One Long Groove's Vintage Vinyl Videos

The Sisters of Mercy

2010-08-10T14:43:00.001-04:00

The Sisters of Mercy are an English gothic rock band that formed in 1980. After achieving early underground fame in UK, the band had their commercial breakthrough in mid-1980s and sustained it until the early 1990s, when they stopped releasing new recorded output as a strike against their record company. Currently, the band is a touring outfit only.

The group has released three original studio albums, of which the last was released in 1990. Each album was recorded by a different line-up; singer and songwriter Andrew Eldritch and the drum machines called Doktor Avalanche are the only points of continuity among the line-ups. Eldritch and Avalanche were also involved in The Sisterhood, a side-project connected with Eldritch's dispute with former members.

The group ceased recording activity in 1993, when they went on strike against their record company Time Warner, which they accused of withholding royalties and being incompetent. Although Time Warner eventually let the band go in 1997, they have not signed to another label, and have chosen not to go the independent label route, despite showcasing numerous new songs in their live sets.

Since 1985, when the other original members left, The Sisters of Mercy has become the artistic vehicle of Andrew Eldritch. Ex-members of the group established the bands Ghost Dance and The Mission.

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Yukihiro Takahashi

2010-08-09T14:29:00.001-04:00

ukihiro Takahashi (高橋幸宏 Takahashi Yukihiro, born June 6, 1952) is a Japanese musician, who is best known as the drummer and lead vocalist of the Yellow Magic Orchestra.[1]

Yukihiro Takahashi first came to prominence as the drummer of the Sadistic Mika Band, and became known to western audiences after this band (led by Kazuhiko Kato, formerly of The Folk Crusaders) toured and recorded in the United Kingdom. After the Sadistic Mika Band disbanded, some of the members (including Takahashi) formed another band called The Sadistics, who released several albums. Finally Takahashi recorded his first solo album Saravah in 1977. In 1978, Takahashi joined Ryuichi Sakamoto and Haruomi Hosono to form the Yellow Magic Orchestra.

After the Yellow Magic Orchestra disbanded in the mid 80s, Takahashi went solo and released a large number of solo albums, primarily intended for the Japanese market. Takahashi has collaborated extensively with other musicians, including Bill Nelson, Iva Davies of Icehouse,[2] Keiichi Suzuki of the Moonriders (often as a duo dubbed "The Beatniks", although Suzuki essentially functioned as a member of Takahashi's backing band during the Moonriders' brief hiatus) and in particular Steve Jansen. Takahashi has released a single Stay Close and an EP Pulse as a duo with Jansen.

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The Lambrettas

2010-08-08T14:38:00.001-04:00

The Lambrettas were an English mod revival band, active in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Named after the iconic Italian Lambretta scooter brand popular among Mods, the band was formed in Brighton. Their original line-up consisted of Jez Bird (singer/guitarist), Doug Sanders (guitarist/vocalist), Mark Ellis (bassist) and Paul Wincer (drummer).

Their biggest hit was in 1980, with a cover version of the 1950s Leiber and Stoller song, "Poison Ivy", which reached #7 in the UK Singles Chart. They scored a #12 hit with the follow-up, "Da-a-a-nce". In the same year, they released the album Beat Boys in the Jet Age, which reached #28 on the UK Albums Chart, and scored another minor hit single single, "Another Day (Another Girl)", at UK. The latter song was originally called "Page Three" but an injunction from the Sun newspaper forced a change of title and the destruction of all the manufactured sleeves. All these releases were issued by Rocket Records, the imprint owned by Elton John. After the Mod revival faded, subsequent singles, which included a 1982 cover of Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love" - featuring Patrick Freyne on drums - and a second album, 1981's Ambience (Drummer Paul Wincer left the band and was replaced on the album by Steve Bray), were commercial failures. The band played their final concert in London, on 14 April 1982. Bird re-formed the band in the 1990s, performing at small venues in England, and recording several demos for a new album that was never issued.

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Cabaret Voltaire

2010-08-07T14:25:00.001-04:00

Cabaret Voltaire were a British music group from Sheffield, England.[1]

Initially composed of Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk and Chris Watson, the group was named after the Cabaret Voltaire, a nightclub in Zurich, Switzerland that was a centre for the early Dada movement.

Their earliest performances were dada-influenced performance art, but Cabaret Voltaire later developed into one of the most prolific and important groups to blend pop with dance music, techno, dub, house and experimental electronic music.

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The_Wake

2010-08-06T14:10:00.001-04:00

The Wake were a British post punk and later indie pop band, founded in Glasgow in 1981 by Gerard "Caesar" McInulty (formerly of Altered Images), Steven Allen and Joe Donnelly, who was later replaced by Bobby Gillespie. Steven's sister Carolyn Allen soon joined, and remained in the band until its end.

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Ciccone Youth

2010-08-05T14:07:00.000-04:00

Ciccone Youth is an experimental band which was formed in 1986. It is a side project of Sonic Youth members Steve Shelley, Kim Gordon, Lee Ranaldo, and Thurston Moore, with Minutemen/fIREHOSE member Mike Watt. The band's name is a play on the names "Sonic Youth" and "Ciccone", the original surname of pop singer Madonna.

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Fear

2010-08-04T21:46:00.000-04:00

Fear is an American punk band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1977, and is still active today. Credited for helping to shape the sound and style of American hardcore punk,[1] the band started out as part of the early California punk rock scene, and gained national prominence after an infamous 1981 performance on Saturday Night Live.

Frontman Lee Ving has been the band's only constant member. Since their formation, the band went through various lineup changes and at one point featured Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on bass.

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Jah_Wobble

2010-08-03T13:59:00.000-04:00

Jah Wobble (born John Joseph Wardle, on 11 August 1958 in Stepney)[1] is an English bass guitarist, singer, poet and composer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd (PiL) in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but left the band after two years. Following his departure from PiL, he went on to a successful solo career, continuing to the present. His daughter is actress Hayley Angel Wardle, and he is married to the Chinese-born guzheng player and harpist Zi Lan Liao. In 2009, he published his autobiograpy, Memoirs of a Geezer.

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Monsoon

2010-08-02T21:20:00.001-04:00

Monsoon was an early to mid 1980s UK progressive rock trio that consisted of singer Sheila Chandra, record producer Steve Coe, and bass guitarist Martin Smith. They are best remembered for their number 12 hit single in the UK Singles Chart in 1982, "Ever So Lonely".[1]

Midge Ure, (Ultravox and Band Aid), directed the video for Monsoon' second single "Shakti" which went Top 40.

Monsoon's sound took Asian communities around the world by surprise - it was so contemporary and so unlike the “Disco in Hindi” albums, early Bhangra or James Bond influenced Hindi film blockbusters that were around. For Asian and Western audiences alike Monsoon's sound was a “evolutionary leap”.

Monsoon's third single, "Tomorrow Never Knows" (a cover of the Beatles ), featured guest appearances from Bill Nelson (Be-Bop Deluxe), Preston Heyman (Kate Bush), Dave Balfe (The Teardrop Explodes) and Merrick (Adam and the Ants).

Due to differences with their label, Phonogram, Monsoon dissolved in 1982. Sheila Chandra started a solo career, Steve Coe continued writing and producing her albums, as well as Martin Smith, but often under the name Ganges Orchestra.

Phonogram "posthumously" released Third Eye in 1983.

A compilation of Monsoon recordings including several previously unreleased tracks were released in 1995 on CD by Phonogram's partner label Mercury Records.

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Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark

2010-08-01T21:07:00.000-04:00

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (often abbreviated to OMD) are a synthesiser group whose founding members are originally from the Wirral Peninsula, England. OMD record for Virgin Records (originally for Virgin's Dindisc Records subsidiary).

The group was founded in 1978 by Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys. Adding Malcolm Holmes and Martin Cooper by the end of 1980, this quartet (with occasional line-up fluctuations) was the core of the outfit until 1989, when Humphreys, Cooper and Holmes all left OMD to found The Listening Pool. McCluskey then retained the OMD name and continued to record and tour as OMD with new line-ups through 1996.

Though McCluskey essentially retired the OMD name in 1996, shortly thereafter Humphreys began playing live shows as OMD with other musicians on an as-needed basis, but without McCluskey. Then in late December, 2005, OMD's official website announced a forthcoming reformation of the 'classic' 1980s line-up (Humpheys/McCluskey/Cooper/Holmes), both for live performances and for a new studio album. This reformed quartet began touring in 2007, and further successful sold out tours took place in 2008 and 2009.

OMD recently announced that they are completing a new studio album called History of Modern, which will be released some time in 2010.

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The Call

2010-07-31T20:54:00.001-04:00

The Call formed in Santa Cruz in 1980 by vocalist/guitarist Michael Been, Scott Musick, and Tom Ferrier. Been and Musick were originally from Oklahoma. Beginning with their self-titled debut in 1982, the band went on to produce a total of 10 albums by 2000.

The eponymous premiere album was recorded in England, and Michael Been later recalled that the band was in an exploratory phase at this point. Been noted in a 1988 interview, "The Call was a compassionate album, but it probably came out as anger." Peter Gabriel liked the band so much that he asked them to open for him during his 1982 "Shock the Monkey" tour.

The next album, Modern Romans, was notable for its political content. Been later stated, "There was a great deal happening politically - Grenada, Lebanon, or the government saying the Russians are evil and the Russian government probably saying the same about us. That kind of thinking inspired me to write the last lines of 'Walls Came Down'."

This was followed by Scene Beyond Dreams. Been has referred to it as The Call's "metaphysical" album. With a strong poetic sense to the lyrics and a change in instrumentation, the change in sound is notable. Garth Hudson of The Band played keyboards on these first three records.

Reconciled was recorded during the summer of 1985. At this point, the band had not had a recording contract for two years, due to what Been describes as "legal bickering" between The Call's former record label and their management company. However, once the deal was signed with Elektra Records, the band resumed playing and produced their most commercially successful album to date. Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds's Jim Kerr, and Hudson and former Band mate Robbie Robertson all guested the album which was released in 1986. Several tracks from the album became hits on the Mainstream Rock Chart, and one of these tracks, "I Still Believe" was re-recorded by Tim Capello, Russ Taff and appears on the soundtracks of the 1986 Movie The Whoopee Boys and the 1987 movie The Lost Boys.

Next came the band's 1987 release Into The Woods, which Been has referred to as his favorite album.

In 1989 they released Let the Day Begin, whose title track reached #1 on the US Mainstream Rock chart. Red Moon, which included background vocals by U2's Bono, was released in 1990.

During the next few years, Been branched out creatively. He participated in composing and performing the music to Paul Schrader's 1992 film Light Sleeper. The film also features two of his songs, To Feel This Way and World On Fire. In 1994, he recorded a solo album, On the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough

In 1996, Warner Bros. Records. released The Best of The Call, which featured a selection of old favorites and few new songs. Two of the songs, Us and To Feel This Way, were different versions of tracks later to be seen on Been’s solo album, and in the case of "To Feel This Way", the "Light Sleeper" soundtrack as well.

In 1997 To Heaven and Back, was released by Fingerprint Records, followed by a live album, Live Under the Red Moon, in 2000.

The band is not currently touring. The band had a fan club called "Notified" and the information contained in their newsletters is in the file section of the Yahoo! groups list.

Al Gore used "Let The Day Begin" as his campaign song in the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election and Tom Vilsack used it as his song during his brief 2008 U.S. Presidential Election campaign.

Michael Been has appeared as a sideman in bands fronted by actor Harry Dean Stanton; Stanton having played harmonica on "Let The Day Begin" track "For Love". He played the apostle John in Martin Scorsese's 1988 feature film The Last Temptation of Christ and has some film credits.

Been's son, Robert Levon Been, is the frontman for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Michael Been is heavily involved in BRMC, as their sound engineer, and can be found on tour with them.

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Golden Palominos

2010-07-30T20:46:00.001-04:00

The Golden Palominos were an American musical group headed by drummer and composer Anton Fier, first formed in 1981. Aside from Fier, the Palominos membership was wildly elastic, with only bassist Bill Laswell and guitarist Nicky Skopelitis appearing on every album.

While the Palominos' records usually featured a core set of musicians and a certain emotional continuity throughout the bulk of an album, various guest appearances would result in stylistic changes from track to track.

