Name	Synthpop
Bgcolor	silver
Color	black
Stylistic origins	New waveDiscoPost-punkGlam rockPopKrautrockElectronic
Cultural origins	Mid-late 1970s/Early 1980s in Europe, Japan
Instruments	Synthesizer – Drum machine – Bass Guitar – Tape loops – Drums – Guitar – Sequencer – Keyboard – Vocoder – Sampler – Vocals
Popularity	Large, worldwide, 1980s (first wave) and very large, worldwide 2010s (second wave)
Derivatives	Electroclash, ambient pop
Subgenrelist	List of electronic music genres
Subgenres	Electropop, futurepop
Fusiongenres	Synthpunk
Regional scenes	Coldwave

Synthpop is a genre of music in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. It originated as part of the new wave movement of the early 1970s to the mid-1980s, and it has continued to exist and develop ever since. The genre has seen a resurgence in popularity in the late 2000s/early 2010s.

Characteristics

While most current popular music in the industrialized world is realized via electronic instruments, synthpop has its own stylistic tendencies which differentiate it from other music produced by the same means. These include the exploitation of artificiality (i.e., the synthesis of sounds from waveforms) where the synthesizers are not used to imitate acoustic instruments, the use of mechanical sounding rhythms, vocal arrangements as a counterpoint to the artificiality of the instruments, and ostinato patterns as an effect. Synthpop song structures are generally similar to those of other popular music.

History

Influences

Mid-twentieth-century avant-garde and musique concrète composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen were pioneers in the development of electronic music. However, the instruments were originally large, highly complex, temperamental, and expensive.

The British progressive rock group Emerson Lake and Palmer were commercially successful with their song Lucky Man which featured a solo using the moog synthesizer. Rock musicians of the 1970's embraced the synthesizer because it was something new and the synthetic sounds it offered weren’t previously available through any other source. Notably David Bowie, Roxy Music, and Kraftwerk influenced the first wave of British Synthpop.

First wave: 1977–1990

, one of the first bands to popularize synthpop.]] Giorgio Moroder paired up with Donna Summer in 1977 to release the electronic disco song "I Feel Love". While a disco song first and foremost, the programmed, arpeggiated beats had a profound impact on the bands which would soon be known as synthpop. That same year, Ultravox member Warren Cann purchased a Roland TR-77 drum machine, which was first featured in their October 1977 single release "Hiroshima Mon Amour".

In 1978, the first incarnation of The Human League of Sheffield, England released their debut single "Being Boiled". In the United States, Devo, who had been using synthesizers since their beginnings in 1975, moved towards a more electronic sound.

In the UK, the original synthesizer bands had a sound that was generally dark, moody and robotic and were more founded in an avant-garde, art rock aesthetic. In 1979, Tubeway Army, a little known outfit from West London, who dropped their initial punk rock image and topped the UK charts in the summer of 1979 with the single "Are Friends Electric?" and their album Replicas. This prompted the singer/songwriter, Gary Numan to go solo and in the same year he released the Kraftwerk inspired album, The Pleasure Principle which was another number one album, and he topped the singles charts for the second time with "Cars".

This Zeitgeist of revolution in electronic music performance and recording/production was encapsulated by then would be record producer, Trevor Horn of The Buggles in the international hit "Video Killed the Radio Star".

Giorgio Moroder collaborated with the band Sparks on their album, No. 1 In Heaven. Others were soon to follow, including Frank Tovey, who performed under the name Fad Gadget. Tovey who was signed to Daniel Miller's Mute Records and made use of "found objects" in his recordings such as bottles and razors. Daniel Miller himself had a role in the emerging futurist movement as a performer under the name The Normal which released a one-off single Warm Leatherette. Although the single did not chart, it became a cult favorite and has been covered by many artists since its release, including Grace Jones, Duran Duran and Nine Inch Nails.

, one of the most successful synthpop bands of all time.]] The sounds of synthesizers came to dominate the pop music of the early 1980s as well as replacing disco in dance clubs in Europe. Other successful synthpop artists of this era included Alphaville, Soft Cell, Depeche Mode The Human League, Pet Shop Boys Japan, Tears for Fears Thompson Twins, Eurythmics, a-ha, Modern Talking, Real Life, Camouflage, Bananarama, Celebrate The Nun and others are bands of the Synthpop style. Polyphonic analogue synthesizers were used during this period and the use of synthesizers were associated with the New Romantic movement. According to music writer Simon Reynolds the hallmark of original synthpop was its "emotional, at times operatic singers" such as Marc Almond, Alison Moyet and Annie Lennox.

