madonna
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Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
Review by Andrew David James
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Pet Shop Boys - Actually
Review by Andrew David James
The 1980’s were a strange time. In the UK politically it was an ugly era, full of spite and polar opposites. Internationally it was likewise. Culturally there was an air of upward mobility in the air that was faintly ridiculous but the effect of this is evident to the present day. Musically, it wasn’t the great decade some might have it be.
Panic At The Disco
The members of Panic! at the Disco had barely graduated high school when their full-length debut, A Fever You Can't Sweat Out, transformed the suburban Las Vegas teenagers into national emo-pop stars. The band had materialized several years earlier, when friends Spencer Smith (drums) and Ryan Ross (guitar) began covering blink-182 tunes together. After tiring of playing another group's material, the duo recruited two additional classmates, guitar/vocalist Brendon Urie and bassist Brent Wilson, and the newly-formed quartet decided to model its name after a line in Name Taken's "Panic". Crafting pop-influenced songs with theatrical touches, quirky techno beats, and perceptive lyrics, Panic! at the Disco posted several demos online that soon caught the attention of Decaydance Records, the Fueled by Ramen imprint headed by Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz. Even though the band had yet to play a live show, they subsequently became the first band signed to the label.
With their record scheduled for a release in September 2005, Panic! at the Disco joined the successful Nintendo Fusion Tour and hit the road alongside Fall Out Boy, Motion City Soundtrack, Boys Night Out, and the Starting Line. The band continued to tour into early 2006, while their single "I Write Sins Not Tragedies" found its way into TRL hearts and the Billboard Top 40. Proving to be a popular lineup, the Nintendo tour (which also featured Hellogoodbye, "Acceptance," and the Academy Is...) consistently sold out venues across the country. Wilson was fired from the group mid-year; undaunted, Panic! pressed on with their friend Jon Walker on board for a full summer tour that culminated with appearances at Lollapalooza, Reading, and the Leeds festival. The guys picked up "Video of the Year" at MTV's annual VMA ceremony, beating out heavy hitters like Madonna and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and a collector's box set version of Fever (featuring random Panic paraphernalia and a DVD) came out just in time for the 2006 holiday season. After additional tour dates, the band announced that they were eliminating the exclamation point from their name, a sign that seemed to foreshadow the mature, less emo-driven rock featured on Pretty. Odd. Released in March 2008, the sophomore album peaked at number two in the U.S. and showcased an evolving band whose tastes had grown to encompass The Beatles' psychedelic pop. The group supported the album with another string of show dates, one of which was captured on the CD/DVD release ...Live in Chicago.
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My Chemical Romance
blink-182
AFI
Fall Out Boy
Blood On The Tracks
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LENNY KRAVITZ
American “retro” rocker, Lenny Kravitz’s style has been compared to such greats as Prince and Jimi Hendrix. His career boasts multi-platinum albums, four consecutive Grammy awards for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance and over 40 million album sales globally.
Kravitz’s influence also reaches his peers. His collaborative efforts read more like a Hollywood A-List party - Jay-Z, Aerosmith, Mick Jagger and P. Diddy amongst others.
In the 80s, Kravitz worked under the stage name Romeo Blue. He developed a demo but was told he wasn’t “black enough” to compete with the RnB styles that dominated the radio airwaves at the time. Undeterred and without a label, Kravitz decided to started work on an album and managed to attract the attention of Virgin Records.
Within a few years, he traded the Shakespearian nom de plume for a freshly signed Virgin Records contract and released his debut album Let Love Rule in 1989 to mixed reviews.
In the first few years of the 90s, Kravitz spent writing and producing for other artists including Madonna’s Justify My Love but also experienced his first chart success with second album Mama Said. This album featured a song titled It Ain’t Over Til It’s Over and collaborations with Guns 'N' Roses’ Slash and Beatles’ Offspring, Sean Lennon.
In 1993, Are You Gonna Go My Way was released and reached #12 on the Billboard charts and won Kravitz a BRIT award. He followed up with Circus in 1995 which hit #10 despite it only having two moderately successful singles.
