Coordinates	29°57′53″N90°4′14″N
title	New Musical Express
image file	NME Cover.jpg
company	IPC Media (Time Inc.)
total circulation	33,875
circulation year	ABC January - June 2010
language	English
category	Music tabloid
frequency	Weekly
editor	Krissi Murison
firstdate	7 March 1952
country	United Kingdom
website	www.nme.com
issn	0028-6362 }}

The New Musical Express (better known as the NME) is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the 14 November 1952 edition. In the 1970s it became the best-selling British music newspaper. During the period 1972 to 1976 it was particularly associated with gonzo journalism, then became closely associated with punk rock through the writing of Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill.

Krissi Murison was named the publication's eleventh editor on 29 July 2009. She took over as the first female editor in September 2009.

History

The paper's first issue was published on 7 March 1952 after the Musical Express and Accordion Weekly was bought by London music promoter Maurice Kinn, and relaunched as the New Musical Express. It was initially published in a non-glossy tabloid format on standard newsprint. On 14 November 1952, taking its cue from the U.S. magazine Billboard, it created the first UK Singles Chart. The first of these was, in contrast to more recent charts, a top twelve sourced by the magazine itself from sales in regional stores around the UK. The first number one was "Here In My Heart" by Al Martino.

1960s

During the 1960s the paper championed the new British groups emerging at the time. The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were frequently featured on the front cover. These and other artists also appeared at the NME Poll Winners Concert, an awards event that featured artists voted as most popular by the paper's readers. The concert also featured an awards ceremony where the poll winners would collect their awards. The NME Poll Winners Concerts took place between 1963 and 1972. From 1964 onwards they were filmed, edited and then transmitted on British television a few weeks after they had taken place.

The latter part of the 1960s saw the paper chart the rise of psychedelia and the continued dominance of British groups of the time. During this period some sections of pop music began to be designated as Rock. The paper became engaged in a sometimes tense rivalry with its fellow weekly music paper Melody Maker; however, NME sales were healthy with the paper selling as many as 200,000 issues per week, making it one of the UK's biggest sellers.

1970s

By the early 1970s NME had lost ground to the Melody Maker as its coverage of music had failed to keep pace with the development of rock music, particularly during the early years of psychedelia and progressive rock. In early 1972 the paper found itself on the verge of closure by its owners IPC (who had bought the paper from Kinn in 1963). According to Nick Kent (soon to play a prominent part in the paper's revival):

After sales had plummeted to 60,000 and a review of guitar instrumentalist Duane Eddy had been printed which began with the immortal words 'On this, his 35th album, we find Duane in as good as voice as ever,' the NME had been told to rethink its policies or die on the vine.

Adding to the irony of this review, in the 1960 NME Reader's Poll, Duane Eddy was the winner of the award for Number One World Musical Personality, taking first place ahead of consistent winner, Elvis Presley.

Alan Smith was made editor and was given a short period of time by IPC to turn things around quickly or face closure. As a result the paper's coverage changed radically from an uncritical and rather reverential showbiz-oriented paper to something intended to be smarter, hipper, more cynical and funnier than any mainstream British music paper had previously been (an approach influenced mainly by writers such as Tom Wolfe and Lester Bangs). In order to achieve this, Smith and his assistant editor Nick Logan raided the underground press for its best writers, such as Charles Shaar Murray and Nick Kent, recruited other writers such as Tony Tyler, Ian MacDonald and Californian Danny Holloway. By the time Smith handed the editor's chair to Logan in mid-1973, the paper was selling nearly 300,000 copies per week and was outstripping its other weekly rivals, Melody Maker, Disc, Record Mirror and Sounds.

According to MacDonald:

I think all the other papers knew by 1974 that NME had become the best music paper in Britain. We had most of the best writers and photographers, the best layouts, that sense of style of humour and a feeling of real adventure. We also set out to beat Melody Maker on its strong suit: being the serious, responsible journal of record. We did Looking Back and Consumer Guide features that beat the competition out of sight, and we did this not just to surpass our rivals but because we reckoned that rock had finished its first wind around 1969/70 and deserved to be treated as history, as a canon of work. We wanted to see where we'd got to, sort out this huge amount of stuff that had poured out since the mid '60s. Everyone on the paper was into this.

Led Zeppelin topped "NME Pop Poll" for consecutive three years (1974–76) under the category of the best "Vocal Group". The year 1976 saw Punk arrive on what some people perceived to be a stagnant music scene. The NME gave the Sex Pistols their first music press coverage in a live review of their performance at the Marquee in February that year, but overall they were slow to cover this new phenomenon in comparison to Sounds and Melody Maker, where Jonh Ingham and Caroline Coon respectively were early champions of punk. Although articles by the likes of Mick Farren (whose article "The Titanic Sails At Dawn", a call for a new street led rock movement in response to stadium rock) were published by the NME that summer it was felt that younger blood was needed to credibly cover the emerging punk movement, and the paper advertised for a pair of "hip young gunslingers" to join their editorial staff. This resulted in the recruitment of Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill. The pair rapidly became champions of the Punk scene and created a new tone for the paper (Parsons' time at NME is reflected in his 2005 novel Stories We Could Tell, about the misadventures of three young music paper journalists on the night of 16 August 1977, the night Elvis Presley died).

In 1978 Logan moved on, and his deputy Neil Spencer was made editor. One of his earliest tasks was to oversee a redesign of the paper by Barney Bubbles, which included the logo still used on the paper's masthead today (albeit in a modified form) - this made its first appearance towards the end of 1978. Spencer's time as editor also coincided with the emergence of Post-Punk acts such as Joy Division and Gang of Four. This development was reflected in the writing of Ian Penman and Paul Morley. Danny Baker, who began as an NME writer around this time, had a more straightforward and populist style.

The paper also became more openly political during the time of Punk. Its cover would sometimes feature youth-oriented issues rather than a musical act. The paper took an editorial stance against political parties like the National Front. The election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 saw the paper take a broadly socialist stance for much of the following decade.

1980s

In 1981 the NME released the influential C81 cassette tape in conjunction with Rough Trade Records, available to readers by mail order at a low price. The tape featured a number of then up-and-coming bands, including Aztec Camera, Orange Juice, Linx and Scritti Politti, as well as a number of more established artists such as Robert Wyatt, Pere Ubu, Buzzcocks and Ian Dury. A second tape, C86, was released in 1986.

The NME responded to the Thatcher era by espousing socialism through movements such as Red Wedge. In the week of the 1987 election the paper featured an interview with the leader of the Labour Party, Neil Kinnock, who appeared on the paper's cover. He had appeared on the cover once before, in April 1985.

Writers at this time included Mat Snow, Barney Hoskyns, Paolo Hewitt, Danny Kelly, Chris Bohn (known in his later years at the paper as Biba Kopf), Steven Wells and David Quantick.

However sales were dropping, and by the mid 1980s NME had hit a rough patch and was in danger of closing. During this period (now under the editorship of Ian Pye, who replaced Neil Spencer in 1985), they were split between those who wanted to write about hip hop, a genre that was relatively new to the UK, and those who wanted to stick to rock music. Sales were apparently lower when photos of hip hop artists appeared on the front and this led to the paper suffering as the lack of direction became even more apparent to readers. A number of features entirely unrelated to music appeared on the cover in this era, including a piece by William Leith on computer crime and articles by Stuart Cosgrove on such subjects as the politics of sport and the presence of American troops in Britain, with Elvis Presley appearing on the cover not for musical reasons but as a political symbol.

The NME was generally thought to be rudderless at this time, with staff pulling simultaneously in a number of directions in what came to be known as the "hip-hop wars". It was hemorrhaging readers who were deserting NME in favour of Nick Logan's two creations The Face and Smash Hits. This was brought to a head when the paper was about to publish a poster of an insert contained in the Dead Kennedys' album Frankenchrist. The insert was a painting by H.R. Giger called Penis Landscape, then a subject of an obscenity lawsuit in the US. In the summer and autumn of 1987, three senior editorial staff were sacked, including Pye, media editor Stuart Cosgrove and art editor Joe Ewart. Former Sounds editor Alan Lewis was brought in to rescue the paper, mirroring Alan Smith's revival a decade and a half before.