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Birthday Party

2010-07-29T18:55:00.000-04:00

The Birthday Party (originally known as The Boys Next Door) were an Australian post-punk group, active from 1976 to 1983.

Despite being championed by John Peel, The Birthday Party found little commercial success during their career. Though often indirect, their influence has been far-reaching, and have been called one of "the darkest and most challenging post-punk groups to emerge in the early '80s." [1] While their early music was sometimes classified as gothic rock, the band disdained the term, and their sound was very different from most goth music, closer to No Wave. However, the Birthday Party did have an influence on deathrock, a genre related to gothic rock.

Despite their limited commercial success, the creative core of the Birthday Party have gone on to acclaimed careers: singer and songwriter Nick Cave, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Mick Harvey, and singer, songwriter and guitarist Rowland S. Howard.

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David Thomas

2010-07-28T18:46:00.001-04:00

David Lynn Thomas (born 1953 in Miami, Florida) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician.

He was one of the founding members of the short-lived protopunkers Rocket From The Tombs (1974-1975), where he went by the name of Crocus Behemoth, and of punk group Pere Ubu (1975 - present, intermittently). He has also released several solo albums. Though primarily a singer, he sometimes plays melodeon, trombone, guitar or other instruments.

Thomas has described his artistic focus as being the "gestalt of culture, geography and sound". [1] Common themes crop up throughout much of his work, such as the US Interstate Highway system, images of roadside or "junk" tourist culture, Brian Wilson, AM Radio, and many others.

Something of a cult figure, Thomas's high pitched voice is one of the most distinctive in rock music; Emerson Dameron memorably described Thomas's singing as "James Stewart trapped in an oboe"[2], while Greil Marcus writes that "Mr Thomas's voice is that of a man muttering in a crowd. You think he's talking to himself until you realize he's talking to you."

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The Danse Society

2010-07-27T18:42:00.001-04:00

The Danse Society were a positive punk group from Barnsley, England, active from 1981 to 1987. They achieved moderate fame during their short career. Their line-up was: Steve Rawlings (voice), Paul Nash (guitar), Lyndon Scarfe (keyboards), Tim Wright (bass) and Paul Gilmartin (drums).

In 1980 they recorded and released their first 12" single, "Clock", on their own newly-formed record label, Society Records.

Their most well known album, Heaven is Waiting, was released in December 1983 by Arista. The album contained a cover of The Rolling Stones song, "2000 Light Years from Home", also edited in 1984 as 12" single and as a limited edition double single. In 1986, the other band members left to form Johnny In The Clouds, leaving Rawlings to carry on as Danse Society International for an album Looking Through, reappearing in 1987 simply as Society with a single, "Saturn Girl".[1]

After 1987, Rawlings continued to pursue his path in music with the electronic dance music act, Meridian Dream.

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The Fall

2010-07-26T18:36:00.003-04:00

The Fall are an English post-punk group, formed in Prestwich, Greater Manchester in 1976. The group has existed in some form ever since, and is essentially built around its founder and only constant member Mark E. Smith. First associated with the punk movement of the late 1970s, the group's music has gone through several stylistic changes over the years. However, The Fall's music is often characterised by repetition, an abrasive guitar-driven sound, and is always underpinned by Smith's vocals and often cryptic lyrics, described by critic Steve Huey as "abstract poetry filled with complicated wordplay, bone-dry wit, cutting social observations, and general misanthropy (sometimes more implied than clearly stated, but apparent nonetheless)."[1]

The group's output is prolific—as of July 2010 they have released 28 studio albums, and more than triple that counting live albums and other releases. They have never achieved widespread public success beyond a handful of minor hit singles in the late 1980s, but have maintained a strong cult following. The band were long associated with BBC disc jockey John Peel, who championed them from early on in their career and cited The Fall as his favourite band, famously explaining, "They are always different, they are always the same.

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Rank and File

2010-07-25T18:30:00.000-04:00

Sundown was the debut album by Los Angeles cowpunk band Rank and File, released in 1982 on Slash Records. Critic Robert Christgau gave it an "A-" in his Consumer Guide,[1] while Trouser Press called the album "effortlessly enjoyable," citing its "tuneful and tasty pop numbers, which also benefit from pretty harmonies and confident playing."[2] It was voted one of the best albums of the year in the Village Voice's influential Pazz & Jop critics poll.[3]

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The Unknowns

2010-07-24T18:28:00.002-04:00

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Adrian Belew

2010-07-23T18:18:00.001-04:00

Adrian Belew (born Robert Steven Belew, December 23, 1949, in Covington, Kentucky) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He is perhaps best known for his work as a member of the progressive rock group King Crimson (which he has fronted since 1981) and for his unusual impressionistic approach to guitar playing (involving arresting yet frequently melodic sounds more akin to animals and machines than to standard instrumental tones).

Widely recognized as an "incredibly versatile player,[1] Belew has released nearly twenty solo albums for Island Records and Atlantic Records which blend Beatles-inspired pop-rock with more experimental fare. His 2005 single "Beat Box Guitar" was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Rock Instrumental Performance category. In addition to being a member of King Crimson, he is also in the more straightforward pop band The Bears and fronted his own band, Gaga, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He has worked extensively as a session and touring musician, most famously with Talking Heads, David Bowie, Caifanes, Frank Zappa, and Nine Inch Nails.

Belew has recently moved into instrument design, collaborating with Parker Guitars to help design his own Parker Fly signature guitar. This guitar is noticebly different from the standard design, containing advanced electronics such as a sustainer pickup and a Line 6 Variax guitar modelling system. It is also MIDI capable, allowing it to be used with any synthesizer with MIDI connectivity.

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Renaldo and the Loaf

2010-07-22T18:09:00.001-04:00

Renaldo and the Loaf was an English musical duo active in the late seventies and most of the eighties, consisting of a pathologist (David Janssen or "Ted The Loaf") and an architect (Brian Poole or "Renaldo Malpractice", most often simply "Renaldo M").

By their own assertion, they achieved their unique sound in part by striving to get unnatural synthesizer-like sounds using only what instruments they had available (acoustic ones). To that end they routinely used muffled and de-tuned instruments, and often to striking effect, tape loops / manipulation. The two released four full length albums, one collection, various songs on compilation albums, and several self-produced demos. They were "discovered" by The Residents when Brian dropped off a tape at Ralph Records headquarters in San Francisco, during a visit to the U.S. After being signed to Ralph, they collaborated with The Residents on Title in Limbo.

The first Renaldo and the Loaf album, Songs for Swinging Larvae, was released in 1981 on Ralph Records.

By 1989, the collaboration had lost its steam, and the duo disbanded after recording a sea shanty, "Haul on the Bowline," which appeared only on a Ralph various artists release. Brian/Renaldo contributed to sporadic recordings in the 1990s. In 2006 upon the launch of the new Renaldo & the Loaf web site, the duo were reunited for the first time in the better part of two decades.

Director Graham Whifler produced a short film in 1980, Songs for Swinging Larvae, from the album of the same name. The film concerns a kidnapped child and raises questions of home and human relationship. The film has since been banned from television and film festivals due to its controversial nature. "Larvae" was premiered at an art museum. It was included first in the Residents' 5 Minute Movies video collection, and later on the comprehensive Icky Flix DVD

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The Residents

2010-07-21T18:05:00.001-04:00

The Residents is an American avant-garde music and visual arts group who have been active since 1969. Their first official release under the name of "The Residents" was in 1972, and since then the band has gone on to release over sixty albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects, ten DVDs, and have undertaken seven major world tours. Throughout the group's existence, the individual members have ostensibly attempted to conceal their identities from the public, and much public speculation and rumor has focused on this aspect of the group. In public, the group appears silent and costumed, often wearing eyeball helmets, top hats and tuxedos - a long-lasting costume now recognized as their signature iconography. Their albums are often complex conceptual pieces, composed around a theme, theory or plot, and are noted for surrealistic lyrics and disregard for standard Western pop music composition.

Despite polarizing critical opinion and mostly eluding mainstream recognition, the Residents have maintained a dedicated fan following throughout the length of their career, and have remained active throughout. Notable fans include Simpsons creator Matt Groening, comedian Penn Jillette, and musicians such as Primus, The KLF, They Might Be Giants, Animal Collective, Mr. Bungle, Burial, TISM, and ism.

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The Plimsouls

2010-07-20T17:59:00.001-04:00

The Plimsouls are an American rock band formed in Paramount, California in 1978.

Formed by singer, guitarist and songwriter Peter Case (who had previously fronted power pop band The Nerves), the Plimsouls began as a trio in 1978 which included Case, bassist David Pahoa and drummer Lou Ramirez. From inception, the band quickly became a crowd favorite in the Los Angeles club scene. Long Beach promoter Stephen Zepeda signed the group to his Beat Records label for a five-song EP called Zero Hour. Guitarist Eddie Munoz joined the group during the recording of the ep.

Danny Holloway produced the Zero Hour EP and managed the group. The song, "Zero Hour," received heavy airplay on KROQ, and the Plimsouls grew to be one of the top club draws in the city. Case received critical praise for his songwriting. In 1981, Planet Records (with distribution through Elektra) signed the group and released their self-titled debut album which Holloway also produced. A single, "Now", received strong local airplay in LA.

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Kid Creole & the Coconuts

2010-07-19T17:34:00.000-04:00

Kid Creole and the Coconuts is an American musical group created and led by August Darnell. Their music incorporates a variety of styles and influences, in particular "American and Latin American, South American, Caribbean, Trinidadian, Calloway"[1] and conceptually inspired by the big band era. The Coconuts are a glamorous trio of female backing vocalists whose lineup has changed throughout the years.

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52nd Street

2010-07-18T16:59:00.008-04:00

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Hunters & Collectors

2010-07-17T16:36:00.001-04:00

Hunters & Collectors were an Australian rock music band formed in Melbourne in 1981,[1] fronted by singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Seymour, they developed a blend of pub rock and art-funk.[1] Other mainstays were John Archer on bass guitar, Doug Falconer on drums and percussion, Jack Howard on trumpet and keyboards, Jeremy Smith on French horn, guitars and keyboards, and Michael Waters on trombone and keyboards.[2] Also acknowledged as a mainstay member was engineer and art designer Robert Miles.[1][2] Joining in 1988, Barry Palmer, on lead guitar,[2] remained until they disbanded in 1998.[1] Their hit singles were "Throw Your Arms Around Me", "Talking to a Stranger", "Imaginary Girl", "Holy Grail", "True Tears of Joy" and "Say Goodbye",[1] and they became one of the best live acts in Australia.[1][3]

Originally Hunters and Collectors were influenced by the Krautrock genre and the productions of Conny Plank, featuring strong percussive influences, noisy guitar, and driving bass lines.[1] The sound was in the vein of Remain in Light, the Talking Heads album of 1980. The band's name is from "Hunters and Collectors", a track by German group Can, on the 1975 album Landed.[1] Hunters & Collectors utilised Plank to produce two of their early albums, The Fireman's Curse and The Jaws of Life,[2][3] but neither charted into the Top 50 of the Australian albums chart on the Kent Music Report.[4] Their Top 10 albums started with Human Frailty in 1986,[4] which first featured their distinctive logo, a H & C symbol, where the "&" was twin snakes entwined around a hunting knife, a variation of the Caduceus. Other Top 10 studio albums were Ghost Nation in 1989, Cut in 1992 and Demon Flower in 1994

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Vinyl People

2009-11-30T18:44:00.000-05:00

This describes vinyl afficionados pretty darn well. HT: Wax_FM

Vinyl People from Howard Silver on Vimeo.

Hey, this looks cool!

2008-08-26T11:05:00.000-04:00

The Moog Guitar

The Moog Guitar can sound—and feel—like anything from a banjo to a synthesizer. More HERE

HT:Instapundit

Tracie Young

2008-08-21T21:25:00.000-04:00

Tracie Young (born 1965, Derby, United Kingdom) was a pop singer in the 1980s. She began her singing career at a mere 17 years of age, when she was discovered by Jam leader Paul Weller through a newspaper ad for his new Respond label. Signed to Respond Records, she had UK hit singles in 1983 with "The House That Jack Built" and "Give it Some Emotion" (both credited simply to "Tracie"), as well as singing back-up on the Style Council album, Introducing The Style Council. She sang on The Jam's final single "Beat Surrender" as well as The Style Council's "Speak Like A Child" and "Boy Who Cried Wolf" (which arguably was a brief but powerful demonstration of her skills).

