Malcolm McLaren (born Malcolm Robert Andrew Edwards, 22 January 1946, in London) is an English impresario, musician and self-publicist who is best known as being the manager of the punk rock band Sex Pistols.

McLaren was born to Pete McLaren and Emmy Isaacs in the suburbs of postwar London.

His father left when he was two, so he was raised by his grandmother, Rose Corre Isaacs, in Stoke Newington, London. She was a charismatic, formerly wealthy daughter of Portuguese Sephardic Jews who were former diamond dealers. When Malcolm was six, Emmy Isaac married Martin Levi, a man working in London's rag trade. McLaren’s stepfather and his mother owned a shmatte factory in London’s East End, 'Eve Edwards London Limited', and Malcolm lived in a fine suburban house. Unfortunately, Malcolm and his stepfather never got along, and by the time he hit his teens, Malcolm couldn’t wait to leave home. After a series of jobs (including one as a wine taster), he went on to attend several Art Colleges through the 1960s, being expelled from several before leaving school entirely in 1971. It was during this time that he began to design clothing, a talent he would later utilise when he became a boutique owner.

He had been attracted to the Situationist International movement, which promoted absurdist and provocative actions as a way of enacting social change. In 1968 McLaren had tried unsuccessfully to travel to Paris to take part in the demonstrations there. McLaren would later adopt Situationist ideas into his promotion for the various pop and rock groups he was soon to become involved with.

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Blancmange is a British synthpop band that is best known for their hits in the early to mid 1980s. According to a Smash Hits interview done by Chris Heath, Neil Arthur attended the University of Birmingham at the same time as Duran Duran lead singer Simon Le Bon. Years later, when the two met up backstage at a Top Of The Pops taping, Le Bon recognized Arthur from university days and the two met up for a drink and some friendly chat.

Before forming Blancmange, Luscombe was a member of the West Middlesex group, 'Miru Music Club'. Luscombe also recorded with the 'Spontaneous Music Orchestra' and the 'Portsmouth Sinfonia'.

Blancmange was formed in Harrow, London in 1979 by vocalist Neil Arthur (born 15 June 1958, Darwen, Lancashire) and instrumentalist Stephen Luscombe (born 29 October 1954, Hillingdon, Middlesex). The duo released their first EP "Irene and Mavis" the following year, but had their first real exposure via a track on the seminal Some Bizzare Album, alongside fellow acts Soft Cell and Depeche Mode. This led to them signing a recording contract with London Records.

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Art Bears were an English avant-garde rock group formed during the disassembly of Henry Cow in 1978 by three of its members, Chris Cutler (percussion, texts), Fred Frith (guitar, bass guitar, violin, keyboards) and Dagmar Krause (vocals). The group released three studio albums between 1978 and 1981, and toured Europe in 1979.

Art Bears were formed during the recording of Henry Cow's last album after disagreements arose over the album's content. Frith and Cutler favoured song-oriented material, while others in the band wanted instrumental compositions. As a compromise, Frith, Cutler and Krause agreed, early in 1978, to release the songs already created on their own album, Hopes and Fears, under the name Art Bears, with the rest of Henry Cow credited as guests. The instrumental material appeared later on the final Henry Cow album, Western Culture (1979).

Hopes and Fears (1978) thus consisted of Henry Cow songs plus new Art Bears material recorded later by Frith, Cutler and Krause to complete the album. Towards the end of 1978, Art Bears returned to the studio to record their first "true" album, Winter Songs (1979). It comprised fourteen short songs composed by Frith around texts by Cutler that were based on carvings on the stylobate of the Amiens Cathedral in France.

In December 1978, Art Bears joined Rock in Opposition (RIO), and toured Europe in April and May 1979. For the tour, they added Peter Blegvad (ex-Slapp Happy, guitar, bass guitar, voice) and Marc Hollander (Aksak Maboul, keyboards, clarinet) to their line-up, and rehearsed at the Cold Storage Recording Studios in Brixton, London before leaving for Italy in late April. They performed in Italy, France, Belgium and Czechoslovakia, including a RIO festival on the 1st of May in Milan. Some of the songs recorded during the tour were later added to the CD release of Hopes and Fears and The Art Box (2003), a box set of Art Bears material.