Some commented at this time that the NME had become less intellectual in its writing style and less inventive musically. Initially, NME writers themselves were ill at ease with the new regime, with most signing a letter of no confidence in Alan Lewis shortly after he took over. However, this new direction for the NME proved to be a commercial success and the paper brought in new writers such as Andrew Collins, Stuart Maconie, Mary Anne Hobbs and Steve Lamacq to give it a stronger identity and sense of direction, although Mark Sinker left in 1988 after the paper refused to publish a negative review he wrote of U2's Rattle and Hum. Initially many of the bands on the C86 tape were championed as well as the rise of Goth rock bands but new bands such as Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses were coming out of Manchester. One scene over these years was Acid House which spawned Madchester which helped give the paper a new lease of life. By the end of the decade, Danny Kelly had replaced Alan Lewis as editor.

1990s

The start of 1990 saw the paper in the thick of the Madchester scene, and covering the new British indie bands and shoegazers.

By the end of 1990, the Madchester scene was dying off, acid house was suffering from being the subject of a vigorous campaign to outlaw it by the John Major government, and NME had started to report on new bands coming from the US, mainly from Seattle. These bands would form a new movement called Grunge and by far the most popular bands were Nirvana and Pearl Jam. The NME took to Grunge very slowly ("Sounds" was the first British music paper to write about grunge with John Robb being the first person to interview Nirvana. Melody Maker was more enthusiastic early on, largely through the efforts of Everett True, who had previously written for NME under the name "The Legend!"). For the most part, NME only became interested in grunge after Nevermind became popular. Although it still supported new British bands, the paper was dominated by American bands, as was the music scene in general.

Although the period from 1991 to 1993 was dominated by American bands like Nirvana, British bands were not ignored. The NME still covered the Indie scene and was involved with a war of words with a new band called Manic Street Preachers who were criticising the NME for what they saw as an elitist view of bands they would champion. This came to a head in 1991 when during an interview with Steve Lamacq, Richey Edwards would confirm the band's position by carving "4real" into his arm with a razor blade.

By 1992, the Madchester scene had died and along with The Manics, some new British bands were beginning to appear. Suede were quickly hailed by the paper as an alternative to the heavy Grunge sound and hailed as the start of a new British music scene. Grunge however was still the dominant force, but the rise of new British bands would become something the paper would focus more and more upon.

In 1992, the NME also had a very public dispute with its former hero Morrissey due to allegations that he had used racist lyrics and imagery. This erupted after a concert at Finsbury Park where Morrissey was seen to drape himself in a Union Flag. The series of articles which followed in the next edition of NME soured Morrissey's relationship with the paper and this led to Morrissey's not speaking to the paper again for over a decade. When Morrissey did eventually speak to the NME in 2003, he made it clear it was because the three writers concerned had long since left.

Later in 1992, Steve Sutherland, previously assistant editor of Melody Maker, was brought in as the NME's editor to replace Danny Kelly. Andrew Collins, Stuart Maconie, Steve Lamacq and Mary Anne Hobbs all left the NME in protest, and moved to Select; Collins, Maconie and Lamacq would all also write for Q, while Lamacq would join Melody Maker in 1997. Kelly, Collins, Maconie, Lamacq and Hobbs would all subsequently become prominent broadcasters with BBC Radio 1 as it reinvented itself under Matthew Bannister.

In April 1994 Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was found dead, a story which affected not only his fans and readers of the NME, but would see a massive change in British music. Grunge was about to be replaced by Britpop, a new form of music influenced by British music of the 1960s and British culture. The phrase was coined by NME after the band Blur released their album Parklife in the same month of Cobain's death. Britpop began to fill the musical and cultural void left after Cobain's death, and Blur's success, along with the rise of a new group from Manchester called Oasis saw Britpop explode for the rest of 1994. By the end of the year Blur and Oasis were the two biggest bands in the UK and sales of the NME were increasing thanks to the Britpop effect. 1995 saw the NME cover many of these new bands and saw many of these bands play the NME Stage at that year's Glastonbury Festival where the paper had been sponsoring the second stage at the festival since 1993. This would be their last year sponsoring the stage, subsequently the stage would be known as the 'Other Stage'.

In August 1995 Blur and Oasis planned to release singles on the same day in a mass of media publicity. Steve Sutherland put the story on the front page of the paper. He was criticised for playing up the duel between the bands. Blur won the 'race' for the top of the charts, and the resulting fallout from the publicity led to the paper enjoying increased sales during the 1990s as Britpop became the dominant musical genre. After this peak the paper saw a slow decline as Britpop burned itself out fairly rapidly over the next few years. This left the paper directionless again, and attempts to embrace the rise of DJ culture in the late 1990s only led to the paper being criticised for not supporting rock or indie music. The paper did attempt to return to its highly politicised 1980s incarnation by running a front-cover story in March 1998 condemning Tony Blair, who had previously associated himself with Britpop bands such as Oasis, and this received a certain level of attention in the wider media, but was generally not seen as coherent or well-argued.

Sutherland did attempt to cover newer bands but one cover feature on Godspeed You! Black Emperor in 1999 saw the paper dip to a sales low, and Sutherland later stated in his weekly editorial that he regretted putting them on the cover. For many this was seen as an affront to the principles of the paper and sales reached a low point at the turn of the millennium.

2000s

From the issue of 21 March 1998 onwards, the paper has no longer been printed on newsprint, and more recently it has shifted to tabloid size: it has full, glossy, colour covers.

In 2000 Steve Sutherland left to become Brand Director of the NME, replaced as editor by 26-year-old Melody Maker writer Ben Knowles. The same year saw the closure of the Melody Maker (which officially merged with the NME) and many speculated the NME would be next as the weekly music magazine market was shrinking - the monthly magazine Select, which had thrived especially during Britpop, was closed down within a week of Melody Maker. In the early 2000s the NME also attempted somewhat to broaden its coverage again, running cover stories on hip-hop acts such as Jay-Z and Missy Elliott, electronic music pioneer Aphex Twin, Popstars winners Hear'say and R&B; groups like Destiny's Child, but as in the 1980s these proved unpopular with much of the paper's readership, and were soon dropped. In 2001 the NME reasserted its position as an influence in new music and helped to introduce bands including The Strokes, The Vines, and The White Stripes.

In 2002 Conor McNicholas was appointed editor. With a new wave of photographers including Dean Chalkley, Andrew Kendall, James Looker and Pieter Van Hattem, and a high turnover of young writers. It focused on new British bands such as The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and the Kaiser Chiefs who emerged as "indie music" continued to grow in commercial success. Later, Arctic Monkeys became the standard-bearers of the post-Libertines crop of indie bands, being both successfully championed by the NME and receiving widespread commercial and critical success.

In December 2005 accusations were made that the NME end-of-year poll had been edited for commercial and political reasons. These criticisms were rebutted by McNicholas, who claimed that webzine Londonist.com had got hold of an early draft of the poll.

In October 2006 NME launched an Irish version of the magazine called NME Ireland. This coincided with the launch of Club NME in Dublin. Dublin-based band Humanzi were the first to appear on the cover of NME Ireland. Poor sales in the Republic of Ireland resulted from competition from market leader Hot Press and free music magazines Analogue Magazine, Mongrel Magazine and State Magazine. This resulted in the magazine's demise in November 2006.

After the 2008 NME Award nominations, Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian criticised the magazine's lack of diversity, saying:

In May 2008 the magazine received a redesign, aimed at an older readership with a less poppy, more authoritative tone. The first issue of the redesign featured a free seven-inch Coldplay vinyl single. Circulation of the magazine has fallen continuously since 2003. In the first half of 2010, the magazine's circulation was 33,875, 53% down on a 2003 figure of 72,442.

NME.com

In 1996 under the stewardship of NME editor Steve Sutherland and then NME publisher Robert Tame, the NME started its website NME.COM. Its first editor was Brendan Fitzgerald. Later Anthony Thornton redesigned the site, focusing on music news. In November 1999 the site hosted the UK's first webcast, of Suede 'Live In Japan'. In 2001 the site gave away a free mp3 of The Strokes debut single "Last Nite" a week before its release. The site rallied around The Libertines after their debut single "What A Waster" dropped from playlists due to its profanity - giving away the single as a free mp3 download.

The website was awarded Online Magazine of the Year in 1999 and 2001; Anthony Thornton was awarded Website Editor of the Year on three occasions - 2001 and 2002 (British Society Of Magazine Editors) and 2002 (Periodical Publishers Association).

