Branches of Mathematics

Pure mathematics

• Algebra
• Calculus
• Geometry
• Topology
• Trignometry
• Combinatorics
• Logic
• Number theory

Applied mathematics

• Dynamical systems and differential equations
• Mathematical physics
• Computing
• Information theory and signal processing
• Probability and statistics
• Game theory
• Operations research

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• Electromagnetic Spectrum
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• 
  

• 
  Camden Town
  Coordinates: 51°32′28″N 0°08′36″W / 51.541°N 0.1433°W / 51.541; -0.1433
  Camden Town is a district of Inner London in northwest London, England, and the central neighbourhood of the London Borough of Camden. It is located 2.4 miles (3.9 km) north-northwest of Charing Cross and is one of the 35 major centres identified in the London Plan. It was laid out as a residential district from 1791 and was originally part of the manor of Kentish Town and the parish of St Pancras, Middlesex. The town became an important location during the early development of the railways and is also located on the London canal network. Its industrial heritage has made way for retail, tourism and entertainment, including a number of internationally renowned markets and music venues that are strongly associated with alternative culture.
  Camden Town is named after Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden. His earldom was styled after his estate, Camden Place near Chislehurst in Kent (now in the London Borough of Bromley), formerly owned by historian William Camden. The name, which appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1822, was later applied to the early 20th century Camden Town Group of artists and the London borough of Camden, created in 1965.
  
  wn.com/Camden_Town
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  Canada
  Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km² (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
  The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.
  
  wn.com/Canada
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  England
  England ⁱ/ˈɪŋɡlənd/ is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, while the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separate it from continental Europe. Most of England comprises the central and southern part of the island of Great Britain in the North Atlantic. The country also includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
  The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Palaeolithic period, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world. The English language, the Anglican Church, and English law—the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world—developed in England, and the country's parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England's Royal Society laid the foundations of modern experimental science.
  
  wn.com/England
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  Liverpool
  Liverpool ( /ˈlɪvəpuːl/) is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Liverpool was 445,200 and was part of a larger urban area of 816,216.
  Historically a part of Lancashire, the urbanisation and expansion of Liverpool were both largely brought about by the city's status as a major port. By the 18th century, trade from the West Indies, Ireland and mainland Europe coupled with close links with the Atlantic Slave Trade furthered the economic expansion of Liverpool. By the early 19th century, 40% of the world's trade passed through Liverpool's docks, contributing to Liverpool's rise as a major city.
  Inhabitants of Liverpool are referred to as Liverpudlians but are also colloquially known as "Scousers", in reference to the local dish known as "scouse", a form of stew. The word "Scouse" has also become synonymous with the Liverpool accent and dialect. Liverpool's status as a port city has contributed to its diverse population, which, historically, were drawn from a wide range of peoples, cultures, and religions, particularly those from Ireland. The city is also home to the oldest Black African community in the country and the oldest Chinese community in Europe.
  
  wn.com/Liverpool
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  Tyne and Wear
  Tyne and Wear /ˌtaɪn ənd ˈwɪər/ is a metropolitan county in north east England around the mouths of the Rivers Tyne and Wear. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. It consists of the five metropolitan boroughs of South Tyneside, North Tyneside, City of Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead and the City of Sunderland.
  Prior to reforms in 1974, the territory comprising the county of Tyne and Wear straddled the border between the counties of Northumberland and County Durham. North Tyneside and Newcastle upon Tyne had previously existed within of Northumberland, whereas South Tyneside, Gateshead and Sunderland were all previously within the borders of County Durham, with the River Tyne forming the border of the two counties.
  Tyne and Wear is bounded on the east by the North Sea, and as a ceremonial county, shares borders with Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south.
  Tyne and Wear County Council was abolished in 1986, and so its districts (the metropolitan boroughs) are now unitary authorities. However, the metropolitan county continues to exist in law and as a geographic frame of reference.
  
  wn.com/Tyne_and_Wear

• Alistair Griffin
  Alistair Richard Griffin (born 1 November 1977, Middlesbrough, England) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Already an established songwriter, he first became famous as a solo artist through his appearances on the BBC television show Fame Academy 2 in 2003, where he was "spotted" and championed by Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees. He subsequently had two top twenty hit singles and a top twenty album in the UK. In 2007 he received worldwide press coverage for his adaptation of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" as a tribute to football player, Mark Viduka.
  Alistair Griffin started singing and writing songs whilst still a student at York St John College (now York St John University), playing guitar and busking on the streets of York with a small band. His wide musical influences range from classic rock and 'Britpop', to English and American folk music. After graduating with a BA(Hons) in English Literature (and following a brief stint working as a milkman around his home town, during which he crashed his milk float), he moved to London to pursue a career as a singer/songwriter.
  
  wn.com/Alistair_Griffin
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  Angelina Jolie
  Angelina Jolie ( /dʒoʊˈliː/ joh-LEE, born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress and director. She has received an Academy Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards, and was named Hollywood's highest-paid actress by Forbes in 2009 and 2011. Jolie promotes humanitarian causes, and is noted for her work with refugees as a Special Envoy and former Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). She has been cited as the world's "most beautiful" woman, a title for which she has received substantial media attention.
  Jolie made her screen debut as a child alongside her father Jon Voight in Lookin' to Get Out (1982), but her film career began in earnest a decade later with the low-budget production Cyborg 2 (1993). Her first leading role in a major film was in the cyber-thriller Hackers (1995). She starred in the critically acclaimed biographical television films George Wallace (1997) and Gia (1998), and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the drama Girl, Interrupted (1999).
  
  wn.com/Angelina_Jolie
• Anne Dudley
  Anne Dudley (born Anne Jennifer Beckingham, 7 May 1956, Chatham, Kent) is an English composer and pop musician, and was the first BBC Concert Orchestra's Composer in Association in 2001. She has worked in both the classical and pop genres. She is perhaps best known, however, as one of the core members of the synthpop band Art of Noise and also as a film composer. In 1998, she won an Academy Award for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score for The Full Monty.
  Trained as a classical performer, Dudley then moved to the competitive commercial field as a session musician, where her professional relationship with Trevor Horn began. In 1982 Dudley made significant contributions to the Horn produced The Lexicon of Love album by ABC. She went from fleshing-out keyboard parts to scoring the album's orchestrations (her first ever string arrangements according to Horn) and also co-writing some of the songs. Her association with Horn, led on to working with groups such as Pet Shop Boys, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Seal, Marc Almond, Rod Stewart, Robbie Williams and more recently with Siphiwo. She has co-written songs with Malcolm McLaren "Buffalo Gals", Cathy Dennis "Too Many Walls", and a 1930's inspired song with Sting called "This Was Never Meant To Be".
  
  wn.com/Anne_Dudley
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  Annie Lennox
  Ann "Annie" Lennox, OBE (born 25 December 1954), is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving minor success in the late 1970s as part of the New Wave band The Tourists, she and fellow musician David A. Stewart went on to achieve major international success in the 1980s as Eurythmics. Lennox is the most recognized female artist at the Brit Awards, winning a total of eight awards. She has also been named the "Brits Champion of Champions".
  Lennox embarked on a solo career in the 1990s with her debut album, Diva (1992), which produced several hit singles including "Why" and "Walking on Broken Glass". To date, she has released five solo studio albums and a compilation album, The Annie Lennox Collection (2009). She is the recipient of eight Brit Awards, four Grammy Awards and an MTV Video Music Award. In 2002, Lennox received a Billboard Century Award; the highest accolade from Billboard Magazine. In 2004, she won both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Into the West", written for the soundtrack to the feature film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
  
  wn.com/Annie_Lennox
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  Arif Mardin
  Arif Mardin (March 15, 1932 – June 25, 2006) was a Turkish-American music producer, who worked with hundreds of artists across many different styles of music, including jazz, rock, soul, disco, and country. He worked at Atlantic Records for over 30 years, as both an assistant, producer, arranger, studio manager, and vice president, before moving to EMI and serving as vice president and general manager of Manhattan Records. His collaborations include working with Queen, The Bee Gees, Anita Baker, Aretha Franklin, Bette Midler, Laura Branigan, Chaka Khan, Scritti Politti, Phil Collins, Daniel Rodriguez, Norah Jones, Richard Marx, Culture Club and Jewel. Mardin was awarded 11 Grammy Awards.
  Arif Mardin was born in Istanbul into a renowned family that included statesmen, diplomats and leaders in the civic, military and business sectors of the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic. His father was co-owner in a petroleum gas station chain.
  Mardin grew up listening to the likes of Bing Crosby and Glenn Miller. Through his sister he met jazz critic Cuneyt Sermet, who turned him onto this music and eventually became his mentor. After graduating from Istanbul University in Economics and Commerce, Mardin studied at the London School of Economics. Influenced by his sister's music records and jazz, he was also an accomplished orchestrator and arranger, but he never intended to pursue a career in music. However, he made two solo albums: Glass Onion, in 1970, and Journey, in 1975. In Journey, he was the composer and arranger, but he also played electric piano and percussion, and was accompanied by many stars of jazz (Randy and Michael Brecker, Joe Farrell, Gary Burton, Ron Carter, Steve Gadd, Billy Cobham and many others).
  
