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Title | Q |
---|---|
Image file | Q logo2.png |
Publisher | Bauer Media Group |
Language | English |
Category | Music |
Frequency | Monthly |
Editor | Paul Rees |
Firstdate | October 1986 |
Country | United Kingdom |
Website | Q the Music |
Q is a music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom, with a circulation of 130,179 as of June 2007.
Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology. Q was first published in October 1986, setting itself apart from much of the other music press with monthly production and higher standards of photography and printing. In the early years, the magazine was sub-titled "The modern guide to music and more". Originally it was to be called Cue (as in the sense of cueing a record, ready to play), but the name was changed so that it wouldn't be mistaken for a snooker magazine. Another reason, cited in Q's 200th edition, is that a single-letter title would be more prominent on newsstands.
Much of the magazine is devoted to interviews with popular musical artists.
The magazine is well known for compiling lists. It has created many, ranging from "The 100 Greatest albums" to the "100 Greatest '100 Greatest' Lists". The most famous of these is the "50 bands to see before you die" list. Every other month, Q - and its sister magazine, Mojo (also owned by Bauer) - have a special edition. These have been about musical times, genres, or a very important/influential musician.
Often, promotional gifts are given away, such as cover-mounted CDs or books. The January, 2006 issue included a free copy of "The Greatest Rock and Pop Miscellany … Ever!", modeled on Schott's Original Miscellany.
Every issue of Q has a different message on the spine. Readers then try to work out what the message has to do with the contents of the mag. This practice — known as the "spine line" — has since become commonplace among British lifestyle magazines, including Q's movie-centric sister rag, Empire and the football monthly FourFourTwo.
Usual features include The Q50, wherein the magazine lists the top 50 essential tracks of the month; Cash for Questions, in which a famous celeb/band answers question sent in by readers - who win £25 if their question is printed; Ten Commandments, wherein a particular singer creates their very own ten commandments by which to live and Rewind, in which they take us back in time through the history of music via archive issues of Q. On March 4, 2007, "Q" named Elvis Presley the greatest singer of all time.
Q is normally published at the beginning of a month but the September 1997 issue failed to appear until three weeks into the month. This led to speculation that it originally contained material likely to be deemed offensive in the context of the death of Princess Diana.
In 2006, Q published a readers' survey; the 100 Greatest Songs Ever, won by Oasis' Live Forever.
In the April 2007 issue, Q published an article containing the 100 Greatest Singers, won by Elvis Presley.
Q has a history of associating with charitable organizations, and in 2006 the British anti-poverty charity War on Want was named its official charity.
In late 2008 Q revamped its image, with a smaller amount of text and an increased focus on subjects other than music. This "Rolling Stone-isation" has led to criticism from much of the traditional Q readership, though it is yet to be seen if this change in attitude will dramatically affect sales.
Lady Gaga posed topless in a shoot for the April 2010 issue of the magazine, which was banned by stores in the United States due to the singer revealing too much of her breasts.
The magazine has a close relationship with the Glastonbury Festival producing both a free daily newspaper on site during the festival and a review magazine available at the end of the festival.
The station is transmitted on the digital television networks in the UK, across London on DAB and online.
Coldplay were involved with the launch of the station by giving an exclusive interview on Q's flagship programme QPM on the launch day.
It is based in Birmingham with Kerrang! 105.2 after moving from London in 2009
Other criticism comes from the magazine being "far too generous to British musicians" with its ratings. Also the recent trend of continuously publishing 'top 100' lists (which largely feature the same "approved" canon of favoured artists) has attracted accusations of lazy journalism. The magazine's favoured artists have also changed over the course of time and with different editors. For instance, in its early years the magazine gave positive coverage to popular mainstream artists such as Dire Straits, Genesis and Phil Collins (Mark Knopfler was the cover star of the December 1987 and January 1989 issues, Collins was the cover star of the March 1990 issue). However, in later years it has tended to give these artists generally negative coverage, such as in a countdown of “40 Best Albums of the ‘80s” published in 2006, the magazine including the headline: “It was a decade filled with masterpieces. None of them by Phil Collins”.
In a 2001 interview in Classic Rock, Marillion singer Steve Hogarth criticised Q’s refusal to cover the band despite publishing some positive reviews:
I don’t understand why Q Magazine won’t write about us. The most memorable review they gave us was of Afraid of Sunlight which said, ‘If this were by anything other than Marillion it would be hailed as near genius’. And they still wouldn’t give us a feature. How can they say, this is an amazing record… no, we don’t want to talk to you? It’s hard to take when they say, here’s a very average record… we’ll put you on the front cover. Why don’t they just stop pretending that it’s all about music and admit it’s really about money? Then put the top selling five bands on the cover and tell everyone else to fuck off.
At the 2006 Q Awards, Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner criticised the magazine’s choice of boy band Take That for their “Idol” award. Commenting on the winners of the night, he said:
A lot of people make jokes about having awards for no reason just for the sake of having awards, and pretending they were good when they weren't. I'm not old enough to know a lot of them, but even I know Take That were bollocks.
Category:British music magazines Category:Bauer Group (UK) Category:Bauer Radio Category:Monthly magazines Category:Publications established in 1986
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Name | Jamie Cullum |
---|---|
Landscape | no |
Background | solo_singer |
Born | August 20, 1979Romford, Essex, England, UK |
Instrument | Vocals, piano, guitar, stomp box, drums |
Genre | Crossover jazz, power pop, blue-eyed soul |
Active | 1999-present |
Occupation | Musician, songwriter |
Label | UCJ, Candid, Decca, Verve (US), Verve Forecast (US), Deckdisc (BR) |
Url | www.jamiecullum.com |
Jamie Cullum (born 20 August 1979) is an English pop and jazz-pop singer-songwriter. Though he is primarily a vocalist/pianist he also accompanies himself on other instruments including guitar and drums. Since April 2010, he has presented a weekly jazz show on BBC Radio 2, broadcast on Tuesdays from 19:00.
His mother, Yvonne, is a secretary of Anglo-Burmese origin, whose family settled in North England after Burma's independence; his father, John Cullum, worked in finance. His paternal grandfather was a British Army officer, while his paternal grandmother was a Jewish refugee from Prussia who sang in Berlin nightclubs.
Cullum was educated at the independent Grittleton House School and the sixth form at Sheldon School, a comprehensive school. He then went on to study English Literature and Film Studies at Reading University, where he graduated with First Class Honours.
After graduating from Reading University, Cullum released his best-selling album, Pointless Nostalgic, which stirred interest from Michael Parkinson and Melvyn Bragg.
Just after Cullum made his first television appearance, on Parkinson in April 2003, he signed a £1m contract to Tom Waits and many more. Cullum has belonged to several bands, ranging from banging drums in a hip hop group to playing guitar in rock bands such as Raw Sausage and The Mystery Machine, in his teenage youth. Cullum names his elder brother, Ben Cullum, as his biggest musical influence, and the two continue to collaborate extensively.
Cullum is well known not only for his abilities on the piano, but also for his style and charisma. One of the many things that features in Cullum's concerts is the Stomp box (not to be confused with an effect pedal for guitars), made from a small wooden block. The stompbox is used to amplify a musician's tapping foot. Cullum found this in Melbourne, Australia and uses it to enhance upbeat and fast-paced songs such as "Seven Nation Army", originally by The White Stripes and "Gold Digger", originally by Kanye West. He is also often found using a looping machine. This plays a heavy part in Cullum's versions of "Seven Nation Army" and "Teardrop" by Massive Attack. Cullum is also often found beatboxing at most gigs.