In 1998, Kravitz exploded onto the mainstream music scene with his fifth album, suitably named 5, thanks to the hit single Fly Away. This song helped make the album multi-platinum, featured on advertisements and secured Kravitz his first Grammy in 1999.
Success continued in 2001 with an award-winning, cover version of the Guess Who’s American Woman for the second Austin Powers movie soundtrack.
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Kravitz subsequently released three more studio albums and became more involved in other projects like political activism, acting and collaboration. He also established his own record label named Roxie Records and a design company aptly named Kravitz Designs. In an era of throwaway music careers, Kravitz has proven his critics wrong with a three decade long career that continues to flourish.
Juanita Appleby
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Jimi Hendrix
Prince
Stevie Wonder
Drugs, Drugs & Rock N Roll
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C.E.O CHAT...WHATS COMING UP !!
Never been a stamp collector, but boy can I understand the thrill of finding some hidden gem or being offered unique content to display or auction. Beatles autographs with great provenance are exciting enough, but coupled with Four Tops, Monkees, and Madonna signatures, to name but a few is special indeed. We already have some amazing Saxon memorabilia and this morning were offered some 20 rare early Queen photos all should be available to bid for within the next few days.
Prince
Prince Rogers Nelson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in June 1958. Born to a jazz singer mother and a pianist father, it seems only natural that the young Prince inherited an aptitude for music.
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During the early 70s, he played in his cousin’s band. When he later composed songs for them, he drew on influences such as Jimi Hendrix, James Brown and Sly and the Family Stone. As well as singing on some tracks, he would also contribute his considerable talents on guitar and piano.
In 1976, he recorded a demo which started a bidding war among record labels. The victor was Warner Bros. Records. Two years later, he released his solo album ‘For You’ on which he played all the instruments. By the time his second album - ‘Prince’ - came out, he had recruited a backing band and was invited to support Rick James on his tour in 1980.
1982 saw the release of double album ‘1999’. The album was his most successful yet, launching his mainstream international career. Prince built on his success with his film and soundtrack ‘Purple Rain’, accompanied by his new backing band The Revolution.
Ever wondered how the ‘Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics’ labels first came about? While listening to Prince track ‘Darling Nikki’ on her daughter’s stereo, Tipper Gore was shocked to hear its sexually-charged lyrics and called for clearer labelling on record covers to advise parents on potentially unsuitable content.
The ‘Parade’ album was released in 1986, giving Prince further international chart success with the single ‘Kiss’. The legendary Tom Jones teamed up with Art of Noise two years later for a cover of ‘Kiss’ which breathed new life into the crooner’s career. In fact, Prince is responsible for revolutionising other music careers: The Bangles scored a massive hit with the Prince-penned ‘Manic Monday’, and Sinead O’Connor recorded a haunting rendition of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ in 1990.
Critics heaped praised on albums such as ‘Sign ‘O’ the Times’, ‘Lovesexy’ and ‘Diamonds and Pearls’, and his flamboyant dress and performances have made him as much of an 80s icon as Madonna and Michael Jackson. During the 90s, Prince changed his name to a symbol representing male and female. He struggled with creative limitations imposed by his record company, resulting in him daubing his face with the word ‘Slave’.
In 2007, Prince had a 21-night sell-out residency at London’s O2 Arena. Allegedly, the star had rehearsed in excess of 200 songs before the run and varied the setlist of the gigs according to his mood. Today, he continues to make music and capture the imagination of critics and fans alike.
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Michael Jackson
Jimi Hendrix
Etta James
Lenny Kravitz
Stevie Wonder
Tom Jones
Michael Jackson, Prince and James Brown Perform Together
Have You Seen This???
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MADONNA
Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone was born in Michigan in August 1958. She was raised a Catholic and was the third of six children. As a child, she took ballet classes and after graduating high school, she was offered a dance scholarship at the University of Michigan. The young Madonna later moved to New York to pursue a career in dance. Through her dance work, she made contacts in the music industry and began sending out demos.