Throughout the United States, where synthpop is considered a sub genre of new wave,

At the end of the 1980s with the help of a gay audience Erasure, Information Society, Anything Box, and Red Flag made headway on the United States dance charts.

Synthpop hiatus: 1991–2008

By 1991 in the United States synthpop was losing its commercial viability as alternative radio stations were responding to the popularity of grunge rock. Exceptions during the decade were Savage Garden, The Rentals, and Moog Cookbook. In Europe underground and counterculture bands loosely labeled as electronic body music The band Freezepop gained popularity in the video game market.

By the end of the 1990s many of the 1980s acts had been dropped by their labels and added other elements to their sound.

Second Wave: 2009–present

, a Canadian synthpop singer who became popular in the late 2000s.]] Acts described as synthpop in recent years include Hot Chip, Junior Boys, LCD Soundsystem, Cut Copy, Hurts, Mike Posner, Lights, Chromeo, Metric, Little Boots, Owl City (who achieved a number 1 US single), Ladytron, Phoenix, Passion Pit, The Presets, Ladyhawke, Crystal Castles, La Roux, Robyn, Röyksopp, Tesla Boy, and Shy Child.

Artists

See also

Darkwave

Schaffel beat – triplet feel popularized in electronic music by acts like Depeche Mode, Erasure, Covenant, The Knife, and Goldfrapp.

References

External links

Synthpop resources on the net

Online directory of synthpop web resources

Category:Synthpop Category:Rock music genres Category:Electronic music genres Category:1970s in music Category:1980s in music Category:1990s in music Category:2000s in music Category:2010s in music

Name	Freddie Mercury
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Farrokh Bulsara
Birth date	September 05, 1946
Birth place	Stone Town, Zanzibar
Origin	London, England, UK
Nationality	British Persian
Death date	November 24, 1991
Death place	Kensington, London, England, United Kingdom
Genre	Rock, Hard rock
Instrument	Vocals, piano, keyboards, guitar
Occupation	Musician, singer-songwriter, record producer
Years active	1969–91
Label	Columbia, Polydor, EMI, Parlophone, Hollywood Records
Associated acts	Queen, Wreckage/Ibex, Montserrat Caballé

Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara (Gujarati: ફ્રારુક બલ્સારા‌), 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991) was a British musician, best known as the lead vocalist and a songwriter of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his flamboyant stage persona and powerful vocals over a four-octave range. As a songwriter, Mercury composed many hits for Queen, including "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "We Are the Champions". In addition to his work with Queen, he led a solo career, penning hits such as "Barcelona", "I Was Born to Love You" and "Living on My Own". Mercury also occasionally served as a producer and guest musician (piano or vocals) for other artists. He died of bronchopneumonia brought on by AIDS on 24 November 1991, only one day after publicly acknowledging he had the disease.

Mercury, who was a Parsi born in Zanzibar and grew up there and in India until his mid-teens, has been referred to as "Britain's first Asian rock star". In 2009, a Classic Rock poll saw him voted the greatest rock singer of all time. In 2008, Rolling Stone editors ranked him number 18 on their list of the 100 greatest singers of all time.

Early life

Mercury was born in the British protectorate of Zanzibar, East Africa. His parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara, were Parsis from the Gujarat region of the then province of Bombay Presidency in British India. The Bulsara family had moved to Zanzibar in order for his father to continue his job as a cashier at the British Colonial Office. He had one younger sister, Kashmira.

In 1954, at the age of eight, Mercury was sent to study at St. Peter's School, an English style boarding school for boys in Panchgani near Bombay (now Mumbai), India. At school, he formed a popular school band, The Hectics, for which he played piano. A friend from the time recalls that he had "an uncanny ability to listen to the radio and replay what he heard on piano". It was also at St. Peter's where he began to call himself "Freddie". Mercury remained in India for most of his childhood, living with his grandmother and aunt. He completed his education in India at St. Mary's School, Bombay.

At the age of 17, Mercury and his family fled from Zanzibar for safety reasons due to the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution. In 1969 he joined the band Ibex, later renamed Wreckage. When this band failed to take off, he joined a second band called Sour Milk Sea. However, by early 1970 this group broke up as well.

