UB40 are a British reggae/pop band formed in 1978 in Birmingham, England. The band has placed more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart, and has also achieved considerable international success. The band has been nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album four times, and in 1984, they were nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Group. One of the world’s best-selling music artists, UB40 have sold over 70 million records. Their hit singles include their debut “Food for Thought” and two U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number ones with “Red Red Wine” and “Can’t Help Falling in Love”. Both of these also topped the UK Singles Chart, as did the band’s version of “I Got You Babe”.
The story of UB40, and how this group of young friends from Birmingham transcended their working-class origins to become the world’s most successful reggae band is not the stuff of fairytales as might be imagined. The group’s led a charmed life in many respects it’s true, but it’s been a long haul since the days they’d meet up in the bars and clubs around Moseley, and some of them had to scrape by on less than £8 a week unemployment benefit. The choice was simple if you’d left school early. You could either work in one of the local factories, like Robin Campbell did, or scuffle along aimlessly whilst waiting for something else to happen.
By the summer of 1978, something else did happen, and the nucleus of UB40 began rehearsing in a local basement. Robin’s younger brother Ali, Earl Falconer, Brian Travers and James Brown all knew each other from Moseley School of Art, whilst Norman Hassan had been a friend of Ali’s since school. Initially, they thought of themselves as a “jazz-dub-reggae” band, but by the time Robin was persuaded to join and they’d recruited Michael Virtue and Astro – who’d learnt his craft with Birmingham sound-system Duke Alloy – the group had already aligned themselves to left-wing political ideals and forged their own identity, separate from the many punk and Two Tone outfits around at that time. The group had nailed their colours to the mast by naming themselves after an unemployment benefit form. Their political convictions hadn’t been gleaned secondhand either, but cemented in place whilst attending marches protesting against the National Front, or rallies organised by Rock Against Racism.
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9 August 1940, Houston, Texas, USA. The story of Nash’s association with Bob Marley has been well documented. His background is similar to that of many Jamaican performers in that he first started singing in a church choir. By his early teens he performed cover versions of popular R&B hits of the 50s on a television show called Matinee. He enjoyed his first US chart entry in 1957 with a cover version of Doris Day’s ‘A Very Special Love’. ABC Records decided to market the young singer as another Johnny Mathis, which did little to enhance his career. Disillusioned with the label, he concentrated on a career in films. In 1958 he starred in Take A Giant Step, and in 1960 he appeared alongside Dennis Hopper in Key Witness, which was critically acclaimed in Europe. Returning to the recording studio he persevered with middle-of-the-road material but was unable to generate a hit. A number of label and style changes did not improve his chart potential. By 1965 he finally achieved a Top 5 hit in the R&B chart with the ballad ‘Lets Move And Groove Together’.
Nash was unable to maintain the winning formula, but in 1967 his R&B hit was enjoying chart success in Jamaica. The good fortunes in Jamaica led Nash to the island to promote his hit. It was here that he was exposed to ska and arranged a return visit to the island to record at Federal Studios. Accompanied by Byron Lee And The Dragonaires, the sessions resulted in ‘Cupid’, ‘Hold Me Tight’ and ‘You Got Soul’. When he released ‘Hold Me Tight’, the song became an international hit, achieving Top 5 success in the UK as well as a return to the Jamaican chart. He formed a partnership with Danny Simms, and a label, JAD (Johnny and Danny), releasing recordings by Bob Marley, Byron Lee, Lloyd Price and Kim Weston as well as his own material until the label folded in the early 70s. He returned to recording in Jamaica at Harry J.’s studio where he met Marley, who wrote ‘Stir It Up’, which revived Nash’s career by peaking at number 13 on the UK chart in June 1972.
Nash continued to enjoy popularity with ‘I Can See Clearly Now’, a UK Top 5 hit that was later successfully covered by Jimmy Cliff in 1994 for the film Cool Runnings. Other hits followed, including ‘Ooh What A Feeling’ and ‘There Are More Questions Than Answers’, but the further he drifted from reggae, the less successful the single. He covered other Bob Marley compositions, including ‘Nice Time’ and ‘Guava Jelly’, but they were not picked up for single release, although the latter was on the b-side to ‘There Are More Questions Than Answers’. His career subsequently took another downward turn but was revived yet again when he returned to Jamaica to record an Ernie Smith composition, ‘Tears On My Pillow’, which reached number 1 in the UK Top 10 in June 1975. He also reached the UK chart with ‘Let’s Be Friends’ and ‘(What) A Wonderful World’ before choosing to devote more energy to films and his West Indian recording complex.
Rolling Stones – Shes A Rainbow – Song for Richard
This song is dedicated to Richard B. Hope all is well. Take care.