In 2004, Ben Perreau joined NME.COM as the website's third editor. He relaunched and redeveloped the title in September 2005 and the focus was migrated towards video, audio and the wider music community. It was awarded 'Best Music Website' at the Record Of The Day awards in October 2005. In 2006 NME.COM celebrated with a party at London's KOKO featuring Leicester band Kasabian and was subsequently awarded the BT Digital Music Award for Best Music Magazine and the first 'Chairman's Award' from the Association of Online Publishers awarded by the Chairman, Simon Waldman in recognition of its pioneering role in its ten-year history.

In 2007 NME.COM was launched in the USA with additional staff and plans to launch its Breaking Bands contest and the NME Awards across the Atlantic.

The site now provides news, photos, video, blogs, reviews, gig listings and videos as well as featuring downloads, merchandising and message boards.

The website over the last year has shifted its focus to also include tabloid gossip alongside its traditional music news, with regular news articles entitled "Daily Ligger" and "Tabloid Hell".

In 2007 NME.com had a free download from The Verve, the first songs The Verve released since they got back together.

In October 2007 David Moynihan joined as the website's fourth editor. In 2008 the site won the BT Digital Music Award for Best Music Magazine, plus the Association of Online Publishers' Best Editorial Team Award, the British Society of Magazine Editors Website Editor of the Year and the Record Of The Day Award for Best Music Website. In June 2009 NME.COM won PPA Interactive Consumer Magazine of the Year (Periodical Publishers Association). In 2010 it won both the AOP and PPA website of the year award.

According to the latest traffic figures, NME.COM now has 5.3 million monthly unique users (ABCe, June 2008), making it the largest magazine website in the UK.

In 2010 NME.COM launched NME Breakthrough, a new music community for artists, bands and fans.

NME covers

NME Awards

NME Awards is an awards show held every year to celebrate the best new music of the past year. The nominations and eventual winners are voted for by the readers of the magazine.

NME Tours

NME sponsors a tour of the United Kingdom by up-and-coming bands each year.

NME Originals

In 2002 the NME started publishing a series of themed magazines reprinting vintage articles, interviews and reviews from the NME archives. The magazine special editions were called NME Originals, with some featuring articles from other music titles owned by IPC, including Melody Maker, Rave and Uncut magazines. Notable issues so far have featured Radiohead, The Beatles, Punk rock, Gothic rock, Britpop, The Rolling Stones, Mod, Nirvana, and the solo years of The Beatles. The series has had several editors, the most prominent of whom have been Steve Sutherland and Chris Hunt. The most recent issue of NME Originals was published in 2005.

See also

NME Radio

NME TV

NME album of the year

Melody Maker

Q magazine

Select

Sounds

List of NME Covers

References

Sources

Gorman, Paul. In Their Own Write: Adventures in the Music Press (Sanctuary, 2001). ISBN 1-86074-341-2

External links

NME.com - Official website.

List of articles from 1953-1969

NME critics list from 1974 onwards

Neil Spencer discusses his time as editor of the NME.

Category:British music magazines Category:Publications established in 1952 Category:Weekly magazines

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Coordinates	29°57′53″N90°4′14″N
Name	Dave Grohl
Background	solo_singer
Landscape	Yes
Birth name	David Eric Grohl
Alias	Late! (pseudonym for his solo album Pocketwatch), Probot
Birth date	January 14, 1969
Birth place	Warren, Ohio
Genre	Alternative rock, grunge, hardcore punk, hard rock, heavy metal
Occupation	Musician, singer-songwriter
Years active	1981–present
Instrument	Vocals, drums, guitar, bass guitar, piano
Label	RCA Capitol DGC Dischord
Associated acts	Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Scream, Them Crooked Vultures, Probot, Queens of the Stone Age, Tenacious D
notable instruments	Gibson SG Custom Gibson DG-335/Trini LopezGibson Firebird }}

David Eric "Dave" Grohl (born January 14, 1969) is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter for the Foo Fighters; the former drummer for Nirvana and Scream; and the current drummer for Them Crooked Vultures. He has also written all the music for his short-lived side projects Late! and Probot as well as being involved with Queens of the Stone Age. Furthermore, he has performed session work for a variety of musicians, including Killing Joke, Nine Inch Nails, The Prodigy, Slash, Juliette Lewis, and Lemmy Kilmister. In total, he has performed in over 30 bands.

Early life

As a child, Grohl's family relocated from Warren, Ohio, to Springfield, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Three years later, when Grohl was six, his parents divorced, and Grohl grew up living with his mother. His early influences also involved tutorials in drumming from "Treasures of the Earth" drummer Timothy Aldridge.

At the age of twelve, Grohl began learning to play guitar. He quickly grew tired of lessons and instead taught himself, and began playing in bands with friends. A year later, Grohl and his sister spent the summer in Evanston, Illinois, at their cousin Tracy's house. Tracy introduced them to punk rock by taking the pair to shows by a variety of punk bands. "From then on we were totally punk," Grohl explained. "We went home and bought Maximumrocknroll and tried to figure it all out."

In Virginia, Grohl attended Thomas Jefferson High School as a freshman and sophomore. He was elected vice president of his freshman class and played bits of songs by bands like the Circle Jerks and Bad Brains over the school intercom before his morning announcements. During his junior year, Grohl and his mother decided that he should transfer to Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria because his marijuana usage was affecting his grades.

While in high school, Grohl played in several local bands, including a stint on guitar in a band called Freak Baby. While playing in Freak Baby, he taught himself to play drums. When Freak Baby kicked out its bass player, Grohl decided to switch to drums, and the new band called themselves Mission Impossible. During his developing years as a drummer, Grohl cited John Bonham as his greatest influence, and eventually had Bonham's three-circle logo tattooed on his wrist. Mission Impossible later rebranded themselves Fast before breaking up, after which Grohl joined the post-punk-influenced hardcore punk band Dain Bramage.

Many of Grohl's early influences were gained at the 9:30 club, a live music venue in Washington D.C.: "I went to the 9:30 club hundreds of times. I was always so excited to get there, and I was always bummed when it closed. I spent my teenage years at the club and saw some shows that changed my life."

Musical career

Scream

At the age of seventeen, Grohl auditioned with local DC favorites Scream to fill the vacancy left by the departure of drummer Kent Stax. In order to be lined up for the audition, Grohl had lied about his age, claiming he was 20. To Grohl's surprise, the band asked him to join. After waffling for a brief period, Grohl accepted the offer. Grohl dropped out of high school in his junior year; he said, "I was seventeen and extremely anxious to see the world, so I did it." Over the next four years, Grohl toured extensively with the band, recording a couple of live albums (their May 4, 1990 show in Alzey, Germany being released by Tobby Holzinger as Your Choice Live Series Vol.10) and two studio albums, No More Censorship and Fumble, on which Grohl penned and sang vocals on the song "Gods Look Down".

While playing in Scream, Grohl became a fan of Melvins and eventually befriended the band. During a 1990 tour stop on the west coast, The Melvins' Buzz Osborne took a couple of his friends, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic, to see the band.

Nirvana

A few months later, Scream unexpectedly disbanded following the departure of its bass player. Grohl called Osborne for advice, and the latter gave Grohl's phone number to Krist Novoselic, who invited Grohl to Seattle, where Grohl would attend Nirvana's infamous show at the Motor Sports Garage, the one Nirvana show that featured Dan Peters on drums. (Grohl admitted to Rolling Stone magazine in 2005 that he spent most of Nirvana's set outside talking to a friend.) Grohl subsequently auditioned for the band, and soon joined them full-time.

At the time that Grohl joined Nirvana, the band had already recorded several demos for what would be the follow-up to their debut album Bleach, having spent time recording with producer Butch Vig in Wisconsin. Initially, the plans were to release the album on Sub Pop, but the band found itself receiving a great deal of major label interest based on the demos. Grohl spent the initial months with Nirvana traveling to various major labels as the band shopped for a deal, eventually signing with DGC Records. In the spring of 1991, the band entered the studio to record the album.