In April 1970, Mercury joined guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor who had previously been in a band called Smile. Despite reservations from the other members, Mercury chose the name "Queen" for the new band. He later said about the band's name, "I was certainly aware of the gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it". His vocal range extended from bass low F (F2) to coloratura falsetto F-natural (F6). His belting register soaring to tenor high F (F5). Biographer David Bret described his voice as "escalating within a few bars from a deep, throaty rock-growl to tender, vibrant tenor, then on to a high-pitched, perfect coloratura, pure and crystalline in the upper reaches". Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, with whom Mercury recorded an album, expressed her opinion that "the difference between Freddie and almost all the other rock stars was that he was selling the voice". As Queen's career progressed, he would increasingly alter the highest notes of their songs when live, often harmonising with seconds, thirds or fifths instead. Mercury suffered from vocal fold nodules and claimed never to have had any formal vocal training.

Songwriter

Mercury wrote 10 of the 17 songs on Queen's Greatest Hits album: "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Seven Seas of Rhye", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy", "We Are the Champions", "Bicycle Race", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Play the Game".

The most notable aspect of his songwriting involved the wide range of genres that he used, which included, among other styles, rockabilly, progressive rock, heavy metal, gospel and disco. As he explained in a 1986 interview, "I hate doing the same thing again and again and again. I like to see what's happening now in music, film and theatre and incorporate all of those things." He also wrote six songs from Queen II which deal with multiple key changes and complex material. "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", on the other hand, contains only a few chords. Despite the fact that Mercury often wrote very intricate harmonies, he also claimed that he could barely read music. He wrote most of his songs on the piano and used a wide variety of different key signatures.

Live performer

Mercury was noted for his live performances, which were often delivered to stadium audiences around the world. He displayed a highly theatrical style that often evoked a great deal of participation from the crowd. A writer for The Spectator described him as "a performer out to tease, shock and ultimately charm his audience with various extravagant versions of himself". David Bowie, who performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and recorded the song "Under Pressure" with Queen, praised Mercury's performance style, saying: "Of all the more theatrical rock performers, Freddie took it further than the rest... he took it over the edge. And of course, I always admired a man who wears tights. I only saw him in concert once and as they say, he was definitely a man who could hold an audience in the palm of his hand."

One of Mercury's most notable performances with Queen took place at Live Aid in 1985, during which the entire stadium audience of 72,000 people clapped, sang and swayed in unison. Queen's performance at the event has since been voted by a group of music executives as the greatest live performance in the history of rock music. The results were aired on a television program called "The World's Greatest Gigs". In reviewing Live Aid in 2005, one critic wrote, "Those who compile lists of Great Rock Frontmen and award the top spots to Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, etc all are guilty of a terrible oversight. Freddie, as evidenced by his Dionysian Live Aid performance, was easily the most godlike of them all." The band were the first ever to play in South American stadiums, breaking worldwide records for concert attendance in the Morumbi Stadium in São Paulo in 1981. In 1986, Queen also played behind the Iron Curtain, when they performed to a crowd of 80,000 in Budapest. Mercury's final live performance with Queen took place on 9 August 1986 at Knebworth Park in England and drew an attendance estimated as high as 300,000.

Instrumentalist

in Frankfurt, 1984.]]

As a young boy in India, Mercury received formal piano training up to the age of nine. Later on, while living in London, he learned guitar. Much of the music he liked was guitar-oriented: his favourite artists at the time were The Who, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, and Led Zeppelin. He was often self-deprecating about his own skills on both instruments and from the early 1980s onward began extensively using guest keyboardists for both Queen and his solo career. Most notably, he enlisted Fred Mandel (a Canadian musician who also worked for Pink Floyd, Elton John and Supertramp) for his first solo project, and from 1985 onward collaborated with Mike Moran (in the studio) and Spike Edney (in concert), leaving most of the keyboard work exclusively to them.