The Rolling Stones began calling themselves the “World’s Greatest Rock & Roll Band” in the Sixties, and few argued with them — even then. More than 40 years later, the band’s music continues to sound vital. With literally scores of genre-setting hits under the group’s belt — and fronted by two of rock’s biggest archetypes — the Rolling Stones have done more to define the look, attitude and sound of rock & roll than any other band in the genre’s history.
In the 1964 British Invasion the Stones were promoted as bad boys, a gimmick that stuck as an indelible image (partly because it was true). Their music started as a gruffer, faster version of Chicago blues, but eventually the Stones pioneered British rock’s tone of ironic detachment and wrote about offhand brutality, sex as power, and other taboos. Jagger was the most self-consciously assured appropriator of black performers’ up-front sexuality; Keith Richards’ Chuck Berry–derived riffing defined rock rhythm guitar (not to mention rock guitar rhythm); and the stalwart rhythm section of Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts held everything together, making sure teenagers could dance to whatever Mick and Keith dreamt up. After the Seventies, the Stones lost their dangerous aura, but it didn’t hurt their popularity: They’ve become icons of an elegantly debauched, world-weary decadence, elder statesmen who filled arenas well into the 2000s.
Jagger and Richards first met at Dartford Maypole County Primary School. When they ran into each other 10 years later in 1960, they were both avid fans of blues and American R&B, and they found they had a mutual friend in guitarist Dick Taylor, a fellow student of Richards’ at Sidcup Art School. Jagger was attending the London School of Economics and playing in Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys with Taylor. Richards joined the band as second guitarist; soon afterward, he was expelled from Dartford Technical College for truancy.
Meanwhile, Brian Jones had begun skipping school in Cheltenham to practice bebop alto sax and clarinet. By the time he was 16, he had fathered two illegitimate children and run off briefly to Scandinavia, where he began playing guitar. Back in Cheltenham he joined the Ramrods, then drifted to London with his girlfriend and one of his children. He began playing with Alexis Korner’s Blues, Inc., then decided to start his own band; a want ad attracted pianist Ian Stewart (b. 1938; d. December 12, 1985).
As Elmo Lewis, Jones began working at the Ealing Blues Club, where he ran into a later, loosely knit version of Blues, Inc., which at the time included drummer Charlie Watts. Jagger and Richards began jamming with Blues, Inc., and while Jagger, Richards, and Jones began to practice on their own, Jagger became the featured singer with Blues, Inc.
Jones, Jagger, and Richards shared a tiny, cheap London apartment, and with drummer Tony Chapman they cut a demo tape, which was rejected by EMI. Taylor left to attend the Royal College of Art; he eventually formed the Pretty Things. Ian Stewart’s job with a chemical company kept the rest of the group from starving. By the time Taylor left, they began to call themselves the Rolling Stones, after a Muddy Waters song.
On July 12, 1962, the Rolling Stones — Jagger, Richards, Jones, a returned Dick Taylor on bass, and Mick Avory, later of the Kinks, on drums — played their first show at the Marquee. Avory and Taylor were replaced by Tony Chapman and Bill Wyman, from the Cliftons. Chapman didn’t work out, and the band spent months recruiting a cautious Charlie Watts, who worked for an advertising agency and had left Blues, Inc. when its schedule got too busy. In January 1963 Watts completed the band.
Local entrepreneur Giorgio Gomelsky booked the Stones at his Crawdaddy Club for an eight-month, highly successful residency. He was also their unofficial manager until Andrew Loog Oldham, with financing from Eric Easton, signed them as clients. By then the Beatles were a British sensation, and Oldham decided to promote the Stones as their nasty opposites. He eased out the mild-mannered Stewart, who subsequently became a Stones roadie and frequent session and tour pianist.
In June 1963 the Stones released their first single, Chuck Berry’s “Come On.” After the band played on the British TV rock show Thank Your Lucky Stars, its producer reportedly told Oldham to get rid of “that vile-looking singer with the tire-tread lips.” The single reached Number 21 on the British chart. The Stones also appeared at the first annual National Jazz and Blues Festival in London’s borough of Richmond and in September were part of a package tour with the Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley, and Little Richard. In December 1963 the Stones’ second single, “I Wanna Be Your Man” (written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney), made the British Top 15. In January 1964 the Stones did their first headlining British tour, with the Ronettes, and released a version of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away,” which made Number Three.