  wn.com/Arif_Mardin
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  Aviv Geffen
  Aviv Geffen (אביב גפן, born May 10, 1973) is an Israeli rock musician, singer, songwriter, producer, keyboardist and guitarist. He is the son of writer and poet Yehonatan Geffen and Nurit Makover, brother of actress Shira Geffen, and an alumnus of Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music.
  Geffen was and is extremely popular among Israeli youth, who were known during the 1990s as the "Moonlight Children". Politically, he associates with the Israeli left. His music deals with subjects such as love, peace, death, suicide, politics, the army in general and the IDF specifically. He is often criticized for not serving in the IDF, though, officially, he was discharged for medical reasons.
  In 2005, he was voted the 59th greatest Israeli of all time, in a poll by the Israeli news website Ynet to determine whom the general public considered the 200 Greatest Israelis.
  Geffen was born and raised in Ramat Gan. Geffen's first public performance was in 1984, in the Israeli youth program "Sminiyot BaAvir" on the Israeli Channel 1, in which he sang the song "You're only 40 years old" which his sister wrote and which he composed by himself. In 1987 Geffen participated in the amateur film "Hamitpahat", for which he wrote and sang the song "Ima".
  
  wn.com/Aviv_Geffen
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  Benoît David
  Benoît David (born 19 April 1966) is the Canadian lead singer of the band Mystery. He was also the lead vocalist of the English progressive rock band Yes from 2008 to 2012, replacing long-time vocalist Jon Anderson, but later left due to ill health. Before joining Yes, David was also the lead vocalist of a Yes tribute band called Close to the Edge.
  In 2008, David was announced as the lead singer of a line-up headed by Steve Howe, Chris Squire and Alan White of Yes for a tour later that year. David came to the attention of Squire through YouTube videos of his work with Close to the Edge. David stood in for Jon Anderson, who was unable to tour because of ill health following acute respiratory failure earlier in the year. The tour was cut short when Squire became ill and David returned to work with Mystery and Close to the Edge.
  David has since remained with Yes, the band touring in 2009/10. In October 2009, it was announced that David had formally joined Yes. Early in 2011, the band finished their next album, titled Fly From Here, with David on lead vocals.
  
  wn.com/Benoît_David
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  Bette Midler
  Bette Midler (born December 1, 1945) is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys. During her more than forty-year career, Midler has been nominated for two Academy Awards, and won three Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, and a special Tony Award. She has sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Her voice type is categorized as deep mezzo soprano.
  Midler was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her parents moved from Paterson, New Jersey to Honolulu before she was born, and hers was one of the few Jewish families in a mostly Asian neighborhood. Her mother, Ruth (née Schindel), was a seamstress and housewife, and her father, Fred Midler, worked at a Navy base in Hawaii as a painter. She was named after actress Bette Davis, though Davis pronounced her first name in two syllables, and Midler uses one, /ˈbɛt/. She was raised in Aiea and attended Radford High School, in Honolulu. She was voted "Most Talkative" in the 1961 school Hoss Election, and in her Senior Year (Class of 1963), "Most Dramatic". Midler majored in drama at the University of Hawaii, but left after three semesters. She earned money in the 1966 film Hawaii as an extra, playing an uncredited seasick passenger named Miss David Buff.
  
  wn.com/Bette_Midler
• Biddu
  Biddu or Biddu Appaiah (born 1944) is an Indian-British music producer, composer, song-writer and singer who produced and composed many hit records worldwide during a career spanning five decades. Considered one of the pioneers of disco,Euro disco, and Indi-pop, he has sold millions of records worldwide, and has received Grammy and Ivor Novello awards for his work.
  Biddu was born in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. He began his music career in the 1960s, singing as part of a music band in India before moving to England where he would start his career as a producer. He eventually found some success producing a hit song for Japanese band The Tigers in 1969, scoring the soundtrack for 1972 British film Embassy, and producing several early disco songs that would find a niche audience in British northern soul clubs during the early 1970s.
  His international breakthrough came in 1974 with "Kung Fu Fighting" performed by Carl Douglas; the song became one of the best-selling singles of all time with eleven million records sold, helped popularize disco music, was the first worldwide disco hit from Britain and Europe, and established Biddu as one of the most prolific dance music producers from outside the United States at the time. He soon began producing his own instrumental albums under the name Biddu Orchestra, which started an orchestral disco trend in Britain and Europe with 1975 hits "Summer of '42" and Blue Eyed Soul; his solo albums eventually sold 40 million copies worldwide. He also launched the careers of other British disco stars such as Tina Charles, helping her sell 36 million records within a few years, and Jimmy James; scored soundtracks for several British films such as The Stud (1978); and produced a hit song for late French singer Claude François. Biddu also experimented with electronic disco and Hi-NRG music from the mid-1970s, and influenced British New Wave bands such as The Buggles, founded by two of his former session musicians Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes.
  
  wn.com/Biddu
• Bill Bottrell
  Bill Bottrell (born 1952) is an American record producer, songwriter and musician, probably best known for his Grammy Award-winning collaborations with Michael Jackson, E.L.O. and Sheryl Crow.
  Between 1967 and 1970, Bottrell attended Crescenta Valley Senior High in La Crescenta, California, where he graduated in 1970. He attended the University of California, Santa Barbara between 1970 and 1972, studying for a Bachelor's Degree in Music.
  In 1974, he married Elizabeth Jordan, whom he met in high school. That same year, Bottrell got his first job in music, as an engineer at California Recording Studio in Hollywood. In 1978, he moved over to Soundcastle Studios in Silverlake, where he met Jeff Lynne, who eventually hired him to engineer for ELO. In 1979 his daughter Adrianne was born. The 1980s were spent freelance engineering between Europe and Los Angeles, with clients including: The Jacksons, ELO, Michael Jackson, Madonna, George Harrison, Starship and Tom Petty. Daughter Laura was born in 1983. He worked for Michael Jackson at his house in Encino between 1984 and 1986, recording tracks for Bad. In 1988, Bottrell co-produced his first record, Aliens Ate My Buick by Thomas Dolby. In 1989, Michael Jackson asked him to co-produce, engineer and write songs for his album Dangerous, co-writing the album’s biggest hit, "Black or White". The song spent 7 weeks at number one on the U.S. Hot 100 chart in the fall of 1991.
  
  wn.com/Bill_Bottrell
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  Bill Bruford
  William Scott "Bill" Bruford (born 17 May 1949 in Sevenoaks, Kent) is an English drummer, percussionist, composer, producer, and record label owner. He was the original drummer for the progressive rock group Yes, from 1968-1972. Bruford has performed for numerous popular acts since the early 1970s, including a stint as touring drummer for Genesis in 1976. Following his departure from Yes and at various times until 1997, Bruford was the drummer for progressive rock band King Crimson. Bruford moved away from progressive rock to concentrate on jazz, leading his own jazz group, Earthworks, for several years. He retired from public performance in 2009, but continues to run his two record labels and to speak about music. His autobiography, Bill Bruford: The Autobiography, was published in early 2009.
  He began playing the drums when he was thirteen, and was influenced by jazz drumming, which manifested itself on early Yes albums and remained an influence on his style throughout his career. He had success in the early seventies during his time with Yes playing on their first five albums including the LPs The Yes Album, Fragile, and Close to the Edge. He left Yes in 1972, returning briefly for the Union album which was released in 1991.
  
  wn.com/Bill_Bruford
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  Billy Sherwood
  William "Billy" Wyman Sherwood (born March 14, 1965, Las Vegas, Nevada) is a musician, record producer, and engineer.
  Sherwood comes from a musical family which includes his father Bobby Sherwood, who was an actor, musician, and big band leader, his mother Phyllis, a singer and drummer, and brother Michael, a keyboardist and singer. His godfather is the late Milton Berle. Billy has a wife, Michi.
  Billy Sherwood's music career started when he joined a band formed by Michael. Called Lodgic, Billy played bass and sung while Michael played keyboards and sang back up. Lodgic also included Guy Allison on keyboards, Jimmy Haun on guitar and Gary Starns on drums. They eventually moved the band to Los Angeles in 1980. After many years of trying to get things together, they recorded their debut album Nomadic Sands, released in 1985.
  Lodgic eventually broke up, and Billy Sherwood put together a new band with Guy Allison. They recruited guitarist Bruce Gowdy and drummer Mark T. Williams to form World Trade. They recorded their self-titled debut in 1989, with Sherwood taking on the roles of engineer, mixer, and producer again, along with his band duties as bassist and lead singer.
  
  wn.com/Billy_Sherwood
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  Bob Geldof
  Robert Frederick Zenon "Bob" Geldof, KBE, (born 5 October 1951) is an Irish singer, songwriter, author, occasional actor and political activist. He rose to prominence as the lead singer of the Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats in the late 1970s and early 1980s alongside the punk rock movement. The band had hits with his compositions "Rat Trap" and "I Don't Like Mondays". He co-wrote "Do They Know It's Christmas?", one of the best-selling singles of all time. He starred as Pink in Pink Floyd's 1982 film Pink Floyd The Wall.
  Geldof is widely recognised for his activism, especially anti-poverty efforts concerning Africa. In 1984 he and Midge Ure founded the charity supergroup Band Aid to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia. They went on to organise the charity super-concert Live Aid the following year and the Live 8 concerts in 2005. Geldof currently serves as an adviser to the ONE Campaign, founded by fellow Irish humanitarian Bono. A single father, Geldof has also been outspoken for the fathers' rights movement. Geldof has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, was granted an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II, and is a recipient of the Man of Peace title which recognises individuals who have made "an outstanding contribution to international social justice and peace", among numerous other awards and nominations.
  