Mercury played the piano in many of Queen's most popular songs, including "Killer Queen", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy", "We Are the Champions", "Somebody To Love" and "Don't Stop Me Now". He used concert grand pianos and, occasionally, other keyboard instruments such as the harpsichord. From 1980 onward, he also made frequent use of synthesizers in the studio. Queen guitarist Brian May claims that Mercury was unimpressed with his own abilities at the piano and used the instrument less over time because he wanted to walk around onstage and entertain the audience. The song also garnered Mercury a posthumous Ivor Novello Award. Allmusic critic Eduardo Rivadavia describes Mr. Bad Guy as "outstanding from start to finish" and expressed his view that Mercury "did a commendable job of stretching into uncharted territory". In particular, the album is heavily synthesiser-driven in a way that is not characteristic of previous Queen albums.

Barcelona, recorded with Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, combines elements of popular music and opera. Many critics were uncertain what to make of the album; one referred to it as "the most bizarre CD of the year". The album was a commercial success, and the album's title track debuted at the #8 position in the UK charts and was a hit in Spain. The title track received massive air play as the official hymn of the 1992 Summer Olympics (held in Barcelona one year after Mercury's death). Caballé sang it live at the opening of the Olympics with Mercury's part played on a screen, and again prior to the start of the 1999 UEFA Champions League Final in Barcelona.

In addition to the two solo albums, Mercury released several singles, including his own version of the hit The Great Pretender by The Platters, which debuted at number five in the UK in 1987. In September 2006, a compilation album featuring Mercury's solo work was released in the UK in honour of what would have been his 60th birthday. The album debuted in the top 10 of the UK Album Charts.

In 1981–1983, Mercury recorded several tracks with Michael Jackson, including a demo of "State of Shock", "Victory" and "There Must Be More to Life Than This"; none of these collaborations were officially released, although bootleg recordings exist. Jackson went on to record the former song with Mick Jagger for The Jacksons's album Victory, and Mercury included the solo version of the latter song on his Mr. Bad Guy album.

Personal life

In the early 1970s Mercury had a long-term relationship with Mary Austin, whom he had met through guitarist Brian May. He lived with Austin for several years in West Kensington. By the mid-1970s, however, the singer had begun an affair with a male American record executive at Elektra Records, which ultimately resulted in the end of his relationship with Austin. Mercury and Austin nevertheless remained close friends through the years, with Mercury often referring to her as his only true friend. In a 1985 interview, Mercury said of Austin, "All my lovers asked me why they couldn't replace Mary [Austin], but it's simply impossible. The only friend I've got is Mary and I don't want anybody else. To me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage. We believe in each other, that's enough for me." He also wrote several songs about Austin, the most notable of which is "Love of My Life". Mercury was also the godfather of Mary's oldest son, Richard.

During the early-to-mid-80s, he was romantically involved with Barbara Valentin, an Austrian actress, who is featured in the video for "It's a Hard Life". By 1985, he began another long-term relationship with a hairdresser named Jim Hutton. Hutton, who himself was tested HIV-positive in 1990,

Although he cultivated a flamboyant stage personality, Mercury was a very shy and retiring man in person, particularly around people he didn't know well. He also granted very few interviews. Mercury once said of himself: "When I'm performing I'm an extrovert, yet inside I'm a completely different man."

== Illness and death == the day after Mercury's death.]] According to his partner Jim Hutton, Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS shortly after Easter of 1987. Toward the end of his life, he was routinely stalked by photographers, while the daily tabloid newspaper The Sun featured a series of articles claiming that he was seriously ill. However, Mercury and his colleagues and friends continually denied the stories, even after one front page article published on 29 April 1991, which showed Mercury appearing very haggard in what was now a rare public appearance.

On 22 November 1991, Mercury called Queen's manager Jim Beach over to his Kensington home, to discuss a public statement. The next day, 23 November, the following announcement was made to the press on behalf of Mercury:

Following the enormous conjecture in the press over the last two weeks, I wish to confirm that I have been tested HIV positive and have AIDS. I felt it correct to keep this information private to date to protect the privacy of those around me. However, the time has come now for my friends and fans around the world to know the truth and I hope that everyone will join with me, my doctors, and all those worldwide in the fight against this terrible disease. My privacy has always been very special to me and I am famous for my lack of interviews. Please understand this policy will continue.

A little over 24 hours after issuing that statement, Mercury died on the evening of 24 November 1991 at the age of 45. The official cause of death was bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS. The news of his death had reached newspaper and television crews by the early hours of 25 November.