“Not Fade Away” also made the U.S. singles chart (Number 48). By this time the band had become a sensation in Britain, with the press gleefully reporting that band members had been seen urinating in public. In April 1964 their first album was released in the U.K., and two months later they made their first American tour. Their cover of the Bobby Womack/Valentinos song “It’s All Over Now” was a British Number One, their first. Their June American tour was a smashing success; in Chicago, where they’d stopped off to record the Five by Five EP at the Chess Records studio, riots broke out when the band tried to give a press conference. The Stones’ version of the blues standard “Little Red Rooster,” which had become another U.K. Number One, was banned in the U.S. because of its “objectionable” lyrics.
Jagger and Richards had now begun composing their own tunes (at first using the “Nanker Phelge” pseudonym for group compositions). Their “Tell Me (You’re Coming Back to Me)” was the group’s first U.S. Top 40 hit, in August. The followup, a nonoriginal, “Time Is on My Side,” made Number Six in November. From that point on, all but a handful of Stones hits were Jagger-Richards compositions. Read more…..www.rollingstone.com
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Australian musicians Terry Dean and Rod De Clerk met in Tasmania in 1965. They then met Laurie Arthur, a member of The Strangers, and the three decided to form a band together after a jam session. They quickly signed to EMI that same year and released three singles. They went through several line-up changes over the following few years, then signed to CBS Records in 1969. A few further singles followed before transferring to Fable Records in 1970.
The Mixtures recorded a cover of Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime” and—as a result of the 1970 radio ban, during which many Australian radio stations refused to play Australian and British music released by major labels—received much more airplay than had initially been expected for a group on a small record label. The single went to #1 in Australia for six weeks. They followed up with “The Pushbike Song” (produced by David Mackay), which went to #1 in Australia for two weeks, hit #2 in the UK Singles Chart, and went to #44 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. after being released on Sire Records.
The next single, “Henry Ford”, peaked at #43 in Australia. Further line-up changes ensued before “Captain Zero” went to #6 in Australia in 1971, their last big hit. The group underwent some more line-up changes including Brenton Fosdike (Guitar, vocals), John Petcovich (Drums, Vocals) and the last member to join was Keyboard Player Rob Scott. In 1978 the band travelled to Perth to do some recording and put together a new show. During this time Bass Player Chris Spooner died in a fishing accident at Trigg Beach. The band only carried on for a further three months as a four piece before breaking up in early 1979. The remaining four members, Brenton, John, Rob and Peter Williams, then formed a new band with two other Australians, (Dennis Broad and Paul Reynolds) and the band was named BRIX.
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The Rolling Stones began calling themselves the “World’s Greatest Rock & Roll Band” in the Sixties, and few argued with them — even then. More than 40 years later, the band’s music continues to sound vital. With literally scores of genre-setting hits under the group’s belt — and fronted by two of rock’s biggest archetypes — the Rolling Stones have done more to define the look, attitude and sound of rock & roll than any other band in the genre’s history.
In the 1964 British Invasion the Stones were promoted as bad boys, a gimmick that stuck as an indelible image (partly because it was true). Their music started as a gruffer, faster version of Chicago blues, but eventually the Stones pioneered British rock’s tone of ironic detachment and wrote about offhand brutality, sex as power, and other taboos. Jagger was the most self-consciously assured appropriator of black performers’ up-front sexuality; Keith Richards’ Chuck Berry–derived riffing defined rock rhythm guitar (not to mention rock guitar rhythm); and the stalwart rhythm section of Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts held everything together, making sure teenagers could dance to whatever Mick and Keith dreamt up. After the Seventies, the Stones lost their dangerous aura, but it didn’t hurt their popularity: They’ve become icons of an elegantly debauched, world-weary decadence, elder statesmen who filled arenas well into the 2000s.
Jagger and Richards first met at Dartford Maypole County Primary School. When they ran into each other 10 years later in 1960, they were both avid fans of blues and American R&B, and they found they had a mutual friend in guitarist Dick Taylor, a fellow student of Richards’ at Sidcup Art School. Jagger was attending the London School of Economics and playing in Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys with Taylor. Richards joined the band as second guitarist; soon afterward, he was expelled from Dartford Technical College for truancy.
Meanwhile, Brian Jones had begun skipping school in Cheltenham to practice bebop alto sax and clarinet. By the time he was 16, he had fathered two illegitimate children and run off briefly to Scandinavia, where he began playing guitar. Back in Cheltenham he joined the Ramrods, then drifted to London with his girlfriend and one of his children. He began playing with Alexis Korner’s Blues, Inc., then decided to start his own band; a want ad attracted pianist Ian Stewart (b. 1938; d. December 12, 1985).
As Elmo Lewis, Jones began working at the Ealing Blues Club, where he ran into a later, loosely knit version of Blues, Inc., which at the time included drummer Charlie Watts. Jagger and Richards began jamming with Blues, Inc., and while Jagger, Richards, and Jones began to practice on their own, Jagger became the featured singer with Blues, Inc.