After catching the attention of Sire Records, she secured a recording contract and released her first single ‘Everybody’ in April 1982. An eponymous debut album followed and Madonna gained a growing fan-base.
Madonna went from US cult to worldwide phenomenon with the release of her second album, ‘Like A Virgin’. Her distinctive look started fashion crazes for lace gloves, leggings and chunky belt buckles. ‘Into The Groove’ became the biggest single from the album, with buoyed sales from its inclusion in her film ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’.
In 1985, Madonna met – and married – actor Sean Penn, to whom she dedicated her next album ‘True Blue’. Singles such as ‘Open Your Heart’, ‘La Isla Bonita’ and ‘Papa Don’t Preach’ cemented Madonna’s reputation as a force to be reckoned with in popular music.
After embarking on a hugely successful world tour and appearing in films ‘Shanghai Surprise’ and ‘Who’s That Girl?’, Madonna began work on her follow-up album ‘Like A Prayer’, which was released in 1989, the same year as her divorce to Sean Penn. She signed a deal with Pepsi for $5m and the album’s title track made its worldwide debut on the TV commercial. However, Pepsi was forced to pull the ad after seeing the music video, which featured burning crosses and stigmata. This led the Vatican to urge Catholics to boycott the star’s Blonde Ambition tour.
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Madonna later courted more controversy over the release of her sexually explicit book ‘Sex’ which coincided with her follow-up album ‘Erotica’. Her success waned during the mid 90s. However, Madonna won a Golden Globe in 1996 for her role in ‘Evita’ and in 1998, she released her album ‘Ray of Light’ to much acclaim.
Her continuing success into the 21st century comes from releasing albums such as ‘Music’ and ‘Confessions on a Dancefloor’ and high-grossing world tours like ‘Reinvention’ and ‘Sticky & Sweet’. No-one can deny that Madonna has left an indelible mark in music history and popular culture.
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Kylie Minogue
Britney Spears
The Spice Girls
Prince
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BRITNEY SPEARS
Discography:
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‘The Princess of Pop’ doesn’t really come close to summing up this American music star. Not a day goes by where a picture of Britney doesn’t appear in the tabloid news, and some may say this has gone to her head faster than a cheap razor.
Britney Jane Spears, as she was born in 1981, has been in the spotlight, being linked to artists such as Madonna and Whitney Houston from the age of just 8. Between the ages of 11 and 13 she became a member of The Mickey Mouse Club, where she featured on the Disney channel following her big break featuring in various commercials.
Her breakthrough success came in 1998, when she released her first single ‘Baby One More Time’ through Jive Records, after her demo was snapped up due to her ‘commercial voice and appearance’. Her album, of the same title, shortly followed, alongside a string of TV appearances, magazine photo shoots and sell-out tours. The album topped the US charts, and similar success followed in the UK and Europe.
Her singles continued to top the charts, and she became one of the biggest media sensations of our time, often criticised for her claims of being a virgin following her sexiness in her videos. This didn’t stop the teen star however, and her second album, the aptly named ‘Oops! ... I Did It Again’ was released in May 2000. Her relationship with ladies man Justin Timberlake was now the main focus of the public eye.
Spears claimed her self titled third album, released in 2001, showed her new-found maturity, although through stories published about her, this is certainly debatable. In 2004, ‘The Zone’ was released, featuring collaboration with rival pop-princess, Madonna.
It was after the release of this album that Britney somewhat, went off the rails. She had a string of relationships, marriages, shaved her head and lost custody of her children. Despite this, in 2009 she is making a comeback, and is looking better than ever. Well, anything beats a skinhead!
Source: Carly Page
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BJORK
Discography:
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Björk first came to prominence as one of the lead vocalists of the avant-pop Icelandic sextet the Sugarcubes, but when she launched a solo career after the group's 1992 demise, she quickly eclipsed her old band's popularity. Instead of following in the Sugarcubes' arty guitar rock pretensions, Björk immersed herself in dance and club culture, working with many of the biggest names in the genre, including Nellee Hooper, Underworld, and Tricky. Debut, her first solo effort (except for an Icelandic-only smash released when she was just 11 years old), not only established her new artistic direction, but it became an international hit, making her one of the '90s most unlikely stars.
