(Vocal/instrumental group, 1977–95) Led by guitarist Mark Knopfler with brother David (guitar), John Illsley (bass) and Pick Withers (drums), Dire Straits went from playing the London pub circuit to a US hit album. Knopfler’s inventive, plectrum-free guitar playing, street-poet lyrics and fine pop rock tunesmithery combined to launch their huge career. Their debut single, ‘Sultans Of Swing’, ...
From the unlikeliest of beginnings in the British new wave of the late 1970s, Dire Straits became one of the biggest bands of the 1980s, due in large part to Mark Knopfler’s finger-picking guitar style, which has continued to define the sound of his solo work. Born in Glasgow in 1949, Knopfler spent his teenage years in ...
Having previously declared that he would never record outside Tin Machine, Bowie proceeded to renege on both this and, in time, his assertion that he would not play his old hits for live audiences. Nobody seemed inclined to sue him for breach of promise. The fact that he once again engaged the production services of Nile Rodgers hardly ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1978–86) The brainchild of Kevin Rowland, Dexy’s bagged a UK No. 1 with the punky, singalong soul of ‘Geno’ (1980). The manifesto album Searching For The Young Soul Rebels (1980) backed it up. After internal disruptions, a Celtic element was added, and the stomping anthem ‘Come On Eileen’ from the 1982 album Too-Rye-Ay became ...
Freddie (sometimes spelled Freddy) King (1934–76) revitalized the Chicago blues scene in the 1960s. His aggressive playing and piercing solos helped to set up the blues-rock movement, and he was a major influence on 1960s British guitarists like Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor. King’s mother taught him to play guitar as a child in Gilmer, Texas ...
Although many would contend that 1980s pop was typified by an empty, aspirational overload of bad haircuts and cynical blandness, the decade produced many of pop’s most individual artists. In addition, it was arguably defined by 1985’s Live Aid – a global charity event unmatchable in its reach, and definitive in its marking of the period. The ...
New country took many years and miles of travel before its current evolution – not least the new traditionalist movement of the 1980s, which returned country music to its roots. Garth Brooks (b. 1962) did it far more quickly, but that’s a different story. Sometimes it seemed like these artists were chipping away at a mountain with nothing more ...
This was a decade when the impact of dance culture on rock and vice versa sometimes led to exciting results: it opened with ‘Thriller’ and closed with the Madchester scene of Happy Mondays. Punk had subsided to become the less threatening new wave movement, which, along with the new romantics, dominated the early days of the decade. As ...
Hank Williams and George Jones would have found the whole notion of alt-country unfathomable. Why would anyone seek an alternative to bestselling country records ? For these sons of dire southern poverty, the whole point of making country records was to sell as many as possible and maybe catch hold of the dignity and comfort that a middle-class life might ...
After the farewell tour of 1982, Pete Townshend made it clear that he wanted out of the band and a complete break-up followed. Despite misgivings, they agreed to play Live Aid in the summer of 1985 and, although a messy affair, the gig did get the band talking again and the subject of 25th anniversary celebrations were ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.