Jones, Jagger, and Richards shared a tiny, cheap London apartment, and with drummer Tony Chapman they cut a demo tape, which was rejected by EMI. Taylor left to attend the Royal College of Art; he eventually formed the Pretty Things. Ian Stewart’s job with a chemical company kept the rest of the group from starving. By the time Taylor left, they began to call themselves the Rolling Stones, after a Muddy Waters song.
On July 12, 1962, the Rolling Stones — Jagger, Richards, Jones, a returned Dick Taylor on bass, and Mick Avory, later of the Kinks, on drums — played their first show at the Marquee. Avory and Taylor were replaced by Tony Chapman and Bill Wyman, from the Cliftons. Chapman didn’t work out, and the band spent months recruiting a cautious Charlie Watts, who worked for an advertising agency and had left Blues, Inc. when its schedule got too busy. In January 1963 Watts completed the band.
Local entrepreneur Giorgio Gomelsky booked the Stones at his Crawdaddy Club for an eight-month, highly successful residency. He was also their unofficial manager until Andrew Loog Oldham, with financing from Eric Easton, signed them as clients. By then the Beatles were a British sensation, and Oldham decided to promote the Stones as their nasty opposites. He eased out the mild-mannered Stewart, who subsequently became a Stones roadie and frequent session and tour pianist.
In June 1963 the Stones released their first single, Chuck Berry’s “Come On.” After the band played on the British TV rock show Thank Your Lucky Stars, its producer reportedly told Oldham to get rid of “that vile-looking singer with the tire-tread lips.” The single reached Number 21 on the British chart. The Stones also appeared at the first annual National Jazz and Blues Festival in London’s borough of Richmond and in September were part of a package tour with the Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley, and Little Richard. In December 1963 the Stones’ second single, “I Wanna Be Your Man” (written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney), made the British Top 15. In January 1964 the Stones did their first headlining British tour, with the Ronettes, and released a version of Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away,” which made Number Three.
“Not Fade Away” also made the U.S. singles chart (Number 48). By this time the band had become a sensation in Britain, with the press gleefully reporting that band members had been seen urinating in public. In April 1964 their first album was released in the U.K., and two months later they made their first American tour. Their cover of the Bobby Womack/Valentinos song “It’s All Over Now” was a British Number One, their first. Their June American tour was a smashing success; in Chicago, where they’d stopped off to record the Five by Five EP at the Chess Records studio, riots broke out when the band tried to give a press conference. The Stones’ version of the blues standard “Little Red Rooster,” which had become another U.K. Number One, was banned in the U.S. because of its “objectionable” lyrics.
Jagger and Richards had now begun composing their own tunes (at first using the “Nanker Phelge” pseudonym for group compositions). Their “Tell Me (You’re Coming Back to Me)” was the group’s first U.S. Top 40 hit, in August. The followup, a nonoriginal, “Time Is on My Side,” made Number Six in November. From that point on, all but a handful of Stones hits were Jagger-Richards compositions. Read more…..www.rollingstone.com
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As a poet, prophet and purveyor of Jamaican culture, he shattered musical boundaries around the world.
Bob Marley was born in a small village called Nine Miles in Jamaica. The son of British Naval Officer and Jamaican woman called Cedella, Marley rarely saw his father due to his mother’s family and their disapproval of his parents relationship.
By the time he had turned 16, Marley had recorded his first single ‘Judge Not’, and in 1963, he formed The Wailers with Peter Tosh, Bunny Livingstone, Junior Braithwaite, and Beverly Kelso. The band then scored their first number one in Jamaica with ‘Simmer Down’ on the Coxsone label.
When Braithwaite and Kelso left the group around 1965, the Wailers continued as a trio, Marley, Tosh, and Livingstone trading leads. In spite of the popularity of singles like ‘Rude Boy’, the artists received few or no royalties, and in 1966 they disbanded.
After marrying his girlfriend Rita Anderson, Marley spent most of the following year working in a factory in Newark in the United States, where his mother had moved in 1963. Upon his return to Jamaica, the Wailers reunited and recorded for Coxsone with little success. During this period, the Wailers devoted themselves to the religious sect of Rastafari.
In 1969, they began a three-year association with Lee “Scratch” Perry, who directed them to play their own instruments and expanded their line-up to include Aston and Carlton Barrett, formerly the rhythm section of Perry’s studio band, the Upsetters. Some of the records they made with Perry – like ‘Trenchtown Rock’ – were locally very popular, but so precarious was the Jamaican record industry that the group seemed no closer than before to establishing steady careers. It formed an independent record company, Tuff Gong, in 1971, but the venture foundered when Livingstone was jailed and Marley got caught in a contract commitment to American pop singer Johnny Nash, who took him to Sweden to write a film score.