  wn.com/Bob_Geldof
• Bruce Woolley
  Bruce Woolley (born 11 November 1953) is an English writer, performer, record producer and composer.
  Bruce Woolley was born in Loughborough, England on 11 November 1953 and was educated at Loughborough Grammar School where he learned electric guitar, began to write songs and where he met his future wife, Tessa. He lived in Shepshed, playing the UK pub and club circuit extensively for some years, before landing his first professional engagement in 1974, with Ivor Kenney’s Dance Band at Leicester Palais. After a transfer to Derby Tiffany’s, Bruce left Ivor and the Mecca circuit for London in 1976 to pursue a career in song writing, after being offered a publishing contract with Everblue Music, in Piccadilly.
  10 years' writing finally paid off with his first hit "Dancing With Dr Bop" for Australian group the Studs – a number one record. After a short tour of the Orient as guitarist for Tina Charles, this was followed by his first English hit "Baby Blue" for Dusty Springfield, co-written with Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, and soon after that in 1979 he had his first international hit, the Ivor Novello Award-nominated "Video Killed The Radio Star" – also co-written with Horn and Downes who later became The Buggles. Although Woolley owns a 50% writing share of the song and the trio wrote the band’s third single "Clean Clean", Woolley was never a member of The Buggles. He was, in his own words, merely "on the design team".
  
  wn.com/Bruce_Woolley
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  Bryan Adams
  Bryan Adams, OC OBC (born Bryan Guy Adams, 5 November 1959) is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. For his contributions to music, Adams has many awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations, 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television in 1992. He has also won MTV, ASCAP, and American Music awards. In addition, he has won two Ivor Novello Awards for song composition and has been nominated for several Golden Globe Awards and three times for Academy Awards for his songwriting for films.
  Adams was awarded the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for contributions to popular music and philanthropic work via his own foundation, which helps improve education for people around the world.
  Adams was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, with the 2,435th star in March 2011 and Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998, and in April 2006 he was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at Canada's Juno Awards. In 2008, Bryan was ranked 38 on the list of All-Time top artists by the Billboard Hot 100 50th Anniversary Charts. On 13 January 2010, he received the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award for his part in numerous charitable concerts and campaigns during his career, and on 1 May 2010 was given the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for his 30 years of contributions to the arts.
  
  wn.com/Bryan_Adams
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  Celine Dion
  Céline Marie Claudette Dion, CC OQ, (French pronunciation: [selin djɔ̃] ( listen); born March 30, 1968), is a Canadian singer. Born to a large family from Charlemagne, Quebec, Dion emerged as a teen star in the French-speaking world after her manager and future husband René Angélil mortgaged his home to finance her first record. In 1990, she released the English-language album Unison, establishing herself as a viable pop artist in North America and other English-speaking areas of the world.
  Dion had first gained international recognition in the 1980s by winning both the 1982 Yamaha World Popular Song Festival and the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest. Following a series of French albums in the early 1980s, she signed on to CBS Records Canada in 1986. During the 1990s, with the help of Angélil, she achieved worldwide fame after signing with Epic Records and releasing several English albums along with additional French albums, becoming one of the most successful artists in pop music history. However, in 1999 at the height of her success, Dion announced a hiatus from entertainment in order to start a family and spend time with her husband, who had been diagnosed with cancer. She returned to the top of pop music in 2002 and signed a three-year (later extended to almost five years) contract to perform nightly in a five-star theatrical show at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Paradise, Nevada.
  
  wn.com/Celine_Dion
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  Charlotte Church
  Charlotte Maria Church (born Charlotte Maria Reed; 21 February 1986) is a Welshsinger-songwriter, actress and television presenter. She rose to fame in childhood as a classical singer before branching into pop music in 2005. By 2007, she had sold more than 10 million records worldwide including over 5 million in the United States. In 2010 she was reported to be worth as much as £11m (though one 2003 report quoted her worth at £25m). She hosted a Channel 4 chat show titled The Charlotte Church Show. Church released her first album in five years, titled Back To Scratch, on 17 October 2010. She is also mentioned as one of the Bohemians in Ben Elton's musical We Will Rock You.
  Charlotte Church was born Charlotte Maria Reed in Llandaff, a district of Cardiff, Wales. She was brought up as a Roman Catholic by her mother, Maria, who was separated from Church's biological father, Stephen Reed. Church was adopted by her mother's second husband, James Church in 1986. Her break came at 11 when she sang Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Pie Jesu" over the telephone on the television show "This Morning" in 1997, followed by her performance on ITV's Big, Big Talent Show in 1997. This led to concerts at Cardiff Arms Park, the Royal Albert Hall and opening for Shirley Bassey in Antwerp. She also received a vocal scholarship to Howell's School Llandaff in Cardiff where she started in 1998 after leaving The Cathedral School, Llandaff. She balanced performing and school with help from tutors for when she was on the road and said in many interviews that she was "just like every other girl her age".
  
  wn.com/Charlotte_Church
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  Cher
  Cher ( /ˈʃɛər/) (born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American recording artist, television personality, actress, director, record producer, and philanthropist. Referred to as the Goddess of Pop, she has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globes, and a Cannes Film Festival Award for her work in film, music, and television. She is the only person in history to receive all five awards. She began her career as a backup singer and came to prominence in 1965 as one-half of the pop rock duo Sonny & Cher with the success of their song "I Got You Babe". She subsequently established herself as a solo recording artist and became a television star in 1971 with The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, a variety show for which she won a Golden Globe. A well-received performance in the film Silkwood earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress of 1983. In the following years, she starred in a string of hit films including Mask, The Witches of Eastwick, and Moonstruck, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress of 1987.
  
  wn.com/Cher
• Chris Braide
  Christopher Braide is an English singer, songwriter, record producer published by Sony/ATV worldwide based in Los Angeles.
  Producer, songwriter and Ivor Novello, ASCAP and Billboard award winner Christopher Braide has achieved considerable success as a songwriter and producer in the UK and the US. His songs have helped to sell over 30 million records. In an article for GQ magazine, Braide featured among the most successful and influential men in the music business under the age of 40. He is a former member of the Producers, a band which he founded with fellow record producers Trevor Horn and Stephen Lipson.
  Braide has recently produced and written songs for Lana Del Rey, Sia Furler, Paloma Faith, and, along with Pharrell Williams produced the US debut full-length by Yuna
  In 1993, Braide recorded an album for Polydor Records. The album was produced by Thomas Dolby and Simply Red's Mick Hucknall.
  In 1996, Dave Stewart signed Braide to his Warner Brothers backed label Anxious Records who released a single co written with Chris Difford "If I Hadn't Got You", and second single "Heavenly Rain", followed a year later by the album, Life In A Minor Key which was co-produced by Braide and David A. Stewart at Electric Lady Studios in New York. The record was released in the US on Atlantic Records.
  
  wn.com/Chris_Braide
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  Chris Squire
  Christopher Russell Edward "Chris" Squire (born 4 March 1948), is an English musician, known as the bass guitarist and backing vocalist for the progressive rock group Yes. He is the only member of the group to appear on every album. He is widely regarded as the dominant bass guitarist among the early seventies British progressive rock bands, influencing peers and later generations of bassists with his incisive sound and elaborately contoured, melodic bass lines.
  He was born in Kingsbury, a suburb of northwest London, in England. His father was a cab driver, and his mother a housewife. He was trained in the St Andrew's church choir as a young boy, beginning his musical career with a group called the "Selfs", along with his friend Andrew Jackman who played the keyboards. The band had their own venue at the St Andrew's church hall where on Friday nights they played at their own club, called appropriately, the "Graveyard Club". This was run by a group of local Grammar School boys which included Jonathan Angell, Bill Mesley, Chris Mann and Colin Mallett.
  
  wn.com/Chris_Squire
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  Danny Elfman
  Daniel Robert "Danny" Elfman (born May 29, 1953) is an American composer, best known for scoring music for television and film and creating The Simpsons main title theme as well as the 1989 Batman movie theme. He was the lead singer and songwriter for the rock band Oingo Boingo, from 1976 to 1995. He has scored the majority of the films for his long-time friend Tim Burton.
  Born in Los Angeles, he entered the film industry in 1976, initially as an actor. He made his film scoring début in in 1980 for the film Forbidden Zone directed by his older brother Richard Elfman. He has since been nominated for four Academy Awards and won a Grammy Award for Tim Burton's Batman and an Emmy Award for his Desperate Housewives theme. Elfman was honored with the prestigious Richard Kirk award at the 2002 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music.
  Elfman was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Blossom Elfman (née Bernstein), a writer and teacher, and Milton Elfman, a teacher who was in the Air Force. Elfman grew up in a racially mixed community in the Baldwin Hills area of Los Angeles. He spent much of his time in the local movie theatre, adoring the music of such film composers as Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman.
  
  wn.com/Danny_Elfman
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  David Bowie
  David Bowie ( /ˈboʊ.i/ BOH-ee; born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. He is known for his distinctive voice and the intellectual depth and eclecticism of his work.
  Bowie first caught the eye and ear of the public in July 1969, when his song "Space Oddity" reached the top five of the UK Singles Chart. After a three-year period of experimentation he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era with the flamboyant, androgynous alter ego Ziggy Stardust, spearheaded by the hit single "Starman" and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Bowie's impact at that time, as described by biographer David Buckley, "challenged the core belief of the rock music of its day" and "created perhaps the biggest cult in popular culture." The relatively short-lived Ziggy persona proved merely one facet of a career marked by continual reinvention, musical innovation and striking visual presentation.
  