Upon its release, Nevermind exceeded all expectations and became a massive success, catapulting the band to worldwide stardom. At the same time, Grohl found himself fighting with his status in the band. While his drumming style was a significant element in the band's success, Grohl saw himself as just another in a long line of drummers. In his mind, Nirvana was the band that recorded Bleach; his arrival had altered that sound dramatically, and, as he saw it, not necessarily in a positive way. Though Grohl had been writing songs for several years, he declined to introduce his songs to the band for fear of damaging the band's chemistry. Instead, Grohl compiled his songs and recorded them himself, releasing a cassette called Pocketwatch in 1992 on indie label Simple Machines. Rather than using his own name, Grohl released the cassette under the pseudonym "Late!".

In the later years of Nirvana, Grohl's songwriting contributions increased. In Grohl's initial months in Seattle, Cobain overheard him working on a song called "Color Pictures of a Marigold", and the two ended up working on it. Grohl would later record the song for the Pocketwatch cassette. During the sessions for In Utero, he decided to re-record the song, and the band released this version as a b-side on the "Heart-Shaped Box" single, titled simply "Marigold". Earlier, as the band worked on new material for In Utero, Grohl contributed the main guitar riff for what ended up becoming "Scentless Apprentice". Cobain conceded in a late 1993 MTV interview that he initially thought the riff was "kind of boneheaded", but was gratified at how the song developed (a process captured in part in a demo on the Nirvana box set With the Lights Out). Cobain noted that he was excited at the possibility of having Novoselic and Grohl contribute more to the band's songwriting.

Prior to their 1994 European tour, the band decided to schedule session time at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle to work on demos. For most of the three-day session, Cobain was absent, so Novoselic and Grohl worked on demos of their own songs. The duo completed several of Grohl's songs, including future Foo Fighters songs "Exhausted", "Big Me", "February Stars", and "Butterflies". On the third day of the session, Cobain finally arrived, and the band recorded a demo of a song later named "You Know You're Right". It was the band's final studio recording.

Foo Fighters

Following Cobain's death in April 1994, Grohl retreated, unsure of where to go and what to do with himself. In October 1994, Grohl scheduled studio time, again at Robert Lang's Studio, and quickly recorded a fifteen-track demo. With the exception of a single guitar part on "X-Static" played by Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs, Grohl performed all of the instruments himself.

At the same time, Grohl wondered if his future might be in drumming for other bands. In November, Grohl took a brief turn with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, including a memorable performance on Saturday Night Live. Petty asked him to join permanently, but Grohl realized that his future lay elsewhere, and thus he declined the invitation. Grohl's name was also rumored as a possible replacement for Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abbruzzese, and Grohl even performed with the band for a song or two at three shows during Pearl Jam's March 1995 Australian tour. However, by then, Pearl Jam had already settled on ex- Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer, Jack Irons, and Grohl had other solo plans in the works.

After passing the demo around, Grohl found himself with considerable major label interest. Nirvana's A&R; rep Gary Gersh had subsequently taken over as president of Capitol Records and lured Grohl to sign with the label. Grohl did not want the effort to be considered the start of a solo career so he recruited other band members: former Germs and touring Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear, and two members of the band Sunny Day Real Estate, William Goldsmith (drums) and Nate Mendel (bass). Rather than re-record the album, Grohl's demo was given a professional mix by Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock and was released in July 1995 as Foo Fighters' debut album.

During a break between tours, the band entered the studio and recorded a cover of Gary Numan's "Down in the Park". In February 1996, Grohl and his then-wife Jennifer Youngblood made a brief cameo appearance on the X-Files third season episode "Pusher". (The two can be spotted walking in the FBI building, just after the Pusher character has put on his phony pass. Grohl pauses to look at his watch.)

After touring for the self-titled album for more than a year, Grohl returned home and began work on the soundtrack to the 1997 movie Touch. Grohl performed all of the instruments and vocals himself, save for vocals from Veruca Salt singer Louise Post on the title track, and vocals and guitar by X's John Doe on "This Loving Thing (Lynn's Song)". Grohl completed the recording in two weeks, and immediately joined Foo Fighters to work on their follow-up.

In the midst of the initial sessions for Foo Fighters' second album, tension emerged between Grohl and Goldsmith. According to Goldsmith, "Dave had me do 96 takes of one song, and I had to do thirteen hours' worth of takes on another one. ... It just seemed that everything I did wasn't good enough for him, or anyone else." Goldsmith also believed that Capitol and producer Gil Norton wanted Grohl to drum on the album. With the album seemingly complete, Grohl headed home to Virginia with a copy of the rough mixes, and found himself unhappy with the results. Grohl penned a few new songs, recording one of them, "Walking After You", by himself at a studio in Washington, DC. Inspired by the session, Grohl opted to move the band, without Goldsmith's knowledge, to Los Angeles to re-record most of the album with Grohl behind the kit. After the sessions were complete, Goldsmith officially announced his departure from the band.

The effort was released in May 1997 as the band's second album, The Colour and the Shape, which eventually cemented Foo Fighters as a staple of rock radio. The album spawned several hits, including "Everlong", "My Hero", and "Monkey Wrench". Just prior to the album's release, former Alanis Morissette drummer Taylor Hawkins joined the band on drums. The following September, Smear (a close friend of Jennifer Youngblood) left the band, citing a need to settle down following a lifetime of touring. Smear was subsequently replaced by Grohl's former Scream bandmate Franz Stahl. (Stahl departed the band prior to recording of Foo Fighters' third album and was replaced by touring guitarist Chris Shiflett, who later became a full-fledged member during the recording of One by One.)

Grohl's life of non-stop touring and travel continued with Foo Fighters' popularity. During his infrequent pauses he lived in Seattle and Los Angeles before returning to Alexandria, Virginia. It was there that he turned his basement into a recording studio where the 1999 album There Is Nothing Left to Lose was recorded.

In 2000, the band recruited Queen guitarist Brian May to add some guitar flourish to a cover of Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar", a song which Foo Fighters previously recorded as a b-side. The friendship between the two bands resulted in Grohl and Taylor Hawkins being asked to induct Queen into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Grohl and Hawkins joined May and Queen drummer Roger Taylor to perform "Tie Your Mother Down", with Grohl standing in on vocals for Freddie Mercury. (May later contributed guitar work for the song "Tired of You" on the ensuing Foo Fighters album, as well as on an unreleased Foo Fighters song called "Knucklehead".)

Near the end of 2001, Foo Fighters returned to the studio to work on their fourth album. After four months in the studio, with the sessions finished, Grohl accepted an invitation to join Queens of the Stone Age and helped them to record their 2002 album Songs for the Deaf. (Grohl can be seen drumming for the band in the video for the song "No One Knows".) After a brief tour through North America, Britain and Japan with the band and feeling rejuvenated by the effort, Grohl recalled the other band members to completely re-record their album at his studio in Virginia. The effort became their fourth album, One by One. While initially pleased with the results, in another 2005 Rolling Stone interview, Dave Grohl admitted to not liking the record: "Four of the songs were good, and the other seven I never played again in my life. We rushed into it, and we rushed out of it."

On November 23, 2002, Grohl achieved a historical milestone by replacing himself on the top of the Billboard Modern Rock chart, when "You Know You're Right" by Nirvana was replaced by "All My Life" by Foo Fighters. When "All My Life" ended its run, after a one week respite, "No One Knows" by Queens of the Stone Age took the number one spot. Between October 26, 2002 and March 1, 2003 Grohl was in the number one spot on the Modern Rock charts for 17 of 18 successive weeks, as a member of three different groups.

Grohl and Foo Fighters released their fifth album In Your Honor on June 14, 2005. Prior to starting work on the album, the band spent almost a year relocating Grohl's home-based Virginia studio to a brand new facility, dubbed Studio 606, located in a warehouse near Los Angeles. Featuring collaborations with John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and Norah Jones, the album was a departure from previous efforts, and included one rock and one acoustic disc.

Foo Fighters's sixth studio album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace was released on September 25, 2007. It was recorded during a three-month period between March 2007 and June 2007, and its release was preceded by the first single "The Pretender" on September 17. The second single, "Long Road to Ruin", was released on December 3, 2007, followed by the third single, "Let It Die", June 24, 2008.

On November 3, 2009 Foo Fighters released their first Greatest Hits collection, consisting of 16 tracks including a previously unreleased acoustic version of "Everlong" and two new tracks "Wheels" and "Word Forward" which were produced by Nevermind's producer Butch Vig. Grohl has been quoted saying the Greatest Hits is too early and "...can look like an obituary." He does not feel they have written their best hits yet.

