in Lisbon, Portugual.

June 21 TheFutureEmbrace is released.

“I chose to not use the conventional drums, bass, big- sound both because I'm so identified with it and I felt that there's sort of a corner there that I didn't want to paint myself in, plus it reminds people of the Pumpkins, and I think for a solo record, having your solo work be reminiscent of your past work, particularly with the band you're known for, gets into a trickiness because it makes people sentimental for the old band, and makes them hate you because you're not in the band.” –Billy Corgan in Blue Room Interview Part 1 (2005).

August 8 Billy’s solo tour wraps up in Chicago at the Jay Prizker Pavilion.

2006

Billy moves in with Courtney Love and daughter .

May 18 Billy Corgan does guest appearance at Alice and Chains tour opening concert. He does the lead vocals to “Down in a Hole.

November 7 Billy Corgan does solo show at the Hotel Café in Los Angeles. He does duets with . 2007

May 22 Smashing Pumpkins first show since December 2, 2000 at the Grand Rex in Paris. (Pic of set list from Bing Images)

July 10 Zeitgeist is released on Martha’s Music label.

September 8 Fall North American Tour for Zeitgeist kicks off in Ashville, North Carolina

November 5 Fall North American Tour for Zeitgeist wraps up in Nashville, Tennessee. 2008

March 21 Billy Corgan Recalls Troubled Childhood For Student Suicide Campaign Starpulse.com (on film done with for Jed’s Foundation Half Of Us Campaign )

"My family didn't fit into the culture we lived in, and then abuse made me feel even more alienated from what was going on. Plus, a lot of kids around me were being abused as well, so you didn't think, `Well, I'm different.' I cut myself, I stayed up all night. You know, I did things with sleep deprivation, and I got into I guess what you would call obsessive-compulsive behaviors these days."

“I didn't grow up with my mother, and so losing her for real was like, some sort of latent childhood, some sort of unresolved issue. When she left for real, it was sort of like, I was done.” 2009

Billy Corgan launches Everything From Here to There blog about his spiritual journey.

March 10 Billy Corgan speaks to Congress in support of the Performance Rights Act.

"The change to the law we are here to discuss only redresses an outmoded, unfair practice that favors one participant's needs over another. This legislation is simply a form of restoration to artists long overdue."

August 30 Billy Corgan does solo performance at Che Cafe in La Jolla, California.

1.Can't Seem To Make You Mine [] 2. Circular Change 3. Emerald Green Is The Colour 4. Widow Wake My Mind 5. West Coast 6. Freak 7. Morning Dew [The Grateful Dead] 8. The Fellowship 9. The Time Has Come [Anne Briggs] 10. A Stitch In Time 11. A Song For A Son 12. The Trip 13. Astral Planes 14. Femme Fatale [Velvet Underground] 15. Lucifer Sam [Pink Floyd]

December 9 Interview with “Turn it up.” A Chicago Tribune Blog written by

Are rock bands meant to last 20 years? “No, no, they’re not,” Billy Corgan said back stage Monday at the Auditorium Theatre. Which sounds a little odd coming from someone whose band, the Smashing Pumpkins, had just completed their 20th anniversary tour with a triumphant performance short on hits but long on drama and daring.

The tour was never smooth, with Corgan baiting his fans as much as sating them with a handful of Pumpkins oldies. When the Pumpkins opened a series of homecoming shows a few weeks ago, the 41-year-old west suburban native finished off the opening night at the Chicago Theatre with a combination rant/comedic monologue that angered many in his audience. “What do you want from us?” Corgan said with mock exasperation while fans booed or streamed toward the exits.

But on Monday the Pumpkins embraced delicate ballads, scorched-earth rockers and expansive with authority. Corgan was in an affable mood, and the band ended the show by reaching into a coffin and tossing Christmas presents to the cheering fans.

It was a final joke from an artist who has always taken his work very, very seriously --- to the point of self- destructiveness. The 20th Anniversary tour and Corgan’s confrontational onstage antics are merely the latest examples of the band’s polarizing impact. Musically, the Pumpkins can still swing the heavy lumber. Only Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin, the master drummer, remain from the original band. James Iha and D’Arcy Wretzky are long gone. The Pumpkins broke up in 2000, and Corgan says the “door was left open” for Iha and Wretzky to return when the band re- assembled in 2005. But things didn’t work out, and and Ginger Reyes were enlisted to take their place.