  wn.com/David_Bowie
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  David Foster
  David Walter Foster, OC, OBC (born November 1, 1949), is a Canadian musician, record producer, composer, singer, songwriter, and arranger, noted for discovering singers such as Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, and Charice Pempengco; and for producing some of the most successful artists in the world, such as Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Céline Dion, Andrea Bocelli, Toni Braxton, Madonna, Air Supply and Michael Jackson. Foster has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. David Foster is the current Chairman of Verve Music Group.
  Throughout his career, he has produced recordings for a wide range of musical artists, including Bryan Adams, Tamia, Christina Aguilera, The Bee Gees, Andrea Bocelli, Boz Scaggs, Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, Chicago, Destiny's Child, Neil Diamond, Céline Dion, Earth Wind and Fire, Gloria Estefan, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Chaka Khan, Beyonce Knowles, Kenny Loggins, Madonna, Olivia Newton-John, Nsync, All-4-One, Plus One, Charice Pempengco, Prince, LeAnn Rimes, Kenny Rogers, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Shania Twain, Hall & Oates, Tim Feehan, The Tubes, and Jackie Evancho.
  
  wn.com/David_Foster
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  David Gilmour
  David Jon Gilmour,CBE (born 6 March 1946) is an English rock musician and multi-instrumentalist who is best known as the guitarist, one of the lead singers and main songwriters in the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. It is estimated that as of 2010, the group have sold over 250 million records worldwide, including 74.5 million units sold in the United States.
  In addition to his work with Pink Floyd, Gilmour has worked as a producer for a variety of artists, and has enjoyed a successful career as a solo artist. Gilmour has been actively involved with many charities over the course of his career.
  In 2003, he was appointed CBE for his charity work and was awarded with the Outstanding Contribution title at the 2008 Q Awards. In 2011, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him number 14 in their list of the greatest guitarists of all time.
  Gilmour was born in Cambridge, England. His father, Douglas Gilmour, was a senior lecturer in zoology at the University of Cambridge and his mother, Sylvia (née Wilson), was a teacher and film editor who raised her family at Grantchester Meadows, later immortalised by a Roger Waters song on Pink Floyd's Ummagumma. He has a younger brother who is also a musician.
  
  wn.com/David_Gilmour
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  Dusty Springfield
  Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienOBE (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s. With her distinctive sensual sound, she was an important white soul singer, and at her peak was one of the most successful British female performers, with 18 singles in the Billboard Hot 100 from 1964 to 1970. She is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the U.K. Music Hall of Fame. International polls have named Springfield among the best female rock artists of all time.
  Born in West London to an Irish Catholic family that enjoyed music, Springfield learned to sing at home. She joined her first professional group, The Lana Sisters, in 1958, then formed the pop-folk vocal trio The Springfields in 1960 with her brother Dion.
  Her solo career began in 1963 with the upbeat pop hit, "I Only Want to Be with You" (1963). Among the hits that followed were "Wishin' and Hopin'" (1964), "I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself" (1964), "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" (1966), and "Son of a Preacher Man" (1968). A fan of American pop music, she was the first public figure to bring little-known soul singers to a wider British audience, when she created and hosted the first British performances of the top-selling Motown artists in 1965. By 1966, she was the best-selling female singer in the world, and topped a number of popularity polls, including Melody Maker's Best International Vocalist. She was the first British singer to top the New Musical Express readers' poll for Female Singer. Her image, supported by a peroxide blonde beehive hairstyle, evening gowns, and heavy make-up, made her an icon of the Swinging Sixties.
  
  wn.com/Dusty_Springfield
• Eddy Offord
  Eddy Offord is a former record producer and recording engineer, who worked on some of the most famous progressive rock albums of the 1970s, often at London's Advision Studios. He is especially well known for his work with the groups Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Yes. ELP wrote a tribute to Offord with the song "Are You Ready, Eddy?", featured on their 1971 album Tarkus. Chris Squire of Yes described Offord's influence on their album Fragile with the following words: "Eddy Offord's maturity as a producer and engineer gives Fragile the sonic depth and sophistication it deserves and this made the album in fact 'fragile'".
  In 1999, Offord retired from the music business. In an interview for Yes fan site "Notes From The Edge", he said that music no longer plays a big part in his life.
  Offord currently lives part of the year in NYC and the rest of the time he travels the world on his sailboat with his wife Valma. Currently the boat is in South America.
  
  
  Tim Morse interview with Eddy Offord
  
  wn.com/Eddy_Offord
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  Eric Clapton
  Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, (born 30 March 1945) is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and influential guitarists of all time. Clapton ranked second in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's Top 50 Guitarists of All Time.
  In the mid 1960s, Clapton departed from the Yardbirds to play blues with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. In his one-year stay with Mayall, Clapton gained the nickname "Slowhand". Immediately after leaving Mayall, Clapton formed Cream, a power trio with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce in which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and "arty, blues-based psychedelic pop." For most of the 1970s, Clapton's output bore the influence of the mellow style of J.J. Cale and the reggae of Bob Marley. His version of Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" helped reggae reach a mass market. Two of his most popular recordings were "Layla", recorded by Derek and the Dominos, another band he formed and Robert Johnson's "Crossroads", recorded by Cream. A recipient of seventeen Grammy Awards, in 2004 Clapton was awarded a CBE for services to music. In 1998, Clapton, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, founded the Crossroads Centre on Antigua, a medical facility for recovering substance abusers.
  
  wn.com/Eric_Clapton
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  Eros Ramazzotti
  Eros Luciano Walter Ramazzotti (born October 28, 1963), known simply as Eros Ramazzotti, is an Italian musician and singer-songwriter. Ramazzotti is enormously popular in Italy, and is well known in most non-English-speaking European countries and in the Spanish-speaking world, as he has released most of his albums in both Italian and Spanish.
  Since 1984, he has released 11 studio albums, one EP, three compilation albums, three live albums, and 37 singles. Ramazzotti has sold over 40 million records in his 25-year career. His repertory includes duets with artists such as Cher, Tina Turner, Andrea Bocelli, Patsy Kensit, Anastacia, Joe Cocker, Ricardo Arjona, Luciano Pavarotti, Laura Pausini, and Ricky Martin.
  Ramazzotti first gained international success in 1993, with the release of Tutte storie, which amassed six million album sales and occupied the top five in every country where he had previously released albums. This success led to a BMG International record contract in 1994. His audience appeal comes from several factors, including his unique voice, which can be described as somewhat nasal but nevertheless forceful and resonant, and his energetic delivery of catchy, melodic tunes which are often passionate mid-tempo autobiographical ballads, with instrumentation that is rich in soft-rock influence. Most of his albums have been recorded in both Italian and Spanish.
  
  wn.com/Eros_Ramazzotti
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  Faith Hill
  Faith Hill (born Audrey Faith Perry; September 21, 1967) is an American country singer. She is known both for her commercial success and her marriage to fellow country star Tim McGraw. Hill has sold more than 40 million records worldwide and accumulated eight number-one singles and three number-one albums on the U.S. Country charts.
  Hill has been honored by the Grammy Awards, the Academy of Country Music, the Country Music Association, the American Music Awards and the People's Choice Awards. Her Soul2Soul II Tour 2006 with McGraw became the highest-grossing country tour of all time. In 2001, she was named one of the "30 Most Powerful Women in America" by Ladies Home Journal. In 2008, Hill released her first Christmas album, titled Joy to the World. In 2009 Billboard named her as the #1 Adult Contemporary artist of the decade 2000-2009. Hill was ranked the 39th best artist of the 2000-10 decade by Billboard.
  Hill was born in Ridgeland, Mississippi, north of Jackson, Mississippi. She was adopted as an infant, and named Audrey Faith Perry. She was raised in the nearby town of Star, 25 miles outside of Jackson, Mississippi. Her adoptive parents raised their two biological sons along with Hill in a devout Christian environment.
  
  wn.com/Faith_Hill
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  Gary Barlow
  Gary Barlow (born 20 January 1971) is an English singer-songwriter, pianist and record producer. He is frontman and lead vocalist of pop group Take That and the head judge on the The X Factor. Barlow is one of Britain's most successful songwriters. He has had two Number 1 singles and a Number 1 album as a solo artist, and has had sixteen top 5 hits, eleven Number 1 singles and seven Number 1 albums with Take That. He is also a six-time recipient of the Ivor Novello Award and has sold over 45 million records worldwide with Take That.
  In Barlow's autobiography, he relates that his love of music began at an early age.
  "I was one of those kids that's forever dancing in front of the TV looking at my reflection."
  He said he enjoyed watching Top of the Pops on television, and when he was ten years old, he watched an episode of the programme in which Depeche Mode were performing their new single "Just Can't Get Enough". Barlow was mesmerised by the sound and decided he wanted a keyboard for Christmas. For the next few years, he spent most of his spare time teaching himself to play his favourite songs.
  
  wn.com/Gary_Barlow
• Gary Langan
  Gary Langan (born 19 April 1956) is an audio engineer and record producer.
  In 1983, Langan co-founded the ZTT Records label with Trevor Horn, Paul Morley and Jill Sinclair. He was also a founding member of the musical group Art of Noise, but departed in 1986 after touring in support of the group's In Visible Silence album.
  His career started at age 18 when he worked as an assistant engineer at Sarm Studios (East), learning the craft from Gary Lyons and Mike Stone, whom he assisted on the Queen albums A Night at the Opera, A Day At The Races, and News of the World. After engineering for Horn 90125 for Yes, Langan would produce Beauty Stab for ABC and, later, Through The Barricades for Spandau Ballet.
  Langan co-produced Public Image Limited's 1987 album Happy?
  2005 saw Langan creating the SACD mix for the re-issue of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds.
  In 2008, Langan produced the ABC album Traffic.
  In April 2009, Langan took charge of the front of house duties for ABC at the Royal Albert Hall. The concert was also not only a reunion for various members of the band, but also for the team involved in the making of The Lexicon of Love. Anne Dudley arranged the songs for, and conducted the BBC Concert Orchestra, Trevor Horn supplied a speech and backing vocals.
  