The Foo Fighters' seventh studio album, Wasting Light, was released on April 12, 2011. It is the first Foo Fighters album to reach #1 in the United States.

Other projects

Apart from his main bands, Grohl has been involved in other music projects. In 1992, Grohl played drums on Buzz Osborne's Kiss-styled solo-EP King Buzzo, where he was credited as Dale Nixon, a pseudonym that Greg Ginn adopted to play bass on Black Flag's My War. Grohl also released the music cassette Pocketwatch under the pseudonym Late! on the now defunct indie label, Simple Machines.

In 1993, Grohl was recruited to help recreate the music of The Beatles' early years for the movie Backbeat. Grohl played drums in an "all-star" lineup that included Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs, indie producer Don Fleming, Mike Mills of R.E.M., Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, and Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum. A music video was filmed for the song "Money (That's What I Want)" while Grohl was with Nirvana on their 1994 European tour, footage of Grohl was filmed later and included.

Later in 1994, Grohl played drums on two tracks for Mike Watt's Ball-Hog or Tugboat?. In early 1995, Grohl and Foo Fighters played their first US tour opening for Watt, and helped make up Watt's supporting band. Nicknamed the "Ringspiel" tour, Watt's band featured Grohl and William Goldsmith on drums, Eddie Vedder and Pat Smear on guitar, and Watt on bass.

During the early 2000s, Grohl spent time in his basement studio writing and recording a number of songs for a "metal" project. Over the span of several years, Grohl recruited his favorite metal vocalists from the 1980s, including Lemmy of Motörhead, Conrad "Cronos" Lant from Venom, King Diamond, Scott Weinrich, and Max Cavalera of Sepultura, to perform the vocals for the songs. The project was released in 2004 under the moniker Probot.

Also in 2003, Grohl stepped behind the kit to perform on Killing Joke's second self-titled album. The move surprised some Nirvana fans, given that Nirvana had been accused of stealing the opening riff of "Come as You Are" from Killing Joke's 1984 song "Eighties". However, the controversy failed to create a lasting rift between the bands. Foo Fighters covered Killing Joke's "Requiem" during the late 1990s, and were even joined by Killing Joke singer Jaz Coleman for a performance of the song at a show in New Zealand in 2003.

Grohl lent his drumming skills to other artists during the early 2000s. In 2000, Dave played drums and sang on a track, "Goodbye Lament", from Tony Iommi's album Iommi. In 2001, Grohl performed on Tenacious D's debut album, and appeared in the video for lead single "Tribute" as Satan. He later appeared in the duo's 2006 movie Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny as Beelzeboss and performed on its soundtrack. In 2002, Grohl helped Chan Marshall of Cat Power on the album You Are Free and played with Queens of the Stone Age on their album Songs for the Deaf. Grohl also toured with the band in support of the album, delaying work on the Foo Fighters' album One by One. In 2004, Grohl drummed on several tracks for Nine Inch Nails' 2005 album With Teeth. He also drummed on the song "Bad Boyfriend" on Garbage's 2005 album Bleed Like Me. Most recently, he recorded all the drums on Juliette and the Licks's 2006 album Four on the Floor and the song "For Us" from Pete Yorn's 2006 album Nightcrawler. Beyond drumming, Grohl contributed guitar to a cover of Neil Young's "I've Been Waiting For You" on David Bowie's 2002 album Heathen.

In June 2008, Grohl was Paul McCartney's special guest for a concert at the Anfield football stadium in Liverpool, in one of the central events of the English city's year as European Capital of Culture. Grohl joined McCartney's band singing backup vocals and playing guitar on "Band on the Run" and drums on "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "I Saw Her Standing There". Grohl also performed with McCartney at the 51st Grammy Awards, again playing drums on "I Saw Her Standing There". Grohl also helped pay tribute to McCartney at the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors along with No Doubt, Norah Jones, Steven Tyler, James Taylor, and Mavis Staples. He sang a duet version of "Maybe I'm Amazed" with Norah Jones on Dec. 5 2010.

Grohl played drums on the tracks 'Run With The Wolves' and 'Stand Up' on The Prodigy's 2009 album Invaders Must Die. In July 2009, it was revealed that Grohl was recording with Josh Homme and John Paul Jones as Them Crooked Vultures. The trio performed their first show together on August 9, 2009 at Metro in Chicago. The band played their first UK gig on August 26, 2009, with a surprise appearance at Brixton Academy in London, supporting the Arctic Monkeys. The band released their debut album Them Crooked Vultures on November 16, 2009 in the UK and November 17, 2009 in the US. Grohl has recently been involved in producing emerging Brit-rock outift A Band Called Bert, notably on the track It's Over Now.

On February 6, 2010, Grohl performed with his band Them Crooked Vultures the songs "Mind Eraser, No Chaser" and "New Fang" as musical guests on Saturday Night Live. Dave Grohl appeared as an old punk rock drummer reuniting the group "Crisis of Conformity" after 25 years in a skit later on in the episode.

On October 23, 2010, Grohl performed with Tenacious D at Blizzcon. He appeared as the drummer for the entire concert.

Also in 2010, Grohl helped write and performed on drums for "Watch This" with guitarist Slash and Duff McKagan on Slash's self titled album that also included many other famous artists.

Outside of his music projects, Grohl will be making a cameo in the 2011 film The Muppets.

Personal life

Grohl has been married twice. He was first married to photographer Jennifer Youngblood from 1993 to 1997. After their divorce, Grohl had relationships with Louise Post from Veruca Salt, solo artist and Hole bassist Melissa Auf Der Maur, and pro-snowboarder Tina Basich.

He then went on to marry Jordyn Blum on August 2, 2003, at their home in Los Angeles. Guests included Clive Davis, Jack Black, and former Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic. On April 15, 2006, their daughter Violet Maye was born in Los Angeles, being named after Grohl's maternal grandmother. Earlier that year, Foo Fighters bandmate Taylor Hawkins told MTV, "We're going to be touring Europe in January and February, but we've got to be home by March, because Dave and his wife are having a baby," he said, adding, "but I probably wasn't supposed to tell you that." Grohl said that he had been playing music to his unborn child, saying "she 'likes' The Beatles. Doesn't really get down to The Beach Boys. Digs Mozart." On April 17, 2009, Grohl's second child, daughter Harper Willow, was born.

Grohl has been vocal in his views on drug misuse, contributing to a 2009 anti-drug video for the BBC. "I have never done cocaine, ever in my life. I have never done heroin, I have never done speed," he said in a 2008 interview, adding that he had stopped smoking marijuana and taking acid at the age of 20. In the BBC video he said "I've seen people die. It ain't easy being young, but that stuff doesn't make it any easier".

In May 2006, Grohl sent a note of support to the two trapped miners in the Beaconsfield mine collapse in Tasmania, Australia. In the initial days following the collapse, one of the men requested an iPod with Foo Fighters album In Your Honor, to be sent down to them through a small hole. Grohl's note read, in part, "Though I'm halfway around the world right now, my heart is with you both, and I want you to know that when you come home, there's two tickets to any Foos show, anywhere, and two cold beers waiting for yous. Deal?" In October 2006, one of the miners took up his offer, joining Grohl for a drink after Foo Fighters acoustic concert at the Sydney Opera House. Grohl wrote an instrumental piece for the meeting, which Grohl pledged he would include on the band's next album. The song, titled "Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners," appears on Foo Fighters' 2007 release Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and features Kaki King.

In August 2009 Grohl was given the key to the city of Warren, Ohio and performed the songs "Everlong", "Times Like These", and "My Hero". A roadway in downtown Warren named "David Grohl Alley" has been dedicated to him with murals by local artists.

In 2000 while on tour with Foo Fighters in Australia, Grohl was arrested by Australian police while driving a scooter for driving under the influence following a concert on the Gold Coast in Queensland. He was fined $400 and had his Australian driving permit revoked for three months. Following the incident Grohl stated: "So, people, I guess if there's anything to learn here, it's: don't drive after a few beers, even if you feel entirely capable like I did."