Björk's musical tastes were changed by the punk revolution of the late '70s; in 1979, she formed a post-punk group called Exodus and, in the following year, she sang in Jam 80. In 1981, Björk and Exodus bassist Jakob Magnusson formed Tappi Tikarrass, which released an EP, Bitid Fast I Vitid, on Spor later that year; it was followed by the full-length Miranda in 1983. Following Tappi Tikarrass, she formed the goth-tinged post-punk group KUKL with Einar Orn Benediktsson. KUKL released two albums, The Eye (1984) and Holidays in Europe (1986), on Crass Records before the band metamorphosed into the Sugarcubes in the summer of 1986.
The Sugarcubes became one of the rare Icelandic bands to break out of their native country when their debut album, Life's Too Good, became a British and American hit in 1988. For the next four years, the group maintained a successful cult following in the U.K. and the U.S. while they were stars within Iceland. During 1990, Björk recorded a set of jazz standards and originals with an Icelandic bebop group called Trio Gudmundar Ingolfssonar. The album, Gling-Gló, was released only in Iceland. By 1992, tensions between Björk and Einar had grown substantially, which resulted in the band splitting apart.
Following the breakup of the group, Björk moved to London, where she began pursuing a dance-oriented solo career. The previous year, she had sung on 808 State's "Ooops," which sparked her interest in club and house music. Björk struck up a working relationship with Nellee Hooper, a producer who had formerly worked with Soul II Soul and Massive Attack. The first result of their partnership was "Human Behaviour," which was released in June of 1993. "Human Behaviour" became a Top 40 hit in the U.K., setting the stage for the surprising number three debut of the full-length album, Debut. Throughout 1993, Björk had hit U.K. singles -- including "Venus as a Boy," "Big Time Sensuality," and the non-LP "Play Dead," a collaboration with David Arnold taken from the film Young Americans -- as well as modern rock radio hits in the U.S., and in both countries she earned rave reviews. At the end of the year, NME magazine named Debut the album of the year, while she won International Female Solo Artist and Newcomer at the BRIT Awards; Debut went gold in the U.S. and platinum in the U.K.
Homogenic, her most experimental studio effort to date, followed later that same year and spawned many remix releases in the next few years to follow. In the spring of 2000, she was named Best Actress by jurors at the Cannes Film Festival for her work in Lars von Trier's Palme d'Or-winning Dancer in the Dark. Selmasongs, her score for the film, reunited Björk with her Homogenic collaborator Mark Bell and arrived in the fall of 2000, just in time for Dancer in the Dark's U.S. release. The full-length follow-up, Vespertine, was released one year later. She released a Greatest Hits collection and the Family Tree box set late in 2002. After performing a few dates in 2003, Björk geared up for a busy 2004, which included the release of her all-vocals and vocal samples-based album Medúlla and a performance of one of its songs, "Oceania," at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. The soundtrack to Drawing Restraint 9, a film by multimedia artist Matthew Barney, arrived in 2005 and also featured contributions from Will Oldham. 2007's Volta returned to the more playful, percussive side of Björk's music and included collaborations with Timbaland, Toumani Diabaté, Antony Hegarty, and an all-female Icelandic choir.
Sources: artistdirect
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Kylie Minogue
Although she's only managed a few hits in the U.S. since her arrival as a singer in 1987, Kylie Minogue is both Australia's and Europe's biggest-selling female pop singer over that period and a pop culture icon in those areas. Her image on the cover of magazines is guaranteed to produce extra sales. But a singing career was never what Minogue had in mind for herself.
Minogue was born on May 28, 1968, in Melbourne. In 1979, she began her acting career in the Australian TV drama series Skyways, eventually gaining a starring role in a children's series, The Henderson Kids, before achieving national fame in the five-days-a-week soap opera Neighbours. Around the time Minogue joined, Neighbours also started airing in the U.K.
