(Vocals, 1959–2000) The daughter of folk singer Ewan MacColl, her appealing, wry voice brought her hits with ‘There’s A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He’s Elvis’ (1981), ‘A New England’ (1985) and ‘Days’ (1989). She duetted on The Pogues’ 1987 Christmas smash ‘Fairytale Of New York’. She released warm, witty albums in Electric Landlady (1991) ...
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 ...
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 ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1984–95) Taking a leaf out of the books of Hendrix and Bad Brains, Living Colour – Vernon Reid (guitar), Corey Glover (vocals), Muzz Skillings (bass, replaced by Doug Wimbish) and William Calhoun (drums) – were a black rock band formed in New York. Three albums, Vivid (1988), Time’s Up (1990) and Stain (1993), all charted ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1982–present) Formed in North London around gifted songwriter Shane MacGowan (vocals). Other long-term members include Spider Stacey (tin whistle, vocals), Jem Finer (banjo, guitar), Phil Chevron (guitar) and Andrew Ranken (drums). They breathed fresh, punky life into Irish music on excellent albums Rum, Sodomy And The Lash (1985) and If I Should Fall From ...
Being perched at the top of the charts on 25 December has represented a prestigious achievement for musicians since the dawn of the pop era, while the shopping frenzy of the festive period makes it one of the most potentially profitable times to release a record. It wasn’t always that way: the original Yuletide songs were church carols that endure ...
It may not fit into the purists’ ideal, but contemporary song has long been an essential element of folk music. The art of the singer-songwriter, from Woody Guthrie through to Bob Dylan, and a whole host of artists who emerged in their wake, fuelled much of the early folk revival. Today’s singer-songwriters borrow heavily from many disparate ...
Folk pop is often looked down on by connoisseurs of the music who believe that in its purest form it should have nothing in common with the charts and the commercial world. Yet folk has punctured the mainstream more often than most would imagine, and in many ways its popularity has been reliant on those who’ve broadened the market by ...
To this day, many still contend that a written song is not a folk song. Purists claim that only a traditional song, shaped and honed by the environmental context that produced it and handed down by word of mouth through the generations, can justly claim to be true folk music. Indeed, the great Scots folklorist, writer ...
The relationship between politics and folk music has always been fuel for lively debate. Some argue that the two should not mix, and that aligning traditional song with politics demeans it. Front-line singers such as Dick Gaughan and Roy Bailey, however, argue that folk songs are inextricably linked with politics, and perform plenty of strident material to ...
Mention of the folk revival is generally applied to the late-1950s and early 1960s, when a new generation of enthusiasts earnestly set about exploring the history of folk music and recreating its passionate, social ideals. There had been other folk revivals throughout history, but they tended to stem from the middle classes in search of a purer identity ...
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An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
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Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
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