Discography

Notes

References

External links

Foo Fighters official website

Dave Grohl Band Discography

Live Review at ArtistDirect.com

Category:1969 births Category:American male singers Category:American multi-instrumentalists Category:American music video directors Category:American punk rock drummers Category:American rock drummers Category:American rock guitarists Category:American rock singer-songwriters Category:Backing vocalists Category:Foo Fighters members Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grunge musicians Category:Killing Joke members Category:Musicians from Ohio Category:Musicians from Virginia Category:Nirvana members Category:People from Fairfax County, Virginia Category:People from Warren, Ohio Category:Queens of the Stone Age members Category:Scream members Category:Living people Category:English-language singers Category:American heavy metal drummers

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Coordinates	29°57′53″N90°4′14″N
name	Seasick Steve
background	solo_singer
birth name	Steven Gene Wold
born	1941
origin	Oakland, California
genre	Blues, country, boogie, American folk
occupation	Musician, songwriter
instrument	Vocals, guitars, diddley bow, stomp box, banjo
label	Atlantic Records, Warner Bros. Records, Bronzerat Records, Third Man Records, Dead Skunk Records
associated acts	The Level Devils, Modest Mouse, Jack White
website	Official website
notable instruments	Three-String Trance Wonder }}

Steven Gene Wold, commonly known as Seasick Steve, (born 1941) is an American blues musician. He plays (mostly personalized) guitars, and sings, usually about his early life doing casual work.

Life and career

Childhood and early life

Wold was born in Oakland, California, USA. When he was four years old, his parents split up. His father played boogie-woogie piano and at five or six years old, Wold tried to learn but could not. At age eight, he learned to play the guitar (he later found out that it was blues) from K. C. Douglas, who worked at his grandfather's garage. Douglas wrote the song "Mercury Blues" and used to play with Tommy Johnson. Wold left home at 13 to avoid abuse at the hands of his stepfather, and lived rough and on the road in Tennessee, Mississippi and elsewhere, until 1973. He would travel long distances by hopping freight trains, looking for work as a farm labourer or in other seasonal jobs, often living as a hobo. At various times, Wold worked as a carnie, cowboy and a migrant worker.

Of this time he once said:

Adult life and early musical career

In the 1960s, he started touring and performing with fellow blues musicians, and had friends in the music scene including Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell. Since then, he has worked, on and off, as a session musician and studio engineer. In the late 1980s, while living in Olympia, near Seattle, he worked with many indie label artists. Kurt Cobain was a friend. In Dutch newspaper 'The Telegraaf' of May 31, 2011 Steve denied this, saying (in translation): Net als iedereen zag ik hem wel eens lopen en zei dan ’hallo’. Dat maakt ons toch geen vrienden? "Just like everybody else I saw him pass by in the street and said hello to him. That doesn't make us friends, does it?". Regarding his 'friendship' with Janis Joplin (same source): "We both lived in San Fransisco in the sixties. Period". In the 1990s he continued to work as a recording engineer and producer, producing several releases by Modest Mouse including their 1996 debut album This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About.

At one time, living in Paris, Wold made his living busking, mostly on the metro. After moving to Norway in 2001, Wold released his first album, entitled Cheap, recorded with The Level Devils (Jo Husmo on stand-up bass and Kai Christoffersen on drums) as his rhythm section. His debut solo album, Dog House Music was released by Bronzerat Records on 26 November 2006, after he was championed by an old friend, Joe Cushley, DJ on the Ballin' The Jack blues show on London radio station Resonance FM.

Breakthrough and subsequent career

Wold made his first UK television appearance on Jools Holland's 'Annual Hootenanny' BBC TV show (broadcast on New Year's Eve 2006) where he performed a live rendition of "Dog House Boogie" on the 'Three String Trance Wonder' and the 'Mississippi Drum Machine' (see below). After that show his popularity exploded in Britain, as he explained in an interview: and Roskilde in Denmark.

Wold's major-label debut, I Started Out with Nothin and I Still Got Most of It Left was recorded with Dan Magnusson on drums, was released by Warner Music on 29 September 2008 and features Ruby Turner and Nick Cave's Grinderman.

He has toured the UK extensively since 2007 being supported by Duke Garwood, Gemma Ray, The Sugars, Billie the Vision and the Dancers in January 2008, Amy LaVere in October 2008 ( Melody Nelson at the Brighton Dome on 7 October) and Joe Gideon & The Shark in January 2009. His tours in October 2008 and January 2009 were all sold out and included performances at the Royal Albert Hall, The Edinburgh Queens Hall, the Grand Opera House in Belfast, the Apollo in Manchester, the City Hall in Newcastle and the London Hammersmith Apollo.

In 2009, Wold was nominated for a Brit Award in the category of International Solo Male Artist, That same year, BBC Four broadcast a documentary of Wold visiting the southern USA entitled Seasick Steve: Bringing It All Back Home. On 21 January, Wold hosted "Folk America: Hollerers, Stompers and Old Time Ramblers" at the Barbican in London, a show that was also televised and shown with the documentary on BBC Four as part of a series tracing American roots music.

Seasick Steve participated on Australian television show Spicks and Specks in April 2009, wearing a beaten up John Deere cap. Wold admitted to having enough money to finally buy a model 60 John Deere Tractor, and joked that he could now really hold up traffic, a reference to the joke of his 51 Chevy breaking down at a music festival and requiring a push from members of the Icelandic band Sigur Rós.

In an interview with an Australian magazine, Seasick Steve attributes much of his unlikely success to his cheap and weather-beaten guitar, 'The Trance Wonder' and reveals the guitar’s mojo might come from supernatural sources. “I got it from Sherman, who is a friend of mine down in Mississippi, who had bought it down at a goodwill store. When we were down there last time he says to me, ‘I didn’t tell you when you bought it off me, but that guitar used to be haunted’. I say, ‘What are you talking about, Sherman?’. He says, ‘There’s 50 solid citizens here in Como who’ll tell you this guitar is haunted. It’s the darnedest thing – we’d leave it over in the potato barn and we’d come back in and it would be moved. You’d put it down somewhere and the next morning you’d come back and it would have moved. When you took that guitar the ghost in the barn left’. He told me this not very long ago and I said to him, ‘Sherman! Why didn’t you tell me this before?’ and he said, ‘Well the ghost was gone – I didn’t want it around here no more!’”

On 3 January 2010, Seasick Steve appeared on the popular BBC motoring show Top Gear as the Star In A Reasonably Priced Car. He was the last star to drive in the blue Chevrolet Lacetti.

In February 2010, Seasick Steve was nominated for a Brit Award in the category of International Solo Male Artist for the second consecutive year.

In 2010, Seasick Steve made numerous festival appearances throughout the summer, including the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, the main stage at V Festival, the main stage at the Hop Farm Festival and many more.

In February 2011, Seasick Steve signed to Play It Again Sam to release his new album with the exception of the US, where it will be released on Third Man Records. Subsequently his new album You Can't Teach An Old Dog New Tricks was released on his new labels and it was announced that former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones had played on the new album, and appeared to promote the new album and thus performing with the duo. This has caused some to believe that he will tour with Steve as a part of his backing band, joining his current drummer Dan - something Seasick Steve confirmed had (and may) happen at a few performances. John Paul Jones did indeed appear onstage to play with Steve at the Isle of Wight 2011 festival and on the main stage of Rock Werchter 2011

In July 2011, Seasick Steve played on stage with Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters & John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin at Milton Keynes National Bowl in front of a sold out audience of 65,000.

In August 2011, Seasick Steve played at Reading and Leeds Festival sharing the stage with Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones.

Musical equipment

Wold owns (and plays) several obscure and personalised instruments, including: The Three-String Trance Wonder — This is a normal guitar that resembles a Fender Coronado or a Teisco EP-7, but with only three strings. It has an old Harmony pickup added (with duct tape) and is tuned to G, A and B using an E string in the A position, a D in the G position and a G in the B position. At his gigs, he often tells the story that he bought it for $75 in this condition in Como, Mississippi from a man named Sherman, who later told him he only paid $25 for it the day before. Wold vowed never to add another string, and that he would tour the world telling his story of how Sherman ripped him off.

The Morris Minor Guitar — When on the TV show Top Gear, presenter Jeremy Clarkson commented that Steve's car history of over 100 cars included a Morris Minor. Steve then presented a 4-string guitar that his friend had made out of two old hub caps from the Minor joined back-to-back, playing it a little in the episode. Jeremy Clarkson replied that it was the best use of a Morris Minor he had ever seen.