A major celebrity on the basis of her Neighbours popularity, Minogue had agreed to give a charity performance in the company of other personalities, choosing to sing Little Eva's "Loco-Motion." Someone hit on the idea of submitting a tape of the performance to local record company, Mushroom, who didn't think much of the demo but saw the potential in releasing a single by the extremely popular young TV star. In their wildest dreams no one imagined a national number one record with the recorded version of "Loco-Motion" (July 1987).
At that time, Mushroom Records had formed a business relationship with London hit factory Stock, Aitken & Waterman (Dead or Alive, Mel & Kim, Samantha Fox, Bananarama, Rick Astley), who also saw potential in working with the popular actress, but she wasn't a priority. In fact, when Minogue turned up at their London studios they had forgotten she was coming and quickly wrote her a song while she waited. The result, "I Should Be So Lucky," gave Minogue the second of her six Australian number one singles and the first of her five English number ones. Now she became a priority for Stock, Aitken & Waterman. As was their way, Stock, Aitken & Waterman wrote and produced her records and they controlled her video image. Their re-recorded "Loco-Motion" put Minogue in the Top Ten in the U.S. In Australia, the U.K., and Europe, Minogue was scoring hit after hit and quickly left Neighbours to meet the demand on her.
If she was ever just along for the ride, Minogue took her first step toward control over her career with her 1990 single "Better the Devil You Know," not letting Stock, Aitken & Waterman see the video she was making for the song until it was completed. SAW insisted on casting her in a girl-next-door mode, while Minogue opted for a saucier Madonna-like image. It ensured her continued success and reputation as a celebrity beyond the pop charts. With her fourth album, Let's Get to It (1991), the singer also insisted on lyrical input.
Kylie Minogue ended up leaving Stock, Aitken & Waterman and recorded two albums, Kylie Minogue and Impossible Princess, with London dance label Deconstruction. A romantic relationship with INXS singer Michael Hutchence had encouraged her to experiment musically. While the backbone of both albums was the Brothers in Rhythm team, Minogue was keen to work with a variety of people. One unlikely collaboration saw a duet with Nick Cave, especially written by Cave for his Murder Ballads album. "Where the Wild Roses Grow" featured a nude Minogue floating dead in the water for its video.
While Impossible Princess represented another major career turning point in Australia -- Minogue's transition to a concert performer -- in Europe the album was not considered a success. In 2000, she was encouraged by the Pet Shop Boys to switch to their label, Parlophone, and she re-emerged as the pop princess of old with the critical hit Light Years. The single "Spinning Around" went number one in both England and Australia. Her reign in music continued in 2001. Minogue issued Fever in October on the heels of the successful single "Can't Get You Out of My Head." Such hype around the song allowed it to become an global smash, earning Minogue two Brit Awards in February 2002 for Best International Female and Best International Album for Fever. Shortly thereafter, Fever was released in the U.S. on Capitol, landing Minogue her biggest U.S. hit in nearly 15 years with "Can't Get You Out of My Head." Spots on MTV's TRL and Saturday Night Live proved her power. Body Language appeared in 2004; Minogue won a Grammy that same year for Best Dance Recording.
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In March 2005, Minogue began Showgirl -- The Greatest Hits Tour in Glasgow, Scotland. Following 23 sold-out shows in the U.K. and 14 in Europe, she was forced to postpone her scheduled Australian dates due to a diagnosis of early-stage breast cancer. Minogue returned to the stage in November 2006 after a 12-month treatment and recovery period, playing shows in Australia as well as seven more dates in the U.K. She spent 2007 working on a number of projects, including her tenth studio album (X). Boombox followed in January 2009.
Without anything approaching Madonna's musical strength, like Madonna, Minogue ensured her survival with imaginative videos and by keeping fans guessing and intrigued with consistent changes of personal image. She also appeared in a number of movies over the years; 1999's Cut with Molly Ringwald was her eighth film appearance.
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