  wn.com/Gary_Langan
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  Geoff Downes
  Geoffrey Downes (born 25 August 1952) is an English rock keyboard player and songwriter for the bands Yes and Asia, and formerly of The Buggles, during which he played multiple keyboards to achieve a New Wave technopop sound. He was once entered for the Guinness Book Of Records for performing with the most keyboards (twenty-eight) on stage in one performance.
  Downes was born at Stepping Hill Hospital in Hazel Grove, Stockport, Cheshire, the son of musical parents. His father was a church organist and his mother a pianist. He also took up the keyboards and played in a succession of local bands. He attended Stockport Grammar School before studying at Leeds College of Music. After graduating he moved to London, where he played sessions and composed advertising jingles.
  In 1976, he met Trevor Horn while auditioning for pop singer Tina Charles' backing band. They continued to work together, eventually forming The Buggles, recording a worldwide hit single in 1979 ("Video Killed the Radio Star"). It was Island Records' first number 1 in the UK, and the video of the song subsequently became the first ever to be played at the launch of MTV on August 1981.
  
  wn.com/Geoff_Downes
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  Grace Jones
  Grace Jones (born May 19, 1948) is a Jamaican singer, actress and model.
  Jones started out as a model and became a muse to Andy Warhol, who photographed her extensively. During that era she regularly went to the New York City nightclub Studio 54. Jones secured a record deal with Island Records in 1977, which resulted in a string of dance-club hits. In the late 1970s, she adapted the emerging electronic music style and adopted a severe, androgynous look with square-cut hair and angular, padded clothes. Many of her singles were hits on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play and Hot Dance Airplay charts, for example 1981 "Pull Up to the Bumper", which spent seven weeks at #2 on the U.S. dance chart. Jones was able to find mainstream success in Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, scoring a number of Top 40 entries on the UK Singles Chart. Her most notable albums are Warm Leatherette, Nightclubbing and Slave to the Rhythm, while her biggest hits (other than "Pull Up to the Bumper") are "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)", "Private Life", "Slave to the Rhythm" and "I'm Not Perfect (But I'm Perfect for You)".
  
  wn.com/Grace_Jones
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  Hans Zimmer
  Hans Florian Zimmer, German pronunciation: [hans ˈfloːʁi̯aːn ˈtsɪmɐ]; (born 12 September 1957) is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including award winning film scores for The Lion King (1994), Crimson Tide (1995), Gladiator (2000), The Last Samurai (2003),The Dark Knight (2008), and Inception (2010).
  Zimmer spent the early part of his career in the United Kingdom before moving to the United States. He is the head of the film music division at DreamWorks studios, and works with other composers through the company which he founded, Remote Control Productions.
  Zimmer's works are notable for integrating electronic music sounds with traditional orchestral arrangements. He has received four Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, a Classical BRIT Award, and an Academy Award. He was also named on the list of Top 100 Living Geniuses, published by The Daily Telegraph.
  Zimmer was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. As a young child, he lived in Königstein-Falkenstein, where he played the piano at home, but had piano lessons only briefly as he disliked the discipline of formal lessons. He moved to London as a teenager, where he attended Hurtwood House school. In an interview with the German television station ZDF in 2006, he commented: "My father died when I was just a child, and I escaped somehow into the music and music has been my best friend."
  
  wn.com/Hans_Zimmer
• Holly Johnson
  Holly Johnson (born William Johnson; 9 February 1960; legal name William Holly Johnson) is an English artist, musician and writer, best known as the lead vocalist of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and former bassist for Big in Japan. He released his debut solo album in 1989 and in the 1990s embarked on a painting career.
  Johnson was born in Liverpool, England. Actively involved in the Liverpool punk rock/new wave scene of the late 1970s, Johnson played bass with Big in Japan and released two solo singles on the Eric's label. Both "Yankee Rose" and "Hobo Joe" made no impact on the market. Johnson later found fame as the lead singer and lyricist of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, who experienced both controversy and phenomenal commercial success during their heyday in 1983 and 1984.
  
  wn.com/Holly_Johnson
• Hugh Padgham
  Hugh Padgham is a British record producer. He has won many awards, including four Grammys, with Producer of the Year (1985) and Engineer of the Year. A 1992 poll in Mix magazine voted him one of the world's Top Ten Most Influential Producers.
  Padgham started out as a tape operator at Advision Studios, working in recording sessions for Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. From there he went to Lansdowne Studios and moved from tape-operator/assistant engineer to head engineer. In 1978, Padgham got a job at The Townhouse, where he engineered and/or produced acts including XTC, Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins.
  Padgham's previous work with Gabriel and Collins led to a long and enormously successful collaboration with Genesis in the 1980s, which produced a string of hit albums and singles including Genesis and Invisible Touch. In addition to his work with Genesis and XTC, Padgham co-produced two albums with The Police: Ghost in the Machine and Synchronicity, as well as Paul McCartney's Press to Play and The Human League's Hysteria.
  
  wn.com/Hugh_Padgham
• Humberto Gatica
  Humberto Gatica is a Chilean-born American record producer, music mixer, audio engineer and a long-time collaborator with producer David Foster.
  A partial list of artists Gatica had worked with includes Selena, Il Volo, Celine Dion, Richard Marx, Al Jarreau, Andrea Bocelli, Barbra Streisand, Bonnie Tyler, Chaka Khan, Cher, Chicago, Destiny's Child, Eric Benet, Pino Daniele, Madonna, Elton John, Josh Groban,Kansas, Kenny G, Kenny Loggins, Sheena Easton, Kenny Rogers, LeAnn Rimes, Lionel Richie, Mariah Carey, Michael Bublé, Michael Jackson, Janet Jackson, Michael McDonald, 'N Sync, Metallica, Paul Anka, R Kelly, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston and Johnny Mathis.
  In the Latin field Gatica had worked with artists including Shakira, Alejandro Sanz, Café Quijano, Olga Tañón, Luis Miguel, La Ley, Gloria Estefan, Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin, Myriam Hernández and Alejandro Lerner.
  
  wn.com/Humberto_Gatica
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  Ian Brown
  Ian George Brown (born 20 February 1963 in Warrington) is an English musician, best known as the lead singer of the alternative rock band The Stone Roses, which broke up in 1996 but are confirmed to reunite in 2012. Since the break-up of the Stone Roses he has led a successful solo career. His latest studio album My Way was released on 28 September 2009.
  Brown was born in Warrington, England in 1963. His father, George, was a joiner and his mother Jean worked as a receptionist in a paper factory. When he was 5, Brown's family, including a brother and sister, moved to Timperley, Altrincham. He was educated at Park Road County Primary Infant and Junior School and then Altrincham Grammar School for Boys. His interest in music was inspired by the punk movement, specifically the bands Sex Pistols, The Clash and Manchester band Slaughter & The Dogs. Brown and original Stone Roses bassist Pete Garner attended the recording of the Clash single "Bankrobber" in Manchester.
  Brown's music career began in 1980, playing bass guitar in band with John Squire and Simon Wolstencroft. They eventually became The Patrol, with Andy Couzens on vocals. The band soon split up, with Brown selling his bass to buy a scooter. Brown moved to Hulme, and attended northern soul "all-nighters" across the north of England in the early 1980s as the scene faded. Around this time, Brown met soul legend Geno Washington, who told him, "You should be a star". In 1983 Brown joined The Waterfront, the band that would evolve into The Stone Roses, as co-vocalist.
  
  wn.com/Ian_Brown
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  Igor Khoroshev
  Igor Petrovich Khoroshev (Russian: Игорь Пeтpoвич Хорошев; born 14 July 1965, Moscow) is a Russian keyboard player living in the USA, best known for his work with Yes between 1997 and 2001. Khoroshev appeared on their studio albums Open Your Eyes and The Ladder. Igor supported those albums on their tours. He showed his own special addition to the song Roundabout by playing a cymbal while doing the keyboard leads. He also plays on the live album / DVD House of Yes: Live from House of Blues.
  Igor Khoroshev was born in Moscow, Russia. He took piano lessons from age four and later learned other instruments including the trombone, French horn, guitar and drums. He obtained a diploma in music.
  In the early 1990s, he moved to the USA, settling in Boston, where he worked with Benjamin Orr of The Cars among others. Khoroshev met Carl Jacobson of the Cakewalk software house. Jacobson employed Khoroshev, who composed music for Cakewalk's Pro Audio 9, and he also introduced Khoroshev to Yes's Jon Anderson.
  
  wn.com/Igor_Khoroshev
• James Horner
  James Roy Horner (born August 14, 1953) is an American composer, orchestrator, and conductor of orchestral and film music. He is noted for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements. His score to the 1997 film Titanic remains the best selling orchestral film soundtrack of all time.
  In addition, Horner has scored over 100 films, frequently collaborating with acclaimed directors such as James Cameron and Ron Howard. Some of his most noteworthy works include Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Cocoon (1985), An American Tail (1986), Aliens (1986), The Land Before Time (1988), Willow (1988), Glory (1989), Field of Dreams (1989), The Rocketeer (1991), Legends of the Fall (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Braveheart (1995), The Mask of Zorro (1998), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Troy (2004), and Avatar (2009).
  Horner has won two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, three Satellite Awards, three Saturn Awards, and has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards. His body of work is also notable for including the scores to the two highest-grossing films of all time; Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009), both of which were directed by James Cameron.
  