She has since enjoyed a successful career in local radio, starting out as producer of 'The Best 80s Show In the World, Ever' at Essex FM in the late 1990s, and later moving on to presenting the travel bulletins during the breakfast show and freelancing as a presenter. In 2003 Tracie joined Soul City in Romford to present their breakfast show, but left a year later when Soul was bought by the London Media Group and rebranded as Time FM. In June 2004 Tracie joined Dream 107.7 as mid-morning presenter, but became breakfast presenter in September of that year. She continued in this slot until the Summer of 2006, moving briefly to Drivetime then leaving altogether a few weeks later. She returned in the Autumn to present the networked weekday evening show. As with her early days in radio as a producer, the music appeared to be the most important part of these well-researched evening shows. She included regular featured artists, with in-depth biographies and up to date news on artists from the 60s through to contemporary singers and groups. She also documented the history of labels such as Motown and Stiff.

Tracie presented the weekend sports show at Essex FM and has always included football updates in her weekend shows, most recently at Dream 100 (Tracie is a Tottenham Hotspur supporter). Since September 2007 she has freelanced at various stations in Essex but, according to her Myspace page, she will be returning to a regular slot on Southend Radio 105.1FM when it launches in Spring 2008.

Tracie took part in a charity bike ride in May 2007 from John O'Groats to Lands End in aid of Little Havens Children's Hospice in Essex. She has raised over £4500 for the hospice.

Tracie is divorced with 2 children and lives in Essex.

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The Cure

2008-05-07T21:48:00.001-04:00

The Cure are an English rock band that formed in Crawley, Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several lineup changes, with frontman, guitarist and main songwriter Robert Smith—known for his iconic wild hair, pale complexion, smudged lipstick and frequently gloomy and introspective lyrics—being the only constant member.

The members of The Cure first started releasing music in the late 1970s. Their first album, Three Imaginary Boys (1979), and early singles placed them as part of the post-punk and New Wave movements that had sprung up in the wake of the punk rock revolution in the United Kingdom. During the early 1980s the band's increasingly dark and tormented music helped form the gothic rock genre. After the release of 1982's Pornography, the band's future was uncertain and frontman Robert Smith was keen to move past the gloomy reputation his band had cultivated. With the 1982 single "Let's Go to Bed" Smith began to inject more of a pop sensibility into the band's music. The Cure's popularity increased as the decade wore on, especially in the United States, where the songs "Just Like Heaven", "Lovesong" and "Friday I'm in Love" entered the Billboard Top 40 charts. By the start of the 1990s, The Cure were one of the most popular alternative rock bands in the world and have sold an estimated 27 million albums as of 2004.^[1] As of 2007, The Cure have released twelve studio albums and over thirty singles, with a thirteenth album in the works.

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Devo

2008-05-01T18:55:00.001-04:00

Devo (pronounced DEE-vo or dee-VO, often spelled "DEVO" or "DEV-O") is an American New Wave music group, formed in Akron, Ohio in 1971. They are best known for their 1980 hit "Whip It", which made it to #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Their style has been variously classified as punk, art rock and post-punk, but they are most often remembered for their late 1970s and early 1980s New Wave sound which, along with others (such as Gary Numan, Peter Gabriel, and The B-52's) ushered in the synth pop sound of the 1980s.

Devo's music and stage show mingle kitsch science fiction themes, deadpan surrealist humor, and mordantly satirical social commentary via sometimes-discordant pop songs that often feature unusual synthetic instrumentation and time signatures, and their work has proved hugely influential on subsequent popular music, particularly New Wave and alternative rock artists.

Devo was also a pioneer of the music video, creating many memorable clips that were popular in the early days of MTV, although their use of the video medium dates right back to their very first appearance on stage at Kent State University in 1971, which was recorded with an early black-and-white portable video system.

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Kraftwerk

2008-05-01T18:47:00.001-04:00

Kraftwerk (pronounced [ˈkʁaftvɛɐk], German for power station) is a Grammy award nominated, electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany.

The Kraftwerk sound combines a driving rhythm section with catchy, synthesized melodies and harmony; mainly following a Western classical style of arrangement, accompanied by simple lyrics that are sometimes sung through a vocoder or generated by computer-speech software. The Moog synthesizer is heavily present in the majority of the group's works, adding to its signature sound creations. In the mid to late 1970s and the early 1980s, the Kraftwerk sound was revolutionary for its time, and it has had a lasting impact across nearly all genres of modern popular music.

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Thomas Dolby

2008-05-01T18:38:00.003-04:00

Thomas Dolby (born Thomas Morgan Robertson, on 14 October 1958) is an English musician, producer, and inventor. Thomas was born in London, England, UK. His father, Martin Robertson, was an internationally-distinguished professor of classical Greek art and archaeology at the University of London and Oxford University, and in his youth Thomas lived or worked in Greece and France. Dolby married actress Kathleen Beller in 1988; the couple have three children together. The "Dolby" nickname comes from the name Dolby Laboratories, and was given to him by school friends due to his seemingly inseparable relationship with his cassette machine. Dolby Laboratories was reportedly very displeased with Robertson using the company name as his own stage name and sued him, trying to stop him from using the name Dolby entirely. Eventually, the case was settled out of court and it was agreed that he would refrain from using the word Dolby in any context other than with the name Thomas.

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Lou Reed

2008-04-24T11:22:00.002-04:00

Lou Reed (born March 2, 1942) is an influential American rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. He first came to prominence as the guitarist and principal singer-songwriter of The Velvet Underground (1965-1973). The band gained little mainstream attention during their career, but in hindsight became one of the most influential of their era.^[1] As the Velvets’ principal songwriter, Reed wrote about subjects of personal experience that rarely had been examined in rock and roll, including bondage and S&M ("Venus in Furs"), transvestites ("Sister Ray" and "Candy Says"), drug culture ("Heroin" and "I'm Waiting for the Man"), and transsexuals undergoing surgery ("Lady Godiva's Operation"). As a guitarist, he was a pioneer in the use of distortion, high volume feedback, and nonstandard tunings.

Reed began a long and eclectic solo career in 1971. He had a hit the following year with "Walk on the Wild Side", though for more than a decade Reed seemed to willfully evade the mainstream commercial success its chart status offered him.^[2] One of rock's most volatile personalities, Reed's work as a solo artist has frustrated critics wishing for a return of The Velvet Underground. The most notable example is 1975's infamous double LP of recorded feedback loops, Metal Machine Music, upon which Reed later commented, "no one is supposed to be able to do a thing like that and survive." By the late 1980s, however, Reed had won wide recognition as an elder statesman of rock.

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Joe Jackson

2008-04-24T11:13:00.001-04:00

Joe Jackson (born David Ian Jackson, 11 August 1954, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire ^[1]) is an English musician and singer-songwriter, described as a unique and critically acclaimed recording artist, whose five Grammy nominations span 1979 to 2001.^[2] He is probably best-known for the 1979 hit song "Is She Really Going Out with Him?", which still gets extensive FM radio airplay; for his 1982 hit, "Steppin' Out"; and for his 1984 hit, "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)".

Along with Elvis Costello and Graham Parker, Jackson was a part of the trio of British-based artists that challenged the punk scene and brought a New Wave sound to the United States in the late 1970s. He was popular for his power-pop and New Wave sound early on before moving to more eclectic, though less commercially successful, pop/jazz/classical musical pieces.

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Elvis Costello

2008-04-19T09:29:00.005-04:00

Elvis Costello (born Declan Patrick MacManus 25 August 1954) is an English musician and singer-songwriter of Irish descent. Costello came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s, and later became associated with the punk rock and New Wave musical genres, before establishing his own unique voice in the 1980s. Steeped in wordplay, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader than that of most popular songs, and his music has drawn on dozens of genres. Critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote, "Costello, the pop encyclopedia, can reinvent the past in his own image".^[1]

Costello and Canadian jazz singer and pianist Diana Krall were married on December 6, 2003 at Elton John's estate outside London. Their first children together, twin sons Dexter Henry Lorcan and Frank Harlan James, were born December 6, 2006 in New York City.

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The B-52's

2008-04-18T09:45:00.003-04:00

The B-52's are a New Wave rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1976.

The band's name comes from a particular beehive hairdo resembling the nose cone of the airplane of the same name. During their early years, wigs of that style were often worn by the band's female singers Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson.^[1] The correct name for the band has long been "The B-52's," but in 2008 they dropped the apostrophe, with their official website, and Funplex album and single covers reading "The B-52s." However, the file tags on the digital releases of both of these retain the apostrophe. Both spellings could now be considered correct.

Wilson and Pierson formed the band with drummer Keith Strickland, guitarist Ricky Wilson (Cindy's older brother) and vocalist Fred Schneider after a drunken night at a Chinese restaurant and played their first gig in 1977 at a St. Valentine's Day party for friends. The B-52's sound is marked by the vocals and lush harmonies of Wilson and Pierson, and the generally spoken-word or sprechgesang vocals of Schneider.

The band's quirky take on the New Wave sound of their era was a combination of dance and surf music set apart by the unusual guitar tunings used by Ricky Wilson. Their costume thrift-store chic set them apart as well. During the Mesopotamia tour, the band's famous wigs were under the care of Jackie Slayton, one of Athens's leading artists and long-time friend of the band.^[2]

Their first single, "Rock Lobster", recorded for DB Records in 1978 (see 1978 in music), was an underground success that led to the B-52's performing at CBGB's and Max's Kansas City in New York City. "52 Girls" was the B-side. Two versions of the single were released in the UK that featured the B-side "Running Around". The buzz created by the record in the UK, meant their first show in London at the Lyceum was packed in anticipation, with many UK popstars such as Green from Scritti Politti, Joe Jackson and others in attendance.

Their debut album, The B-52's, contained re-recorded versions of "Rock Lobster" and "52 Girls", along with six more originals and a remake of Petula Clark's classic "Downtown". It was eventually certified platinum.

The album had greater success overseas, especially in Australia, where it hit #7 on the back of three hit singles: "Planet Claire" (#43), "Rock Lobster" (#3) and "Dance This Mess Around". "Rock Lobster" gave the band its first entry on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.

The follow-up, Wild Planet, reached the Top 20 on the Billboard 200 in 1980 and was certified gold. "Private Idaho" became their second Hot 100 entry; on January 26, 1980 the B-52's performed a breakout set on Saturday Night Live and were featured at the Heatwave festival in August 1980.

Party Mix! was released next, a remix album that took tracks from the first two LPs and presented them in extended forms.

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Talking Heads

2008-04-09T18:41:00.003-04:00

Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in 1974 in New York City who were active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison. Auxiliary musicians also frequently made appearances in concert and on the group's albums.

The music of Talking Heads combined elements of punk rock, new wave pop, funk, world music and art rock. Frontman and songwriter David Byrne contributed whimsical, esoteric lyrics to the band's songs, and emphasized their showmanship through various multimedia projects and performances. Critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine describes Talking Heads as being "one of the most critically acclaimed bands of the '80s, while managing to earn several pop hits."^[1]

In 2002, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Four of the band's albums appeared on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and the Channel 4 100 Greatest Albums poll listed one album (Fear of Music) at number 76. DigitalDreamDoor.com ranked them as the greatest new wave band of all time and ranked them #26 in its list of greatest rock/pop artists of the 80s. Their concert film Stop Making Sense is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of the genre.^[2]

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David Byrne

2008-04-09T18:29:00.005-04:00

David Byrne (born May 14, 1952, in Dumbarton, Scotland) is an American musician and artist. He is perhaps best known as a founding member and the principal songwriter of the new wave band Talking Heads, who were active between 1974 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released his own solo projects on record, and worked in a variety of media, including film, photography, opera, and internet-based projects. His achievements have been recognized by Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe awards. He currently lives in New York City.

Byrne was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, on May 14, 1952. Two years later, his parents moved to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and then to Arbutus, Maryland, when he was 8 or 9 years old. He graduated from Lansdowne High School in southwest Baltimore County. He then attended the Rhode Island School of Design for one year before dropping out and forming Talking Heads in 1974 with fellow RISD students Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, later joined by Jerry Harrison. He also attended the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, for one year.