Nickname

When asked about his nickname, Wold has said: "because it's just true: I always get seasick." When he was ill on a ferry in Norway, later in his life, a friend began playfully using the name and, despite Wold not rising to it for a while, it stuck. When asked about his name on British Sunday morning television show, Something for the Weekend, he replied, "I get sick on boats, that's it!" On Top Gear, when asked about his name, Wold replied "Well, I guess I just don't like boats!"

Personal life

Wold married his second wife, Elisabeth, in 1982 and together they have three grown-up sons. Wold has problems putting down roots in one place, and he and his wife have lived in 59 houses to date. They currently live in Norway and the UK.

One of Wold's sons, Didrik, is an illustrator who is responsible for designing all of Steve's album artwork, merchandise, print ads, and websites. His youngest son, Paul Martin Wold, played drums on Dog House Music and first made a guest appearance with him on percussion/drums at the Astoria in January, 2008 and has since performed with Seasick Steve frequently, playing washboard, shakers, tambourine, floor tom and occasionally guitar. He also works as Steve's guitar-tech. Paul Martin Wold, aka Wishful Thinking will be releasing his debut album 'A Waste of Time Well Spent' on November 2, 2009 and will showcase a selection from the album whilst touring the UK with Seasick Steve.

Discography

Studio albums

{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;" border="1" |- ! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Album Title ! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Album details ! scope="col" colspan="7"| Chart positions ! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Certifications |- ! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"|AUS

! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"|BEL (FLA)

! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"|FRA

! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"|IRE

! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"|NL

! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"|SWE

! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"|UK |- ! scope="row" | Cheap |

Released: 2004

Label: Bronzerat Records

| — || — || — || — || — || — || 198 | |- ! scope="row" | Dog House Music |

Released: 27 November 2006

Label: Bronzerat Records

| — || 99 || — || 69 || — || — || 36 | UK: Gold |- ! scope="row" | I Started Out with Nothinand I Still Got Most of It Left |

Released: 29 September 2008

Label: Warner Bros. Records

| 17 || 38 || 107 || 13 || — || 30 || 9 | UK: Gold |- ! scope="row" | Man from Another Time | UK: Gold

Released: 19 October 2009

Label: Warner Bros. Records

| — || 13 || 191 || 15 || — || — || 4 | UK: Silver |- ! scope="row" | You Can't Teach an Old Dog New Tricks |

Released: 27 May 2011

Label: Third Man Records

| — || 26 || — || 18 || 81 || — || 6 | UK: Gold |}

Compilation albums

{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;" border="1" |- ! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Album Title ! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Album details ! scope="col" colspan="1"| Chart positions ! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Certifications |- ! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"|UK |- ! scope="row" | Songs For Elisabeth |

Released: 5 February 2010

Label: Atlantic Records, Rykodisc

|33 | UK: Silver |}

EPs

{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;" border="1" |- ! scope="col"| Album Title ! scope="col"| Album details |- ! scope="row" | It's All Good |

Released: 17 June 2007

Label: Bronzerat Records

|}

Singles

{|class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;" border="1" |- ! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Year ! scope="col" rowspan="2" width="210"| Single ! scope="col" colspan="3"| Peak chart positions ! scope="col" rowspan="2"| Album |- ! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"| UK ! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"| UKIndep ! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"| US |- | 2007 ! scope="row"| "Dog House Boogie" | 187 || — || — |align="left" rowspan="2"| Dog House Music |- |rowspan="3"| 2008 ! scope="row"| "Cut My Wings" | 151 || — || — |- ! scope="row"| "It's All Good" | — || 5 || — |align="left"| non-album single |- ! scope="row"| "St. Louis Slim" | — || — || — |align="left" rowspan="2"| I Started Out with Nothinand I Still Got Most of It Left |- |rowspan="2"| 2009 ! scope="row"| "Walkin' Man" | — || — || — |- ! scope="row"| "That's All" | — || — || — |align="left"| Man from Another Time |}

Backing Band

;Current Members Dan Magnusson - Drums, percussion (2008–Present) John Paul Jones - Bass Guitar (2011–present)

;Former members, as 'The Level Devils'

Jo Husmo - Bass Guitar (200?–)

Kai Christoffersen - Drums, Percussion (2004)

Dan Magnusson - Drums, Percussion (2004–2006)

References

External links

Official website

Seasick Steve interview at musicOMH

Seasick Steve interview at Blues In London

Hobo-Low: Seasick Steve Appreciation Forum

Record Label — Bronzerat recordings

Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:American blues guitarists Category:American buskers Category:American blues musicians Category:Slide guitarists Category:American expatriates in the United Kingdom Category:Atlantic Records artists Category:Hoboes Category:American expatriates in Norway

cy:Seasick Steve da:Seasick Steve de:Seasick Steve fr:Seasick Steve gl:Seasick Steve it:Seasick Steve nl:Seasick Steve pl:Seasick Steve pt:Seasick Steve ro:Seasick Steve ru:Seasick Steve sv:Seasick Steve

Coordinates	29°57′53″N90°4′14″N
name	Kathy Kirby
background	solo_singer
birth name	Kathleen O'Rourke
born	October 20, 1938Ilford, Essex, England
died	May 19, 2011London, England
instrument	Vocals
genre	Pop
occupation	Singer
years active	1963–1983
label	Decca Records
past members	}}

Kathy Kirby (born Kathleen O'Rourke; 20 October 1938 – 19 May 2011) was an English singer who was reportedly the highest-paid female singer of her generation. She is best known for her cover version of Doris Day's "Secret Love" and for representing the United Kingdom in the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest, where she came in second place. Her physical appearance often drew comparisons with Marilyn Monroe. She peaked in popularity in the 1960s.

Early life

Kirby was born in Ilford, Essex. She was the eldest of three children of Irish parents. Her mother Eileen brought them up alone after their father left early in their childhood. Kirby grew up in Tomswood Hill, Barkingside, near Ilford and attended the Ursuline Convent School in Ilford where she sang in the choir.

Career

Kirby's voice became apparent early in life, and she took singing lessons with a view to becoming an opera singer She became a professional singer after meeting bandleader Bert Ambrose at the Ilford Palais in 1956. She remained with Ambrose's band for three years and he remained her manager, mentor and lover until his death on stage in Leeds in 1971.

She adopted the look of a "blonde bombshell", and was compared to Marilyn Monroe. She had five Top 40 hits between 1963 and 1965, the best known of which is her cover version of "Secret Love". In 1963 she won Top British Female Singer in the New Musical Express poll.

Kirby became one of the biggest stars of the early to mid 1960s, appearing in the Royal Command Variety Performance and three television series for BBC TV. She represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1965, and came second with the song "I Belong". Author and historian John Kennedy O'Connor describes Kirby's "I Belong" as being far more representative of current musical tastes than other songs from the contest, but she was beaten by France Gall from Luxembourg, singing an even more contemporary song written by Serge Gainsbourg. She also sang the theme tune of the BBC television series Adam Adamant Lives!.

After the chart success of "I Belong", Kirby recorded more than a dozen more singles between 1965 and 1967, but they all failed to chart. She continued to make television appearances, and her 1974 appearance on The Wheeltappers and Shunters Social Club TV variety show is available to watch on YouTube.

During the 1970s Kirby's singing career was eclipsed by a turbulent personal life, but she made occasional television appearances and performed a few live concerts on the "nostalgia circuit". On 31 December 1976, she performed her hit song "Secret Love" on BBC1's A Jubilee Of Music, celebrating British pop music for Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver Jubilee.

In December 1983 she gave one last concert in Blackpool, then retired from show business altogether.

Post-retirement

She did not perform in public after her retirement, but an amateur recording of Kirby singing the song "He", made about 2005, is available online.

Interest in Kirby and her work continued long after she stopped performing particularly among gay men, for whom she was something of an icon. In her last decade, she recorded short greetings for her official website, A biography was published in 2005, and there was a 2008 stage show about her life, called Secret Love.

The Daily Express reported in 2008 that plans for a new filmed interview had been abandoned, but later reports confirmed that the interview had been filmed, and it was subsequently included on a DVD compilation released the following year. She also gave an interview to the Express in 2009, billed as her first in 26 years, although a previous one had been published in 2006 , which included recent photographs.