Although he had not attended religious services in years, Mercury's funeral was conducted by a Zoroastrian priest. Elton John, David Bowie and the remaining members of Queen were among the few people who attended the funeral. He was cremated at Kensal Green Cemetery and his ashes are in the possession of his mother.

In his will, Mercury left the vast majority of his wealth, including his home and recording royalties, to Mary Austin, and the remainder to his parents and sister. He further left £500,000 to his chef Joe Fanelli, £500,000 to his personal assistant Peter Freestone, £100,000 to his driver Terry Giddings, and £500,000 to Jim Hutton. Hutton was involved in a 2000 biography of Mercury, Freddie Mercury, the Untold Story, and also gave an interview for The Times for what would have been Mercury's 60th birthday.

Criticism and controversy

Sexual orientation and HIV

Mercury was an acknowledged bisexual. While some critics claimed he hid his sexual orientation from the public, others claimed he was "openly gay". When asked directly "So how about being bent? " by NME in December 1974, Mercury replied "You're a crafty cow. Let's put it this way, there were times when I was young and green. It's a thing schoolboys go through. I've had my share of schoolboy pranks. I'm not going to elaborate further." A writer for a gay online newspaper felt that audiences may have been overly naive about the matter: "While in many respects he was overtly queer his whole career ("I am as gay as a daffodil, my dear" being one of his most famous quotes), his sexual orientation seemed to pass over the heads of scrutinising audiences and pundits (both gay and straight) for decades". John Marshall of Gay Times expressed the following opinion in 1992: "[Mercury] was a 'scene-queen', not afraid to publicly express his gayness but unwilling to analyse or justify his 'lifestyle' ... It was as if Freddie Mercury was saying to the world, "I am what I am. So what?" And that in itself for some was a statement."

Mercury hid his HIV status from the public for several years, and it has been suggested that he could have raised a great deal of money and awareness earlier by speaking truthfully about his situation and his fight against the disease.

Other controversies

Members of Queen were widely criticised in the 1980s for the fact that they broke a United Nations cultural boycott by performing a series of shows at Sun City in 1984, an entertainment complex in Bophuthatswana, a homeland of (then) apartheid South Africa. As a result of these shows, Queen was placed on a United Nations list of artists who broke the boycott and was widely criticised in magazines such as the NME.

A further controversy ensued in August 2006, when an organisation calling itself the Islamic Mobilization and Propagation petitioned the Zanzibar government's culture ministry, demanding that a large-scale celebration of what would have been Mercury's sixtieth birthday be cancelled. The organisation issued several complaints about the planned celebrations, including that Mercury was not a true Zanzibari and that he was gay, which is not in accordance with their interpretation of sharia. The organisation claimed that "associating Mercury with Zanzibar degrades our island as a place of Islam". The planned celebration was cancelled.

Legacy

Continued popularity

The extent to which Mercury's death may have enhanced Queen's popularity is not clear. In the United States, where Queen's popularity had lagged in the 1980s, sales of Queen albums went up dramatically in 1992, the year following his death. In 1992 one American critic noted, "what cynics call the 'dead star' factor had come into play—Queen is in the middle of a major resurgence". The movie Wayne's World, which featured "Bohemian Rhapsody", also came out in 1992. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, Queen have sold 32.5 million albums in the United States, about half of which have been sold since Mercury's death in 1991.

Estimates of Queen's total worldwide record sales to date have been set as high as 300 million. In the UK, Queen have now spent more collective weeks on the UK Album Charts than any other musical act (including The Beatles), and Queen's Greatest Hits is the highest selling album of all time in the UK. Two of Mercury's songs, "We Are the Champions" and "Bohemian Rhapsody", have also each been voted as the greatest song of all time in major polls by Sony Ericsson and Guinness World Records, respectively. The former poll was an attempt to determine the world's favourite song, while the Guinness poll took place in the UK. In October 2007, the video for "Bohemian Rhapsody" was voted the greatest of all time by readers of Q magazine. Consistently rated as one of the greatest singers in the history of popular music, Mercury was voted second to Mariah Carey in MTV's 22 Greatest Voices in Music. Additionally, in January 2009, Mercury was voted second to Robert Plant in a poll of the greatest voices in rock, on the digital radio station Planet Rock. In May 2009, Classic Rock magazine voted Freddie Mercury as the greatest singer in rock. In 1999, a Royal Mail stamp with the image of Mercury on stage was issued in his honour as part of the Millennium Stamp series. In 2009, a plaque was unveiled in Feltham where Mercury and his family moved upon arriving in England in 1964. The star in memory of Mercury's achievements was unveiled in Feltham High Street by his mother Jer Bulsara and Queen bandmate Brian May.