As well as The White Stripes and Kanye West, Cullum has performed work by Massive Attack, Pharell, Rihanna, Pussycat Dolls, Radiohead, Gnarls Barkley, Elton John, Justin Timberlake, John Legend, Joy Division, Lady Gaga and many others. He has also performed with Kylie Minogue, Sugababes, Will.i.am and Burt Bacharach.
Cullum never works to a set list and on average his gigs last just over two hours. The gigs are largely improvised, rooted in jazz but not solely consisting of jazz music.
Cullum has played at many large music festivals, including Glastonbury Festival (in 2004 and 2009), New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (in 2005), Coachella 2005, 2006 South by Southwest, North Sea Jazz Festival, the Hollywood Bowl (performing with the Count Basie Orchestra) and the 2006 Playboy Jazz Festival. On 30 April 2006 Cullum played his biggest ever crowd on Queensday in the Netherlands.
On the album Cullum created covers of old classics with new arrangements of Warren and Burke's "Devil May Care", Thelonious Monk's "Well You Needn't" and Gershwin's "It Ain't Necessarily So".
Due to the acoustic nature of the music, producer Stewart Levine chose to record and mix Twentysomething entirely on analogue tape. Since the album was recorded almost entirely "live" with no need to correct or improve performances, Levine saw no need for the infinite amount of tracks and computerised digital recording.
The album includes jazz standards "What a Diff'rence a Day Made", "Singin' in the Rain", and Cole Porter's "I Get a Kick out of You", modern takes on My Fair Lady's "I Could Have Danced All Night", Jeff Buckley’s "Lover, You Should Have Come Over", and Jimi Hendrix's "The Wind Cries Mary", as well as new tracks written by Cullum and his brother Ben, including the first single from the album "All At Sea" and the title track "Twentysomething".
A special edition version of Catching Tales was released in Europe, featuring a 20-minute documentary, including behind the scenes footage of Jamie recording the album and on the road footage, from across Europe. Catching Tales has also been released on double vinyl, as was the first single, "Get Your Way". A limited edition version of the "Get Your Way" single was released on red vinyl.
Cullum collaborated with Pharrell Williams. They recorded various songs together and it was thought that the track titled "Wifey" would make an appearance on Catching Tales, but this was prevented by legal and contractual problems. Cullum's vocals finally featured on Pharrell's debut solo album, on a track titled "You Can Do It Too", though Cullum is not credited as a featured artist.
Cullum toured in support of Catching Tales from the end of October 2005 to December 2006.
The Pursuit was recorded in a variety of places; Jamie's kitchen, a studio in L.A. and "Terrifed Studios" (Jamie's own in Shepherd's Bush). Various musicians were also used in the recording process. Songs recorded in L.A. mostly used session musicians and sees Greg Wells and Cullum play various instrument including drums and bass. "Don't Stop The Music", the second single from the album (released as a download only in January 2010) was recorded with Chris Hill and Brad Webb.
Sam Wedgwood (guitarist, bassist and trumpeter) later joined Cullum, on tour, for a little over a year. At the end of 2005 Cullum was joined by Tom Richards (saxophonist, occasional guitarist and percussion). Soon after that Sam Wedgwood left to pursue his own solo musical career. At the beginning of 2006 Rory Simmons (trumpeter and guitarist) joined the band as a replacement, bringing the total number of band members (including Cullum himself) to five.
In late 2008 Cullum replaced Geoff Gascoyne (bass) and Sebastiaan de Krom (drums) with Chris Hill (bass) and Brad Webb (drums).
Category:1979 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of the University of Reading Category:English drummers Category:English-language singers Category:English male singers Category:English pop guitarists Category:English pop pianists Category:English pop singers Category:Jazz-pop pianists Category:Jazz-pop singers Category:People from Wiltshire Category:BBC Radio 2 presenters
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Colour | Lightgreen |
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Name | Cheryl Cole |
Birth name | Cheryl Ann Tweedy |
Background | solo_singer |
Born | June 30, 1983 |
Origin | Newcastle upon Tyne, England |
Instrument | Vocals |
Genre | Pop, R&B; |
Occupation | Singer-songwriter, dancer, model, celebrity |
Years active | 2002–present |
Label | Polydor, Fascination, will.i.am music group |
Associated acts | Girls Aloud, will.i.am,Nadine Coyle, Taio Cruz |
Url |
Rising to fame in late 2002, Cole was selected to become a member of girl group Girls Aloud on ITV's reality television programme Popstars The Rivals. With the group, Cole has marked much success by achieving twenty consecutive top ten singles (including four number ones) in the UK; five studio albums which have all been certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), two of which went to number one in the UK; and accumulating a total of five BRIT Award nominations from 2005 to 2010. Since Girls Aloud have pursued separate careers, she has released two consecutive number one albums in the UK: 3 Words and Messy Little Raindrops; scoring two number one singles in the UK ("Fight for This Love" and "Promise This").
Cole became a judge on the British televised singing competition The X Factor in 2008.
Cole has become a recognised and photographed style icon; referred to as a fashionista by the press. Her picture has been on the covers of British Vogue, and Harper's Bazaar, while also becoming the new face of cosmetic company L'Oréal.
Cole was married to England footballer Ashley Cole from July 2006 until she divorced him in September 2010.
As a small child in the late 1980s, she appeared in a television advert for British Gas.
As she was interested in dancing from an early age, Cole started sequence dancing at the age of four, before joining The Royal Ballet's summer school at the age of nine. She won many modelling competitions, including the titles of Boots Group's "bonniest baby", Mothercare's Happy Faces Portrait competition, "Best Looking Girl of Newcastle", The Evening Chronicle's "Little Miss and Mister", and "Most Attractive Girl" at the MetroCentre. She also appeared in two British Gas adverts, an SCS advert, and an Eldon Square Christmas advert with younger brother Garry as well as appearing in dance recitals on some television shows. She attended Walker Comprehensive School in Newcastle, but left at 16 with few qualifications. During her time there, she was suspended twice: once for fighting with another pupil and again for swearing on a bus. After school, she took a job as a waitress in a restaurant. Several thousand applicants attended auditions across the UK in hope of being selected. Ten girls and ten boys were chosen as finalists by judges Pete Waterman, Louis Walsh and Geri Halliwell. These finalists then took to the stage participating in weekly Saturday night live performances which alternated weekly between the girls and boys. Each week, the contestant polling the fewest phone votes was eliminated, until the final line-ups of the groups emerged. Cole joined Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts, and Kimberley Walsh to comprise the new girl group Girls Aloud, formed through the show by a public vote on 30 November 2002. Girls Aloud hold the record for the shortest time between formation and reaching number one. The group released their debut album Sound of the Underground in May 2003, which entered the charts at number two and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) later the same year. Since 2003, Girls Aloud have released twenty additional singles, with all but one charting within the top ten, and fifteen reaching top five positions. Their singles "I'll Stand by You", "Walk This Way", and "The Promise" have charted at number one. Two of their albums have reached the top of the UK Albums Chart: their greatest hits album The Sound of Girls Aloud and 2008's Out of Control, both of which entered the chart at number one, with over one million copies of the former being sold. All five of their studio albums have been certified platinum by the BPI. They have been nominated for five Brit Awards, and in 2009 won "Best British Single" at that year's Brit Awards for "The Promise". The group has sold ten million records worldwide. Girls Aloud have become one of the few UK reality television acts to achieve continued success, and had amassed a fortune of £25 million by May 2009. The 2007 edition of Guinness World Records listed them as "Most Successful Reality TV Group", while they also hold the record for "Most Consecutive Top Ten Entries in the UK by a Female Group" in the 2008 edition.