Their breakthrough came in 1972 when Chris Blackwell – who had released ‘Judge Not’ in England in 1963 – signed the Wailers to Island Records and advanced them the money to record themselves in Jamaica. The first result of this new contract was 1973’s ‘Catch A Fire’, the breakthrough album that saw the band reach an international audience for the first time. It was followed a year later by Burnin’, which included the songs “Get Up, Stand Up” and “I Shot The Sheriff”.
The band toured heavily during this period, and Marley expanded the instrumental section of the group and bringing in a female vocal trio, the I-Threes, which included his wife, Rita. Now called Bob Marley and the Wailers, they toured Europe, Africa, and the Americas, building especially strong followings in the U.K., Scandinavia, and Africa. They had U.K. Top 40 hits with ‘No Woman No Cry’ (1975), ‘Exodus’ (1977), ‘Waiting in Vain’ (1977), and ‘Satisfy My Soul’ (1978).
In 1976, Marley was shot by gunmen during the Jamaican election campaign, but survived and continued to soar in popularity until his 1981 death due to brain, lung and stomach cancer. In 1987, both Peter Tosh and longtime Marley drummer Carlton Barrett were murdered in Jamaica during separate incidents. Rita Marley continues to tour, record, and run the Tuff Gong studios and record company.
Sometimes the most extraordinary talent comes, seemingly, from nowhere. John Newman is only just 23 years old, but his voice and his songs cut through with a depth and a richness that’s way beyond a couple of decades and some change. A true force of nature, John writes, produces plays, performs and remixes his own music, as well as writing his own video scripts and designing his own clothes. This is a seriously larger than life character.
In 2012, a year before his first solo material had even seen the light of day, John Newman scored a number 1 single, appeared on both Later with Jools, and the Christmas Top Of The Pops, and had written and sung on two of the biggest dance hits to storm the UK charts in years: Rudimental’s massive number one “Feel The Love” and the powerfully anthemic follow up “Not Giving In”. Those who enjoy life’s savage juxtapositions will appreciate he was in hospital recovering from surgery to remove a (non-cancerous) brain tumour when he heard the song on national radio for the first time. “I woke up and heard my song on the radio,” he smiles. “That was quite surreal. The nurse was quite fit too, so it was good to turn around and say, ‘That’s my tune!’” Shortly after leaving hospital “Feel The Love” went to number 1 in the charts.
“That really was quite surreal,” he smiles.
After 12 months spent writing, recording and touring with the ‘Mental and Plan B, John is now preparing to release his debut solo single, “Love Me Again”, a huge great melodic and emotional banger that weaves in and out of John’s most beloved influences, the pieces he’s been drawn to since childhood.
Born in Settle, North Yorkshire, to a mother obsessed with Motown and Northern Soul, John never really even knew you could be a singer, that you could express yourself through writing and performing your own songs. No one from where he grew up ever spoke about such a thing; indeed, to bring the subject up among your school friends would only provoke scorn. But as a teenager, having watched his elder brother leave home and form a band, John began to realise there was a whole world beyond everything he knew.
As a young woman John’s mum had danced to Northern Soul at Wigan Pier. A quarter of a century later John was in the same legendary venue dancing to Hard House, “and Donk” he laughs. But, Donk was just the gateway drug.
“Everything I heard there just got me into house music,” John says. “And through that I started listening to my mum’s records…”
In short, John began to stretch out. The house music he loved turned into hip hop, then Motown, then his mum’s eclectic 70s and 80s vinyl, there were albums by Diana Ross and James Brown, there was Northern Soul and punk too and John loved playing them so much he began DJing at local birthday parties. At the same time he was listening to Damien Rice, Ray Lamontagne and Ben Harper as he taught himself guitar. Aged 15 John commandeered the cupboard under the stairs and, being a confirmed DIY nut (he’d already been building go-karts in the garage) turned it into his first, tiny, studio. In there, with an acoustic guitar, a battered laptop and some “crappy” hi-fi speakers he’d produce hip hop and house instrumentals, taking little bits from everything he heard and making them groove together. Before long John decided he should sing over these beats and soon began doing solo gigs in local pubs, advertised with his own photo shoots, posters and artwork. When MySpace appeared he took it all online – and suddenly he was too busy for some of his previous pursuits.