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Bands That Could Be God is a mix of Boston-area hardcore and post-punk bands. It was complied and produced by Gerard Cosloy, who did the Conflict zine (and later ran Madador Records), and released on Lou Giordano's Radiobeat label.
I read somewhere in a zine once where some guy said the only tracks of note on this compilation were by Deep Wound... I'll bet anything that he wrote that without even having listened to the record before. Deep Wound's "You're False" is an awesome and amazingly fast hardcore song, but their other song here is honestly pretty boring (and to be honest, that band is kind of overrated anyway). The best band on this comp BY FAR is Moving Targets. "Selfish" is better than anything Deep Wound ever did. The other two Moving Targets songs are great too -- melodic hardcore with an edge, reminiscent of early Hüsker Dü. Years later hundreds of bands (try to) sound like this, but Moving Targets were one of the first to explore the territory. Also great are the Outpatients -- two superb hardcore songs, really fucking tight. Sorry, too, deserves recognition. Like Moving Targets, they go beyond just straightforward hardcore, although Sorry is slightly less urgent and powerful.

More info available at http://homepages.nyu.edu/~cch223/comps/bandsthatcouldbegod.html

Formed in 1980 in New York City, KONK was a band that emerged during a period marked by the Post-Punk/No-Wave and Disco scenes which were prevalent at the time. KONK won the attention of both scenes by playing a hybrid of the two musical styles which involved the blending of a Punk attitude with the carefree nature of Disco's dance crowd. KONK's musical influences ranged from Afro-beat, Jazz, and Funk to Hip-Hop, which was in its infancy when KONK began to create their unique sound. Given these influence KONK's style is noted as being highly percussive, and containing simple, yet strong, backing bass lines. KONK’s pioneering interest in electronic and musical technology also put them at the forefront of the burgeoning worlds of Electro/Hip-Hop and House. As a key group in New York’s Post-Punk dance scene they regularly played alongside groups such as Liquid Liquid, Bush Tetras, ESG, The Peech Boys and The Lounge Lizards.


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The Raincoats are a post-punk band and were formed in 1977 by Ana da Silva (vocals, guitar) and Gina Birch (vocals, bass) while they were students at Hornsey College of Art, London, England.[1] The line-up included Ross Crighton on guitar and Nick Turner on drums for the band’s first gig on 9th November 1977. Kate Korus, from The Slits and later The Mo-dettes, joined briefly and was replaced by Jeremie Frank. Nick Turner left to form The Barracudas and Richard Dudanski (exThe 101'ers and later PIL) sat in on drums and film maker Patrick Keiller replaced Jeremie Frank on guitar.

Late in 1978, The Raincoats became an all female post-punk band, when joined by Palmolive of The Slits (drums), Vicky Aspinall (violin) and manager Shirley O'Loughlin. The band went on their first UK tour with Swiss female band Kleenex, in May 1979 after Rough Trade Records released their first single "Fairytale in the Supermarket"/ "In Love"/ "Adventures Close to Home".

Palmolive left the band after their seminal first album The Raincoats and Ingrid Weiss joined in 1980, when the band began recording their second album Odyshape, and toured Europe and the east coast of the USA. Guest musicians on Odyshape included Robert Wyatt, This Heat's Charles Hayward and Richard Dudanski.
The Raincoats (album) 1979
The Raincoats (album) 1979

In New York, December 1982, The Raincoats recorded a live album at the arts space The Kitchen. The Kitchen Tapes (live) was released on ROIR in 1983.[2]

The band recorded Moving in 1984 and began work on solo projects shortly after the release of this album. Gina Birch and Vicky Aspinall formed Dorothy and Ana da Silva worked with choreographer Gaby Agis on a series of dance projects and formed Roseland with Charles Hayward.

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Fela Anikulapo Kuti (born Olufela Olusegun Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, October 15, 1938 - August 2, 1997), or simply Fela, was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick. He is ranked at number 46, in a list of the top 100 most influential musicians compiled by HMV.