In July 2009, Girls Aloud announced they would take a year-long hiatus in the pursuit of solo projects, but would reunite for a new studio album in 2010. In August 2010, bandmate Nicola Roberts revealed that she wasn't anticipating a reunion of the band until 2012.
As a member of Girls Aloud, Cole has also appeared in the fly on the wall documentary , the E4 documentary series , an episode of Ghosthunting With..., and a one-off variety show entitled The Girls Aloud Party.
on The X Factor]] In June 2008, it was announced Cole would replace Sharon Osbourne as a judge for the fifth series of The X Factor. Cole was given the girls category (made up of female contestants between 16 and 25) and subsequently ended up as the victorious judge when Alexandra Burke was crowned the fifth winner of The X Factor on 13 December 2008. Cole returned for the sixth series in 2009 and was given the boys category (made up of male contestants aged 16 to 25). Cole emerged as the winning judge for a second consecutive year after Joe McElderry was crowned the sixth winner of The X Factor. Simon Cowell, the show's creator, said, "I knew she was going to be good because she speaks like normal people speak. People can relate to that. And I think that is the best sign of a judge." Cowell has referred to Cole as "one of the best I've ever worked with." She returned for a further series in 2010 to mentor the girls category (made of female contestants aged 16 to 28).
In April 2009, Cole started working on solo material. Her debut album, 3 Words, was released in the UK on 26 October 2009. Cole was reunited with will.i.am for the album, in addition to collaborating with Fraser T. Smith, Syience, Danish production team Soulshock & Karlin, singer-songwriter Taio Cruz, Wayne Wilkins, and Steve Kipner. Recorded in Los Angeles and London, Cole mainly collaborated with will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, the executive producer of 3 Words. It crosses from contemporary R&B;, dance pop, house and a more general pop sound.
3 Words spent two weeks at number one. On 6 November 2009, BPI certified the album Platinum, denoting shipments of over 300,000 units. It later tripled this feat. Following a performance on The X Factor live results show, "Fight for This Love" became the fourth best-selling single of 2009 in the UK. It charted at number one on both the Irish and UK Singles Chart. In 2010, "Fight For This Love" went to number one in Denmark, Norway and Hungary. The single was later certified platinum in the UK. Cole's second single "3 Words", which features will.i.am, went to number 4 in the UK and seven in Ireland. In 2010, the single was released in Australia and charted at number 5 and was certified platinum. The third single, "Parachute", charted in the top five in both the UK and Ireland. The single was certified silver in the UK. Chris Johnson of the Daily Mail wrote, "she was supposed to be the support act. But as it turned out, Cheryl Cole ended up being the main event".
Cole's first official book, entitled Through My Eyes, was published on 30 September 2010 by Bantam Press. The book is described as "a series of stunning exclusive new photos plus informal shots from her own personal collection ... a revealing and intimate portrait of the world of Cheryl Cole". Through My Eyes offers a glimpse of Cole in the recording studio, backstage on tour, behind-the-scenes at The X Factor, at photo shoots and at award ceremonies. She said the book is "filled with pictures that capture those moments, [her] memories and the people [she's] closest to". Cole is the subject of several unauthorised biographies, as well as books detailing her relationship with and divorce from Ashley Cole.
Cole was referenced in Lily Allen's "Cheryl Tweedy", a b-side to her 2006 debut single "Smile". Cole took the song as a compliment to her, although Allen later pointed out that it had been tongue-in-cheek. Allen has since retracted her comments.
In 2009, Cole announced her support for the Labour Party in 2010's general election, referring to the Tory leader David Cameron as "slippery". She went on to say, "we've always been Labour in our family, it just feels wrong not to be".
On 3 July 2010, Cole was admitted to hospital with suspected acute malaria. This was shortly after a visit to Tanzania, where it is believed she may have contracted the disease. During an X Factor photoshoot in Cardiff, Cole has said that she noticed her lips were blue and has said "I thought, 'You're getting the flu'. Not for one second did malaria cross my mind." She has said that during the auditions she asked to lie down and this was when she collapsed, was rushed to hospital and diagnosed with malaria. and she was forced to miss the rest of the auditions as well as bootcamp. Cole returned for the 'judges houses' stage of the show but had to film this at a country house in Berkshire as she was still too ill to travel.
Category:1983 births Category:Living people Category:2000s singers Category:2010s singers Category:British people convicted of assault Category:English female singers Category:English television personalities Category:Fascination Records artists Category:Footballers' Wives and Girlfriends Category:Girls Aloud members Category:Music from Newcastle upon Tyne Category:People from Newcastle upon Tyne Category:Reality show winners Category:Reality television judges Category:The X Factor judges Category:The X Factor (UK)
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Birthname | Shannon Bruce Snaith |
---|---|
Birthdate | June 10, 1978 |
Birthplace | Baton Rouge, Louisiana |
Othername | Shannon Snaith |
Occupation | Actor, musician, songwriter |
West won the Young Hollywood Award Male Superstar of Tomorrow in 2002. West also won a Teen Choice Award for Choice Chemistry with Mandy Moore for the film A Walk to Remember.
Category:1978 births Category:Actors from California Category:American film actors Category:American punk rock singers Category:American television actors Category:The Germs members Category:Living people Category:People from Baton Rouge, Louisiana Category:Cajun people
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Name | Peter Gabriel |
---|---|
Background | solo_singer |
Birth name | Peter Brian Gabriel |
Born | February 13, 1950 |
Origin | Chobham, Surrey, England |
Instrument | Vocals, keyboards, flute, drums, piano, guitar, bass guitar, harmonica, oboe |
Genre | Progressive rock, experimental rock, pop rock, art rock, world music | |
Occupation | Musician, record producer |
Voice type | Baritone |
Years active | 1967–present |
Label | Geffen (US & Canada)Real WorldVirginCharismaAtlantic (US & Canada)EMI (Brazil) |
Associated acts | Genesis |
Url | petergabriel.com |
Gabriel was influenced by many different sources in his way of singing, such as Family lead singer Roger Chapman. In 1970, he played the flute on Cat Stevens' album, Mona Bone Jakon.
Genesis drew some attention in England and eventually also in Italy, Belgium, Germany and other European countries, largely due to Gabriel's flamboyant stage presence, which involved numerous bizarre costume changes and comical, dreamlike stories told as the introduction to each song (originally Gabriel developed these stories solely to cover the time between songs that the rest of the band would take tuning their instruments and fixing technical glitches). The concerts made extensive use of black light with the normal stage lighting subdued or off. A backdrop of fluorescent white sheets and a comparatively sparse stage made the band into a set of silhouettes, with Gabriel's fluorescent costume and make-up providing the only other sources of light.
In an Australian-aired television documentary (The Seven Ages of Rock), Steve Hackett recalled the first appearance of Gabriel 'in costume'. It was the dress-wearing, fox-headed entity immortalised on the cover of Foxtrot. Hackett and the rest of the band had no inkling that Gabriel was going to do this, and at the time Hackett worried that it would ruin the performance. However, it was a success, encouraging Gabriel to continue wearing costumes while singing.
Among Gabriel's many famous costumes, which he developed to visualise the musical ideas of the band as well as to gain press coverage, were "Batwings" for the band's usual opening number, "Watcher of the Skies".