During his time in the band, Byrne took on outside projects, collaborating with Brian Eno in 1981 on the album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which attracted considerable critical acclaim and featured a groundbreaking use of sampling.

Byrne has a daughter, Malu Abeni Valentine Byrne, with Adelle Lutz. Byrne and Lutz divorced in 2004.

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999

2008-04-09T18:23:00.002-04:00

999 are an English punk band which formed in London in 1976. Founded by singer/guitarist Nick Cash, 999's original lineup also included Guy Days (vocals/guitar), Jon Watson (bass) and Pablo LaBritain (drums). Ed Case served temporarily as drummer following LaBritain's injury in 1978, while Watson has since been replaced by Danny Palmer (1986-1991) and former Lurkers member Arturo Bassick (1991-present).

999 became a popular act within the London punk circuit, releasing its first single ("I'm Alive") in 1977 under its own label. The band soon found chart success, attaining five top 100 UK hits under the United Artists label. However, 999's popularity began to wane in the early 1980s. 999 disbanded in the mid-1980s only to reform soon afterward. They have since released several albums and continue to tour.

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XTC

2008-03-02T14:12:00.002-05:00

XTC was a New Wave band from Swindon, England, active between 1976 and 2005. Though the band enjoyed some significant chart success (including the UK hits "Making Plans For Nigel" (1979) and "Senses Working Overtime" (1982)), they are more known for their long-standing critical success than for making hit records.

While XTC have not announced a formal break-up, in 2006 band member Andy Partridge announced that the only other remaining member of XTC, Colin Moulding, was no longer interested in writing, performing or recording music. Partridge has stated that he will not issue new recordings under the XTC banner without Moulding's participation; accordingly, he now speaks of XTC "in the past tense."

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Gang of Four

2008-03-02T14:06:00.003-05:00

Gang of Four are an English post-punk group from Leeds. Original personnel were singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, bass guitarist Dave Allen and drummer Hugo Burnham. They were fully active from 1977 to 1984, and then re-emerged twice in the 1990s with King and Gill. In 2004, the original line-up reunited.

They play a stripped-down mix of punk rock, with strong elements of funk music, minimalism and dub reggae and an emphasis on the social and political ills in society. Gang of Four's later albums (Songs of the Free and Hard) found them softening some of their more jarring qualities, and drifting towards dance-funk and disco. Their debut album, Entertainment!, ranked at #490 in Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

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Depeche Mode

2008-03-01T18:32:00.005-05:00

Depeche Mode (pronounced /dəˌpɛʃˈmoʊd/) are an electronic music group formed in 1980, in Basildon, Essex, England. The group's original line-up was Dave Gahan (lead vocals), Martin Gore (keyboards, guitar, vocals, chief songwriter after 1981), Andrew Fletcher (keyboards) and Vince Clarke (keyboards, chief songwriter 1980–81). Vince Clarke left the band after the release of their 1981 debut album, and was replaced by Alan Wilder (production, lead keyboards) who was a band member from 1982 to 1995. Following Wilder's departure, Gahan, Gore, and Fletcher continued as a trio.

Depeche Mode are one of the longest-lived, most successful and influential bands to have emerged from the New Romantic and New Wave era. They have had forty-five songs in the UK Singles Chart (giving them more charting singles without a #1 hit than any other artist), as well as one US and two UK #1 albums. According to their record company, Depeche Mode have sold over 72 million records worldwide.^[1]

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Japan

2008-03-01T18:23:00.006-05:00

Japan were a British pop/rock group, formed in 1974 in Lewisham, southeast London. The band achieved success in the early 1980s, when they were often associated with the burgeoning new romantic movement.

The band debuted on record with 1978's Adolescent Sex and subsequently Obscure Alternatives, which both sold well in Japan and the Netherlands (where the single "Adolescent Sex" was a Top 30 hit), they also gained some popularity in Canada, but nowhere else. Though influenced by artists such as The New York Dolls, Roxy Music and David Bowie, both albums were widely dismissed by the British music press as being distinctly outmoded at a time when punk and New Wave bands were in ascendence. However, tracks such as "Suburban Berlin", "State Line" and "Rhodesia" suggested a creative depth and sense of melody to the band's output which would hint at their future direction.

Their third album, 1979's Quiet Life, heralded a significant change in musical style from the earlier largely guitar-based music to a more electronic sound, with more emphasis on Barbieri's synthesisers, Sylvian's svelte baritone style of singing, Karn's distinctive fretless bass sound and Steve Jansen's odd-timbered and intricate percussion work with Dean's guitar playing becoming increasingly sparse and atmospheric. Quiet Life was their last studio album for Hansa-Ariola, though the label would later issue a compilation album ("Assemblage") featuring highlights from the band's tenure on the label.

Their final two studio albums, Gentlemen Take Polaroids (1980) and Tin Drum (1981) were released on the Virgin label, and continued to expand their audience as the band refined its new sound and, somewhat unintentionally, became associated with the early-1980s New Romantic movement. Tin Drum in particular is critically regarded as one of the most innovative albums of the 1980s, with its startlingly original fusion of occidental and oriental sounds, and was a UK Top 12 album. Its unconventional single "Ghosts" reached #5 on the UK charts, becoming Japan's biggest domestic hit and one of only a very few such 'minimalist' songs to achieve such heights. Tin Drum was to be the band's final studio album as personality conflicts led to rising tensions between band members. Rob Dean had already departed towards the end of the "Gentlemen Take Polaroids" sessions, as his electric guitar work was increasingly regarded as surplus to requirements. During this period, Japanese multi-instrumentalist and experimental keyboardist Ryuichi Sakamoto was briefly implanted into the band's set-up to work directly alongside Sylvian on tracks such as Taking Islands In Africa.

The group's final UK performance came in November 1982 culminating in a six-night sell-out stint at London's Hammersmith Apollo. Japan's last ever performance was on 16th December 1982 in Nagoya, Japan. The band's final Hammersmith concerts were recorded to produce Oil On Canvas, a live album (and video) released in June 1983. Ironically, the band decided to split just as they were beginning to obtain long-overdue commercial success both in their native UK and internationally, with Oil On Canvas becoming their highest charting British album, reaching #5.

All of the band members went on to work on other projects, with varying degrees of success. By far the most successful is David Sylvian, who has recorded numerous solo albums and collaborations with noted performers including Holger Czukay, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Robert Fripp. A reformation of the band members in 1989-1990 (under the name Rain Tree Crow) was short-lived and produced only one eponymously-titled album which was released in April 1991. Once again, the band dissolved following frictions between Sylvian and the other members. The project was nevertheless a critical success. Jansen and Barbieri released the 1987 synth-pop album "Catch the Fall" under the name The Dolphin Brothers recalling much of Japan's sound, and worked together releasing electronic instrumentals under that moniker in the late nineties and early noughties both for Virgin and for their own label Medium Records. In 2005 and 2006 Steve Jansen and David Sylvian worked together again, releasing recordings under the name Nine Horses. Richard Barbieri went on to become a member of the British progressive band Porcupine Tree, who have just signed to Roadrunner Records (a major) and are enjoying critical success.

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Bauhaus

2008-03-01T14:16:00.001-05:00

Bauhaus are an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978 by Peter Murphy (vocals), Daniel Ash (guitar), Kevin Haskins (drums) and David J (bass). The band took their name from the German Bauhaus art movement, originally going by the name Bauhaus 1919, dropping the latter portion within a year of the band's formation. With their dark, gloomy sound and image, Bauhaus is considered one of the first gothic rock bands. Bauhaus broke up in 1983. Peter Murphy began a solo career while the other members continued as Tones on Tail, and later, Love and Rockets. Both enjoyed greater commercial success in the United States than Bauhaus, but disappeared from the charts in their homeland. The band reunited for a 1998 tour, and again on a more permanent basis in 2005 with plans to record another album.

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Simple Minds

2008-03-01T14:04:00.003-05:00

Simple Minds is a rock band from Scotland, which had its greatest worldwide popularity from the mid-1980s to the early-1990s. The band, from the south side of Glasgow, produced a handful of critically acclaimed albums in the early 1980s, and later went on to produce some politically inspired and critically praised work.

Simple Minds have secured a string of successful hit singles, the best known being its number one worldwide hit single "Don't You (Forget About Me)", from the soundtrack of the John Hughes movie The Breakfast Club.

Founding members Jim Kerr (vocals) and Charlie Burchill (guitar), along with drummer Mel Gaynor, are the core of the band, which currently features Mark Taylor on keyboards and Eddie Duffy on bass guitar.

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R.E.M.

2008-03-01T13:55:00.001-05:00

R.E.M. is an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by Michael Stipe (lead vocals), Peter Buck (guitar), Mike Mills (bass guitar), and Bill Berry (drums and percussion). R.E.M. was one of the first popular alternative rock bands, and gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's unclear vocals. R.E.M. released its first single, "Radio Free Europe", in 1981 on the independent record label Hib-Tone. The single was followed by the Chronic Town EP in 1982, the band's first release on I.R.S. Records. In 1983, the band released its critically acclaimed debut album Murmur, and built its reputation over the next few years through subsequent releases, constant touring, and the support of college radio. Following years of underground success, R.E.M. entered the mainstream in 1987 with the hit song "The One I Love". The group signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1988, and began to espouse political and environmental concerns while playing large arenas worldwide.

By the early 1990s, when alternative rock began to experience broad mainstream success, R.E.M. was viewed as a pioneer of the genre and released its two most commercially successful albums, Out of Time (1991) and Automatic for the People (1992), which veered from the band's established sound. R.E.M.'s 1994 Monster was a return to a more rock-oriented sound. The band began its first tour in six years to support the album; the tour was marred by medical emergencies suffered by three band members. In 1997, R.E.M. re-signed with Warner Bros. for a reported US$80 million, at the time the most expensive recording contract in history. The following year, Bill Berry left the band amicably, with Buck, Mills, and Stipe continuing as a three-piece. Through some changes in musical style, the band continued its career into the next decade with mixed critical and commercial success. In 2007, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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Men Without Hats

2008-02-29T18:39:00.002-05:00

Men Without Hats are a pop group from Montreal, Quebec that achieved their greatest popularity in the early to mid 1980s. They were characterized by the deep, expressive vocals of their lead singer Ivan and their elaborate use of synthesizers and electronic processing. Their most-remembered single was titled "The Safety Dance."

Men Without Hats - a new wave band. At the core, Men Without Hats consisted of Ivan Doroschuk and his brother Stefan, with various other members, including a third brother, Colin Doroschuk, as well as Jeremy Arrobas, Tracy Howe, Roman Martyn, Mike Gabriel, Jean-Marc Pisapia, Lenny Pinkas, and Allan McCarthy. They emerged with an EP called Folk of the 80's (1980). Tracy Howe was only with the band briefly, but long enough to be credited on a reprint of Folk of the 80s, despite not appearing on it. Pisapia went on to form The Box, and later, Arrobas and Gabriel left to work with him for a while, eventually founding their own group, Isinglass.

A popular but unconfirmed tale is that the name originated from a misread announcement to one of their early gigs as "Men Without Pants" by a francophone MC in Montréal. Though that tale may be unconfirmed the fact is that Men Without Hats first started off in bars as Men With Hats, but they decided to change the name to Men Without Hats as they always threw their hats off at the end of a performance.

The band erupted onto the international scene a couple of years later with their worldwide hit single "The Safety Dance" from their debut album Rhythm of Youth. The song spent four weeks at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, and was also a major hit in the UK (#6), in Canada (#12), in what was West Germany (#2), in South Africa (#1), in Austria (#7), in Sweden (#3), in Norway (#3), and in Switzerland (#4). They charted once again with the title track from their 1987 album, Pop Goes the World, which reached #20 in the US, #3 in South Africa, and #1 in Austria and Sweden. The song was also featured in the movie Date with an Angel (1987), starring Phoebe Cates, Emmanuelle Béart and Michael E. Knight. The next album The Adventures of Women & Men Without Hate in the 21st Century, released in 1989 featured a cover of ABBA's song "SOS".

Their 1991 album Sideways, dominated by processed electric guitars instead of keyboards, revealed a dramatically different sound for the band. The album failed to attract an American label, and the band broke up.

