(Vocal/instrumental group, 2006–present) Seattle folk quintet Fleet Foxes emerged in 2008 through MySpace and impressed with their harmony-laced acoustic music, a throwback to the late Sixties. Their eponymous debut reached No. 3 in the UK in 2008, also making the Top 40 in their home country. Critics ranked their effort as the best of the year, among ...
Blues-rock guitarist Peter Green was born Peter Greenbaum in Bethnal Green, London in 1946. He began playing guitar at the age of 10. Among his early influences were Hank Marvin, Muddy Waters and B.B. King. After Green played bass in several semi-pro outfits, keyboardist Peter Bardens invited him to play lead in his band. Three months later ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1968–present) Many fans who love Fleetwood Mac’s string of 1970s hits are unaware of their earlier blues explorations. The band came into being when guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie broke away from John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. In 1968, with Jeremy Spencer on second guitar, Fleetwood Mac debuted on Blue Horizon. A ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1967–95, 1997–present) Peter Green (vocals, guitar) had been a star of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, in which John McVie (bass) and Mick Fleetwood (drums) had toiled less visibly. In 1967, the three became ‘Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac’ after enlisting guitarist Jeremy Spencer. Later, a third guitarist, Danny Kirwan, was added. The outfit ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1967–present) After gaining cult status with blues guitarist Peter Green at the helm, his departure in 1970 saw their sound head in a more rockier direction with the addition of guitarist Lindsey Buckingham and vocalist Stevie Nicks in 1974. This new line-up helped them achieve new heights of success with their eponymous album in 1975. Internal wranglings ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1983–present) A longstanding antithesis to manufactured pop, the current incarnation of Oklahoma’s The Flaming Lips – Wayne Coyne (vocals), Michael Ivins (bass) and Steven Drozd (drums) – plough a decidedly odd furrow, at odds with their more ‘traditional’ alternative rock past. Now famed for their live performances, which can feature aliens, giant animals, ...
1857–1934 English composer Elgar was born at Broadheath, near Worcester. His father ran a music shop in Worcester, where Elgar embarked on a course of self-instruction that made him total master of music’s craft and one of the world’s greatest orchestrators. Brought up a Roman Catholic in a Protestant community and a tradesman’s son, Elgar never felt socially ...
Queen guitarist Brian May is among the most recognizable players in the world. His distinctive tones, created by the home-made guitar he built when he was 16 and has used throughout his career, are integral to the sound of Queen. Many of the sounds he produced were so innovative that the first seven Queen albums pointedly stated that no ...
March Waters Wins BAFTA Outside of music polls and top figures for touring box-office grosses, the members of Pink Floyd were not well-versed in winning prestigious awards. This changed in March 1983 when ‘Another Brick in The Wall (Part 2)’ won Roger Waters a BAFTA for Best Original Song, pipping ‘The Eye Of The Tiger’ from Rocky III to ...
1663–1745, French Simon-Joseph Pellegrin was a monk who sailed twice with the French fleet to the Orient, and who put into verse Biblical texts that were sung to music by Lully and Campra at the royal convent at St Cyr. Pellegrin provided libretti for many composers, including Campra and Desmarets, but his best-known works are Jephté, set ...
b. 1930 American composer and lyricist Sondheim studied with Oscar Hammerstein II (1895–1960) and Babbitt. Early work as a lyricist for Jules Styne’s (1905–89) Gypsy (1959) and Bernstein’s West Side Story (1957) brought his name to public attention, but it was not until Follies (1971) that he achieved recognition as a composer. His work is marked by a biting wit ...
(Vocals, b. 1936) Born Thomas Hicks, Steele began playing ersatz British rock’n’roll at the London 2I’s coffee bar. Spotted by Fleet Street photographer John Kennedy, who became his manager, Steele co-wrote ‘Rock With The Caveman’ with Lionel Bart, and the single made the UK Top 20. In 1957, Steele covered ‘Singing The Blues’, which topped ...
By definition, a contemporary era defies summary. No one living in it has the conclusive perspective to discern the prevailing character of our times, even though we all know what we’re going through, and can hear what we hear. The reductive view is: Americans, after a burst stock-market bubble and terrorist attacks, live in uncertainty, ...
‘Fusion’ can be applied to any music that blends two or more different styles, though it is normally used to describe the electronic jazz rock movement that emerged in the late 1960s. Some of the musicians expanded the boundaries of both jazz and rock, while others focused on producing sophisticated, but shallow, ‘background’ music. Although fusion records ...
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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.