The musical style performed by Fela Kuti is called Afrobeat, which is essentially a fusion of jazz, funk and Traditional African Chant. It is characterized by having African style percussion, vocals, and musical structure, along with jazzy, funky horn sections. The "endless groove" is also used, in which a base rhythm of drums, muted guitar, and bass guitar are repeated throughout the song. This is a common technique in African and African-influenced musical styles, and can be seen in funk and hip-hop. Some elements often present in Fela's music are the call-and-response with the chorus and figurative but simple lyrics. Fela's songs were almost always over ten minutes in length, some reaching the twenty or even thirty minute marks. This was one of many reasons that his music never reached a substantial degree of popularity outside of Africa. His songs were mostly sung in Nigerian pidgin, although he also performed a few songs in the Yoruba language. Fela's main instruments were the saxophone and the keyboards but he also played the trumpet, horn, guitar and made the occasional drum solo. Fela refused to perform songs again after he had already recorded them, which also hindered his popularity outside Africa. Fela was known for his showmanship, and his concerts were often quite outlandish and wild.

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The Flesh Eaters are a Los Angeles punk band whose peak of popularity was in the late 1970s and early 80's. They were started in the fall of 1977 by punk poet ^[1] Chris Desjardins, a singer known for morbid lyrical themes.^[2] Their first gig was December 21, 1977 at The Masque in Los Angeles. Musicians in various Flesh Eaters line-ups included Stan Ridgway (Wall of Voodoo), John Doe (X), DJ Bonebrake (X), Dave Alvin (The Blasters), Bill Bateman (The Blasters) and Steve Berlin (The Blasters, Los Lobos). Considered by many to be a precursur of Death Rock, their music was a pastiche of rockabilly, road-house blues, punk rock and jazz.

The Flesh Eaters initially broke up in 1983. Desjardins performed with his new band, The Divine Horsemen until 1988. In 1989 Desjardins recorded an LP with the one-time group Stone-By-Stone. Shortly after this they changed their name back to The Flesh Eaters. They continued to perform on the west coast, ultimately recording two albums. They discontinued performances in the Spring of 1993. Since then, Desjardins has performed intermittently with a variety of musicians under this name. The most recent Flesh Eaters album Miss Muerte was released in 2004 on Atavistic Records. This label has also reissued "No Questions Asked" & "Hard Road To Follow". In February 2006 it was announced that the original Flesh Eaters would perform several live shows. This particular line-up of The Flesh Eaters had not played together since the Spring of 1981. John Doe and DJ Bonebrake from X, Dave Alvin and Bill Bateman from The Blasters and Steve Berlin from Los Lobos were scheduled to appear for these shows. The tour included three dates in California and one date in England at the All Tomorrows Party Festival.

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Section 25 are an English post-punk band.

Section 25 were formed in Blackpool, Lancashire, UK in November 1977. Initially they were a duo, consisting of brothers Larry Cassidy (bass, vocals) and Vincent Cassidy (drums). In June 1978 they made their live debut, and in November were joined by guitarist Paul Wiggin.

Their debut 7", "Girls Don't Count", was released in July 1980 on Factory Records, produced by Ian Curtis and Rob Gretton of Joy Division. All Section 25 releases would be released through Factory Records until the demise of that label. Their debut LP, Always Now, was released in 1981 and produced by Martin Hannett.

The three-piece group played many gigs in Britain and Northern Europe between 1979 and 1981, both as a headline act and with other Factory Records artists, such as Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column, Crispy Ambulance and New Order. The group also released a self-produced second album, The Key of Dreams. However the original line-up split in 1982 when Paul Wiggin declined to fly to the US for their first North American tour.

Abandoning much of the existing live set, the Cassidy brothers prepared for an upcoming European tour with backing tapes and an extra percussionist. Following a warm-up date in London, the group visited Belgium, Holland and Germany in January 1982 in tandem with Factory labelmates Crispy Ambulance. The band then undertook their first North American tour.

Joined by percussionist Lee Shallcross, Section 25 gradually evolved a more electronic-dance direction, a process which culminated in the album From the Hip and single Looking From A Hilltop, both released in 1984 and produced by Bernard Sumner of New Order. This new version of the band also featured Angela Flowers (vocals, keyboards) and Jenny Ross (vocals, keyboards). This line-up completed a second tour of North America in 1985.

In 1986 the group again splintered, leaving husband-and-wife team Larry Cassidy and Jenny Ross to complete a fourth album, Love and Hate, finally released by Factory in 1988. Section 25 then fell silent for more than a decade, although their entire catalogue was reissued on CD on LTM as well as an archive DVD, So Far.

