(Vocal/instrumental group, 1982–87) Manchester’s finest coalesced around the songwriting pair of former journalist Stephen Patrick Morrissey (vocals) and Johnny Marr (guitar). Andy Rourke (bass) and Mike Joyce (drums) completed a team who became the darlings of bed-sit melancholics everywhere, and exerted a huge influence on indie rock over the following decades. Their mesmerizing blend of 1960s beat music and ...
Indie guitarist and producer Bernard Butler (b. 1970) was born in Tottenham, London. After learning violin as a child, he took up guitar at the age of 14, inspired by Johnny Marr, learning Smiths’ guitar parts by watching the band play live. He was also influenced by Bernard Sumner and Aztec Camera’s Roddy Frame. After replying to ...
Alternative-rock guitarist Billy Corgan (b. 1967) was born in Chicago, Illinois. Shortly after starting high school, Corgan began to learn guitar on an imitation Gibson Les Paul. His father, a musician, suggested that Billy listen to Jeff Beck and Jimi Hendrix but refused to teach him to play; consequently, Corgan was self-taught. His early influences were ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1999–present) Hundred Reasons – Colin Doran (vocals), Paul Townsend (guitar), Larry Hibbitt (keyboards), Andy Gilmour (bass) and Andy Bews (drums) – are a UK hard rock band just three albums into their career. A change from Columbia to V2 in September 2005 saw Hibbitt take production duties for the excellent Kill Your Own album of 2006. Outside of ...
Steven Morrissey in 1982. They met when Marr called at Morrissey’s house on the recommendation of a mutual acquaintance. The pair immediately struck up a songwriting partnership, and The Smiths were born. The band’s ascent was rapid; in little more than a year they were on the charts with their second single, ‘This Charming Man’, ignited by Marr’s exuberant ...
(Singer-songwriter, b. 1959) Adored by fans almost as much as he adores himself, Morrissey’s post-Smiths career has been nothing less than stellar. Writing mainly with guitarist Boz Boorer, Morrissey delivered a number of hit albums and singles. With North and Latin America eventually falling for him, he could even afford to lose his way on Maladjusted (1997). ...
Touring Nevermind around the world Cobain tired of ‘Teen Spirit’, improvising new lyrics and appeared on UK TV’s Top of The Pops delivering the vocal as if sung by former Smiths lead singer Morrissey. Reacting against the commercial sheen of Nevermind, sessions for the next album were recorded mostly live in two weeks with producer Steve Albini, formerly of ...
of the late 1980s and 1990s, working with the likes of Chaka Demus and Pliers, and Shabba Ranks. Styles & Forms | Eighties | Rock Personalities | The Smiths | Eighties | Rock ...
the mass singalongs of Oasis, the technological edge of New Order (their name even came from a fictional band in one of their videos) and the introspection of The Smiths and The Cure, the band found mass acclaim in 2004 with their Hot Fuss album. Second album Sam’s Town was released in 2006, and compilation Sawdust, containing ...
Although they existed for just over two years and released only two albums, The Sex Pistols had more impact on the British music scene than any band since the 1960s. To the public they represented the face of punk. The Sex Pistols came together in London in 1975 under the aegis of Malcolm McLaren (born 22 January 1946) who was ...
Alternative music is often seen as a controversial idiom, reflecting those who have sought to change the existing styles by fusing it with others, or approaching it from a different angle. It is criticized by purists who believe in the folk ideal, but supported by those who argue that stagnant music is a dead music and that it ...
half-sung, half-spoken vocals, backed by spiky and sometimes almost cacophonic guitar and keyboards (as on 1980’s Grotesque (After The Gramme)) – has changed little over the years. The Smiths self-titled debut album in 1984 heralded the most influential British guitar rock of the 1980s and, like R.E.M. across the pond, The Smiths were influenced by ...
menacing undercurrent, The Mondays’ Bummed (1988) shows their unique style beginning to gel. Manchester had already produced arguably the most important British guitar band of the 1980s, The Smiths, and then went on to produce another significant British guitar band – The Stone Roses. Both bands were heavily influenced by 1960s guitar pop, and although The Stone ...
been there. In fact it’s estimated that around 40 people turned up. But among those definitely in that select crowd were Morrissey, who would go on to form The Smiths, members of Buzzcocks, Mark E Smith (The Fall) and Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook (Joy Division and later New Order). July London Loves The Ramones When The Ramones ...
Deep Ellum district. Conversely, even at their most musically refined, ‘classic blues’ women such as Ida Cox (1896–1967), Victoria Spivey (1906–76), Ma Rainey (1886–1939) and the various unrelated Smiths often dealt in material with lyrics as nasty and uncompromisingly funk-drenched as anything that might have emanated from a plantation juke (or a backstreet urban gin mill) on a Saturday ...
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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
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.