‘Your Woman’, 1997 White Town (really one-man-show Jyoti Mishra) found hit success in the US and UK with ‘Your Woman’, a song that partially recounted his youthful obsession with a lesbian. Despite EMI signing him to their Chrysalis subsidiary, no amount of backing could conjure interest in his subsequent releases, and so White Town quickly went to recording for ...
A pioneering guitarist and the principal creative force behind The Who, Pete Townshend was born in Chiswick, London in 1941. The Townshends were a musical family – Pete’s grandfather was a musician, his father a dance-band saxophonist and his mother a singer. Consequently, a career in music seemed natural for Pete, and his parents encouraged him. ...
When 1980s hair-metal band White Lion released the video for their breakthrough hit ‘Wait’ in 1987, guitar fans saw arguably the second coming of Eddie Van Halen. Guitarist Vito Bratta brought forth tasty rhythm-guitar parts, masterly single-note technique, and above all, a two-hand tapping technique that, while in the style of Van Halen, found a ...
In his short life, California guitarist-mandolinist Clarence White (1944–73) conceived innovations that would inspire country and rock guitarists from both a stylistic and technical perspective long after his death. He brought bluegrass picking to the forefront of rock, turning acoustic guitar into a solo instrument. He developed a device for electric guitar that let traditional guitarists sound like pedal-steel ...
Modern blues guitarist Jack White (b. 1975) was born John Gillis in Detroit, Michigan. He taught himself to play drums, starting at the age of five. On leaving school, he played in various Detroit bands. In 1996, he married Meg White and, reversing normal practice, took her surname. The White Stripes were born when Meg ...
(Violin, bandleader, 1890–1967) Erroneously dubbed ‘The King Of Jazz’ by press agents, Whiteman led his first dance band in San Francisco in 1918. Arriving in New York in 1920, he assembled some of the city’s top musicians and gained popularity with hits such as ‘Japanese Sandman’ and ‘Whispering’. In 1924 his orchestra premiered George Gershwin’s Rhapsody In ...
(Guitar, piano, vocals, 1906–77) Booker T. Washington White was raised on a farm outside Houston, Texas; his father taught him guitar in 1915. Two years later he learned piano and by 1921 he was working barrelhouses and honky tonks in St. Louis. Inspired by a meeting with Charley Patton, he hoboed through the South for much ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1908–69) Joshua Daniel White was born in Greenville, South Carolina, to a preacher father and a mother who sang in church. He worked in tandem with street singers such as Blind Blake and Blind Joe Taggart for much of the 1920s. His recording debut was made for Paramount in 1928 but his work for Banner/ARC ...
(Harmonica, vocals, guitar, b. 1944) Often compared to his contemporary Paul Butterfield, Musselwhite has an exceptionally fluid and melodic harmonica style that places him head and shoulders above most competitors. He debuted on record in 1967 and has remained faithful to the Chicago style in his own projects and in supporting work for Elvin Bishop, Big ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1966–present) Buck White (vocals, mandolin, b. 1930) was an Arkansas pipe fitter in 1966 when he formed a family bluegrass band with his wife Pat and their daughters Sharon (vocals, guitar, b. 1953) and Cheryl (vocals, bass, b. 1955). Buck’s Monroe-like mandolin and his daughters’ pretty harmony soon made The Whites a ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1960s) Clarence White (guitar, 1944–73) and his brother Roland White (vocals, mandolin, b. 1938) grew up in Maine and then California but they called their string band The Kentucky Colonels. That’s where Clarence pioneered the concept of lead acoustic guitar in a bluegrass band and became a legend to pickers everywhere. When Clarence switched to ...
(Vocals, guitar, 1944–97) Van Zandt, the bohemian son of Texas aristocracy, spent much of his life drifting from place to place and battling alcoholism, but he became a songwriting mentor for Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Susanna Clark, Nanci Griffith, Rodney Crowell and The Flatlanders. His small, roughened voice limited the appeal ...
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 ...
b. 1932 American composer Early work as a studio pianist in Hollywood led to pockets of work in the 1960s. During the 1970s, he produced music for a number of films including The Towering Inferno (1974). Following collaborations with Steven Spielberg in the mid-1970s, Williams wrote music to Star Wars (1977). Stylistically, he adopts the romantic breadth of ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1972–82, 1989–present) The blue-eyed soul of Scots Alan Gorrie (vocals, bass), Malcolm Duncan (saxophone), Owen McIntyre (vocals, guitar), Hamish Stuart (vocals, guitar), Roger Ball (keyboards) and Robbie McIntosh (drums) topped the US charts in 1975 with the album AWB and single ‘Pick Up The Pieces’. After dabbling in disco with ‘Let’s Go Round Again’, ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
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sweep of incredible photographs.