1843–1919, Italian The Italian soprano Adelina Patti was among the greatest of all prima donnas. As such, she enjoyed special privileges. One was exemption from rehearsals. Another was top pay for her time, amounting to $5,000 (£2,725) a performance after 1882. Patti made her singing debut at age seven, and first appeared on stage at ...
1917–50 Romanian pianist Lipatti studied with Cortot in Paris. His concert career after 1945 was cut short by cancer. The delicacy and clarity of his playing made him an ideal interpreter of J. S. Bach, Mozart and Chopin. He made a number of recordings, including his last recital a few weeks before his death. Introduction | Modern Era | ...
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 ...
1819–80, French Jacques Offenbach had an acute sense of theatre and an incisive understanding of how to cater for French tastes. He was 14 when his father sent him to Paris, where Jews were freer than they were in Germany. Offenbach became a cellist, performing in fashionable salons, and finally, in 1855, became famous. He ...
The nineteenth century was the age of the great diva, the female opera-singer who performed roles in which she usually ended up mad, abandoned or dead, but who mesmerized audiences with the power of her voice. The theatre was not seen as a respectable work-place and for most of the century female opera-singers were not regarded as reputable ...
Rock, jazz, soul; each of these genres, while containing a multiplicity of various offshoots, is defined by some kind of unifying theme. But this miscellaneous section, as any record collector will know, is where everything else ends up. Most of the styles within this ‘genre’ have little in common save the fact that they do ...
From a shy piano player, Elton John became one of the most extrovert performers of the 1970s. He has sold over 250 million records worldwide and is now almost a national institution. Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25 March 1947, he won a part-time piano scholarship to London’s Royal Academy Of Music at the age of 11. By the ...
Indie guitar legend Johnny Marr (b. 1963) was born John Maher in Manchester, England to Irish Catholic parents. He grew up in a household where music was a constant fixture, and he recalled, ‘I always had guitars, for as long as I could remember.’ Guitar technique came easily to young Johnny, and he quickly mastered ...
Alternative-rock guitarist Kevin Shields (b. 1963) was born in Queens, New York. When he was 10, the family relocated to Dublin, where he learned guitar as a teenager with Johnny Ramone as his role model. My Bloody Valentine came together in 1984. The band moved to Holland and then Berlin, where they recorded the mini-album This Is ...
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 ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1976–96, 2002) A legendary punk band, The Banshees did not release their first single, ‘Hong Kong Garden’, until 1978. Vocalist Siouxsie was accompanied by Steve Severin (bass), John McKay (guitar) and Kenny Morris (drums). McKay and Morris left abruptly in 1979 to be replaced by Budgie (ex-Slits) and John McGeoch, formerly of Magazine, ...
August Sign With CBS With Atlantic disinterested in signing the Stones for the tens of millions they wanted, they signed with CBS for £28 million (allegedly double the amount offered by the next label in line), for four new albums and the rights to their back catalogue up to 1971. Part of the deal was also a guarantee that Jagger ...
January Keith And Mick Meet In Barbados Missing in action for almost three years, the Stones’ future was uncertain. The new wave of rock groups like Guns N’ Roses had built themselves on the Stones’ template, but the forefathers were nowhere to be seen. In mid-January, Keith flew out to Mick in Barbados to discuss the future of ...
Alternative experimental guitarist Thurston Moore (b. 1958) was born in Coral Gables, Florida. Inspired by New York’s punk and new-wave scene, Moore moved to the city in 1977. While playing in a band called The Coachmen, he met Lee Ranaldo, an art student and member of Glenn Branca’s avant-garde guitar orchestra. Moore assembled a band with bassist ...
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