  wn.com/James_Horner
• 
  James McAvoy
  James Andrew McAvoy ( /ˈmækəvɔɪ/ MAK-ə-voi; born (1979-04-21)21 April 1979) is a Scottish stage and screen actor. He made his acting debut as a teen in 1995's The Near Room and continued to make mostly television appearances until the early 2000s. His notable television work includes State of Play, Shameless, and Frank Herbert's Children of Dune. Besides screen acting, McAvoy has appeared on stage with Three Days of Rain in 2009, and in 2011 he did voice work for animated films including Gnomeo & Juliet and Arthur Christmas.
  Starting in 2003, McAvoy began to build his film resume with Bollywood Queen. That film was followed with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), a commercial hit. His performance in Kevin Macdonald's The Last King of Scotland achieved him not only critical praise, but several award nominations. 2007's critically acclaimed Atonement marked the breakthrough in McAvoy's career. It also earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination and his second BAFTA nomination. Another big point in the actor's career was starring in Wanted (2008). Since then, he is notable for playing Charles Xavier in the 2011 superhero film X-Men: First Class.
  
  wn.com/James_McAvoy
• 
  Jeff Beck
  Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds (Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page are the other two). Beck also formed The Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice.
  Much of Beck's recorded output has been instrumental, with a focus on innovative sound and his releases have spanned genres ranging from blues-rock, heavy metal, jazz fusion and an additional blend of guitar-rock and electronica. Although he recorded two hit albums (in 1975 and 1976) as a solo act, Beck has not established or maintained the sustained commercial success of many of his contemporaries and bandmates. Beck appears on albums by Mick Jagger, Kate Bush, Roger Waters, Donovan, Stevie Wonder, Les Paul, Zucchero, Cyndi Lauper, Brian May and ZZ Top. In 1988, he made a cameo appearance in the movie Twins.
  He was ranked 5th in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and the magazine has described him as "one of the most influential lead guitarists in rock".MSNBC has called him a "guitarist's guitarist". Beck has earned wide critical praise and received the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance six times and Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance once. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: as a member of The Yardbirds (1992) and as a solo artist (2009).
  
  wn.com/Jeff_Beck
• Jimmy Haun
  Jimmy Carey Haun is a U.S. left-handed guitarist, known for his work with the bands Yes, Air Supply, and Circa.
  Haun's first band was Lodgic with childhood friend Michael Sherwood and, later, Michael's younger brother Billy Sherwood. Haun went on to play on Yes's Union album before work in The Key with B. Sherwood and The Chris Squire Experiment with B. Sherwood and Chris Squire. He also did session work for Kitaro and Jon & Vangelis.
  Haun has worked extensively with Jonathan Elias, including playing on his American River album. He has also re-joined Sherwood in progressive rock Yes spin-off supergroup Circa, also with Tony Kaye (ex-Yes) and formerly Alan White (currently of Yes). Sherwood, Kaye and Haun were also all in Yoso with singer Bobby Kimball.
  Jimmy Haun created the music for the Intel commercial 'Intel Rockstars'.
  Haun's father was singer Jim Haun, better known as Rouvaun. Jimmy Haun's daughter is the actress and singer Lindsey Haun (born 1984).
  
  
  
  wn.com/Jimmy_Haun
• 
  John Legend
  John Roger Stephens (born December 28, 1978), better known by his stage name John Legend, is an American singer-songwriter and actor. He has won nine Grammy Awards, and in 2007, he received the special Starlight award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
  Prior to the release of his debut album, Stephens' career gained momentum through a series of successful collaborations with multiple established artists. Stephens added his voice to those of other artists, assisting in them reaching chart-topper hits. He lent his voice to Kanye West's All of the Lights, on Slum Village's "Selfish" and Dilated Peoples' "This Way". Other artists included Jay-Z's "Encore", and he sang backing vocals on Alicia Keys' 2003 song "You Don't Know My Name" and Fort Minor's "High Road." Stephens played piano on Lauryn Hill's "Everything Is Everything."
  Stephens was born on December 28, 1978, in Springfield, Ohio. He is the son of Phyllis, a seamstress, and John Mills, a factory worker and former National Guardsman. Throughout his childhood, Stephens was homeschooled on and off by his mother. At the age of four, he began playing the piano and at the age of seven, he performed with his church choir. When he was ten, his parents divorced, causing his mother to suffer a breakdown. At the age of 12, Stephens attended North High School, from which he graduated four years later. He graduated salutatorian.
  
  wn.com/John_Legend
• 
  John Leventhal
  John Leventhal (born December 18, 1952) is a Grammy Award-winning musician, producer, songwriter, and recording engineer who has produced albums for Michelle Branch, Rosanne Cash, Marc Cohn, Shawn Colvin, Rodney Crowell, Jim Lauderdale, Joan Osborne, Loudon Wainwright, The Wreckers and many others. As a musician he has worked with all of the above as well as artists such as Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson, Bruce Hornsby, Elvis Costello, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Charlie Haden, David Crosby, Levon Helm, Edie Brickell, Paul Simon, Patty Larkin, Susan Tedeschi, Steve Forbert, Kelly Willis and Johnny Cash. As a songwriter he has had over 100 songs recorded by various artists. In 1998 he won a Grammy Award for Record and Song of the year for producing and co-writing the song "Sunny Came Home" (a 1997 hit for Colvin). Albums he has produced have been nominated for a total of 11 Grammy Awards. In 2005 he composed the score for the film Winter Solstice.
  Leventhal lives with his wife Rosanne Cash and their children in New York City.
  
  wn.com/John_Leventhal
• 
  Jon Anderson
  Jon Anderson (born John Roy Anderson on 25 October 1944) is an English singer-songwriter and musician best known as the former lead vocalist in the progressive rock band Yes. He is also an accomplished solo artist and has collaborated with artists such as the Greek musician Vangelis, among others.
  Jon Anderson was born John Roy Anderson in Accrington, Lancashire, England, to Albert and Kathleen Anderson. His father was from Scotland whilst his mother was of Irish ancestry. Anderson dropped the "h" from his first name in 1970.
  Anderson attended St. John's Infants School in Baxenden, Accrington. There he made a tentative start to a musical career playing the washboard in "Little John's Skiffle Group", which played songs by Lonnie Donegan, among others. Anderson left school at the age of fifteen and went through a series of jobs including farm hand, lorry driver and milkman. Anderson tried to pursue a football career at Accrington Stanley F.C., but at 5 feet 5 inches (1.65 m) tall, Anderson was turned down because of his frail constitution. He remains a fan of the club.
  
  wn.com/Jon_Anderson
• 
  Kid Harpoon
  Kid Harpoon (born Tom Hull, 20 April 1982, Chatham, Kent, England) is an English singer-songwriter and musician.
  Already a fixture at local venues in his hometown of Chatham, Kid Harpoon first emerged on the London live music scene in early 2006 as a resident singer-songwriter at Nambucca. His first single, "The River, The Ocean, The Pearl" was released by independent label Brikabrak in 2006 to critical acclaim, earning an instant following from tastemakers NME and Drowned in Sound . Two EPs followed, The First EP, in October 2007, and The Second EP in February 2008.
  Upon signing to influential indie label XL Recordings/Young Turks, Kid Harpoon's debut album Once was released in September 2009. The album was recorded in Los Angeles by Grammy winning producer Trevor Horn and received an 8/10 from NME.
  
  Kid Harpoon has also worked with an array of artists. He co-wrote "Shake It Out", "Never Let Me Go", and "Leave My Body" on the Florence + the Machine album Ceremonials with Paul Epworth and Florence Welch. Additional writing credits include "The Devil in Me" for Jamie N Commons, and two songs on the forthcoming Jessie Ware debut. He is currently producing/co-writing the debut EP for UK artist Carly Connor.
  
  wn.com/Kid_Harpoon
• 
  LeAnn Rimes
  Margaret LeAnn Rimes Cibrian (born August 28, 1982), best known as LeAnn Rimes, is an American country/pop singer. She is known for her rich vocals and her rise to fame as an eight-year-old champion on the original Ed McMahon version of Star Search, followed by the release of the Bill Mack song "Blue" when she was 13 to become the youngest country music star since Tanya Tucker in 1972.
  Rimes made her breakthrough into country music in 1996 with her debut album, Blue, which reached #1 on the Top Country Albums chart and was certified multiplatinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album's eponymous leadoff single, "Blue," was originally intended to be recorded by Patsy Cline in the early 1960s. It became a Top 10 hit and Rimes gained national acclaim for her similarity to Cline's vocal style. When she released her sophomore studio effort in 1997, You Light up My Life: Inspirational Songs, she moved towards country pop material, which set the trend for a string of albums released into the next decade.
  
  wn.com/LeAnn_Rimes
• Lisa Stansfield
  Lisa Stansfield (born 11 April 1966) is an English singer and songwriter.
  Stansfield was born to Marion and Keith Stansfield in Heywood, Lancashire, in England, where she attended Redbrook School, Rochdale. Her first television appearance was on a talent programme in the Granada TV area in 1982. She won it singing The Human League track "The Things That Dreams Are Made Of". The series was produced by the then Head of Light Entertainment at Granada TV, Johnny Hamp.
  After releasing several unsuccessful singles in her mid-teens, she co-hosted a children's TV pop show, Razzamatazz with Alistair Pirrie; additionally, Stansfield could be seen in 1983 children's television series The Krankies Klub, alongside comedian Jimmy Cricket and rock band Rocky Sharpe and the Replays. She also sung radio jingles for Manchester companies LBS and Alfasound - her voice being heard on packages for the short lived ILR station Sunset 102 and BBC GMR (Greater Manchester Radio).
  After being signed by Arista, she became an international celebrity in the early 1990s.
  