Following the break-up, Ivan released a solo album, The Spell, in 1997. Stefan and Mack MacKenzie (of 3 O'Clock Train) released Ride of Glory, a post-modern Western-themed CD.

Stefan and Ivan regrouped to release No Hats Beyond This Point in 2003.

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Echo and the Bunnymen

2008-02-29T18:36:00.003-05:00

Echo & the Bunnymen are an English post-punk group, formed in Liverpool in 1978. Their original lineup consisted of Ian McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and bass player Les Pattinson, supplemented by a drum machine assumed by many to be “Echo”, though the band denies this. In the 1982 book Liverpool Explodes!, Will Sergeant explains in an interview:

“

We had this mate [Smelly Elly] who kept suggesting all these names like The Daz Men or Glisserol and the Fan Extractors. Echo and the Bunnymen was one of them. I thought it was just as stupid as the rest.

”

The band’s early cult status quickly turned into mainstream success in the mid-1980s, as they scored a UK Top 10 hit with “The Cutter”, and their Porcupine (1983) album reached #2 (see 1983 in music). The next album, Ocean Rain (1984), again spawned hit singles to match their critical acclaim, and the band’s success continued. The departure of frontman Ian McCulloch in 1988, followed by the death of their drummer Pete de Freitas the following year, culminated with a complete split in 1990.

In 1997, however, the Bunnymen returned with the UK Top 10 hit "Nothing Lasts Forever" (see 1997 in music), and both press and fans were delighted by their heroes' return. Since then, both their artistic and commercial successes have been in something of a decline, their original post-punk sound gradually being replaced by a more retro '60s sound. Echo and the Bunnymen continue to perform regularly.

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Fun Boy Three

2008-02-29T13:20:00.004-05:00

Fun Boy Three were a short-lived but successful English band which ran from 1981 to 1983 and was formed by singers Terry Hall, Neville Staples and Lynval Golding after they left The Specials. The Fun Boy Three often ran into similar criticism as The Style Council as they had a less credible image than their previous bands.

They dispensed with the darker, moody sound and demeanour which they and Jerry Dammers had crafted with great success in the ska revival of the late 1970s and went into a much brighter, poppier phase with this new band, though maintaining savagery and wit within the lyrics and Hall's wholly expressionless persona.

Terry grew out and bleached his hair and wore more flamboyant clothes befitting of the early 80s.

Together they set about making music which covered a variety of genres. The band enjoyed six UK Top 20 hits, including the jungledrum-inspired "The Lunatics (Have Taken Over The Asylum)" and the brassy, marriage-cynic anthem "Tunnel of Love" and created two albums of which the eponymous Fun Boy Three was the most successful.

The trio's last UK hit was the song "Our Lips Are Sealed" from album Waiting, co-written by Terry Hall and Jane Wiedlin of the US band The Go-Gos, who had had a US hit with the song a year earlier. They then toured the USA and split afterwards.

They were also credited with helping launch the career in 1982 of Bananarama, whom Hall first saw in The Face magazine. The three women, in their berets and donkey jackets, provided credited chorus vocals on the hit "It Ain't What You Do (It's the Way That You Do It)" before the tables turned and the Fun Boy Three appeared as the 'guests' on the song "Really Saying Something". Bananarama would go on to become the most successful all-female group in UK chart history, a title they held until the arrival of the Spice Girls.

Hall went on to create the even more short-lived project The Colourfield, who had one hit in 1985, before forming less successful bands Vegas and Terry, Blair & Anouchka. He also embarked on a solo career and maintains respect from musicians and fans alike, with many acts citing him as an influence.

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Siouxsie and the Banshees

2008-02-20T12:27:00.000-05:00

Siouxsie & the Banshees were a British rock band that formed in 1976. Led by the singer Siouxsie Sioux and the bassist Steven Severin, the band's only constant members, the Banshees formed at the advent of the British punk scene and soon became one of the major bands in the post-punk era. Their music influenced a wide range of very diverse bands over the years amongst them The Cure^[1], Massive Attack,^[2] Garbage^[3] and more recently LCD Soundsystem.^[4] The group released a total of eleven studio albums from 1978 to 1995.

The band was originally formed to appear at the first UK based "international punk rock festival". This show was organised by Malcolm McLaren at the 100 Club on London's Oxford Street on September 20, 1976. Other bands on the bill for the night's performances included Subway Sect, The Clash and the Sex Pistols.

"Bromley Contingent" members Siouxsie Sioux and Steven Severin wanted to be exemplars of a fleeting Punk purism. With two borrowed musians, Marco Pirroni on guitars and John Simon Ritchie, later famous as Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, on drums, they got up on stage by taking the Punk ethos to its literal conclusion : creating a conflict with the audience. Their set consisted of a lengthy and chaotic improvisation based around "The Lord's Prayer", which also included lines from songs such as "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles", "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", "Smoke on the Water" and "Twist and Shout". The number lasted twenty minutes and the band split up at the end of the night.

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The Fabulous Poodles

2008-02-20T12:14:00.002-05:00

The Fabulous Poodles were a British pre-New Wave band formed in 1975. Known for quirky stage antics, such as exploding ukuleles, as well as songs with funny lyrics.

The Fabulous Poodles started out just as the Poodles before adding the "Fabulous" prefix, a term reportedly coined by Frank Zappa. The band consisted of Tony De Meur on lead vocals and guitar, Richie Robertson on bass and vocals, Bobby Valentino on violin, mandolin and vocals, and Bryn Burrows on drums. Many of the lyrics for the bands songs were written by John Parsons.

The Fabulous Poodles were very heavily influenced by such British 60's acts as the Who and the Kinks. The band released three official records between 1977 and 1979 on Pye Records, their first being self named. It was produced by the Who's legendary bass player John Entwistle, who also played eight string bass on a few songs.^[1] Their second LP, Unsuitable, featured their two best known songs, Mirror Star and Chicago Boxcar (Boston Back). In 1979 the Fabulous Poodles' final album, Think Pink was recorded and released, the title being the only lyrics to one of the songs, Pink City Twist. The Fabulous Poodles sold more records in the United States in 1979 than the Clash. In 1980 the Fabulous Poodles released their final single, Stompin' on the Cat b/w Anna Rexia and Don't You Lie To Me. The band broke up in 1980.

In the late 1970's the Fabulous Poodles embarked on an American tour supporting such notable acts as The Ramones and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Lead singer Tony De Meur now performs solo under the name Ronnie Golden.

Bryn Burrows later joined Freur and was in the original lineup of Underworld (band)

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Grace Jones

2008-02-15T13:33:00.004-05:00

Grace Jones (born May 19, 1948)^[1] is a Jamaican–American model, singer and actress. Jones was born Grace Mendoza in Spanish Town, Jamaica, the daughter of Marjorie and Robert W. Jones, who was a politician and Apostolic clergyman.^[2]^[3]^[4] Her parents took Grace and her brother Christian (now Bishop Noel Jones), to relocate to Syracuse, New York in 1965. Before becoming a successful model in New York City and Paris, Jones studied theatre at Syracuse University.

Jones secured a record deal with Island Records in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance club hits and a large gay following. The three disco albums she recorded — Portfolio (1977), Fame (1978), and Muse (1979) — generated considerable success in that market. These albums consisted of pop melodies such as "All on a Summer's Night" and "Do or Die" set to a disco beat as well as standands such as "What I Did for Love", "Autumn Leaves", and "Send in the Clowns". The latter song had been a hit twice with versions recorded by folk singer Judy Collins and jazz singer Sarah Vaughn.

During this period, she also became a muse to Andy Warhol, who photographed her extensively. Jones also accompanied him to famed New York City nightclub Studio 54 on many occasions.

Towards the end of the 1970s, Jones adapted the emerging New Wave music to create a different style for herself. Still with Island, and now working with producers Alex Sadkin and Chris Blackwell, she released the acclaimed albums Warm Leatherette (1980) and Nightclubbing (1981). These included re-imaginings of songs by Sting, Iggy Pop, The Pretenders, Roxy Music, Flash and the Pan, The Normal, Ástor Piazzolla and Tom Petty.

Parallel to her musical shift was an equally dramatic visual makeover, created in partnership with stylist Jean-Paul Goude, whom she eventually married and by whom she had a son. Jones adopted a severe, androgynous look with square-cut hair and angular, padded clothes. The iconic cover photographs of Nightclubbing and, subsequently, Slave to the Rhythm (1985) exemplified this new identity. To this day, Jones is known for her unique look at least as much as she is for her music. Her collaboration with Sadkin and Blackwell continued with the dub reggae-influenced album Living My Life.

In the mid 1980s, she worked with Trevor Horn for the conceptual musical collage Slave to the Rhythm and with producer Nile Rodgers for Inside Story (1986) - her first album after leaving the Island Records label. The well-received Slave to the Rhythm consisted of several re-workings of the title track (the single of which hit #12 in the UK) while Inside Story produced her last Billboard Hot 100 hit to date, "I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect For You)," one of several songs she co-wrote with Bruce Woolley.^[5] Bulletproof Heart (1989) spawned the #1 U.S. Hot Dance Music/Club Play hit "Love on Top of Love - Killer Kiss," produced by C+C Music Factory's David Cole and Robert Clivilles. Although she has yet to become a truly mainstream recording artist in the United States, (with the exception of her featured work on the Arcadia hit single Election Day), much of her musical output is still popular on the Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play and Hot Dance Airplay charts and many of her songs are regarded as classics to this day. Jones was able to find mainstream success in the United Kingdom, scoring a number of Top 40 entries on the UK Singles Chart. To date, she has released 43 singles (commercial and/or promotional), including several non-album tracks.

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Laurie Anderson

2008-02-15T13:26:00.002-05:00

Laurie Anderson (born Laura Phillips Anderson, on June 5, 1947, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois) is an American experimental performance artist and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance art piece in the late 1960s. Throughout the 1970s, Anderson did a variety of different performance art activities. She became widely known outside the art world in 1981 when her single "O Superman," reached number two on the UK pop charts. She also starred in and directed the 1986 concert film, Home of the Brave. ^[1]

She has also invented several devices that she has used in her recordings and performance art shows. In 1977, she created a "tape-bow violin" that uses recorded magnetic tape on the bow and a magnetic tape head in the bridge. In the late 1990s, she developed a "talking stick", a six-foot long, batonlike MIDI controller that can access and replicate different sounds. ^[2]

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Lene Lovich

2008-02-15T13:22:00.003-05:00

Lene Lovich (born March 30, 1949) is an American singer who first gained attention as part of the New Wave music scene of the 1970s and 1980s.

Lovich was born Lili-Marlene Premilovich in Detroit, Michigan to a British mother and a Serbian father. After her father had health problems, her mother took her and her three siblings to live in Hull, England.

Lovich met the guitarist/songwriter Les Chappell, who became her longtime collaborator and life partner, when they were teenagers. In autumn 1968, they went to London, England to attend art school. It was there that Lovich first tied her hair into the plaits that later became a visual trademark, though at first she did it to keep her hair out of the clay when studying sculpture.

Over the following decade, Lovich attended several art schools, busked around the London Underground and appeared in cabaret clubs as an "Oriental" dancer. She also travelled to Spain, where she visited Salvador Dalí in his home. She played acoustic rock music around London, sang in the mass choir of a show called Quintessence at the Royal Albert Hall, played a soldier in Arthur Brown's show, worked as a "go-go" dancer with the Radio One Roadshow, toured Italy with a West Indian soul band, and played saxophone for Bob Flag's Balloon and Banana Band and for an all-girl cabaret trio, The Sensations. She recorded screams for horror films, wrote lyrics for French disco star Cerrone (including the sci-fi dance smash "Supernature," later recorded by Lovich in her own version and by Erasure, as a B-side) and worked with various fringe theatre groups. She was also one of thousands of audience members invited to sing along at the 1972 Lanchester Arts Festival when Chuck Berry recorded the risqué "My Ding-a-Ling" for Chess Records.

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Nina Hagen

2008-02-15T12:31:00.003-05:00

Nina Hagen (born Catharina Hagen on March 11, 1955) is a singer from Berlin, Germany.