Other costumes included "The Flower" and "Magog", which were both alternately worn for "Supper's Ready" from the album Foxtrot.
"Britannia" was worn for "Dancing with the Moonlit Knight", and "The Reverend" was worn for "The Battle of Epping Forest" from Selling England by the Pound.
"The Old Man" was worn for "The Musical Box" from Nursery Cryme.
"The Slipperman" and "Rael" were worn during "The Colony of Slippermen", in which "Rael" was the protagonist of the album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
Genesis's backing vocals during Gabriel's tenure in the band were usually handled by bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford, keyboardist/guitarist Tony Banks, and (most prominently) drummer Phil Collins, who—after a long search for a replacement—eventually became Genesis's lead singer, after Gabriel had left the band in 1975.
Tensions were heightened by the ambitious album and tour of the concept work The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, a Gabriel-created concept piece which saw him taking on the lion's share of the lyric writing. During the writing and recording of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Gabriel was approached by director William Friedkin, allegedly because Friedkin had found Gabriel's short story in the liner notes to Genesis Live interesting. Gabriel's interest in a film project with Friedkin was another contributing factor in his decision to leave Genesis. The decision to quit the band was made before the tour supporting The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, but Gabriel stayed with the band until the conclusion of that tour. Although tensions were high, both Gabriel and the remaining members of Genesis have stated publicly that Gabriel left the band on good terms, supported by the fact that he officially left eight months after telling the band it was time for him to move on.
The breaking point came with the difficult pregnancy of Gabriel's wife, Jill, and the subsequent birth of their first child, Anna. When he opted to stay with his sick daughter and wife, rather than record and tour, the resentment from the rest of the band led Gabriel to conclude that he had to leave the group. "Solsbury Hill", Gabriel's début single as a solo artist, was written specifically about his departure from Genesis. The song also charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1978, reaching the Top 70, though it was recorded in 1976, and appeared on the 'Car' album in 1977. In 1982, Gabriel reunited with his former Genesis colleagues for the one-off concert, Six of the Best.
After acquiescing to distinctive titles, Gabriel used a series of 2-letter words to title his next three albums: So, Us, and Up. His most recent greatest hits compilation is titled Hit; within the two-CD package, disc one is labelled "Hit" and disc two is labelled "Miss".
Gabriel recorded his first self-titled solo album in 1976 and 1977 with producer Bob Ezrin. His first solo success came with the single "Solsbury Hill", an autobiographical piece expressing his thoughts on leaving Genesis. Although mainly happy with the music, Gabriel felt that the album, and especially the track "Here Comes the Flood" was over-produced. Sparser versions can be heard on Robert Fripp's Exposure, and on Gabriel's greatest hits compilation Shaking the Tree (1990).
Gabriel worked with guitarist Fripp as producer of his second solo LP, in 1978. This album was leaner, darker and more experimental, and yielded decent reviews, but no major hits.
Gabriel developed a new interest in world music (especially percussion), and for bold production, which made extensive use of recording tricks and sound effects. Gabriel's interest in music technology is considered by many people to be the spark of his success as it inspired his third album. The third album is often credited as the first LP to use the now-famous "gated drum" sound. Collins played drums on several tracks, including the opener, "Intruder", which featured the reverse-gated, cymbal-less drum kit sound which Collins would also use on his single "In the Air Tonight" and through the rest of the 1980s. Gabriel had requested that his drummers use no cymbals in the album's sessions, and when he heard the result he asked Collins to play a simple pattern for several minutes, then built "Intruder" around it. The album achieved some chart success with the songs "Games Without Frontiers" (#4 U.K, #48 U.S.), "I Don't Remember", and "Biko".
Arduous and occasionally damp recording sessions at his rural English estate in 1981 and 1982, with co-producer/engineer David Lord, resulted in Gabriel's fourth LP release, on which Gabriel took more production responsibility. It was one of the first commercial albums recorded entirely to digital tape (using a Sony mobile truck), and featured the early, extremely expensive, Fairlight CMI sampling computer, which had already made its first brief appearances on the previous album. Gabriel combined a variety of sampled and deconstructed sounds with world-beat percussion and other unusual instrumentation to create a radically new, emotionally charged soundscape. Furthermore, the sleeve art consisted of inscrutable, video-based imagery. Despite the album's peculiar sound, odd appearance, and often disturbing themes, it sold very well. This album featured his first Top 40 hit in the U.S., "Shock the Monkey", as well as the song "I Have the Touch". The music video for "Shock the Monkey", which featured Gabriel in white face paint and a caged macaque, held the #1 spot on "MTV" for 9 weeks. Geffen records forced Peter to give his fourth self-titled album a name in the US - Security - to mark his arrival on the label and to differentiate his fourth album from the other three.
Alternate versions of Gabriel's third and fourth albums were also released with German lyrics. Peter Gabriel 3 consisted of basically the same recording overdubbed with new vocals, while Security was also remixed and several tracks were extended or altered in slight ways.
Gabriel toured extensively for each of his albums. Initially, he pointedly eschewed the theatrics that had defined his tenure with Genesis. For his second solo tour, his entire band shaved their heads. By the time of Security he began involving elaborate stage props and acrobatics which had him suspended from gantries, distorting his face with Fresnel lenses and mirrors, and wearing unusual make-up. His 1982–83 tour included a section opening for David Bowie. Recordings of this tour were released as the double LP Plays Live.
The stage was set for Gabriel's critical and commercial breakout with his next studio release, which was in production for almost three years. During the recording and production of the album he also found time to develop the film soundtrack for Alan Parker's 1984 feature Birdy, which consisted of new material as well as remixed instrumental tracks from his previous studio album.
Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer", which dealt specifically with the themes of sex and sexual relations, was accompanied by a much-lauded music video, which was a collaboration with director Stephen R. Johnson, Aardman Animations, and the Brothers Quay. The video won numerous awards at the 1987 MTV Music Video Awards, and set a new standard for art in the music video industry. A follow-up video for the song "Big Time" also broke new ground in music video animation and special effects. The song is a story of "what happens to you when you become a little too successful", in Gabriel's words. The success of the album earned Peter Gabriel two awards at The Brit Awards in 1987: Best British Male Solo Artist and Best British Video for "Sledgehammer".
Gabriel played a prominent role in supporting Amnesty International at this time, appearing on the 1986 U.S. A Conspiracy of Hope tour and on the 1988 worldwide Human Rights Now! tour.
In 1989, Gabriel released , the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese's movie The Last Temptation of Christ. For this work he received his first Grammy Award, in the category of Best New Age Performance. He also received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score - Motion Picture.
Following this, Gabriel released Us in 1992 (also co-produced with Daniel Lanois), an album in which he explored the pain of recent personal problems; his failed first marriage, and the growing distance between him and his first daughter.
Gabriel's introspection within the context of the album Us can be seen in the first single release "Digging in the Dirt" directed by John Downer. Accompanied by a disturbing video featuring Gabriel covered in snails and various foliage, this song made reference to the psychotherapy which had taken up much of Gabriel's time since the previous album. Gabriel describes his struggle to get through to his daughter in "Come Talk To Me" directed by Matt Mahurin, which featured backing vocals by Sinéad O'Connor. O'Connor also lent vocals to "Blood of Eden", directed by Nichola Bruce and Michael Coulson, the third single to be released from the album, and once again dealing with relationship struggles, this time going right back to Adam's rib for inspiration. The result was one of Gabriel's most personal albums. It met with less success than So, reaching #2 in the album chart on both sides of the Atlantic, and making modest chart impact with the singles "Digging in the Dirt" and the funkier "Steam", which evoked memories of "Sledgehammer". Gabriel followed the release of the album with a world tour (with Paula Cole or Joy Askew filling O'Connor's vocal role) and accompanying double CD and DVD Secret World Live in 1994.