“It was time to stop getting arrested and start taking music seriously,” he laughs, clearly not missing a career illegally riding mopeds across farmer’s fields. “Saturday morning’s better when you don’t wake up in a cell…”
When John left school what he really wanted to be was a mechanic, but halfway through his first term he realised he was spending more time asleep in the back recovering from gigs than he was learning about carburettors.
“I was sat in class writing songs,” he says. “I’d gone totally over music and once I know what I want to do, I do it.”
With that decision made, John moved to Leeds, where he studied at the College of Music, “A bit of culture was coming into my life,” he says. Student life opened up his mind, provoking a rash of new songs. John describes his three years in Leeds as, “both brilliant and horrible”. Two of his closest friends died in the same tragic car crash, while weeks would pass in a hazy, cloudy blur. Later John got a job as a glass collector, then as a cocktail barman, and his gigs just got better and better. For the first time, he felt accepted. “Leeds was all about your personality, about who you were,” he says. “By the end of my time there I knew what I was doing was fucking cool.”
Next stop, naturally, was London. John moved into a “grotty old warehouse” and started again. It was while working at the Old Dairy in Stroud Green that he first met and formed his first band with Piers Agget, sometime before the latter would form Rudimental. Soon the two gathered a band around them and began playing gigs across town. John’s new job at the Silver Bullet in Finsbury Park introduced him to a whole new community of thirsty musicians who would gig there, jam there, “and smoke there”, John laughs.
And those songs coming down the pipe? There’s Cheating, the story of a vulnerable boyfriend who forgave his unfaithful partner, written with his old guitarist, Jack, who he found living in a tent in an abandoned corner of a warehouse. Gold Dust is about finally opening up to someone and saying, “Listen, I’ve got to tell you something…” Losing Sleep is about someone left alone, “like a child scared of the night”, racked with fear and paranoia, while standout “Out Of My Head”, which takes the pace down a notch or two, tackles being fantastically lonely and dealing with it all by getting pissed every night of the week. Sometimes a busy bar is the best place to be because at least there you’ll find people to talk to.
When John talks about his love of Otis Redding, Led Zeppelin, Marvin Gaye and Adele, or piano classics like Liquid’s “Sweet Harmony” or Black Box’s “Ride On Time”, that small town boy who fell in love with music without ever knowing it could provide him with an escape, appears right there in front of you.
“I don’t like silence,” he says, gathering up his things as he heads back to the studio. “When it’s silent I think too much. I realise now that I like the sound of sitting on hills, listening to the wind and the birds. We should all listen to that more because when you really listen, you don’t feel alone anymore…”
Mike Myers is best known as the mad and crude Austin Powers who managed to seduce Liz Hurley despite with his unusual appearance!
Michael John Myers was born on 25 May 1963 in Scarborough, Canada, the son of British-born parents insurance salesman and WWII veteran Eric and his wife Alice. He has two older brothers and holds three citizenships, American, Canadian and British.
He began his acting career as a child, in TV adverts in Canada, and a move to the UK led him to some performances at the Edinburgh Festival.
During his time with a theatre troupe in Chicago, he was spotted by ‘Saturday Night Live‘ producer, Lorne Michaels.
In 1989, he joined the SNL team as a writer and recurring cast member, and he eventually became a regular.
Four years later, Mike debuted as an actor and co-writer in ‘Wayne’s World‘ (1992), based on characters created for ‘Saturday Night Live‘. He then starred in ‘Wayne’s World 2‘ and ‘So I Married An Axe Murderer‘ in 1993. Myers married his first wife Robin Ruzan in May of that year.
They started dating in the late 1980s after meeting at a hockey game in Chicago at which Myers caught a puck and used this as an ice-breaker. Following his marriage, he took a four-year hiatus from television and film.
In 1997, Mike made a successful return as writer and star of ‘Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery‘, a spoof of 1960s spy films. He went on to write and star in ‘Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me‘ in 1999 and ‘Austin Powers in Goldmember‘ in 2002. A fourth Austin Powers has been announced but no further details have been released.
In the year 2000 Mike announced that he planned to star in a film based on his SNL character Dieter, the Germanic host of a programme called Sprockets, but he left the project after expressing displeasure with the final script.
Mike was then sued by Universal for breach of contract. Mike counter-sued and the matter was eventually settled out of court.
As the animated monster in ‘Shrek‘ in 2001, Mike excelled and the film won the Best Animated Film Oscar. This became his second successful movie franchise as he went on to write and voice the lead in ‘Shrek 2‘ (2004), DVD extra ‘Far Far Away Idol‘ (2004), ‘Shrek The Third‘ in 2007, Christmas special ‘Shrek The Halls‘ (2007) and ‘Shrek Forever After‘ in 2010.
