Le Comte Ory (1828) was another of Rossini’s bright, brilliant operas buffa. This one, based on an old Picardy legend, premiered at the Paris Opéra on 20 August 1828. The first performance in London took place at the Haymarket on 28 February 1829, and was possibly intended as a celebration for Rossini’s thirty-seventh birthday, the best ...
The lead guitarist in Radiohead, Jonny Greenwood, has straddled the line between dissonance and resonance, noise and melody. His arsenal of effects, virtuosity and unconventional phrasing have been key features in this very English band’s development. No wonder Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour is a fan. ‘They’ve done some very good things. I can see why people make ...
One of the most influential acts of the 1990s, Nirvana formed in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987 when Kurt Kobain (1967–94, guitar, vocals), Krist Novoselic (born 16 May 1965, bass) and Chad Channing cemented the line-up of Nirvana. Signed by Seattle’s growing Sub Pop label their first single was a cover version of The Shocking Blue’s ...
Unorthodox, uncompromising, Patti Smith was a seminal figure in the New York punk movement and has remained a touchstone for later generations of rock artists. Born on 30 December 1946, Smith was raised in southern New Jersey by her atheist father and Jehovah’s Witness mother. Leaving school at 16 she had brief, unsatisfying stints working in a ...
Alternative-rock guitarist Peter Buck (b. 1956) was born in Berkeley, California. After dropping out of college, he moved to Athens, Georgia, where he met singer Michael Stipe while working in a record shop. The pair discovered that they had similar tastes in music: punk rock, Patti Smith and Television. Together with Mike Mills (bass) and ...
Michael Stipe (born 4 January 1960, vocals) met Peter Buck (born 6 December 1956, guitar) in the Wuxtry record store in Athens, Georgia, in 1978. Two years later they met Bill Berry (born 31 July 1958, drums) and Mike Mills (born 17 December 1958, bass) at a party and Rapid Eye Movement – R.E ...
The five members of Radiohead are the same today as they were on the day they formed. Thom Yorke (born 7 October 1968, vocals, guitar, piano), Jonny Greenwood (born 5 November 1971, lead guitar, effects), Ed O’Brien (born 15 April 1968, guitar, vocals), Phil Selway (born 23 May 1967, drums) and Colin Greenwood ...
International fame seemed far away when, in 1983, upstaged by strippers the Red Hot Chili Peppers resorted to playing a cover version of Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Fire’ naked with socks covering their genitalia. This routine was to become a trademark. Anthony Kiedis (born 1 November 1962, vocals), Michael ‘Flea’ Balzary (born 16 October 1962, bass), Jack Irons (born ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1964–present) After ‘Wild Thing’ charged into the UK chart in 1966 its follow-up, ‘With A Girl Like You’, penned by mainstay Reg Presley (vocals), actually seized the top spot. These were smashes in North America, too. Intermittent successes later and the recurrence of Troggs numbers in the repertoires of countless US garage bands were a solid ...
Belleville is a small town in downstate Illinois, south-east of St. Louis. Like a lot of mid-western towns, it was hit hard in the 1980s by the twin whammy of closing factories and faltering family farms. If punk-rock is the sound of factories and if country music is the sound of farms, it makes sense that a successful ...
The Research Triangle, a cluster of three major universities (Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State) in the Appalachian foothills, was a natural breeding ground for an alt.-country scene, thanks to its rural Southern setting and its density of bohemians. It had been an outpost of the Georgia-centered alternative-rock scene that had produced R.E.M ...
Rather a ‘catch-all’ category that includes many musically diverse bands from the 1980s and 1990s, ‘alternative’ is generally an American term referring to any remotely leftfield and non-mainstream band, whereas ‘indie rock’ originally refers generally to the UK bands recording for smaller, independent labels, again usually meaning non-mainstream bands. Alternative encompasses many sub-styles. To complicate matters, ...
Following on from the lush bombast of the swing era, and established by a colourful group of American artists in the 1950s and 1960s, lounge was easy listening’s quirky kid brother. It was more playful than its more populist relative and, when viewed retrospectively, had a high camp factor. Although ostensibly laid-back and mellow, lounge ...
Taking their name from the meagre rehearsal facilities of its early practitioners, garage rock began in the US during the mid-1960s. The loud, fuzz-toned guitars often failed to disguise links to UK pop mentors like The Beatles, Rolling Stones and The Who. later acid rock bands such as The Electric Prunes incorporated progressive and psychedelic influences. Mostly, ...
Spring Green Day Leave Lookout! Despite their love of pot and good times, Green Day took their music seriously and handed over the day-to-day running of their affairs to Elliot Cahn and Jeff Saltzman of Cahn-Man Management whose track record included The Melvins and Mudhoney. The first item upon an agreed agenda was to upgrade their record label. Despite ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.