Gabriel employed an innovative approach in the marketing of the Us album. Not wishing to feature only images of himself, he asked artist filmmakers Nichola Bruce and Michael Coulson to coordinate a marketing campaign using contemporary artists. Artists such as Helen Chadwick, Rebecca Horn, Nils Udo, Andy Goldsworthy, David Mach and Yayoi Kusama collaborated to create original artworks for each of the 11 songs on the multi-million-selling CD. Coulson and Bruce documented the process on Hi-8 video. Bruce left Real World and Coulson continued with the campaign, using the documentary background material as the basis for a promotional EPK, the long-form video All About Us and the interactive CD-ROM Xplora1.
Gabriel won three more Grammy Awards, all in the Music Video category. He won the Grammy Award for Best Short Form Music Video in 1993 and 1994 for the videos to "Digging in the Dirt" and "Steam" respectively. Gabriel also won the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video for his Secret World Live video.
In September 2002, Gabriel released Up, his first full-length studio album in a decade. Entirely self-produced, Up returned to some of the themes of his work in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Three singles failed to make an impression on the charts—in part because almost every track exceeded six minutes in length, with multiple sections—but the album sold well globally, as Gabriel continued to draw from a loyal fan base from his almost forty years in the music business. Up was followed by a world tour featuring his daughter Melanie Gabriel on backing vocals, and two concert DVDs, Growing Up Live (2003) and (2004).
In 2008, Gabriel contributed to the WALL-E soundtrack with several new songs with Thomas Newman, including the film's closing song, "Down to Earth", for which they received the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. The song was also nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Original Song - Motion Picture and the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
In 2010, Gabriel released Scratch My Back. The album is made up entirely of cover songs including material written by David Bowie, Lou Reed, The Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Regina Spektor, Neil Young, and more. The concept for the record is that Gabriel covers songs by various artists and those artists in turn will cover Gabriel songs to be released on a future follow-up album called I'll Scratch Yours. Scratch My Back features only orchestral instrumentation; there are no guitars, drums, or electronic elements that are usual attributes of Gabriel records. A very brief tour followed the album's release where Gabriel performed with a full orchestra and two female backup singers, his daughter Melanie Gabriel and Norwegian singer-songwriter Ane Brun.
Over the years, Gabriel has collaborated with singer Kate Bush several times; Bush provided backing vocals for Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers" and "No Self Control" in 1980, and female lead vocal for "Don't Give Up" (a Top 10 hit in the UK) in 1986, and Gabriel appeared on her television special. Their duet of Roy Harper's "Another Day" was discussed for release as a single, but never appeared.
He also collaborated with Laurie Anderson on two versions of her composition "Excellent Birds" – one for her 1984 album Mister Heartbreak, and a slightly different version called "This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)", which appeared on cassette and CD versions of So. In 1987, when presenting Gabriel with an award for his music videos, Anderson related an occasion in which a recording session had gone late into the night and Gabriel's voice had begun to sound somewhat strange, almost dreamlike. It was discovered that he had fallen asleep in front of the microphone, but had continued to sing.
Gabriel sang (along with Jim Kerr of Simple Minds) on "Everywhere I Go," from The Call's 1986 release, Reconciled. On Toni Childs' 1994 CD, The Woman's Boat, Gabriel sang on the track, "I Met a Man."
In 1998 Gabriel appeared on the soundtrack of , not as a composer, but as the singer of the song "That'll Do," written by Randy Newman. The song was nominated for an Academy Award, and Gabriel and Newman performed it at the following year's Oscar telecast. Many who saw him on that broadcast did not recognise him, as his hair had greyed and thinned since his most recent tour several years earlier. He performed a similar soundtrack appearance for the 2004 film Shall We Dance?, singing a cover version of "The Book of Love" by The Magnetic Fields. This cover version was recently used in the series finale of ABC's Scrubs.
Gabriel has also appeared on Robbie Robertson's self-titled album, singing on "Fallen Angel"; co-written two Tom Robinson singles; and appeared on Joni Mitchell's 1988 album Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm, on the track "My Secret Place."
In 2001 Gabriel contributed lead vocals to the song "When You're Falling" on Afro Celt Sound System's . In the summer of 2003, Gabriel performed in Ohio with a guest performance by Uzbek singer Sevara Nazarkhan.
Gabriel collaborated on tracks with electronic musician BT. The tracks were never released, as the computers they were contained on were stolen from BT's home in California. He also sang the lyrics for Deep Forest on their theme song for the movie Strange Days. In addition, Gabriel has appeared on Angelique Kidjo's 2007 album Djin Djin, singing on the song "Salala."
Gabriel has recorded a cover of the Vampire Weekend single "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" with Hot Chip, where his name is mentioned several times in the chorus. He substitutes the original line "But this feels so unnatural / Peter Gabriel too / This feels so unnatural/ Peter Gabriel too" with "It feels so unnatural / Peter Gabriel too / and it feels so unnatural / to sing your own name."
In the 1990s, with Steve Nelson of Brilliant Media and director Michael Coulson, he developed advanced multimedia CD-ROM-based entertainment projects, creating the acclaimed Xplora (the world's largest selling music CD-ROM), and subsequently the EVE CD-ROM. EVE was a music and art adventure game directed by Michael Coulson and co-produced by the Starwave Corporation in Seattle; it won the prestigious Milia d'Or award Grand Prize at the Cannes in 1996 and featured themes and interactivity well in advance of its time. Xplora and EVE can no longer be played on modern PCs, due to changes to their operating systems.
In 1994, Gabriel starred in the Breck Eisner short film "Recon" as a detective who enters the minds of murder victims to find their killer's identity.
Gabriel helped pioneer a new realm of musical interaction in 2001, visiting Georgia State University's Language Research Center to participate in keyboard jam sessions with bonobo apes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (This experience inspired the song "Animal Nation," which was performed on Gabriel's 2002 "Growing Up" tour and was featured on the Growing Up Live DVD and The Wild Thornberrys Movie soundtrack.) Gabriel's desire to bring attention to the intelligence of primates also took the form of ApeNet, a project that aimed to link great apes through the internet, enabling the first interspecies internet communication.
He was one of the founders of On Demand Distribution (OD2), one of the first online music download services. Its technology is used by MSN Music UK and others, and has become the dominant music download technology platform for stores in Europe. OD2 was bought by US company Loudeye in June 2004 and subsequently by Finnish mobile giant Nokia in October 2006 for $60 million.
Additionally, Gabriel is also co-founder (with Brian Eno) of a musicians union called Mudda, short for "magnificent union of digitally downloading artists."
In 2003, Gabriel's song "Burn You Up, Burn You Down" was featured in Cyan Worlds' video game . In 2004, Gabriel contributed another song ("Curtains") and contributed voice work on another game in the Myst franchise, .
During the latter part of 2004, Gabriel spent time in a village in eastern Nepal with musician Ram Sharan Nepali, learning esoteric vocal techniques. Gabriel subsequently invited Nepali to attend and perform at the Womad festival in Adelaide, Australia.
In June 2005, Gabriel and broadcast industry entrepreneur David Engelke purchased Solid State Logic, a leading manufacturer of mixing consoles and digital audio workstations. SSL is among the top 2 or 3 recording console manufacturers in the world of recording.
