The Cure are British New Wave alternative rock band, currently consisting of Robert Smith on lead vocals, guitars and keyboards, Porl Thompson on guitars and keyboards, Simon Gallup on bass and keyboards and Jason Cooper on drums and percussion. The group has gone through several line-up changes throughout its history, with Smith being its only constant member.

Formed in Crawley, West Sussex, England in 1976, the group was originally known as Easy Cure, before changing their name in 1978. They recorded a demo tape soon after and sent it to several record companies, eventually earning them a contract with Fiction Records – an imprint of Polydor. Their first release was the single Killing an Arab, which garnered both acclaim and controversy, followed by their debut album Three Imaginary Boys (later released in the US as Boys Don’t Cry).

The group released four more albums during the early 1980s, which all reached the Top 20 and slowly earned them an international reputation. The albums also produced songs like A Forest, Primary, The Walk, The Lovecats and The Caterpillar. However, the group enjoyed their biggest success during the later half of the eighties. 1985’s The Head on the Door saw them chart in the US Top 100 for the first time with singles like In Between Days and Close To Me, while 1987’s Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me reached number 36 in the US and produced the UK Top 30 hits Why Can’t I Be You?, Catch and Just Like Heaven. Their final album of the decade, 1989’s Disintegration, reached numbers three and twelve in the UK and US charts respectively, selling millions of copies worldwide, and spawned the hit singles Lullaby, Fascination Street, Lovesong (a US number two hit) and Pictures of You.

In the last two decades the group have released a further five studio albums, which have all reached the Top 20 on the US Billboard 200, and scored hits with singles like High, Friday I’m in Love, A Letter to Elise, The 13^th and The End of the World. The Cure has sold over 30 million albums worldwide to date.

Cheryl Cole (née Tweedy) is a British singer-songwriter and television personality.

Born 30^th June 1983 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, Cole rose to fame after appearing in the 2002 British talent show Popstars: The Rivals. She was one of the five female finalists – along with Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh – and together they formed the group Girls Aloud. They released their debut single Sound of the Underground in December 2002 and scored a UK Christmas Number One. This was followed by their album of the same name, which went on to sell over 400,000 copies in the UK and produce the follow-up Top 5 singles No Good Advice and Life Got Cold.

Since then, Girls Aloud have released a further five albums – What Will the Neighbours Say?, Chemistry, Tangled Up and Out of Control – sold millions of records and released a total of eighteen singles, including the Top 5 hits The Show, Love Machine, I’ll Stand By You, Wake Me Up, Biology, Whole Lotta History, Something Kinda Ooooh, I Think We’re Alone Now, Walk This Way (ft. Sugababes), Sexy! No No No…, Call the Shots and The Promise. According to the Guinness World Records, they are the world’s ‘Most Successful Reality TV Group’ and also hold the record for ‘Most Consecutive Top Ten Entries in the UK by a Female Group’ with twenty.

In 2008 Cheryl Cole became a judge on the fifth series on the UK TV show The X Factor, and she quickly became a familiar face to almost everyone in the UK. This helped her launch her solo career, which began with an appearance on rapper will.i.am’s UK Top 5 single Heartbreaker, and soon led to her debut album 3 Words. Released in October 2009, the album shot to number one in the UK and produced the chart-topping lead single Fight for This Love, as well as the Top 5 singles 3 Words and Parachute.

Both Girls Aloud’s sixth album and Cheryl Cole’s second solo album are due for release later in 2010.

The Prodigy are a British hardcore dance/electro band consisting of vocalist Keith Flint, MC Maxim Reality and DJ and multi-instrumentalist Liam Howlett.

Formed in 1990, The Prodigy self-released a demo tape in February 1991. They sent this to a number of record companies and were soon signed to XL Recordings, who released a track from the demo call What Evil Lurks as the group’s first single. They immediately entered the studio to record new material and released their debut album Experience in September 1992. Containing the popular songs Charly, Out of Space and Fire, it reached number twelve in the UK Albums Chart and was soon certified platinum.