In 2001 the band regrouped and started composing new material. It was originally expected that this would form the basis for a new album but these plans were derailed by the death of Jenny Ross who died in 2004.

Now with Ian Butterworth (formerly of fellow Factory act Tunnelvison) on guitar and Roger Wikeley on bass and keyboards the band performed their first live show in nearly two decades at their hometown Poulton-Le-Fylde in May 2006 followed by dates in Blackpool, Paris, Brussels, Leicester, London and Athens.

A new studio album by the quartet, Part-Primitiv, was released by LTM in April 2007, together with Communicants, a DVD assembled from live performances in 2006.

Larry and Vin Cassidy also feature in the 2006 Factory documentary film Shadowplayers.

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X is a noted punk rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1977. While they achieved only limited mainstream success, they were widely considered one of the most accessible and tuneful of Los Angeles' many punk bands. Their landmark 1980 record Los Angeles resonated so loudly with the artisans of the city it is named after, that the band received an Official Certificate of Recognition from the City of Los Angeles in acknowledgment of their important contributions to Los Angeles music and culture. They were hugely influential on various genres of music, including punk, hardcore, and folk.

Original members were Exene Cervenka (born Christine Cervenka, vocals), John Doe (born John Duchac, bass and vocals), Billy Zoom (born Tyson Kindell, guitar) and DJ Bonebrake (born Donald J. Bonebrake, drums). After Zoom retired from the band, Tony Gilkyson replaced him on guitar. Zoom reunited with X in 1998. The original line-up now tours sporadically.

Their albums had a hard-driving sound that occasionally flirted with country and blues; one critic suggests that X "were not just one of the greatest punk bands, but one of the greatest live rock acts of all time."^[1]

In many ways — from songwriting to performances — X were arguably a bit more sophisticated and diverse than many of their punk peers (except Cervenka, all band members had previous musical experience before forming X.) One critic writes that X were "too self-conscious, artsy and ambitious to simply spew" in typical punk fashion.^[2]

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Prefab Sprout are an English pop band from Witton Gilbert, County Durham, who rose to moderate fame during the 1980s. Critically acclaimed and considered by many to have released some of the best pop albums of the decade, the band never became part of the mainstream, but saw moderate commercial success. They debuted in 1982 with their self-released single "Lions In My Own Garden: Exit Someone" - songwriter Paddy McAloon wanted a song title where the first letters of the words spelled out "LIMOGES" (where his former girlfriend was staying at the time). Their debut album Swoon was released on the Kitchenware record label in early 1984. The following album, the Thomas Dolby-produced Steve McQueen, (released in America as Two Wheels Good when McQueen's estate expressed their displeasure with the title). It was highly-praised by critics, prompting McAloon to remark: "I'm probably the greatest songwriter in the world, you know." Subsequently, they recorded Protest Songs which found only limited release, but yielded the song "Life of Surprises", which later became the title track for their greatest hits compilation.

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Taxi Records features several reggae and ska bands.

Sly and Robbie is one of reggae's most prolific and long lasting production teams. The rhythm section of drummer Lowell Dunbar (nicknamed Sly after Sly Stone, one of his favorite musicians) and bass guitarist Robert Shakespeare started working together in the mid 1970s, after having established themselves separately on the Jamaican music scene. They are humorously also sometimes referred to as Sly Drumbar and Robbie Bassspeare.

Sly and Robbie may well be the most prolific recording artists ever. One estimate is that they have played on or produced some 200,000 songs [1], considering that some of their riddims such as "Revolution" have been used on over 100 songs.

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Fishbone is an alternative rock band that plays a fusion of funk, ska, punk rock, reggae, heavy metal and more. The band was formed in 1979 in the ghettos of South Central Los Angeles by Angelo Moore, also known as "Dr. Madd Vibe" (vocals, saxophones ranging from sopranino to bass, and theremin); Kendall Jones (guitar); John Norwood Fisher (bass); Philip "Fish" Fisher (drums); "Dirty" Walter A. Kibby II (vocals, trumpet); and Chris Dowd (keyboards, trombone). The group came from the same Los Angeles scene that spawned the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane's Addiction.

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