In May 2008, Gabriel's Real World Studios, in partnership with Bowers & Wilkins, started the Bowers & Wilkins Music Club - now known as Society of Sound - a subscription-based music retail site. Albums are currently available in either Apple Lossless or Flac format.
In 1995 he was one of the two winners of the North-South Prize in its inaugural year.
In the late 1990s, Gabriel and entrepreneur Richard Branson discussed with Nelson Mandela their idea of a small, dedicated group of leaders, working objectively and without any vested personal interest to solve difficult global conflicts.
On 18 July 2007, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nelson Mandela announced the formation of a new group, Global Elders, in a speech he delivered on the occasion of his 89th birthday. The present members of this group are Desmond Tutu, Graça Machel, Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt, Lakhdar Brahimi, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Jimmy Carter, Mary Robinson, Muhammad Yunus, and Aung San Suu Kyi (with an empty chair for her).
The Elders will be independently funded by a group of "Founders", including Branson and Gabriel.
Desmond Tutu serves as the chair of The Elders, who will use their collective skills to catalyse peaceful resolutions to long-standing conflicts, articulate new approaches to global issues that are causing or may later cause immense human suffering, and share wisdom by helping to connect voices all over the world. They will work together over the next several months to consider carefully which specific issues they will confront.
In November 2007 Gabriel launched The Hub http://hub.witness.org/ a 'YouTube' for human rights.
In September 2008 Gabriel was named as the recipient of Amnesty International’s 2008 Ambassador of Conscience Award. In the same month, he received Quadriga United we Care award of Werkstatt Deutschland along with Boris Tadić, Eckart Höfling and Wikipedia. The award was presented to him by Queen Silvia of Sweden.
Gabriel lent his support to the campaign to release Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of committing adultery.
This is a fundamental issue of life and death and I very much think the Prime Minister is in the wrong. I'm also sure George W. Bush is an affable bloke but he's highly dangerous and I wish America was in the hands of someone else. To put oil interests ahead of human life is appalling. War is always terrible but unjustified war is obscene and on present evidence that is what we are facing. People want peace and I think it's great that the Mirror is leading this campaign. I think the consequences of this war would be the biggest threat to world peace in my lifetime. Blair has got to get it right. To take action without UN backing would be inviting disaster by setting the Muslim world against the West. If we are taking a moral position why did we arm Iraq when they were killing the Kurds? If it's because of weapons of mass destruction why isn't North Korea higher on the list? Not that I'd support action there. And if it's a principle of what Iraq has done to its own people why do we bend over for China? I'm sure Bush believes he is removing a scourge but he has never done one thing in office against the interests of the oil lobby who paid for a large part of the election. I don't actually believe Tony Blair is focused on oil but if he knows more than we do I wish he would tell us because there's no justification so far for taking life. War with Iraq would be an aggressive, uncalled for action. It's good the Prime Minister is prepared to stick to his principles, going against public opinion, because you elect leaders in part for their conscience. I just think it's terrible that on this of all issues he is making a stand which separates him from the nation. I think Tony Blair is following his conscience but I believe he is misguided. It could cost him the next election and I think he's aware of that. I'd personally be sad if they lost because Labour has done a lot for health and education, but an unjust war would be enough to lose my vote. I'd like to see a reinforced UN weapons inspection team in Iraq and disarmament much more in line with the French and German proposals. There is a slogan which says: 'Peace is what happens when you respect the rights of others'. Iraqis have rights too.
In 2005, Gabriel gave a Green Party of England and Wales general election candidate special permission to record a cover of his song "Don't Give Up" for his campaign.
Anna-Marie is a filmmaker and Melanie is a musician. Anna-Marie filmed and directed the Growing Up On Tour: A Family Portrait and DVDs. Melanie has been a backing vocalist in her father's band since 2002.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Gabriel lived with actress Rosanna Arquette but they never married.
Gabriel also has two sons—Isaac Ralph (born 27 September 2001) and Luc (born 5 July 2008) — with Meabh Flynn. Gabriel and Flynn have been married since 9 June 2002.
Gabriel has resided for many years in the county of Wiltshire in England, where he also runs his Real World Studios. He previously lived in the Woolley Valley near Bath, Somerset. In 2010 he joined a campaign to stop an agricultural development at the valley, which had also inspired his first solo single "Solsbury Hill" in 1977.
A double DVD set, , was released in October 2005.
FIFA asked Gabriel and Brian Eno to organise an opening ceremony for the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals in Germany, planned to take place a couple of days before the start of the tournament. Gabriel had recently become a fan of the game and 2005 champions league winners Liverpool, and worked on songs for the show in Berlin's Olympic Stadium; however, the show was cancelled in January 2006 by FIFA after going over budget with an apparent lack of interest in the project. The official explanation was potential damage to the pitch.Rumours of a possible reunion of the original Genesis line-up began circulating in 2004 after Phil Collins stated in an interview that he was open to the idea of sitting back behind the drums and "let Peter be the singer." The classic line-up has only reformed for a live performance once before, in 1982. However, the group did work together to create a new version of the 1974 song "The Carpet Crawlers", ultimately released on the album as "The Carpet Crawlers 1999". Gabriel later met with other Genesis band members, to discuss a possible reunion tour of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. He chose to opt out of a reunion tour, and his former bandmates, Collins, Banks, and Rutherford chose to tour as Genesis without him.
At the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, Gabriel performed John Lennon's "Imagine" during the opening of the festivities on 10 February 2006.
In October 2006, Gabriel was given the first Pioneer Award at the BT Digital Music Awards, an award presented in recognition of his "profound and lasting influence on the development of digital music".
In November 2006, the Seventh World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Rome presented Gabriel with the Man of Peace award. The award, presented by former President of the USSR and Nobel Peace Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev and Walter Veltroni, Mayor of Rome, was an acknowledgement of Gabriel's extensive contribution and work on behalf of human rights and peace. The award was presented in the Giulio Cesare Hall of the Campidoglio in Rome. At the end of the year, he was awarded the Q Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award, presented to him by American musician Moby. In an interview published in the magazine to accompany the award, Gabriel's contribution to music was described as "vast and enduring".
Gabriel took on a project with the BBC World Service's competition "The Next Big Thing" to find the world's best young band. Gabriel is judging the final six young artists with William Orbit, Geoff Travis and Angelique Kidjo.
The Times reported on 21 January 2007, that Peter Gabriel had announced that he planned to release his next album in the U.S. without the aid of a record company. Gabriel, an early pioneer of digital music distribution, had raised £2 million towards recording and 'shipping' his next album, Big Blue Ball in a venture with investment boutique Ingenious Media. Gabriel is expected to earn double the money that he would through a conventional record deal. Commercial director Duncan Reid of Ingenious explains the business savvy of the deal, saying, "If you're paying a small distribution fee and covering your own marketing costs, you enjoy the lion's share of the proceeds of the album. Gabriel is expected to outsource CD production for worldwide release through Warner Bros. Records. The new album deal covers the North America territory, where Gabriel is currently out of contract.
The album Big Blue Ball was launched in America thanks to a venture capital trust initiative. Bosses at London-based firm Ingenious raised more than $4 million (GBP 2 million) to help promote the release in the United States. The venture capitalists, Gabriel and his Real World Limited partners, have created a new joint venture company, High Level Recordings Limited, to oversee the release of the album, which took place in 2008. Gabriel appeared on a nationwide tour for the album in 2009.