The band’s 2007 comeback album, “Zeitgeist,” sank without a trace, but the retooled Pumpkins have developed a chemistry and power on the road since then.

Corgan, wrapped in a bathrobe and towels while chowing down on a post-concert steak, was upbeat and combatively optimistic about the future of Pumpkins Mach II. His message: We’re not a nostalgia band. “It’s not old band vs. new band,” he says. “It’s new band or no band.”

“Calling it a 20th anniversary tour, people expected greatest hits,” he says. “The casual fan that comes in and just wants to see the hits, they were not having it. But we’ve seen a real reactivation in the hardcore fan base.”

Tribune: Did the hostility of some of the audiences bother you?

Corgan: No, what bothers me is the notion that we’re done. We didn’t come back for the cash, we came back to be great again. It made me mad that people thought we’re done, that we don’t have a future. Get out. We don’t want you. We’ve never been that band. That happy band. We picked up where we left off. We’re not the retirement band playing our old hits. ... I don’t give a [expletive] that most of my heroes got lame when they turned 40. I spent most of the last decade thinking about that. Why do they go from this insanely high level of work to diminished echoes of the past? And I think it’s a coziness thing. You do something amazing and you don’t want to lose the crowd that tells you that’s amazing. You’re out in the cold. Well we like to be out in the cold. We’re done with the record business, so we’re free to do whatever I want.

Tribune: So “Zeitgeist” was the last album?

Corgan: We’re done with that. There is no point. People don’t even listen to it all. They put it on their iPod, they drag over the two singles, and skip over the rest. The listening patterns have changed, so why are we killing ourselves to do , to create balance, and do the arty track to set up the single? It’s done.

Tribune: So how will you release music?

Corgan: Our primary function now is to be a singles band, that drives Pumpkins Inc. through singles. We’ll still be creative, but in a different form. We won’t do shows like this anymore, where we try to draw a good crowd and balance the past with the present. We’ll go small and do exactly what we want to do and stop playing catalogue. We’ll be like a new band that can’t rely on old gimmicks. I’m not stupid. I want people to feel good about what we do. What we weren’t getting [from playing a more balanced show with older songs] was excitement. We’re in the polarizing business. We don’t want a pat on the back: Good to have you back. We want a reaction, even if it’s a negative reaction.

Tribune: People are still talking about that show you did a few weeks ago at the Chicago Theatre.

Corgan: Energy we can do something with. Apathy we can’t work with. Who’s above us? Who’s lighting the culture on fire? Nobody. We don’t have to live in that world. We have the biggest manager [Irving Azoff] in the world. He tells us we can get there, we will get there. We will crack the egg like we did in ‘92, without doing something embarrassing like working with Timbaland. We will find how to do our thing and make it work. I can write songs. We’re big boys. We’ll do it. Last time I talked with you, I said we’re going to come back and make a better album. The album we made surprised us. We kept going back to this primitive thing. We wanted to do “Siamese Dream II.” Elaborate, orchestrated, but it wasn’t coming from me. It put us back in this organic process, and in this position of fighting back to why we do what we do. Now I understand it. It’s the difference between intellectual process and emotional process. We’re sober, healthy, we understand the business we’re in, and the pragmatic reality of what it takes. We have the skill set, we always have, and we belong in the conversation, and we will kick down the door to get back in the conversation. You take a milquetoast middle-of-the-road fake-tattoo band, we can out-write them. If you come up with the songs, the fans will show up. We found with “Zeitgeist” that the alternative audience isn’t alternative anymore. They’re a pop audience that listens to Nickelback. So doing a 10-minute song, nobody will listen to it. We have to come up with singles like “1979,” and come up with songs that sound good on the radio. We have to write those kinds of songs.

Tribune: Why’d you break up the Pumpkins in 2000?

Corgan: The real story was Iha was driving me out of my mind. He was so negative. The guy literally drove me insane. When I walked out of that band, I didn’t know what to do anymore. I didn’t have a direction, a central focus. I wandered through different things, but I couldn’t find that central thing. As soon as I got back in the band my brain started working again. I was engaged again.