Following the 2009 interview, the Sunday Express reported that some previously unreleased recordings would be made available on CD in 2010, and that Kirby had been approached to appear on Desert Island Discs., although neither the programme nor the CD has appeared.

Personal life

Kirby met Ambrose in her teens and, despite the 42-year age gap and his having an estranged wife at the time, began a relationship with him which lasted until his death in 1971. In the 2009 interview, she said she had had an affair with Bruce Forsyth during this time.

Kirby was married briefly to writer and former London policeman Frederick Pye in the 1970s. Following her bankruptcy in 1975, and a court case following an arrest over an unpaid hotel bill, she was referred to St Luke's psychiatric hospital in London in 1979. Following her discharge, she had a live-in lesbian relationship with a fan, Laraine McKay, and said that they intended to marry. McKay was imprisoned for fraud and forgery. In the early 1980s, Kirby had relationships with musician David Cross and lawyer Alan Porter.

Kirby was diagnosed with schizophrenia and was in poor physical and mental health for much of her life. Following her retirement, she lived in a series of apartments and hotels in West London, settling in an apartment in Emperor's Gate, South Kensington, surviving on state benefits and some royalties, many of which went missing and maintaining what has been called a "Garbo-esque" seclusion. Very shortly before her death, Kirby moved to Brinsworth House in Twickenham.

One of Kirby's nieces, Sarah, is married to Mark Thatcher and another, Claudia, became Lady Rothermere after marrying Viscount Rothermere.

Death

Kirby moved to Brinsworth House, a retirement home for entertainers, in May 2011, and died there a few days later on 19 May 2011. According to a message from a relative posted on a fan website, Kirby suffered a heart attack, but this has not been officially confirmed.

She is survived by her sister, Pat, and her brother, Douglas.

Hits

Year	Title	Chart positions
	"Dance On"
	"Let Me Go, Lover!"
"You're The One"
1965

Note: Kirby had one charted single on the US Billboard Hot 100. "The Way Of Love" peaked at #88 in 1965; Cher also recorded the track.

See also

List of number-one singles in Australia during the 1960s

List of artists who reached number one on the Australian singles chart

List of performers on Top of the Pops

List of artists under the Decca Records label

Royal Variety Performance

United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1965

United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest 1965

References

External links

Official website

"Authorised tribute page" run by a friend

A Kathy Kirby YouTube Video

Category:1938 births Category:2011 deaths Category:British Eurovision Song Contest entrants Category:Decca Records artists Category:English female singers Category:English people of Irish descent Category:English pop singers Category:Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1965 Category:People from Ilford Category:People with schizophrenia Category:Traditional pop music singers

de:Kathy Kirby fr:Kathy Kirby ga:Kathy Kirby lb:Kathy Kirby nl:Kathy Kirby pt:Kathy Kirby sh:Kathy Kirby sv:Kathy Kirby

Coordinates	29°57′53″N90°4′14″N
name	Wayne Fontana
background	solo_singer
birth name	Glyn Geoffrey Ellis
birth date	October 28, 1945
origin	Manchester, Lancashire, England
genre	Beat, pop
occupation	Singer
years active	1962-present
label	Fontana
associated acts	The Mindbenders
website	waynefontanauk.com
past members	}}

Wayne Fontana (born Glyn Geoffrey Ellis, 28 October 1945, Manchester, Lancashire) is an English pop singer. In 1962, he formed his backing group, the Mindbenders and got a recording contract.

Biography

He remained under contract to Fontana Records after parting with The Mindbenders. However, Fontana got his stage name from Elvis Presley's drummer D. J. Fontana, rather than his record label. He soldiered on alone, using musicians under the name of the Opposition. Notably, Frank Renshaw (lead guitar) (born 22 June 1943, Wythenshawe, Manchester), Bernie Burns (drums), Roy 'Rossi' Henshall (bass), Rod Gerrard (guitar, ex Herman's Hermits, and Phil Keane (drums) amongst others. Sometimes they were billed as the Mindbenders, or just as the Wayne Fontana band. Fontana's most successful solo single release was also his last, "Pamela, Pamela", which reached Number 11 in the UK Singles Chart early in 1967.

In 2005, he fought off bankruptcy, but was arrested after police were called by bailiffs who went to his home in Glossop, Derbyshire. He poured petrol on to the bonnet of a car, and set it alight with a bailiff inside. Fontana was remanded in custody on 25 May 2007 in regard to the charge. He appeared at Derby Crown Court dressed as the lady of justice, with a sword, scales, crown, cape and dark glasses, claiming "justice is blind". He dismissed his lawyers. On 10 November 2007, he was sentenced to 11 months for setting fire to the car but was released because he had already served the equivalent of the term, held under the Mental Health Act 1983.

In March 2011 Fontana was arrested at the Palace Theatre, Manchester after failing to appear in court in Wakefield, West Yorkshire over an unpaid speeding fine.

Fontana continues to perform, notably in the 2008 Solid Silver Sixties Tour.

Discography

Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders

"Hello Josephine" b/w "Road Runner" - 1963 - UK #46 (UK Fontana TF404)

"For You, For You" b/w "Love Potion No. 9" - 1963 (UK Fontana TF418)

"Little Darlin'" b/w "Come Dance With Me" - 1964 (UK Fontana TF436)

"Stop Look and Listen" b/w "Duke of Earl" - 1964 - UK #37 (UK Fontana TF451)

"Um Um Um Um Um Um" b/w "First Taste of Love" - 1964 - UK #5 (UK Fontana TF497)

"Game of Love" b/w "Since You've Been Gone" - 1965 - UK #2, US #1 (UK Fontana TF535/US Fontana F-1503)

"Game of Love" b/w "One More Time" - 1965 (US Fontana F-1509)

"It's Just a Little Bit Too Late" b/w "Long Time Comin'"- 1965 - UK #20, US #45 (UK Fontana TF579/US Fontana F-1514)

"She Needs Love" b/w "Like I Did" - 1965 - UK #32 (UK Fontana TF611/US Fontana F-1524)

Wayne Fontana (solo)

"It Was Easier to Hurt Her" b/w "You Made Me What I Am Today" - 1965 - UK #36 (UK Fontana TF642/US MGM 13456)

"Come on Home" b/w "My Eyes Break Out In Tears" - 1966 - UK #16 (UK Fontana TF684/US MGM 13516)

"Goodbye Bluebird" b/w "The Sun's So Hot Today" - 1966 - UK #49 (UK Fontana TF737)

"Pamela Pamela" b/w "Something Keeps Calling Me Back" - 1966 - UK #11 (UK Fontana TF770/US MGM 13661)

"24 Sycamore" b/w "From A Boy To A Man" - 1967 (UK Fontana TF827/US MGM 13762) (huge hit in Australia)

"The Impossible Years" b/w "In My World" - 1967 (UK Fontana TF866) (Australian hit)

"Gina" b/w "We All Love the Human Race" - 1967 (UK Fontana TF889) (No.1 in Rio de Janeiro)

"Storybook Children" b/w "I Need To Love You" - 1968 (UK Fontana TF911)

"The Words of Bartholomew" b/w "Mind Excursion" - 1968 (UK Fontana TF933)

"Never An Everyday Thing" b/w "Waiting For A Break In The Clouds" - 1968 (UK Fontana TF976)

"Dayton Ohio 1903" b/w "Say Goodbye To Yesterday" - 1969 (UK Fontana TF1008/US Metromedia 133)

"We're Building a Love" b/w "Charlie Cass" - 1969 (UK Fontana TF1054, early pressings)

"Charlie Cass" b/w "Linda" (UK Fontana TF1054, later pressings) - 1969

"Together" b/w "One Man Woman" (UK Warner Bros. K 16269) (hit in Australia) - 1973

"The Last Bus Home" b/w "Give Me Just A Little Bit" - 1976 (UK Polydor 2058 758)

Albums

Wayne One - 1966 (UK Fontana TL5351 (Mono)/STL5351 (Stereo))

Wayne Fontana - 1967 (US MGM E 4459 (Mono)/SE 4459 (Stereo))

References

External links

Official Site (now defunct) archives at the Wayback Machine

Category:British Invasion artists Category:1945 births Category:People from Manchester Category:Living people Category:English pop singers

de:Wayne Fontana & the Mindbenders hr:Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders