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August 5th, 2010Peter Andre
Peter James Andrea, better known as Peter Andre, is an English/Australian pop singer–songwriter.Born 27th February 1973, Andre was discovered on the Australian television talent show New Faces in 1990. This led to him signing a record contract and releasing the single Drive Me Crazy in 1992. This was followed by his debut studio album Peter Andre in 1993. It was a big hit in his native Australia, producing the number three hit Gimme Little Sign, which went on to become the biggest selling single of the year in Australia, as well as the Top 20 hits Funky Junky and Let’s Get It On/Do You Wanna Dance?
Andre’s next album Natural was his international breakthrough. Released in November 1996, it produced six singles in total, including the breakthrough single Mysterious Girl (which reached the Top 10 in charts around the world) and the UK number one hits Flava and I Feel You. The album eventually reached number one in the UK Albums Chart and was certified platinum shortly afterwards.
The singer tried to transform himself into an R&B star with his 1998 release Time, but it was a critical and commercial flop. Following this, Andre spent several years out of the limelight before appearing on the 2004 British reality television show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! During his stint in the jungle he gained a large amount of publicity, particularly due to his blossoming relationship with the glamour model Katie Price (aka Jordan), and after returning to the UK he re-released Mysterious Girl, scoring a UK number one hit. He subsequently produced the 2004 album The Long Road Back and scored another Top 3 single with Insania.
Andre’s latest album Revelation was released in September 2009. It shot to number three on the UK Albums Chart and produced two singles in total: Behind Closed Doors and Unconditional.
Tags: Australian, English, Funky Junky, Peter Andre, pop, Pter James Andrea, singer -
July 20th, 2010Elton John
Sir Elton John is a multiple Grammy Award-winning English pop/rock singer-songwriter, composer and pianist. He has released more than thirty albums in a career spanning almost five decades.Born Reginald Kenneth Dwight on 25th March 1947 in Pinner, Middlesex, John took an interest in music – particularly rock and roll music – from a very young age. He started playing piano at the age of three and took up formal lessons at seven. At the age of 11, he won a junior scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music, and by his mid-teens he had a regular gig as a pianist in a nearby pub – the Northwood Hills Hotel. He also briefly joined a band called Bluesology.
After changing his name to Elton John (an homage to his bandmates Elton Dean and Long John Baldry) he met and began working with the lyricist Bernie Taupin – a collaboration that continues today. Together they became song writers for various artists, including Lulu and Roger Cook, and John also appeared as a session musician for artists like The Scaffold and The Hollies. Then, in 1969, Elton John released his debut solo album Empty Sky. This was quickly followed by his breakthrough self-titled album, which reached the Top 5 in the UK, produced the smash hit single Your Song and was nominated for Album of the Year at the 1971 Grammy Awards.
Since then, Elton John has set dozens of pop music records. He has scored an unprecedented 56 Top 40 singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, including the classics Tiny Dancer, Rocket Man, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, I’m Still Standing, Nikita, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me and Can You Feel the Love Tonight. His 1997 re-recording of the single Candle in the Wind has sold over 37 million copies worldwide – making it the biggest selling single of all time. To date, Elton John has sold more than 250 million records around the world, and is one of the most commercially successful music artists ever.
Tags: composer, Elton John, English, pianist, pop, rock -
July 11th, 2010Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton (CBE) is an English blues-rock guitarist and singer-songwriter, and one of the most influential musicians of all time.Born 30th March 1945, Clapton received his first acoustic guitar on his thirteenth birthday and spent much of his late teens busking around Richmond, Kingston and the West End of London. However, in October 1963 he got his big break when he joined the blues-influenced rock and roll band The Yardbirds. The group, now infamous for starting the careers of three of the world’s greatest guitarists – Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page (founder of Led Zeppelin) – pioneered several electronic guitar techniques, such as distortion, feedback and echo, and scored a number of UK hits including For Your Love, Over Under Sideways Down and Heart Full of Soul.
Clapton left The Yardbirds in May 1965 to form Cream – the world’s first supergroup. They scored a number of UK and US hits, including I Feel Free, Sunshine of Your Love, White Room, Crossroads and Badge, before breaking up in November 1968. Clapton then formed the group Derek and the Dominoes which, while only releasing one album, will forever be remembered for the smash hit single Layla – often voted one of the greatest rock songs of all time.
Eric Clapton went solo in the early 1970s and scored a critical and commercial hit with his 1974 album 461 Ocean Boulevard. It’s notable for including the song I Shot the Sheriff – a cover of the then-unknown Bob Marley’s song and credited with bringing both Marley and reggae music as a whole into the mainstream – as well as the hit single Willie and the Hand Jive.
Since 1975 Clapton has released a further seventeen studio albums and scored hits with singles like Wonderful Tonight, I Can’t Stand It, My Father’s Eyes and Tears in Heaven. He was recently ranked fourth in Rolling Stone’s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.
Tags: blues, English, Eric Clapton, guitarist, rock -
July 10th, 2010Fatboy Slim
Norman Cook, better known as Fatboy Slim, is an English DJ, musician and record producer, credited with bringing electronic dance into the mainstream during the 1990s.Born Quentin Leo Cook in Reigate, Surrey on 31st July 1963, the musician landed his first job – as a drummer for the British new wave rock band Disque Attack – in his mid-teens. He studied at Brighton Polytechnic and developed his DJ-ing skills in the thriving Brighton club scene, before joining The Housemartins in 1985. The band gave Cook his first taste of success, as they produced seven UK Top 40 hits, including the number three single Happy Hour and the number one smash hit Caravan of Love.
The hits continued with Cook’s next two group projects, Beats International and Freak Power, who scored the UK Top 5 songs Dub Be Good to Me and Turn On Tune In Cop Out respectively. After enjoying such success with three different groups, Cook decided to go solo under the pseudonym Fatboy Slim.
His debut solo album Better Living Through Chemistry was released in 1996. It produced his first Top 40 hit Everybody Needs a 303 and the single Going Out of My Head. This was followed by his second album, 1998’s You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby – Cook’s most successful record to date. It reached number one on the UK Albums Chart and hit the Top 40 in the US (where it sold over a million copies), and also spawned four UK Top 10 singles – The Rockafeller Skank, Gangster Trippin, Praise You and Right Here, Right Now . In 2000, it was voted as one of Q magazine’s 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.
Since the turn of the century, Cook has released four more studio albums – Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars, Palookaville, I Think We’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat and Here Lies Love – which have sold millions of copies around the world. They have also produced a number of hit singles, including Sunset (Bird of Prey), Weapon of Choice, Slash Dot Dash and Wonderful Night.
Cook is currently performing on the European music festival circuit.
Tags: Disque Attack, DJ, English, Fatboy Slim, Norman Cook -