On 24 May 2007, he was honoured with the Ivor Novello Award for lifetime achievement.
Gabriel was a judge for the 6th and 8th annual Independent Music Awards to support independent artists.
He also appears in Strange Powers, the 2009 documentary by Kitty Fix and Gail O'Hara about Stephin Merritt and his band, the Magnetic Fields.
In February 2009, Gabriel announced that he would not be performing on the Academy Awards telecast because producers of the show were limiting his performance of "Down to Earth" from WALL-E to 65 seconds.
Gabriel's 2009 tour of Mexico and South America included visiting Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Venezuela. His first ever performance in Peru was held in Lima on 20 March 2009, during his second visit to the country. His concert in Mexico City, on 27 March 2009, attracted more than 38,000 fans.
On 25 July 2009, he played at WOMAD Charlton Park, his only European performance of the year, to promote Witness. The show included two tracks from the forthcoming "Scratch My Back" album; Paul Simon's 'The Boy in the Bubble' and The Magnetic Fields' 'The Book of Love'.
Category:1950 births Category:Living people Category:Charisma Records artists Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:BRIT Award winners Category:English film score composers Category:English male singers Category:English rock keyboardists Category:English rock singers Category:English singer-songwriters Category:Genesis (band) members Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:International activists against apartheid in South Africa Category:Old Carthusians Category:People from Chobham * Category:Real World artists Category:Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Playername | Liam Watts |
---|---|
Fullname | Liam Watts |
Position | |
Dateofbirth | July 08, 1990 |
Placeofbirth | Castleford, Yorkshire, England |
Countryofbirth | England |
Currentclub | Hull Kingston Rovers |
Clubnumber | 22 |
Club1 | Hull Kingston Rovers |
Year1start | 2008 |
Year1end | present |
Appearances1 | 33 |
Tries1 | 4 |
Goals1 | 0 |
Fieldgoals1 | 0 |
Points1 | 16 |
Liam Watts born 8 July 1990 in Castleford, West Yorkshire, England is a rugby league player for Hull Kingston Rovers in the European Super League. He plays as a prop.
Category:1990 births Category:Living people Category:English rugby league players Category:Hull Kingston Rovers players Category:People from Castleford
This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
Name | Kate Bush |
---|---|
Background | solo_singer |
Birth name | Catherine Bush |
Born | July 30, 1958Bexleyheath, Kent, England |
Instrument | Vocals, piano, keyboards, bass guitar, guitar, violin |
Voice type | Soprano (early career), Mezzo-soprano (later career) |
Genre | Art rock, is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years. Bush was signed by EMI at the age of 16 after being recommended by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour. In 1978, at age 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights", becoming the first woman to have a UK number-one with a self-written song. She was also the most photographed woman in the United Kingdom that year. |
September 1982 saw the release of The Dreaming, the first album Bush produced by herself. It was also a major departure for Bush, being initially composed on rhythm machine rather than piano, with songs extensively revised and rebuilt in the studio, rather than merely arranged there. With her new-found freedom, she experimented with production techniques, creating an album that features a diverse blend of musical styles and is known for its near-exhaustive use of the Fairlight CMI. The Dreaming received a mixed critical reception in the UK at first. Many were baffled by the dense soundscapes Bush had created, and some critics accused the album of being over-produced. In a 1993 interview with Q, Bush stated: "That was my 'She's gone mad' album." The album's title track, featuring the talents of Rolf Harris and Percy Edwards, stalled at number 48, while the third single, "There Goes a Tenner", failed to chart, despite promotion from EMI and Bush. The track "Suspended in Gaffa" was released as a single in Europe, but not in the UK.
Bush was in her early twenties when making the album and tended to look outside her own personal experience for sources of inspiration. She drew on old crime films for "There Goes A Tenner", a documentary about the war in Vietnam for "Pull Out The Pin", and the plight of Indigenous Australians for "The Dreaming". "Houdini" is about the magician's death, and "Get Out Of My House" was inspired by Stanley Kubrick's film of Stephen King's novel The Shining.
The album takes advantage of the vinyl format with two very different sides. The first side, Hounds of Love, contains five "accessible" pop songs, including the four singles "Running Up That Hill", "Cloudbusting", "Hounds of Love", and "The Big Sky". In August 1985, NME featured Bush in a "Where Are They Now" article. "Running Up That Hill" reached number 3 in the UK charts and also re-introduced Bush to American listeners, climbing to number 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 in November 1985. The second side of the album, The Ninth Wave, takes its name from Tennyson's poem, "Idylls of the King", about the legendary King Arthur's reign, and is one continuous piece of music. The album earned Bush nominations for Best Female Solo Artist, Best Album, Best Single, and Best Producer at the 1986 BRIT Awards. In the same year, Bush and Peter Gabriel had a UK top ten hit with "Don't Give Up", and EMI released her "greatest hits" album, The Whole Story, for which she recorded the single "Experiment IV" and provided new vocals and a refreshed backing track to "Wuthering Heights". Bush won the award for Best Female Solo Artist at the 1987 BRIT Awards.
The Sensual World went on to become her biggest-selling album in the US, receiving an RIAA Gold certification four years after its release for 500,000 copies sold. In the United Kingdom album charts, it reached the number two position.
In 1990, the boxed-set This Woman's Work was released and included all of her albums with their original cover art, as well as two discs of all single B sides recorded from 1978-1990. In 1991, Bush released a cover of Elton John's "Rocket Man", which reached number 12 in the UK singles chart and in 2007, was voted the greatest cover ever by readers of The Observer newspaper. She recorded "Candle in the Wind," as the single's b-side. 1990 also saw the one song Kate produced for another artist, Alan Stivell's "Kimiad," on his album "Again."
The Red Shoes was released in November 1993. The Red Shoes features more high-profile cameo appearances than Bush's previous efforts, including contributions from composer and conductor Michael Kamen, comedian Lenny Henry, Prince, Eric Clapton, Gary Brooker of Procol Harum, Trevor Whittaker, and Jeff Beck also donated their talents to the recording. The album gave Bush her highest chart position in the US, reaching number 28, although the only song from the album to make the US singles chart was "Rubberband Girl", which peaked at number 88 in January 1994. In the UK, the album reached number two, and the singles "Rubberband Girl", "The Red Shoes", "Moments Of Pleasure" and "And So Is Love" all reached the top 30. That same year, the film The Line, the Cross & the Curve, written and directed by Bush, and starring Bush and English actress Miranda Richardson, used six of the songs on the album.
The initial plan had been to take the songs out on the road (though a new tour did not transpire), and so Bush deliberately aimed for a live-band feel, with less of the studio trickery that had typified her last three albums and that would be difficult to recreate on stage. The result alienated some of her fan base, who enjoyed the intricacy of her earlier compositions, but others found a new complexity in the lyrics and the emotions they expressed.
This was a troubled time for Bush. She had suffered a series of bereavements, including the loss of her favoured guitarist Alan Murphy, and her mother Hannah. The press often viewed her as an eccentric recluse, sometimes drawing a comparison with Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens's Great Expectations. In reality, she was trying to give her young son a normal childhood, and needed a quiet place for her creative process to function. After living for many years on Court Road, Eltham, southeast London, the couple and their son currently have two homes: a £2.5 million house in East Portlemouth on the Devon coastBush's eighth studio album, Aerial, was released on double CD and vinyl in November 2005.