A tribute to Queen has been on display at the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas throughout 2009 on its video canopy. In December 2009 a large model of Mercury wearing tartan was put on display in the centre of Edinburgh as publicity for the run of We Will Rock You at the Playhouse Theatre.

A statue of Mercury stands over the entrance to the Dominion Theatre in London where the main show, from May 2002, has been Ben Elton's We Will Rock You.

Importance in AIDS history

As the first major rock star to die from AIDS, Mercury's death represented a very important event in the disease's history. In April 1992, the remaining members of Queen founded The Mercury Phoenix Trust and organised The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness to celebrate the life and legacy of Mercury and raise money for AIDS research, which took place on Easter Monday, 20 April 1992. The Mercury Phoenix Trust has since raised millions of pounds for various AIDS charities. The tribute concert, which took place at Wembley Stadium for an audience of 72,000, featured a wide variety of guests including; Robert Plant (of Led Zeppelin), Roger Daltrey (of The Who), Extreme, Elton John, Metallica, David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Tony Iommi (of Black Sabbath), Guns N' Roses, Elizabeth Taylor, George Michael, Def Leppard, Seal, Liza Minnelli (and also U2 via Satellite). The concert was broadcast live to 76 countries and had an estimated viewing audience of 1 billion people.

Appearances in lists of influential individuals

Several popularity polls conducted over the past decade indicate that Freddie Mercury's reputation may in fact have been enhanced since his death. For instance, in a 2002 vote to determine whom the UK public considers the greatest British people in history, Mercury was ranked number 58 in the list of the "100 Greatest Britons", broadcast by the BBC. He was further listed at the 52nd spot in a 2007 Japanese national survey of the 100 most "influential heroes". Despite the fact that he had been criticised by gay activists for hiding his HIV status, author Paul Russell included Mercury in his book "The Gay 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Gay Men and Lesbians, Past and Present." Other entertainers on Russell's list included Liberace and Rock Hudson. In 2006, Time Asia magazine named him as one of the most influential Asian heroes of the past 60 years: The article credited Mercury with having "duplicated in popular music what other Indians—such as Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth — have done in literature: taking the coloniser's art form and representing it in a manner richer and more dazzling than many Anglophones thought possible." that Sacha Baron Cohen, previously best known for his comedic characters Borat, Ali G and Brüno, had been chosen to play Mercury in a film about his life. The motion picture is being written by Peter Morgan, who had been nominated for Oscars for his screenplays The Queen and Frost/Nixon. The film, which is being co-produced by Robert De Niro's TriBeCa Productions, will focus on Queen's formative years and the period leading up to the celebrated performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert. Filming is due to begin sometime in 2011.

Discography

Notes

his parents defined themselves with "Nationality: British Indian" and "Race: Parsi". The Parsis are an originally Persian ethnic group of the Indian subcontinent who follow Zoroastrianism. |- | style="vertical-align:top; width:3em; text-align:right;"|b) | The Bulsara family gets its name from Bulsar, a city and district that is now in the Indian state of Gujarat and is today officially known as Valsad. In the 17th century, Bulsar was one of the five centres of the Zoroastrian religion (the other four were also in what is today Gujarat) and consequently "Bulsara" is a relatively common name amongst Zoroastrians. |- | style="vertical-align:top; width:3em; text-align:right;"|c) | Mercury is also portrayed as himself in the animated show Cromartie High School as the character Freddie, and in the British Channel 4 show House Of Rock along with Marc Bolan, John Lennon, Notorious BIG, John Denver and Kurt Cobain. |}

References

Notation done in Scientific Pitch, and thus is written one octave lower than what is displayed here.

Bibliography

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . }}. . . . . }}. . . . . . . . *part 2* *part 3*. . . . . . . .