  wn.com/Lisa_Stansfield
• 
  Lol Creme
  Lol Creme (born Laurence Neil Creme 19 September 1947 in Prestwich, England) is an English musician and music video director, best known for his work in 10cc. He sings, plays guitar and keyboards.
  Creme was born to a family of Jewish descent, and later took up the nickname Lolagon. While attending art school in Manchester, he met Kevin Godley. They became part of several bands together, most significantly 10cc, and in 1976 departed 10cc together to record as Godley & Creme. The pair later became prolific music video directors, working with bands including Yes. Creme would later direct the 1991 Jamaican comedy film The Lunatic.
  In 1998, Creme became a member of the band Art of Noise, along with Trevor Horn, and directed videos for such artists who recorded with them as Tom Jones. Further work with Horn followed, including forming The Producers, also with Chris Braide and Steve Lipson.
  Lol's son Lalo was a member of the 1990s indie-dance band Arkarna and has also worked on a number of projects with his father. His wife Angie is the sister of ex-10cc member Eric Stewart's wife Gloria.
  
  wn.com/Lol_Creme
• 
  Malcolm McLaren
  Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren (22 January 1946 – 8 April 2010) was an English performer and impresario. He was manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls. As a solo artist, McLaren had an innovative career that helped introduce hip hop to the United Kingdom.
  McLaren was born to Pete McLaren, a Scottish engineer, and Emmy Isaacs in post-World War II North London. His father left when he was two and he was raised by his maternal grandmother, Rose Corre Isaacs, the formerly wealthy daughter of Portuguese Sephardic Jewish diamond dealers, in Stoke Newington. McLaren told Andrew Denton on Enough Rope, that his grandmother always said to him, "To be bad is good... to be good is simply boring". In The Ghosts of Oxford Street he says Charles Clore (who bought Selfridges) became his mother's lover. When he was six, McLaren's mother married Martin Levi, a man working in London's rag trade. When McLaren was in his forties, a Sunday newspaper found Pete McLaren in an English "greasy spoon garage".
  
  wn.com/Malcolm_McLaren
• 
  Marc Almond
  Peter Mark Sinclair "Marc" Almond (/ˈɑːmənd/; born 9 July 1957, Southport) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Almond first began performing and recording in the synthpop/New Wave duo Soft Cell. He has sold over 30 million records worldwide.
  Almond was born in 1957 in Southport (then Lancashire, now part of Merseyside), the son of Sandra Mary Dieson and Peter John Sinclair Almond, a Second Lieutenant in the King's Liverpool Regiment. He was brought up at his grandparents' house in Birkdale with his younger sister, Julia, and as a child suffered from bronchitis and asthma. When he was four, they left their grandparents' house and moved to Starbeck on the edge of Harrogate, North Yorkshire. Two years later they returned to Southport, and then moved to Horsforth (near Leeds).^{[citation needed]}
  At age 11 he attended Aireborough Grammar School near Leeds. Almond found solace in music, listening to British radio pioneer John Peel. The first album he purchased was the soundtrack of the stage musical Hair and the first single "Green Manalishi" by Fleetwood Mac. He later became a great fan of Marc Bolan and David Bowie and got a part time job as a stable boy to fund his musical tastes.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Marc_Almond
• Marsha Ambrosius
  Marsha Ambrosius or Marsha is an English singer/songwriter. A former member of the English Soul/R&B duo Floetry, she released her first solo album Late Nights & Early Mornings on March 1, 2011.
  Original Floetry members Marsha Ambrosius and Natalie Stewart met through their love of basketball and formed a friendship. Both Natalie and Marsha attended the Brit School for Performing Arts & Technology where Marsha studied business and finance and Natalie majored in Performing Arts, Media and Art. For college Ambrosius planned to attend the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia but could not due to an injury. Stewart attended Middlesex University in London and later transferred to North London University. During these years, both women continued to keep in touch. Stewart was a founding member of the performance poetry group 3 Plus 1 which was rising to critical acclaim throughout London, Birmingham, and Manchester. After inviting Ambrosius to join her on stage to perform at a spoken word night, where they debuted a piece that they had written together called "Fantasize", combining spoken word and singing, it seemed to make sense to combine the two and Floetry was born.
  
  wn.com/Marsha_Ambrosius
• 
  Midge Ure
  James "Midge" Ure, OBE (born 10 October 1953, Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, Scotland) is a Scottish guitarist, singer, keyboard player, and songwriter. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of Jim, the diminutive form of his real name.
  Ure enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980s in bands including Slik, Thin Lizzy, The Rich Kids, Visage, and most notably as frontman of Ultravox. Ure co-wrote and produced the charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", whose reissue won an Ivor Novello Award in 2005 for Best Selling UK Single. Ure co-organised Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8 with Bob Geldof. Ure acts as trustee for the charity, and serves as ambassador for Save the Children.
  Born to a working-class family in Cambuslang, he attended Cambuslang Primary School and Rutherglen Academy in Glasgow until he was 15 years old. After leaving school Ure attended Technical College and then began to work as an engineer, training at the National Engineering Laboratory, (NEL), in nearby East Kilbride. He started playing music in a Glasgow band called Stumble (c. 1969 – c. 1971), that included a girl-singing duet, Christine and Agnes. The band's line-up included lead guitar John McMenemy, Alan Wright on harmonica, Fraser Spiers on bass, Kenny Ireland on drums, Alec Baird on vocals Gordon Appacellie.
  
  wn.com/Midge_Ure
• 
  Mike Oldfield
  Michael Gordon Oldfield (born 15 May 1953) is an English multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, working a style that blends progressive rock, folk, ethnic or world music, classical music, electronic music, New Age, and more recently, dance. His music is often elaborate and complex in nature. He is best known for his hit 1973 album Tubular Bells, which launched Virgin Records, and for his 1983 hit single "Moonlight Shadow". He is also well known for his hit rendition of the Christmas piece, "In Dulci Jubilo".
  Oldfield's parents are Raymond Oldfield, a general practitioner, and his wife Maureen Liston, a nurse. His sister Sally and brother Terry are successful musicians in their own right and have appeared on several of his albums. Mike Oldfield was born in the Battle Hospital, Reading, Berkshire, and he attended St Joseph's Convent School, Highlands Junior School in Tilehurst, St Edward's Preparatory School, and Presentation College in Reading. When he was 13 he moved with his parents to Harold Wood in northeast London, where he attended Hornchurch Grammar School. He only stayed there long enough to take one GCE examination, in English, as he had already begun his music career.
  
  wn.com/Mike_Oldfield
• 
  Nat King Cole
  Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. He owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres. He was one of the first black Americans to host a television variety show, and has maintained worldwide popularity since his death.
  Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on Saint Patrick's Day (March 17) in 1919. When he was 4, he and his family moved to Chicago, Illinois, where his father, Edward Coles, became a Baptist minister (Ruuth 31). Cole learned to play the organ from his mother, Perlina Coles, the church organist. His first performance, at age four, was of "Yes! We Have No Bananas". He began formal lessons at the age of 12, eventually learning not only jazz and gospel music but also European classical music, performing, as he said, "from Johann Sebastian Bach to Sergei Rachmaninoff".
  
  wn.com/Nat_King_Cole
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  Natalie Cole
  Natalie Maria Cole (born February 6, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter and performer. The daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole, Cole rode to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)", "Inseparable" and "Our Love". After a period of failing sales and performances due to a heavy drug addiction, Cole reemerged as a pop artist with the 1987 album, Everlasting, and her cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac". In the 1990s, she re-recorded standards by her father, resulting in her biggest success, Unforgettable... with Love, which sold over seven million copies and also won Cole numerous Grammy Awards.
  Natalie Cole was born in Los Angeles, the daughter of crooner Nat King Cole and former Duke Ellington Orchestra singer Maria Cole. Raised in the affluent Hancock Park district of Los Angeles; regarding her childhood, Cole has referred to her family as "the black Kennedys" and was exposed to many great singers of jazz, soul, and blues. At the age of six Natalie sang on her father's Christmas album and later began performing at age 11.
  
  wn.com/Natalie_Cole
• Nerd
  Nerd is a derogatory stereotype of a person typically described as socially-impaired, obsessive, or overly intellectual. They may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular or obscure activities, pursuits, or interests, which are generally either highly technical, or relating to topics of fiction or fantasy, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities. Other nerdy qualities include physical awkwardness, introversion, quirkiness, and unattractiveness. Thus, a nerd is often excluded from physical activity and is a social outsider. In the stereotypical high-school situation, they may be either considered loners by others, or they tend to associate with a small group of like-minded people. As with other pejoratives, nerd has been reappropriated by some as a term of pride and group identity.
  The first documented appearance of the word "nerd" is as the name of a creature in Dr. Seuss's book If I Ran the Zoo (1950), in which the narrator Gerald McGrew claims that he would collect "a Nerkle, a Nerd, and a Seersucker too" for his imaginary zoo. The slang meaning of the term dates back to 1951, when Newsweek magazine reported on its popular use as a synonym for "drip" or "square" in Detroit, Michigan. By the early 1960s, usage of the term had spread throughout the United States, and even as far as Scotland. At some point, the word took on connotations of bookishness and social ineptitude.
  
  wn.com/Nerd
• Nigel Godrich
  Nigel Godrich (born 28 February 1971 in England) is a recording engineer, record producer and musician. He is best known for his work with the English rock band Radiohead and is sometimes referred to as the "sixth member" of the band. He has also been a member of lead singer Thom Yorke's live band, Atoms for Peace, since 2009.
  Godrich has also worked with acts such as Paul McCartney, Travis, Beck, Ultrasound, Jason Falkner, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Pavement, Brazzaville, Air, Natalie Imbruglia, The Divine Comedy, The Sundays, U2, and R.E.M.
  His production technique is notable for its dense layers of sound.
  Nigel Godrich is sometimes informally credited as the "sixth member" of Radiohead due to his longtime collaboration with the Oxford band. He has gained notice for helping to define Radiohead's distinct sound, which established them as one of the more acclaimed rock bands in the world during the 1990s and 2000s. He is younger than all members of Radiohead (except Jonny Greenwood), which is a rare situation among producers for popular acts. When working on OK Computer at improvised studios without the close supervision of longtime veterans or record labels, both he and the band learned as they went along, ultimately crediting the open process with the record's success.
  
  wn.com/Nigel_Godrich
• 
  Oliver Wakeman
  Oliver Wakeman (26 February 1972) is a rock keyboardist, best known as a member of Yes, where he replaced his father, Rick Wakeman.
  