Nina's parents are Hans Hagen (also known as Hans Oliva), a scriptwriter, and Eva-Maria Hagen, an actress and singer. Her paternal Jewish grandparents lost their lives in Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Her parents divorced when Nina was two years old, and growing up she saw her father infrequently. At age four, she began to study ballet, and was considered an opera prodigy by the time she was nine.

When Nina was eleven, her mother married Wolf Biermann, a revolutionary anti-establishment singer-songwriter. Biermann's political views incalculably influenced young Nina: she was "dishonorably discharged" from the Free German Youth group at age twelve, and active in political protests against the socialist East German government.

Nina left school after completing the 10th grade (at age 16), and joined the cover band "Fritzens Dampferband" (Fritz's Steamboat Band, together with Achim Mentzel and others). In part, she dropped out because she felt constrained by what the oppressive regime considered to be "acceptable" music, and added songs by Janis Joplin and Tina Turner to the "allowable" setlists during shows.

From 1972-3, Nina enrolled in the crash-course performance program at The Central Studio for Light Music in East Berlin, and upon graduation, formed the band Automobil

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The Ramones

2008-02-08T23:05:00.000-05:00

The Ramones were an American rock band. They were one of the first punk rock groups.^[3]

After forming in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, in 1974, all members of the band used stage names with their surnames as "Ramone", though none of them are actually related. They performed 2,263 concerts, touring virtually non-stop for 22 years.^[4] In 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, the band played their final show and then disbanded. The band's three founding members—Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone and Dee Dee Ramone—died within eight years of the break-up.^[5]

The Ramones failed to achieve much commercial success during their years of recording and performing. Their only album to reach certified gold status in the U.S. was their compilation album Ramones Mania.^[6] Appreciation of the band has grown since the 1980s, and they now regularly appear on "all-time greatest" lists, such as Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, Rolling Stone’s list of 25 Greatest Live Albums of All Time,^[7] VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock and Mojo's 100 Greatest Albums.^[8]^[9]^[10] In 2002, the Ramones were voted the second greatest rock and roll band ever in Spin Magazine, trailing only The Beatles.^[11] On March 18, 2002, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.^[4]^[12]

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Public Image Ltd. (PiL)

2008-02-08T22:56:00.000-05:00

Public Image Ltd. (PiL) are an English band formed in 1978 by vocalist John Lydon (ex-Sex Pistols), ex-Clash guitarist Keith Levene, and bassist Jah Wobble. PiL are often regarded as one of the most challenging and innovative bands of the post-punk period. Though PiL has been inactive since 1992, Lydon (the band's only constant member) considers the group to be "on hiatus" rather than broken up.

Following the Sex Pistols' breakup in 1978, Lydon spent three weeks in Jamaica with Virgin Records head Richard Branson, in which Lydon assisted Branson in scouting for emerging reggae musicians. Branson also flew American band Devo to Jamaica, with an aim to installing Lydon as lead singer in the band. Devo declined the offer.^[1]

Upon returning to England, Lydon approached Jah Wobble (né John Wardle) about forming a band together. The pair had been friends since attending the same school in the early 1970s, and had sometimes played music together during the final days of the Sex Pistols. Both had similarly broad musical tastes, and were avid fans of reggae and world music. Lydon assumed, much as he had with Sid Vicious, that Wobble would learn to play bass guitar as he went. While that had proven a fatal assumption with Vicious (Lydon cites his musical inability as a prime reason for the Pistols' breakup), Wobble would prove to be a natural talent. Lydon also approached guitarist Keith Levene (né Julian Keith Levene), with whom he had toured in mid-1976, while Levene was a member of The Clash. Lydon and Levene had both considered themselves outsiders even within their own bands. Jim Walker (né James Donat Walker), a Canadian student newly arrived in the UK, was recruited on drums, after answering an ad placed in Melody Maker.

PiL began rehearsing together in May 1978, though the band was still unnamed. In July 1978, Lydon officially named the band "Public Image" (the "Ltd." was not added until several months later), after the 1968 Muriel Spark novel, The Public Image.^[2]

PiL debuted in October 1978 with "Public Image", a song written while Lydon was still a member of Sex Pistols.^[3] The single was well received and reached number 9 in the UK charts, and performed well on import in the US.

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Iggy Pop

2008-02-07T21:49:00.002-05:00

James Newell Osterberg, Jr. (born April 21, 1947), better known by his stage name Iggy Pop, is an American rock singer, songwriter, and occasional actor. Although he has had only limited commercial success, Iggy Pop is considered one of the most important innovators of punk and related styles. He is sometimes referred to by the nicknames "the Godfather of Punk" and "the Rock Iguana",^[1] and is widely acknowledged as one of the most dynamic stage performers of rock. Pop began calling himself Iggy after his first band in high school, The Iguanas.^[2] His direct influence extends to the present day: a Cadillac ad in rotation since February 2007 features his vocal performance on the song "Punkrocker", recorded in 2006 with the Swedish band Teddybears.^[3]

Iggy Pop was the lead singer of The Stooges, a late 1960s/early 1970s garage rock band who were influential in the development of the nascent heavy metal and punk rock genres. The Stooges became infamous for their live performances, during which Iggy Pop would take drugs, self-harm, and leap off the stage (being among the first to "stage dive"). Many subsequent performers have imitated Pop's antics.

Pop has had varying degrees of success in the course of his subsequent solo career. His best-known solo songs include "Lust for Life", "I'm Bored", "Real Wild Child", the Top 40 hit "Candy" (with vocalist Kate Pierson of The B-52's)^[2] and "The Passenger". A film about Iggy Pop's life and career titled The Passenger is currently in development.

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Sex Pistols/The Great Rock & Roll Swindle

2008-02-01T16:34:00.000-05:00

The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle is the soundtrack album of the movie of the same name. Although released under Sex Pistols name, it includes performances by several other artists.

The band was defunct by the time the soundtrack was being prepared, and Johnny Rotten didn't want anything to do with the project. So the "proper" Sex Pistols tracks were done by taking Johnny Rotten's vocals off the October 1976 demo session, and rerecording their soundtracks by Paul Cook and Steve Jones^[1].

These Cook/Jones sessions also produced original songs "Silly Thing" and "Lonely Boy".

The album also features a fair share of Johnny Rotten-less tracks. These include Sid Vicious cover songs, recorded mostly with session musicians, tracks Cook&Jones recorded with Ronnie Biggs and numerous novelty tracks including French street musicians playing Anarchy in the UK and medley of several Sex Pistols songs covered by a disco band.

People who sang on The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle include:

Paul Cook – lead vocals on "Silly Thing" (1978)
Steve Jones – lead vocals on "Lonely Boy", "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle", "Friggin' In The Riggin" and the single release of "Silly Thing" (1978)
Ronnie Biggs – lead vocals on "No One Is Innocent", "Belsen Was a Gas" (1978)
Malcolm McLaren – lead vocals on "You Need Hands" (1979)
Edward Tudor-Pole – lead vocals on "Rock Around the Clock" , "Who Killed Bambi" (1979)
Sid Vicious – lead vocals on "My Way", "C'mon Everybody", "Something Else" (1978)

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Dead Kennedys

2008-02-01T15:50:00.002-05:00

The Dead Kennedys are a hardcore punk band from San Francisco, California. During the 1980s, the band gained a large underground following in the international punk music scene. Their music mixed the more experimental elements of English 1970s punk with the raw energy of the 1980s American hardcore punk scene. The Kennedys' songs mix the deliberately shocking lyrics of punk with a humorous, acerbic, satirical, and sarcastic left-wing commentary on current social and political issues. At the same time, some of their songs also mocked the hypocritical stances of some liberal elites. Many of the band's songs criticize the right-wing ideologies of the religious right and the Ronald Reagan administration, along with many far-left personalities and ideas.

In the late 1980s, the band was embroiled in an obscenity trial in the US over the 1985 Frankenchrist album, which included a poster with art that depicted penises (Penis Landscape by H. R. Giger). The band was charged criminally with distribution of harmful matter to minors, but the trial ended with a hung jury. The band officially disbanded in 1986. From 1998-2004, the band was embroiled in an acrimonious lawsuit over royalties and rights to the band's music. In 2001, the band re-formed and began touring with a new vocalist over the objections of former lead singer Jello Biafra, who, after losing the lawsuit and being found liable for fraud, filed two appeals that he later lost.

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Jerry Harrison

2008-01-25T18:31:00.000-05:00

Jerry Harrison (born Jeremiah Griffin Harrison, 21 February 1949, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American songwriter, musician and producer. He was the keyboardist and guitarist for the influential New Wave group, Talking Heads. He was also an original member of The Modern Lovers.

Harrison played with Jonathan Richman in The Modern Lovers when he was an architectural student at Harvard University. Harrison was introduced to Richman by mutual friend and journalist Danny Fields, and the pair bonded over their shared love of the Velvet Underground. He joined the Modern Lovers in early 1971, playing on their debut album in 1972 (not released until 1976), and leaving in February 1974 when Richman wished to perform his songs more quietly.

Subsequent to his work with The Modern Lovers, Harrison joined Talking Heads; the latter band already had a single out when Harrison left the Modern Lovers to join them. While at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Harrison dated Elisabeth Post (now Elisabeth Post-Marner). Harrison confided in Post as to whether or not stay with the Talking Heads or become an architect at Harvard. Post advised that he stay with the Talking Heads and that he could always get involved with architecture later on in life. Harrison took Post's advice, and became part of a legend.

Harrison's solo albums include The Red and the Black, Casual Gods, and Walk on Water. The last of these albums actually is credited to "Jerry Harrison: Casual Gods," apparently in an attempt to create a new "band" identity by linking it to the previous record.

After the break-up of Talking Heads, Harrison turned to producing and has helmed numerous successful albums by such bands as Violent Femmes, Foo Fighters, The Von Bondies, General Public, Live, Crash Test Dummies, The Verve Pipe, Rusted Root, The Bogmen, Black 47, Of A Revolution, No Doubt and most recently The Black and White Years, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Bamboo Shoots.

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Agnostic Front

2008-01-25T17:57:00.000-05:00

Agnostic Front are a New York hardcore and crossover thrash band formed in New York City in 1982.

Formed by guitarist Vinnie Stigma (formerly of the Eliminators) in November/December 1980 with Diego on bass and Rob Krekus on drums. Agnostic Front went through a few singers, two of them being John Watson and Jimmy the Russian before settling with Roger Miret (formerly of the Psychos). They soon added Ray Barbieri (aka Raybeez) on drums and Adam Moochie on bass. Their debut EP United Blood, released in 1983 on an indie label, has since become a collector's item.

The follow-up was Victim in Pain (1984) and is regarded as a seminal New York hardcore release. Dave Jones replaced Ray Barbieri on drums and Rob Kabula on bass. In 1984 Jim "the Kid" Colleti joined on drums. The album pushed the band to the forefront of New York's fledgling hardcore scene, which was centered around CBGB's, where they played with bands like The Cro-Mags and Murphy's Law.

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Fad Gadget

2008-01-25T17:16:00.000-05:00

Fad Gadget is the stage name of Francis John (Frank) Tovey (September 8, 1956 – April 3, 2002). An influential British avant-garde electronic musician, he was an exponent of both New Wave and early industrial music.

Tovey studied performance art at Leeds Metropolitan University. He signed as Fad Gadget to Daniel Miller's Mute Records, which was soon home to similar but more commercial synthpop act Depeche Mode. He was the first artist to sign to Mute.

As Fad Gadget, his music was characterized by a distinctive use of synthesizers in conjunction with sounds of found objects, including drills and electric razors. His bleak, sarcastic, and darkly humorous lyrics, often layered in meaning and discussing subjects such as machinery, building construction, human sexuality, and physical violence, were sung in a droning monotone voice.

Fad Gadget was known for his confrontational live performances, which included Tovey covering himself in tar and feathers, leaping into the audience, and playing instruments with his head. Tovey was particularly infamous for spreading his naked body in shaving cream onstage, an image of which is depicted on the cover of The Best of Fad Gadget. Sounds magazine described him as "...the bumbling but talented Dr Who of electro-pop".^[1]

He recorded several LPs of more experimental work under the name Frank Tovey, beginning with Easy Listening for the Hard of Hearing, a collaboration with Boyd Rice in 1984. His child can be heard on some songs, and "Love Parasite" is about a baby.^{[citation needed]}

After touring in 1993, Tovey withdrew from the music business^{[citation needed]} until 2001, when he resurrected his old pseudonym to support his former colleagues, Depeche Mode, on their Exciter tour. He continued to perform until his death.