External links

(official EMI Music)

Freddie Mercury discography at Discogs

Freddie Mercury at Last.FM

Freddie Mercury at Find A Death

Category:1946 births Category:1991 deaths Category:1970s singers Category:1980s singers Category:1990s singers Category:AIDS-related deaths in England Category:Bisexual musicians Category:BRIT Award winners Category:British people of Parsi descent Category:English male singers Category:English people of Indian descent Category:English pianists Category:English rock guitarists Category:English rock keyboardists Category:English rock musicians Category:English rock singers Category:English singer-songwriters Category:English songwriters Category:English tenors Category:English Zoroastrians Category:Freddie Mercury Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:LGBT musicians from the United Kingdom Category:LGBT people from Africa Category:LGBT people from South Asia Category:Parsi people Category:Queen (band) members Category:Zanzibari Indians

Name	Classix Nouveaux
Background	group_or_band
Origin	London, England
Genre	New Wave, Post-punk, New Romantic
Years active	1979–1985
Label	EMICherry Red RecordsESP Records
Associated acts	Sal SoloThe NewsX-Ray SpexNeo
Current members	Sal SoloMik SweeneyJak Airport aka Jack StaffordB. P. Hurding
Past members	Gary SteadmanJimi SumenRick DriscollPaul TurleyPandit DineshS Paul Wilson

Classix Nouveaux were a 1980s new wave band from England. They had number one hits in Poland, Portugal, former Yugoslavia, Israel, Iceland, and other countries. In the UK they had various Top 50 hits but only one Top 20 hit with "Is It A Dream" which peaked at #11 on UK Singles Chart in April 10, 1982.

Biography

Formation

The break up of X-Ray Spex triggered an advertisement to be placed in Melody Maker, searching for a new lead singer. Sal Solo (formerly with The News) answered the advertisement. Jak Airport and B. P. Hurding left X-Ray Spex to form Classix Nouveaux with Mik Sweeney and Sal Solo. Their first gig was on 25 August 1979 at Camden Palace. With publicity growing for the band, their dramatic and heavily made up image helped quickly associate them with the New Romantic movement, alongside bands like Japan and Ultravox. In 1980 the band recorded a four track session for Capital Radio and one track, Robots Dance, was picked up and played regularly by DJ Nicky Horne. This got the interest of A&R; at United Artists, but as negotiations dragged on Classix decided to release the track as their debut single on their own ESP label. "Robot's Dance" was released on August 29 and, when negotiations with UA were finalised, by EMI. They also performed for the first time on television on Thames TV in London. "Robot's Dance" spent 11 weeks on the indie charts, reaching number 22, and became a popular alternative dance floor track. The groups second single "Nasty Little Green Men" followed on November 10, 1980.

Night People

In 1981 the band released their debut album, Night People, featuring the single "Guilty".

La Verité

Releasing their next album La Verité in 1982, led to the release of their highest UK charting single, "Is It A Dream". The band toured worldwide.

Secret

In 1983 was released the album Secret, produced by Alex Sadkin, featuring tracks such as "Never Never Comes" and "Heart From The Start". They become one of the first modern bands to perform in communist Poland.

Breakup

Band members continued to come and go, and by the end of the band's existence Sal Solo was the only original member remaining.

Solo went on to become heavily involved in Catholicism, releasing several Christian-oriented albums after Classix Nouveaux's break up.

Mik Sweeney went on to move to Los Angeles, California where he built fretless basses and recorded studio session work; he currently lives in Ireland. Gary Steadman went on to join A Flock of Seagulls. Jimi Sumen became a record producer in Finland and released a number of successful solo works there.

The first Classix Nouveaux compilation album was released in 1997 via EMI Records and was reissued with a slightly different track listing in 2003. Beginning that same year, the band's original albums saw reissue on CD by Cherry Red Records. In 2005 River Records released The River Sessions, a live album recorded at Strathclyde University in 1982 and in January 2010 all the band's singles and associated b-sides saw release as The Liberty Singles Collection, again via Cherry Red Records.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Curiosities

"Guilty" - silver disc in Yugoslavia, #66 in "Billboard" Club Play Singles (US).

Gold in Portugal with #1 single ("Never Again"), album ("La Verité") and video.

No. 1 in Poland with "Heart From the Start" (1984) and "Shout Shout" (1985).

"San Damiano" by Sal Solo in UK Top 20 (1984), and #1 in Poland (1985).

See also

One-hit wonders in the UK

List of New Wave bands and artists

O.T.T.

List of Liberty Records artists

References

External links

http://www.salsolo.com/classix.html

Category:British New Wave musical groups Category:1980s music groups