More recently Mike has reprised the role of Austin Powers for the third time, and has played the title role in Dr. Seuss’ ‘The Cat in the Hat‘ (2003). Myers has also acted in the main role of ‘The Love Guru‘ (2008) and in a small part in ‘Inglorious Basterds‘ (2009). He continued to appear on ‘Saturday Night Live’ until 2011.
During this period, Myers divorced his wife Robin in 2005 and met café owner Kelly Tisdale, who confirmed they were dating in 2006. They married in New York in 2010 and have a son called Spike, who was born in 2011.
Famed hip-hop artist Drake was born to a mixed-race couple in Canada in 1986, and raised Jewish. He came to fame playing wheelchair-bound Jimmy Brooks in seven seasons of the popular teen soap Degrassi: The Next Generation. In 2006, Drake began circulating mixtapes of his raps, and signed a record deal in 2009. His hit songs include “Every Girl,” “Best I Ever Had,” “Money to Blow” and “Take Care.”
Drake, the world’s only black Jewish-Canadian rap star, was born Aubrey Drake Graham on October 24, 1986, in Toronto, Canada. Drake grew up with music in his blood. His father, Dennis Graham, was a drummer for legendary rock star Jerry Lee Lewis, and Drake says that his mother, Sandi Graham, also hails from a “very musical” family. Drake comes from an eclectic and unique racial and religious background. His father is an African-American Catholic and his mother is a white Canadian Jew. Speaking about his personal identity, Drake says, “At the end of the day, I consider myself a black man because I’m more immersed in black culture than any other. Being Jewish is kind of a cool twist. It makes me unique.”
Drake’s parents divorced when he was 5 years old, and he was raised by his mother in Forest Hill, an affluent and predominantly Jewish Toronto neighborhood. He had a Bar Mitzvah at age 13 and observed the Jewish High Holy Days with his mother. “My mom has always made Hanukkah fun,” Drake recalls. “When I was younger, she gave cool gifts and she’d make latkes.” Despite his Jewish upbringing, Drake says he felt isolated at Forest Hill Collegiate Institute, his virtually all-white high school. Drake remembers, “Nobody understood what it was like to be black and Jewish.” However, he also adds, “being different from everyone else just made me a lot stronger.”
It was one of Drake’s classmates at Forest Hill who gave him his start in the entertainment industry. “There was a kid in my class whose father was an agent,” Drake would later explain, adding, “His dad would say, ‘If there’s anyone in the class that makes you laugh, have them audition for me.’ After the audition he became my agent.”
Shortly afterward, in 2001, Drake landed a role on the Canadian teen drama series Degrassi: The Next Generation. The show follows the dramatic lives of a group of teenagers at Degrassi High School, and Drake played the part of Jimmy Brooks, sometimes dubbed “Wheelchair Jimmy,” a basketball star who becomes permanently wheelchair bound when he is shot by a classmate.
Drake starred on Degrassi for seven years (2001-09), earning a 2002 Young Artist Award for best ensemble in a TV series, among other honors. The show quickly developed a devoted cult following—”There are very few subtle Degrassi fans,” Drake has said—propelling Drake to celebrity status in Canada, even while he remained relatively anonymous in the United States.
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A musical parodist in the broad, juvenile yet clever tradition of Mad magazine, “Weird Al” Yankovic is known for adding his own gently satirical lyrics to current hit songs. His shaggy, hangdog appearance, affection for slapstick, and amiable willingness to do seemingly anything for a laugh made him a natural for videos. His burlesques of the form and its artistes — especially of Michael Jackson in “Eat It” (from “Beat It”) (#12, 1983) and “Fat” (from “Bad”) (#99, 1988) — became MTV staples. His medleys of rock tunes given the polka treatment inspired rumors —untrue — that Yankovic was a member of the singing Yankovic family, who made polka and Western swing records in the 1940s. Regardless of his heritage, Yankovic is undoubtedly the most successful comedy recording artist, with more than 11 million albums sold.
Yankovic, a high school valedictorian and architecture student, got his start I 1979, when he sent his “My Bologna” — a parody of the Knack’s “My Sharona” — to Dr. Demento, a syndicated radio host specializing in novelty songs and curiosities. Recorded in a bathroom across the hall from his college radio station with only his accordion and vocal, the song was popular enough with Demento’s audience for Capitol (the Knack’s label) to release it as a single. His next parody, “Another One Rides the Bus” (based on Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust”), became the most requested song in the first decade of the Dr. Demento show.