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The Alarm

2008-01-25T16:25:00.000-05:00

The Alarm is an alternative rock band that emerged from Wales in the early 1980s. It started as a local punk band with a spirited, energetic acoustic/folk influence, stayed together for ten years, and landed 7 top 10 singles. The Alarm incorporated elements of punk, folk, new wave, roots rock, and classic rock, and, unusually for a rock band, displayed marked influences from Welsh language and culture. By opening for acts such as U2 and Bob Dylan, they became a popular alternative rock band of the 1980's, retaining a loyal following to the present day.

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November Group

2008-01-25T15:08:00.000-05:00

Canadian guitarist Ann Prim led three avant-garde-punk bands in Boston, Mass. from the late 70's into the 80's: The Ann Prim Group, Wunderkind, and November Group, releasing several singles and EPs.
"November Group was one of the most interesting of the synth-based, dance-oriented bands. Unlike most of their peers in the early '80s, November Group was austere and harsh, bereft of joy, more influenced by some of the early "dark dance" groups like A Certain Ratio or New Order. They maintained a militant sound, and the vocals (provided by two women, who headed the band) moved from harsh monotone to emotive cries. I only know of two EPs by the band although I think they put an album out; the EPs are worth getting even if you have to get them on vinyl (assuming you have a player somewhere). I was deeply affected by their accessible but truly powerful music as I started playing more, and, to be honest, also by their visuals, which exploited '30s and '40s imagery; they made a video for "Put Your Back to It" which was as good as anything done by major artists back in 1983."
review from:http://asterick.com/great%5Fones%5Farchive%5Fpage.htm
and more info here:
http://80music.about.com/library/artist/bl_artist082099.htm

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Human Sexual Response

2008-01-25T14:36:00.000-05:00

Human Sexual Response were a Boston, Massachusetts New Wave band that emerged in the late 1970s and continued through the early 1980s. They named the band after the groundbreaking, and now classic, Masters and Johnson best-seller.

Casey Cameron formed an all-kazoo band ("Kazoondheit") with her neighbors, among whom were Larry Bangor, Dini Lamot (brother of Larry and cousin to "Pecky" Lamot), and Windle Davis. The four became fast friends and soon formed an a cappella country-and-western band called Honey Bea and the Meadow Muffins, who played at parties and in the subway. Encouraged, the four decided to start a rock band.

Posting ads, the quartet met three musician/composers, drummer Malcolm Travis, guitarist Rich Gilbert, and bass player Rolfe Anderson. These seven became the original lineup of HSR, with Anderson being replaced on bass by Chris MacLachlan in 1980. Bangor was the main lead singer, though Lamot, Davis, and Cameron each sometimes sang lead.

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Crass

2008-01-25T12:47:00.000-05:00

Crass were an English anarchist punk rock band, formed in 1977 and based around Dial House, an open house community near Epping, Essex.

Whereas the Sex Pistols might have mentioned 'anarchy' for shock value (thereby furthering the common misconception that it is simply a synonym for chaos), Crass actually promoted genuine anarchism as a legitimate political ideology, way of living, and as a resistance movement, popularizing the seminal peace punk movement and touching on such overtly political issues as anti-consumerism, direct action, animal rights, feminism, anti-war, anti-corporatism, environmentalism, anti-globalization, anti-racism, squatting, and the separation of church and state.

Taking literally the punk manifesto of "Do It Yourself", Crass combined the use of sound collage, graphics, song, film, and subversion to launch a sustained and innovative critical broadside against all that they saw as a culture built on foundations of war, violence, sexism, prejudice, capitalism, religious hypocrisy and unthinking consumerism. They were also critical of what they perceived as the flaws of the punk movement itself, as well as wider youth culture in general. Crass were amongst the progenitors of the anarcho-pacifism that became common in the punk music scene (see also anarcho-punk).

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Haysi Fantayzee

2008-01-25T11:48:00.000-05:00

Haysi Fantayzee were a British new wave band of the early 1980s. Formed and fronted by white dreadlocked singers Jeremy Healy (also known as Jeremiah) and Kate Garner, and with Garner's boyfriend songwriter/producer/manager Paul Caplin in the background, the band had several UK hits in 1983 such as the singles "John Wayne is Big Leggy", "Shiny Shiny", and "Sister Friction". The band never broke through to the same kind of success in the U.S., although they did have some popularity there. Originally Caplin and Garner had intended to make music with just Garner performing, but then they met Healy (who at nineteen, was a few years younger than Garner) and decided to pair them up. The band used their artsy look as a selling point, making a crude video performance and using that instead of a demo tape to sell the band to record companies. Their attention getting outfits were often designed by Garner. The two singers looked like distorted mirror images of each other, with similar hair and make-up. Their glamorous ragamuffin style was frequently compared to Boy George.

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Kid Creole and the Coconuts

2008-01-17T20:26:00.000-05:00

Kid Creole and the Coconuts are an American singing group created and led by August Darnell. Their music incorporates styles like big band jazz, disco, and in particular Caribbean/Latin American salsa. The Coconuts are a glamorous trio of female backing vocalists whose lineup has changed throughout the years.

Thomas August Darnell Browder (aka August Darnell, aka Kid Creole) was born in Montreal, Canada, on 12 August 1950, and was raised in the Bronx.

Darnell began his career in a band named The In-Laws with his half-brother in 1965, which disbanded so August could pursue a career as an English teacher. He obtained a masters degree, but in 1974 again formed a band with his half-brother under the name Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band. They played to some initial success, reaching a gold and Top 40-charting album with their debut release, but could not match this on subsequent releases.

Darnell began producing for other artists before adopting the name Kid Creole (from the Elvis Presley film King Creole) in 1980, and forming The Coconuts, a trio of female backing vocalist/dancers, including his wife Adriana Kaegi, and a band including vibraphone player Andy Hernandez aka Coati Mundi and legendary Jamaican drummer Winston Grennan. Cheryl Poirier joined that year as lead vocalist of the Coconuts, followed by Taryn Hagey as "Coconut #3" on background vocals in 1981. This line-up remained in place throughout the band's heyday. Hagey left the group in 1985 and was replaced by Janique Svedberg. Among the recurring Coconuts is Danish actress and musical star Gry Bay, who made headlines with her starring role in the feature film All About Anna (2005).

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Shriekback

2008-01-17T20:21:00.000-05:00

Shriekback is a rock band formed in the early 1980s by Barry Andrews, formerly of XTC and League of Gentlemen (keyboards/synthesizers/vocals), Carl Marsh (guitars/vocals), and Dave Allen, formerly of the Gang of Four (bass). They were joined by Martyn Barker on drums in 1983. Shriekback are popular for their exploration of the darker, funkier side of rock music, usually featuring Dave Allen's driving basslines. Self-described as an "avant-garde musical outfit", they are popular among a limited audience, both for their poetic, often intellectual lyrics, and for their dance-worthy music which range from disco and new wave (New Romantic) to an edgy, pre-grunge hard rock.

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Sandie Shaw

2008-01-17T20:04:00.000-05:00

Sandie Shaw (born Sandra Ann Goodrich on 26 February 1947) was one of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s. With her hair, slender frame, model cheekbones and outfits, she has been described as the ultimate working-class 'it' girl. She was also notable for her quirk of usually appearing barefoot.

Born and brought up in Dagenham, United Kingdom, the Ford plant IBM operator dreamed of becoming a singer. At that time, many of the working-class population of Dagenham worked at Ford, and although Shaw had gained a place at art college, she turned it down and decided to work at the plant until her singing career took off. She soon began her recording career at the age of 17, after being discovered by popular singer Adam Faith.

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The Church

2008-01-17T19:58:00.000-05:00

The Church is an Australian rock band formed in Canberra in 1980. Initially associated with New Wave and the neo-psychedelic sound of the mid 1980s, their music later became more reminiscent of "prog rock," featuring long instrumental jams and complex guitar interplay.

The Church's debut album, Of Skins and Heart (1981), earned them their first radio hit "The Unguarded Moment". They were signed to major labels in Australia, Europe and the U.S. However, the U.S. label was dissatisfied with their second album and dropped the band without releasing the album. This put a dent in their commercial success, but they made a comeback in 1988, with the album Starfish and the American Top 40 hit "Under the Milky Way." Subsequently commercial success proved elusive, however, and the band weathered several line-up changes in the 1990s. The last decade has seen them settle on their current lineup, which features the original three founding members plus drummer Tim Powles.

A survey among readers of Melbourne newspaper The Age garnered 37,000 votes and the majority chose "Under the Milky Way" as the best Australian song of the last 21 years.

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The Creatures

2008-01-17T19:49:00.000-05:00

The Creatures were formed in 1981 as a side-project for Siouxsie & the Banshees members Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie.

With the dissolution of Siouxsie & the Banshees in 1996, The Creatures (who had released only 2 albums in 15 years) graduated from an occasional side project to a full-time concern.

Siouxsie & the Banshees' Siouxsie Sioux (vocals) and Budgie (drums and percussion) released their first EP as The Creatures (Wild Things) in 1981, introducing a much more primitive and drum-driven Banshees sound. The erotic sleeve art featuring Siouxsie and Budgie half naked under a shower (which was inspired by scenes from the film Psycho) caused some controversy. Another shoot, inspired by the John Millais painting Ophelia, featured Siouxsie naked under many flowers and shallow water. The title track was a reworking of a hit by The Troggs, the song "So Unreal" drew inspiration from the novel The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin and "Mad Eyed Screamer" from local characters met in Hyde Park, London. The EP reached a decent #24 on the UK singles chart.

In 1983, between the release of the Banshees album A Kiss In The Dreamhouse and their live album Nocturne, The Creatures recorded and released their first full length album Feast (#17 UK Albums Chart). The band decided to determine where to record the album by randomly placing a pin on a map of the world. The result was Hawaii, which led to the featuring of The Lamalani Hula Academy Hawaiian Chanters on some tracks. The song title "Inoa 'Ole" is Hawaiian for "No Name". "Ice House" was inspired by an obscure television play. "Dancing on Glass" is based on an Indian musical (sounds of broken glass created by Siouxsie and Budgie dancing on broken mirrors with tough shoes on). The singles "Miss the Girl" (which took its inspiration from the book Crash by J. G. Ballard and had an unofficially banned promo video with a set designed by The Creatures themselves) and "Right Now" (originally by Mel Tormé) were also released around this time and reached #21 and #14 (the highest chart position for a Creatures single) respectively on the UK singles chart.

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Southern Death Cult

2008-01-17T19:44:00.000-05:00

Southern Death Cult was a gothic rock band in the early 1980s. It is now primarily known for having given its lead singer and parts of its name to the multi-platinum hard rock band The Cult. Despite the similarities in the names, "Southern Death Cult" was distinct from "Death Cult"/"The Cult".

Southern Death Cult emerged from the ashes of Bradford punk band Violation. In place at that time were Aki Nawaz-drums, Barry Jepson-bass, Mick-guitar & Mick Brady-vocals. Songs in their set included "Boys in Blue" & "Assault & Battery". This line-up supported the Clash at Bradford's St. Georges Hall in 1980.

In 1981, Ian Astbury had moved into a new house in Bradford and reportedly discovered a band rehearsing in the cellar. Ian Astbury (performing under the name "Ian Lindsay") sang alongside guitarist David Burrows, bassist Barry Jepson and drummer Haq Qureshi (a.k.a. Aki Nawaz). Astbury renamed the band Southern Death Cult, after an obscure Indian tribe around the Mississippi delta area in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Southern Death Cult's first ever performance was at the Queen's Hall in Bradford, England, on 29 October 1981. The setlist the band played was: "Crow", "The Girl Apache", "Vivisection", (unknown song), "Moya", "The Crypt", and there is a bootleg recording of that show in circulation. The fifth song is sometimes referred to as "War Song", but its real title is unknown, but it used lyrics which would later become The Cult's 'Spiritwalker'. The band never played it after 1981.
The band toured heavily in the UK promoting its double A side single "Moya/ Fatman/ The Girl", which had gone to #1 on the independent charts, and peaked at number 88 in Top 100. The band toured with Theatre of Hate, and then succeeding in getting a slot opening for Bauhaus, at the end of 1982, but Astbury disbanded the group after a show on 26 February 1983.