The group’s second album, Music for the Jilted Generation, followed in July 1994. It shot straight to number one in the UK, as well as charting inside the Billboard 200, and spawned the hit singles No Good (Start the Dance), Voodoo People and Poison. It has since been rated a classic album of the 1990s by the likes of Spin, NME and Mojo magazines.

However, the group’s first major international mainstream success was the 1997 album The Fat of the Land. Distributed by Maverick Records in America, it shot to number one on the Billboard 200 and was nominated for a Grammy Award, as well as for the prestigious Mercury Music Prize in 1997. It was also a number one hit in the UK, Canada, Australia and several other countries, and spawned the UK and international number one smash hits Firestarter and Breathe, as well as the UK Top 10 single Smack My Bitch Up.

Since the turn of the century The Prodigy have released a further two albums – 2004‘s Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned and 2009’s Invaders Must Die – and have scored hits with singles like Girls, Omen and Warrior’s Dance.

Michael Holbrook Penniman, Jr, better known by the stage name Mika, is a British singer-songwriter and musician.

Born in Beirut, Lebanon on 18^th August 1983, Mika moved to Paris with his family at the age of one. He began to learn the piano and to write his own songs after listening to Nirvana, and continued his musical education after the family relocated again to Kensington, London in 1992. In his late teenage years Mika studied at the renowned Royal College of Music in London, but dropped out after landing his first recording contract with Casablanca Records.

The singer released his first EP Dodgy Holiday in 2006, along with the single Relax, Take It Easy – which was made Record of the Week by BBC Radio 1 DJ Scott Mills and would later enter the UK Top 20. This was followed by his debut album Life in Cartoon Motion in February 2007. The record debuted at number one in the UK and has sold over 5.5 million records worldwide to date, earning Mika his first BRIT Award as well as a Grammy nomination. It produced the number one smash hit single Grace Kelly, which stayed on the top spot in the UK for five consecutive weeks, as well as the Top 10 singles Love Today, Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) and Happy Ending.

After releasing the EP Songs for Sorrow in mid-2009, Mika released his second studio album The Boy Who Knew Too Much in September that year. It debuted at number four in the UK Album Charts, at number nineteen on the US Billboard 200 and at number one in France, receiving generally positive critical reviews around the world. The album’s lead single We Are Golden reached number four in the UK charts, while the follow up singles Rain and Blame It on the Girls both reached number 72.

Mika is currently working on his third studio album.

Lily Allen is a Grammy Award-nominated British alternative pop/rock singer-songwriter and musician.

Allen was born 2^nd May 1985 in Hammersmith, London, the daughter of actor and musician Keith Allen and film producer Alison Owen. She learned to play piano and sing in her teens and dropped out of school at fifteen to concentrate on her music full time. She created several demo tapes and in 2005 started to post them on her MySpace account. Within just a few months she had accumulated thousands of followers, which persuaded the label Regal Recordings to release an album of her material.

Alright, Still was released in July 2006. It was a critical and commercial hit, debuting at number two in the UK Albums Chart and number twenty on the US Billboard 200, and has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide to date. The lead single Smile spent two weeks at number one in the UK, while LDN, Alfie and Shame for You all reached the Top 20. The album was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 50^th Grammy Awards.

Allen followed this success with It’s Not Me, It’s You, released in February 2009. It debuted at number one in the UK, Australia and Canada, and at number five in the US, and won Allen her first Brit Award for British Female Solo Artist. The album’s first single The Fear reached number one in the UK and stayed there for four consecutive weeks, while the second single Not Fair reached number four. The album’s third international single Fuck You, written about George Bush, was her highest charting hit in the US, while the subsequent singles 22 and Who’d Have Known both charted in the UK Top 40. Allen also scored a Top 30 hit in Australia with Back to the Start.

Lily Allen’s year-long It’s Not Me, It’s You World Tour finished in March 2010 and she is currently taking an indefinite hiatus.