Yankovic signed with Rock ‘n’ Roll Records (a CBS subsidiary), which not only gave him access to better recording facilities and the production expertise of Rick Derringer but the financial backing for the video of “Ricky” (#63, 1983). A combination parody of Toni Basil’s hit single and video “Mickey” and homage to TV’s I Love Lucy, “Ricky” was the first of a string of videos that skewered the music, its creators, and its audience, not to mention pop culture in general. While often hilariously hamfisted, Yankovic’s takeoffs — such as “I Lost on Jeopardy” (#81, 1984) from “Weird Al” Yankovic in 3-D (#81, 1984), which rewrote Greg Kihn’s “Jeopardy”; “Like a Surgeon” (#47, 1985), which tackled Madonna’s “Like a Virgin,” from Dare to Be Stupid (#50, 1985) — made their creator and star as much a rock celebrity as his targets. In fact, the longevity of Yankovic’s career has surpassed several of the artists’ whose songs he has parodied. Nearly half the songs on any of his albums were comedic originals, although only his biggest fans seemed to be aware of “Weird Al” the songwriter. But his lyric rewriting earned him eight Grammy nominations, including two wins.
In 1985 Yankovic released a video collection of his parodies, The Compleat Al. That same year MTV produced an occasional series starring Yankovic as the host of Al TV, wherein he spoofed current videos. In 1989 he wrote and starred in the movie UHF; costarring a pre-Seinfeld Michael Richards, UHF did poorly in the theater but later found new life as a cultish video hit.
Polka Party! (#177, 1986), which relied more on music than on videos, stiffed. Even Worse (#27, 1988) marked Al’s return to rock video, and Michael Jackson. For “Fat,” a grossly, literally overinflated Yankovic donned a leather outfit that copied Jackson’s on the cover and video of Bad down to the last buckle. Jackson not only gave his approval for Yankovic’s versions, he lent the subway set used in “Bad” for the “Fat” video.
In 1988 Yankovic collaborated with avant-garde synthesizer artist Wendy Carlos on recorded versions of the classical pieces Peter and the Wolf and Carnival of the Animals Part II. In 1992 Yankovic turned his eye to another musical trend, grunge, specifically Nirvana. “Smells Like Nirvana” (#35, 1992) took on the Seattle band’s image and garbled lyrics, with the accompanying video again using the original set, this time adding cows and Dick Van Patten, wile the cover of Off the Deep End (#17, 1992) had Yankovic replacing the swimming baby picture on Nevermind, his gaze focused not on a dollar bill but a donut. He also mocked the traveling summer tour Lollapalooza with his 1993 album, Alapalooza (#46), which featured “Bedrock Anthem,” a combination takeoff of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Under the Bridge” and “Give it Away” as well as the classical cartoon series The Flintstones. In 1996 he wrote the theme song for the movie satire Spy Hard, as well as designed the opening credits and appeared as himself in the film.
The same year, Yankovic released Bad Hair Day, which rose to #14 thanks to the success of its first single and video, “Amish Paradise,” a takeoff on rapper Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise” (itself a rewrite of Stevie Wonder’s “Pastime Paradise”). The album cover even mimicked the rapper’s hairstyle. While Yankovic always prided himself on getting permission to parody, this time there was a miscommunication between the artists’ record companies’ Yankovic was told Coolio was fine with the idea, but when the album was released, Coolio claimed he never consented. Yankovic sent a letter of apology and vowed not to accept agreement from anyone but the artists themselves.
After being the subject of the Disney Channel mockumentary special “Weird Al” Yankovic: There’s No Going Home in 1996, the entertainer hosted the Pee-wee’s Playhouse-esque Weird Al Show on CBS’ Saturday-morning lineup in 1997 and 1998. He was frustrated by the network’s lack of support for his tongue-in-cheek humor, and the show was canceled after one season. Yankovic seemingly disappeared for a time in 1998; when he re-emerged without his trademark mustache and glasses — besides shaving, he’d gotten laser eye surgery — he was unrecognizable. His 1999 release, Running with Scissors, peaked at #16, due to the well-timed single “The Saga Begins,” a rundown of the current Star Wars movie The Phantom Menace sung to the tune of Don McLean’s “American Pie.” Even the official Star Wars Web site plugged Yankovic’s album, whose release was also timed to the premiere of his Behind the Music episode on VH1. In 2000 Yankovic contributed the original “Polkamon” to the soundtrack of the kids’ flick Pokémon 2000: The Movie.
While Yankovic and his band (bassist Steve Jay, drummer Jon “Bermuda” Schwartz, guitarist Jim West, and keyboardist Ruben Valtierra) are often not taken seriously, they are able to play the original songs they parody note-for-note, both in the studio and on tour, making them a great cover band, Yankovic has also tried his hand at directing music videos, both his own and for other artists, including country comedian Jeff Foxworthy, the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Hanson, and the Black Crowes.
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