Tribune: Did you make a sincere attempt to invite back Iha and D’Arcy?

Corgan: Sincere in the sense that we have to allow them the opportunity. They have the right to at least have the conversation. We said the door’s open. We were met with complete indifference. Darcy doesn’t care. And James, it was a money thing. They haven‘t done anything musical since they left. They were never that into it. They were into it in ‘92, when it was fun. When it got crazy, everyone went their separate ways. It’s like a bad marriage. So we opened the door [to them returning]. But there was no way they were gonna want to work like we want to work, and take on the crap of the business again. But we gave them the opportunity if they wanted it. Now that we’ve found people who we trust and are really dedicated, the door is closed. They’re done. They’re never coming back.

Tribune: But why call it the Pumpkins? It gives people a chance to doubt the band’s legitimacy and your motives.

Corgan: It’s my band. Anyone who doubts the legitimacy of this band can go [expletive] themselves. That’s old thinking about bands. Show me any band that lasts for any tenure, they don’t have the original members. This world doesn’t care about that. They just want to hear the songs. They got karaoke singers now fronting big bands.

Tribune: You said a few years ago that you were going to try and keep your mouth shut and let the music be the story. But that hasn’t been the case.

Corgan: I tried that for a while and it wasn’t working. I’m cemented in an image. I have to move to France to change that. I’m not a humble musician, but I am a humble human being, I have perspective, I have God in my life. [In the band] we talk a lot about spirituality and about why God made us musicians and why we’re here to do what we do. And we have decided in our estimation that God put us here to try new things, and be innovators. With all that’s going on in the world, is that the worst thing?

Tribune: That would seem to be the artist’s role.

Corgan: Let me be blunt. When Bruce Springsteen puts out a new album I pay attention. Same with Neil Young. Because they’re major artists who have something to say. I consider us in that category. When we do something it should be taken seriously, even when we’re off. If we’re marginalized by the culture, we’re not going to play dead and say thank you for our B-plus status. I poured my blood into my songs. I’ve had a bad marriage and seven bad girlfriends in a row. I make sacrifices to do my work. That’s not victim talk, that’s nobody’s fault, that’s a choice I made for me.

2010

February 18 Billy Corgan does solo performance with and Zoom at Lasalle Power Co. in Chicago, IL.

April Billy Corgan begins dating Jessica Origliasso of The Veronica’s.

May 7 Billy Corgan does solo performance at Club Nokia in Lost Angeles for the Musicares Map Fund Benefit.

July 6 Teargarden by Kalydeiscope tour kicks off in Cleveland, Ohio.

July 21 Teargarden by Kalydeiscope tours wraps up in Tampa, Florida.

July 31 Billy Corgan with Camp Freddy at the Conga Room in Lost Angeles. Set includes “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” (Billy on vocals), “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” (Billy on vocals), and “I Wanna Be Your Dog” (Billy on guitar).

September 29 Billy Corgan does solo performance of “Spangled” on France 3’s “Ce Soir (ou Jamais!)”

September 30 Billy Corgan does solo performance at Libraire A Tout-Livre: Paris.

October 1 Billy Corgan does solo performance at Maison de Radio France’s Le Mouv’ program “Plan B…pur Bonnaud.” January 6, Billy Corgan and announce their new . 2011

June 19 Billy Corgan performs “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at Wrigley Field before the Cubs/Yankees game.

July 21 Billy Corgan does acoustic performance of for Chicago Live! At the Chicago Theatre.

August 13 Billy Corgan announces involvement with Resistance Pro Wrestling, which promises to “change the face of as we know it.”

September 23 Billy Corgan performs with and the Light at the Metro. Performances of “Transmission” [] and “Love Will Tear Us Apart” [Joy Division].

October 5 The Other Side of the Kaliedyscope tour kicks off in Los Angeles, California at The Wiltern.

December 5 Gish and Siamese Dream are re-released in Deluxe Editions.

December 8 The Other Side of the Kaliedyscope tour wraps up in Lisbon, Portugual.

To Be Continued…

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