‘Make Luv’, 2003 Masterminded by Belgium-based producer Vito Lucente (a.k.a. Junior Jack), Room 5 was a Daft Punk-styled funk-dance creation. Based around Oliver Cheetham’s 1980s hit, ‘Get Down Saturday Night’, ‘Make Luv’ became a UK No. 1 in 2003, though the Room 5 concept was dropped the following year, after Lucente/Room 5 released a full-length album ...
Liverpool’s most famous sons, The Beatles, were wartime babies: Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr) born 7 July 1940; John Winston Lennon born 9 October 1940; James Paul McCartney born 18 June 1942; and George Harrison born 24 February 1943. All four families moved at least once at the end of the war as Liverpool was rebuilt and renovated. They were ...
Spring Origins of The Quarry Men The skiffle craze that swept Britain in the mid-Fifties, spearheaded by Lonnie Donegan, was a defining influence on all four Beatles. They badgered their parents for cheap acoustic guitars and strummed clumsily along to songs like ‘Cumberland Gap’ and ‘Rock Island Line’. John Lennon, a rebel looking for a cause, was ...
February George Joins Despite his friendship with Paul McCartney, George Harrison didn’t get to see The Quarry Men until 6 February at the Wilson Hall, Garston. ‘I remember being very impressed with John’s big thick sideboards and Teddy Boy clothes.’ He did an impromptu audition on the bus home. A few days later McCartney asked John Lennon what ...
January Beginning of Lennon and McCartney The gigs started drying up for The Quarry Men in the autumn of 1958 and by January 1959 there was nothing on the horizon. John Lennon had also been devastated by the death of his mother, killed by a speeding car. George Harrison drifted off to join the Les Stewart Quartet but Lennon, ...
Between early 1963 and early 1964 The Beatles went from being virtual unknowns to international pop superstars, a position they maintained over the next two years by an intense schedule of recording and touring, as well as two major feature films. They did it by writing consistently better and better songs, often under extreme pressure, and by ...
February Ringo Marries Maureen Cox On 11 February a tonsil-less Ringo married Maureen Cox, the Liverpool girlfriend he’d been ‘going steady’ with since the Cavern Club days, at London’s Caxton Hall Registry Office. The ceremony was attended by Mr and Mrs Lennon and George Harrison who quipped, ‘Two down and two to go’. Paul McCartney was on holiday ...
Guitar One magazine declared him a ‘modern-day master of the Telecaster’. In the 2007 Guitar World readers’ poll, his instrumental guitar tour de terror The Devil Knows My Name was named Best Shred Album of 2007. Also in 2007, he graced the covers of Guitar Player and Guitarist magazines, while in 2008, he was featured on the ...
In 2009, London-born soul sensation Adele said that to be nominated for a Grammy Award was ‘a dream come true’ and to win two ‘blew my mind.’ Fast-forward to the 54th Grammy Awards in February 2012 and the singer was practically staggering as she posed for pictures with six further gongs. She won Record of the Year, Album ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1967–present) The nine-piece, horn-based outfit from Westerly, Rhode Island was formed by guitarist Duke Robillard and pianist Al Copley and has been a swinging institution in the Northeast since 1967. The band concentrates on jump blues, boogie-woogie and slow blues numbers. Roomful’s self-titled debut on Island Records in 1979 began a rich recorded legacy, ...
The six intermedi composed to celebrate the marriage of Ferdinando de’ Medici of Florence and Christine of Lorraine in 1589 were the most spectacular and expensive ever seen. So lavish was the presentation that it completely dominated the play it accompanied – La pellegrina (‘The Pilgrim’) by Girolamo Bargagli. All the texts and music survive, together with the designs for ...
(Vocal group, 1968–72) Michigan’s loud and politically resolute MC5 – Rob Tyler (vocals), Wayne Kramer (guitar), Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith (guitar), Mike Davis (bass) and Dennis Thompson (drums) – were connected with The White Panthers. Riddled with slogan-ridden social comment, rude words and raw musical attack, their three albums may be seen to have pre-empted the more dogmatic punk ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1976–present) The band’s kitsch dress sense and spiky, surreal updating of 1960s dance music won a huge college following during the punk/new wave years. Guitarist Ricky Wilson died from AIDS in 1985. In 1986, an updated version of 1978’s ‘Rock Lobster’ became a UK Top 20 smash. ‘Love Shack’, ‘Roam’ and ‘Meet The Flintstones’ followed it ...
(Rapper, b. 1975) Curtis James Jackson II was born in New York, and has come to symbolize a brand of rap/actor that somehow manages to place circumstance over actual style. 50 Cent’s main claim to infamy is the fact he has been shot numerous times. Understandably brash in his delivery, his thuggish attitude towards many aspects of life ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 2001–present) Maroon 5 – Adam Levine (vocals), James Valentine (guitar), Jesse Carmichael (keyboards), Mickey Maddon (bass) and Ryan Dussick (drums, left 2006) – came to be in 2001 when Valentine joined flop band Kara’s Flowers. The release of 2002’s Songs About Jane was well received, but it was not until singles ‘This Love’ and ‘She Will ...
AUTHORITATIVE
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...
CURATED
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.