As on Hounds of Love (1985), the album is divided into two sections, each with its own theme and mood. The second disc, subtitled A Sky of Honey, features thematically related songs linked by the presence of bird song. The album's cover art, which seems to show a mountain range at sunset over a sea, is in fact a waveform that represents birdsong. All the pieces in this suite refer or allude to air or sky in their lyrical content. A Sky of Honey features Rolf Harris playing the didgeridoo on one track, and providing vocals on the track "The Painter's Link". Other artists making guest appearances on the album include Peter Erskine, Eberhard Weber, Lol Creme, and Gary Brooker. Two tracks feature string arrangements by Michael Kamen, performed by the London Metropolitan Orchestra. A CD release of the single "King of the Mountain" included a cover of "Sexual Healing" by Marvin Gaye.
"King of the Mountain" entered the UK Downloads Chart at number six on 17 October 2005, and by 30 October it had become Bush's third-highest-charting single ever in the UK, peaking at number four on the full chart. Aerial entered the UK albums chart at number 3, and the US chart at number 48. Bush herself carried out relatively little publicity for the album, only conducting a handful of magazine and radio interviews. Aerial earned Bush two nominations at the 2006 BRIT Awards, for Best British Female Solo Artist and Best British Album.
In late 2007, Bush composed and recorded a new song, "Lyra", for the soundtrack to the fantasy film The Golden Compass.
Bush is not afraid to tackle sensitive and taboo subjects. "The Kick Inside" is based on a traditional English folk song (The Ballad of Lucy Wan) about an incestuous pregnancy and a resulting suicide; "Kashka from Baghdad" is a song about a homosexual male couple; Out magazine listed two of her albums in their Top 100 Greatest Gayest albums list. "The Infant Kiss" is a song about a haunted, unstable woman's almost paedophile infatuation with a young boy in her care (inspired by Jack Clayton's film The Innocents (1961), which had been based on Henry James's famous novella The Turn of the Screw); and "Breathing" explores the results of nuclear fallout from the perspective of an unborn child in the womb. Her lyrics have referenced a wide array of subject matter, often relatively obscure, as in "Cloudbusting", which was inspired by Peter Reich's autobiography, "Book of Dreams", about his relationship with his father, Wilhelm Reich, and G. I. Gurdjieff in "Them Heavy People", while "Deeper Understanding", from The Sensual World, portrays a person who stays indoors, obsessively talking to a computer and shunning human contact.
Comedy is also a big influence on her and is a significant component of her work. She has cited Woody Allen, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and The Young Ones Her songs have occasionally combined comedy and horror to form dark humour, such as murder by poisoning in "Coffee Homeground", an alcoholic mother in "Ran Tan Waltz" and the upbeat "The Wedding List", a song inspired by François Truffaut's 1967 film of Cornell Woolrich's The Bride Wore Black about the death of a groom and the bride's subsequent revenge against the killer.
During the same period as her tour, she made numerous television appearances around the world, including Top of the Pops in the United Kingdom, Bios Bahnhof in Germany, and Saturday Night Live in the United States (with Paul Shaffer on piano). On 28 December 1979, BBC TV aired the Kate Bush Christmas Special. It was recorded in October 1979 at the BBC Studios in Birmingham, England. As well as playing songs from her first two albums, she played "December Will Be Magic Again", and "Violin" from her forthcoming album, Never for Ever. Peter Gabriel made a guest appearance to play "Here Comes the Flood", and a duet of Roy Harper's "Another Day" with Bush.
In 1982, Bush participated in the first benefit concert in aid of The Prince's Trust alongside artists such as Madness, Midge Ure, Phil Collins, Mick Karn and Pete Townshend. On 25 April 1986 Bush performed live for British charity event Comic Relief, singing "Do Bears... ?", a humorous duet with Rowan Atkinson, and a rendition of "Breathing". Later in the year on 28 June 1986, she made a guest appearance to duet with Peter Gabriel on "Don't Give Up" at Earl's Court, London as part of his "So" tour. In March 1987, Bush sang "Running Up That Hill" at The Secret Policeman's Third Ball.
On 17 January 2002, Bush appeared with her long-time champion, David Gilmour, singing the part of the doctor in "Comfortably Numb" at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
In 1993, she directed and starred in the short film, The Line, the Cross & the Curve, a musical co-starring Miranda Richardson featuring music from Bush's album The Red Shoes, which was inspired by the classic movie of the same name. It was released on VHS in the UK in 1994 and also received a small number of cinema screenings around the world. Overall it was a critical failure. In recent interviews, Bush has said that she considers it a failure, and stated in 2001: "I'm very pleased with four minutes of it, but I'm very disappointed with the rest." In a 2005 interview, she described the film as "A load of bollocks."
In 1994, Bush provided the music used in a series of psychedelic-themed television commercials for the soft drink Fruitopia that appeared in the United States. The same company aired the ads in the United Kingdom, but the British version featured Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins instead of Bush.
Several collections of Bush's music videos have been released on VHS, most notably The Single File, which contained videos predating the Hounds of Love album; Hair of the Hound, containing videos concerning that album; and The Whole Story, a career video overview released in conjunction with the 1986 compilation album of the same title. In late 2006, a DVD documentary titled Kate Bush Under Review was released by Sexy Intellectual, which included archival interviews with Bush, along with interviews with a selection of music historians and journalists (including Phil Sutcliffe, Nigel Williamson, and Morris Pert). The DVD also includes clips from several of Bush's music videos.
On 2 December 2008, the DVD collection of the fourth season of Saturday Night Live including her performances was released. A three DVD set of The Secret Policeman's Balls benefit concerts that includes Bush's performance was released on 27 January 2009.
She also produced all the incidental music, which is synthesizer based. Bush wrote and performed the song "The Magician", in a fairground-like arrangement, for Menahem Golan's 1979 film The Magician of Lublin. In 1985, Bush contributed a darkly melancholic version of the Ary Barroso song "Brazil" to the soundtrack of the Terry Gilliam film Brazil. The track was scored and arranged by Michael Kamen. In 1986, she wrote and recorded "Be Kind To My Mistakes" for the Nicolas Roeg film Castaway. An edited version of this track was used as the B side to her 1989 single "This Woman's Work". In 1988, the song "This Woman's Work" was featured in the John Hughes film She's Having a Baby, and a slightly remixed version appeared on Bush's album The Sensual World. The song has since appeared on numerous television shows, and in 2005 reached number eight on the UK download chart after featuring in a British television advertisement for the charity NSPCC.
In 1999, Bush wrote and recorded a song for the Disney film Dinosaur, but the track was ultimately not included on the soundtrack. According to the winter 1999 issue of HomeGround, a Bush fanzine, it was scrapped when Disney asked her to rewrite the song and she refused. Also in 1999, Bush's song "The Sensual World" was featured prominently in Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan's film "Felicia's Journey". "The Man with the Child in His Eyes" is on the soundtrack for the 2007 British romantic comedy film Starter for 10.
Bush declined a request by Erasure to produce one of their albums because "she didn’t feel that that was her area".
In 2010, Bush provided vocals for Rolf Harris's cover of a traditional Irish Song entitled "She Moves Through The Fair". Harris who described the collaboration the "best thing I’ve done" is unsure of how to release the track.
;Studio albums
;Compilation albums
Category:Kate Bush Category:English pop singers Category:English singer-songwriters Category:English female singers Category:English pianists Category:English record producers Category:English Roman Catholics Category:English vegetarians Category:Female rock singers Category:BRIT Award winners Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:English people of Irish descent Category:People from Bexleyheath Category:People from South Hams (district) Category:People from Sulhamstead Category:1958 births Category:Living people
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