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Captain Sensible

2008-01-17T19:35:00.002-05:00

Captain Sensible (born Raymond Burns, 24 April 1954) is a singer and guitarist (and sometimes bassist) who grew up in Croydon, England, and founded the punk rock band The Damned in 1976. After leaving the band, he reinvented himself as an alternative pop singer with a rebellious, self-conscious image. His signature headwear is a red beret.

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Bad Manners

2008-01-17T19:27:00.000-05:00

Bad Manners are a long-established English 2 Tone ska band. Fronted by Buster Bloodvessel (born Douglas Trendle), the band was formed in 1976 while the members were together at Woodberry Down Comprehensive School near Manor House, North London, and among their early incarnations were known as Standback or Stoop Solo & The Sheet Starchers.

None of the members had any formal musical training, however they were accomplished musicians. Bad Manners were at their most popular during the late 1970s and early 1980s, during a period when lots of similar ska bands filled the charts such as Madness and The Specials.

After becoming big names on their native London gig circuit, Bad Manners signed to Magnet Records in 1980 for a six figure sum, and became a household name thanks to their upbeat tunes and their crazed stage antics. The band were extremely popular with the British media, and they are famed for their exploits on TV shows like Top of The Pops and Tiswas.

Some of Bad Manners more notable hits include "My Girl Lollipop", "Lip Up Fatty", "Ne Ne Na Na Na Na Nu Nu", "Special Brew", "Lorraine", "Just A Feeling", "Walking In The Sunshine" and the "Can Can". Bad Manners are perhaps most renowned for their song, "Special Brew". The song is ambiguous in meaning, but the most common interpretation is that it is a love song to the famous alcoholic drink after which it appears to be named.

One of the main reasons for their notoriety was due to their outlandish, larger-than-life, huge tongued and shaven-headed frontman, Buster Bloodvessel. His manic exploits got them banned from the British BBC TV chart show Top of the Pops^{[citation needed]}(which included dressing as Henry VIII and singing to a blow-up doll for the song "Lorraine", pouring a large can of baked beans over his head, and dressing in a can-can dancer's dress to promote their single "Can-Can"). They were also banned from Italian TV when Buster had decided after a particularly successful concert that he should moon the crowd, having been told that the Pope was watching on TV.^[1]

Bad Manners spent 111 weeks in the British singles charts between 1980 and 1983.

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Ian McCulloch

2008-01-13T10:27:00.000-05:00

Ian McCulloch (born Ian Stephen McCulloch, 5 May 1959, Liverpool) is an English singer best known for his work with Echo & the Bunnymen.

McCulloch was a singer-songwriter with the Crucial Three, one of many local bands that sprung up amongst the regulars who patronized a Liverpool club called Eric's in the late seventies. The other two members were Julian Cope, later of The Teardrop Explodes and Pete Wylie who went on to form Wah!

In 1978 McCulloch formed Echo & the Bunnymen with Will Sergeant (guitar), Les Pattinson (bass) and a drum machine (allegedly named Echo), making their live debut at Eric's later that year. In 1979 the Bunnymen exchanged the drum machine for Pete de Freitas on drums. With their line up solidified, the Bunnymen enjoyed critical acclaim in the late seventies and early eighties culminating with the release of Ocean Rain in 1984. McCulloch left to pursue a solo career under the impression the Bunnymen would be laid to rest if only temporarily. When the remaining Bunnymen continued using the name with a new singer the split became permanent with McCulloch referring to the band as "Echo & the Bogusmen".

In 1990 McCulloch achieved modest chart success with the album Candleland which reflected a more mature outlook on the world, owing to the recent deaths of McCulloch's father and Pete de Freitas. It yielded two Modern Rock Tracks singles, "Proud To Fall" (#1 for four weeks) and "Faith and Healing". The album Mysterio was released in 1992 as the public's interest in the former Bunnyman was waning. Shortly after, McCulloch left the public eye to devote more time to his family.

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Snakefinger

2008-01-11T19:25:00.000-05:00

Philip Charles Lithman (June 17, 1949 - July 1, 1987), who performed under the stage name Snakefinger, was an English musician, singer and songwriter. A multi-instrumentalist, he was best known for his guitar and violin work and his collaborations with The Residents.

Lithman was born in Tooting, South London, and came from the British Blues scene. He moved to San Francisco in 1971 and became associated with the avant-garde group The Residents. It is said he was given the name 'Snakefinger' by The Residents themselves when they saw his proficiency with the guitar during their first live performance together. Another explanation for the name comes from a story concerning a party in San Francisco, at The Residents' collective, wherein all in attendance watched Lithman's fingers dart snake-like at the neck of his violin.

In 1972 Lithman returned to England and formed the pub rock band Chilli Willi & The Red Hot Peppers with Martin Stone, ex-member of Mighty Baby and a fellow ex-member of Junior's Blues Band. As a duo, they released the album Kings of Robot Rhythm. In 1974, as a full band and popular live act in Britain, they released Bongos Over Balham.

Chilli Willi lasted until 1975, their last record not selling well, and by 1976 Lithman was back in the United States, this time in Los Angeles, California, seeking a recording contract, shopping his rock-style demos.

After a few years, Lithman moved back to San Francisco, reconnected with The Residents, and performed and recorded with them. Lithman's solo records, recorded under the name Snakefinger, were released by their record label Ralph Records.

His first album on Ralph was Chewing Hides the Sound in 1979, featuring original material co-written with The Residents as well as esoteric covers like Kraftwerk's "The Model". The songs showcased Lithman's distinctive slide guitar playing and often surreal imagery. This album was followed by Greener Postures in 1980, which included his first solo compositions as Snakefinger.

While on tour in Australia in 1980, Lithman had a heart attack that left him hospitalized for six months.

In 1982 Lithman formed his backing band The Vestal Virgins with former Captain Beefheart sideman Eric Drew Feldman. Snakefinger and The Vestal Virgins released Manual of Errors on Ralph in 1982. This was followed by the blues cover album Snakefinger's History of the Blues: Live in Europe in 1984 and a new collection of largely original material in 1986 called Night of Desirable Objects.

Lithman performed with The Residents on their 13th Anniversary Tour in 1986. On July 1, 1987, Snakefinger and his band, The Vestal Virgins, were in Linz, Austria, on the European Night tour. During a performance at the Posthof Club Lithman suffered a fatal heart attack. On that same day his single, "There's No Justice in Life", was released.

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Bow Wow Wow

2008-01-11T19:10:00.000-05:00

Bow Wow Wow was a 1980s New Wave band organized by Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren in 1980 whose music is described as having an "African-derived drum sound".^[1]McLaren persuaded guitarist Matthew Ashman, bassist Leigh Gorman and percussionist David Barbarossa (also known as Dave Barbe), of the then lineup of Adam & the Ants to leave Adam Ant and form a new group. After a six month long audition process, the band hired teen singer Annabella Lwin.^[1] Dave Fischel, an acquaintance of McLaren's, discovered fourteen year old Lwin while she was working at her parents' laundrette singing along to a Stevie Wonder song on the radio. The group's sound was a mix of her "girlish squeal", Balinese chants, surf instrumentals, New Romantic pop melodies, and Barbarossa's Burundi ritual music influenced tom tom drum beats. Among the regular faces at the band's early London gigs were Latin songwriter/producer Richard Daniel Roman and Boy George, then known as Lieutenant Lush. McLaren was also going to use the latter (later of Culture Club fame) as a second lead singer, but he was deemed to be "too wild" for the band^{[citation needed]}. In 1982 Bow Wow Wow had their first U.K. top 10 hit with “Go Wild in the Country.” The band's most popular hit was the New Wave staple, "I Want Candy" (originally a 1965 hit by The Strangeloves). "I Want Candy" was featured in an early music video on MTV. Bow Wow Wow's recording of "I Want Candy" continues to appear in film soundtracks and media and advertising events such as the 2005 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. Their most notorious recording was "Sexy Eiffel Towers", a bold ode to masturbation, including excitedly heavy breathing and orgasmic moans; this was a song that went far beyond the slightly later Cyndi Lauper hit "She Bop", about similar subject matter. ^[2] The group released three full-length albums. In 1983, tensions in the group were rising. Suffering from illness and exhaustion after intense US touring, they went their separate ways.

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Tracie Young

2008-01-05T18:37:00.000-05:00

Red Beat

2008-01-05T18:24:00.000-05:00

Better than a short article, you can visit Red Beat on their My Space page!

These guys are pretty obscure..."

The Residents

2008-01-05T18:19:00.000-05:00

The Residents are an avant-garde music and visual arts group who have created nearly sixty albums, created numerous musical short films, designed three CD-ROM projects, and undertaken six major world tours. Throughout their career, spanning nearly four decades, they have maintained complete anonymity. All public relations, interviews and promotions are handled by their spokesgroup, The Cryptic Corporation. Because of the obscure nature of the band, it is difficult to compile a history that is completely accurate. What follows is information from unauthorized accounts which may or may not be entirely reliable.

The Residents supposedly hail from Shreveport, Louisiana, where they met in high school in the 1960s. In 1966, members headed west to San Francisco, California. After their truck broke down in San Mateo, they decided to remain there. Like all information pertaining to the early days of the band, this is provided by The Cryptic Corporation and is potentially false. Newer information indicates they are probably from Slidell, Louisiana, and picked Shreveport as the "place to be from" since it is the city in Louisiana that was furthest from Slidell.

Whilst attempting to make a living, they began to experiment with tape machines, photography, and anything remotely to do with "art" that they could get their hands on. Word of their experimentation spread and in 1969, a British guitarist and multi-instrumentalist named Philip Lithman and the mysterious N. Senada (who Lithman had picked up in Bavaria where the aged avant-gardist was recording birds singing) paid them a visit, and decided to remain.

The two Europeans would become great influences on the band. Lithman's guitar playing technique earned him the nickname Snakefinger (upon seeing a picture of Lithman playing the violin, a future Resident exclaimed that his little finger resembled a snake).

The group purchased crude recording equipment and instruments and began to make tapes, refusing to let an almost complete lack of musical proficiency stand in the way.

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David Sylvian

2008-01-05T18:13:00.002-05:00

David Alan Batt, 23 February 1958, in Beckenham, Kent, UK) is an English singer, musician and composer who first gained attention as the lead vocalist and main songwriter in the band Japan. His subsequent solo career has been influenced by a variety of musical styles and genres, including jazz, ambient, electronic, and progressive rock. Sylvian's debut solo album, Brilliant Trees (1984), met with critical acclaim and functioned well as a bridge between the musical sounds he had created with Japan and the more challenging directions he was to pursue in his future work. Sylvian intentionally placed the more accessible tracks on side one of the record, while utilizing the second side for songs of a slightly more experimental nature. The album included contributions from Ryuichi Sakamoto, trumpeter Jon Hassell and former Can bassist Holger Czukay. These three musicians also figured prominently upon the writing and recording sessions which resulted in Sylvian's second release, the entirely instrumental Alchemy: An Index of Possibilities (1985). Imbued with a 'Fourth-World' influence, the album signalled Sylvian's decisive move away from the mainstream.

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If you’re reading this, there’s a lovely copy of music from this band available HERE!

Malcolm McLaren

2007-12-28T18:44:00.001-05:00

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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If you’re reading this, there’s a lovely copy of music from this band available HERE!

Blancmange

2007-12-28T17:46:00.002-05:00

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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If you’re reading this, there’s a lovely copy of music from this band available HERE!

Art Bears

2007-12-28T17:27:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-28T17:15:00.000-05:00

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

KONK

2007-12-28T10:28:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-28T10:01:00.000-05:00

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

2007-12-04T20:08:00.000-05:00

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.

more at Wikipedia

The Flesh Eaters

2007-12-04T20:01:00.000-05:00

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.

more at Wikipedia

Sample video NOT from the album

Section 25

2007-12-04T19:53:00.000-05:00

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.

from Wikipedia

X

2007-12-04T19:46:00.000-05:00

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]

from Wikipedia

Prefab Sprout

2007-12-04T18:49:00.000-05:00

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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Here's a sample NOT from the album