  
  Oliver is the first son of Rick Wakeman. His parents divorced when he was young.
  He worked with Clive Nolan (of Arena) on two progressive rock concept albums, Jabberwocky (released 1999) and Hound of the Baskervilles. Tracy Hitchings appears on both albums, while Rick Wakeman (narrating) and Yes alumnus Peter Banks both appeared on Jabberwocky.
  For several years Wakeman has worked with Steve Howe, his father's bandmate in Yes. The two lived fairly close to each other in south-west England. Howe guested on Wakeman's solo album The 3 Ages of Magick, while Wakeman is on Howe's 2005 solo album Spectrum and contributed to Howe's recording of "Australia" for the US version of the Yes collection The Ultimate Yes: 35th Anniversary Collection.
  Wakeman has written a CD inspired by his visits to and experiences on Lundy, a small island in the Bristol Channel. He has toured with Bob Catley in the UK and Europe and also guested on an Ayreon project 'The Human Equation' in 2004. Wakeman replaced keyboardist Herb Schildt for the American progressive rock band Starcastle, known for their Yes-like sound, at RoSfest (Rites of Spring festival) 2007.
  
  wn.com/Oliver_Wakeman
• 
  Pat Metheny
  Patrick Bruce "Pat" Metheny (/məˈθiːni/mə-THEE-nee; born August 12, 1954) is an American jazz guitarist and composer.
  He is the leader of the Pat Metheny Group and is also involved in duets, solo works and other side projects. His style incorporates elements of progressive and contemporary jazz, post-bop, latin jazz and jazz fusion. Pat Metheny has three gold albums and 19 Grammy Awards. He is the brother of jazz flugelhornist and journalist Mike Metheny.
  Metheny was born and raised in Lee's Summit, Missouri, a suburb southeast of Kansas City. Following his graduation from Lee's Summit High School, he briefly attended the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida in 1972, where he was quickly offered a teaching position. He then moved to Boston to take a teaching assistantship at the Berklee College of Music with jazz vibraphonist Gary Burton. He first made his name as a teenage prodigy under the wing of Burton. In 1974 he made his recording debut on two sessions for pianist Paul Bley's and Carol Goss' Improvising Artists label, along with fretless electric bassist Jaco Pastorius.
  
  wn.com/Pat_Metheny
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  Patrick Moraz
  Patrick Philippe Moraz (born June 24, 1948, Villars-Ste-Croix, Morges, Switzerland) is a progressive rock keyboard player. He is best known as the keyboardist for the progressive rock band Yes, from 1974 to 1976, and The Moody Blues from 1978 to 1991. He was classically trained at the Conservatory of Lausanne, but played jazz primarily before entering progressive rock and has been highly acclaimed for his virtuosity.^{[citation needed]}
  He first toured as a solo performer opening for major jazz artists throughout Europe in the mid-1960s.^{[citation needed]} He then formed the group Mainhorse with Jean Ristori in 1968, which released a self-titled album on Polydor. He then moved to England and in 1973 formed Refugee with Lee Jackson and Brian Davison. Davison and Jackson had previously teamed with rock keyboardist Keith Emerson (famous for his work in Emerson, Lake & Palmer) in the group The Nice.
  Moraz rose to prominence in 1974 when he replaced Rick Wakeman in Yes, playing on their album Relayer and world tour. Moraz also played with the group "Refugee" on the self titled album in 1974. Although Vangelis was the first candidate to join the band, he was finally discarded in favour of Moraz, because of legal issues related to work permits in the United Kingdom. On the Relayer album, Moraz brought in a more jazz/fusion sound that was a departure from Yes' more classical approach. In 1976, all then-members of Yes released solo albums, and the Moraz album, titled Story of I, received acclaim from musicians. Additionally he assisted Chris Squire on his solo album Fish Out of Water. In the interim, Moraz had moved to Brazil, and incorporated Brazilian rhythms and performers on the album, making it an important staple of world music. He would then leave Yes in 1976 prior to the formal start of recording on Going For The One. He then recorded another album, Out in the Sun.
  
  wn.com/Patrick_Moraz
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  Paul McCartney
  Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM (born 18 June 1942) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of the Beatles (1960–1970) and Wings (1971–1981), he has been described by Guinness World Records as "The Most Successful Composer and Recording Artist of All Time", with 60 gold discs and sales of over 100 million albums and 100 million singles. With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, and with Lennon formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century. After leaving the Beatles, he began a solo career and later formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda Eastman, and singer-songwriter Denny Laine.
  According to the BBC, his Beatles song "Yesterday" has been covered by over 2,200 artists—more than any other song. Wings' 1977 release, "Mull of Kintyre", became one of the best-selling singles ever in the UK, and he is "the most successful songwriter" in UK chart history, according to Guinness. As a songwriter or co-writer, he is included on thirty-one number one titles on the Billboard Hot 100, and as of 2012 he has sold over 15.5 million RIAA certified units in the United States.
  
  wn.com/Paul_McCartney
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  Paul Morley
  Paul Morley (born 26 March 1957 in Stockport, Cheshire, England) is an English journalist, who wrote for the New Musical Express from 1977 to 1983, during one of its most successful periods, and has since written for a wide range of publications. He has also has been a band manager and promoter, as well as a television presenter.
  Morley was educated at Stockport Grammar School, a co-educational from 1980 independent school (at the time of his education, a partly fee-paying direct grant grammar school), in the town of Stockport in Greater Manchester (at the time in Cheshire), followed by the Royal Academy of Music in London.
  Morley is credited with steering the marketing and promotion of the phenomenal early success of ZTT's biggest act, Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Although it has never been confirmed, it is generally accepted that it was Morley who authored the provocative slogans on the band's T-shirts (e.g. "Frankie Say Arm The Unemployed", "Frankie Say War! Hide Yourself").
  For a period of time, Morley produced and managed Manchester punk band The Drones. However, Morley first came to wider attention with a brief appearance in the video for ABC's "The Look of Love" (in which he mimes the words "what's that?" in a call-and-response routine with singer Martin Fry), but he achieved genuine notoriety as co-founder, with Trevor Horn, of ZTT Records, and electronic group Art of Noise.
  
  wn.com/Paul_Morley
• Paul Simm
  Paul Simm is an English musician, composer and record producer, known for his work with Amy Winehouse,The Sugababes and Neneh Cherry.
  Simm was born in Birmingham and started playing the piano aged five, primarily self taught he progressed quickly and by the age of eleven was playing regular local gigs. He also took up the trumpet and was later approached by David Hinds of Steel Pulse to play on and arrange horns for their Grammy Award nominated album, Victims.
  Aged twenty Simm moved to London continuing work as a session musician, and also working as a sound engineer at various studios in London. He has played alongside Carleen Anderson, Pops Staples, Mica Paris, Baby D, Charles & Eddie and MC Solar.
  At twenty seven, Simm stopped touring to concentrate on studio work. He worked on All Saints' debut album and went on to co-write and produce tracks for the Sugababes, including their BRIT Award nominated debut single "Overload", which peaked at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart. Simm co-wrote Siobhán Donaghy's top 20 debut single "Overrated" and has written and/or produced tracks for Amy Winehouse, Neneh Cherry, Mutya Buena, Leon Jean-Marie, Groove Armada and Tom Jones.
  
  wn.com/Paul_Simm
• Peter Banks
  Peter Banks (born Peter William Brockbanks, 15 July 1947, Barnet, North London) is an English guitarist. He was the original guitarist of the progressive rock band Yes.
  When Banks was a young boy, his father bought him an acoustic guitar. As a teenager, he also learned how to play the banjo.
  Banks and Chris Squire first met when Banks joined The Syn, also including Andrew Jackman (keyboards), who in later years became an orchestral arranger for some Yes and Chris Squire recordings. The Syn only lasted until 1967, but the group released two singles.
  In 1968 Banks played briefly with the band Neat Change, recording one single.
  Squire meanwhile joined friends Clive Bailey (rhythm guitar) and Bob Hagger (drums) in Mabel Greer's Toy Shop, and Banks came to join that band. Banks left the band, which was subsequently joined by singer Jon Anderson and then drummer Bill Bruford replaced Bob Hagger. With the loss of Bailey, addition of keyboardist Tony Kaye and Banks' return, the band took on a new name.
  
  wn.com/Peter_Banks
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  Phil Collins
  Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist.
  Collins sang the lead vocals on several chart hits in the United Kingdom and the United States between 1975 and 2010, either as a solo artist or with Genesis. His singles, sometimes dealing with lost love, ranged from the drum-heavy "In the Air Tonight", dance pop of "Sussudio", piano-driven "Against All Odds", to the political statements of "Another Day in Paradise".
  Collins's professional music career began as a drummer, originally in a band called The Real Thing with Andrea Bertorelli, who later became his first wife. Collins played drums and shared lead vocals (with Brian Chatton) in Flaming Youth which recorded one album, (Ark II). In 1970, he took over drums for Genesis, which had already recorded two albums. In Genesis, Collins originally supplied backing vocals for front man Peter Gabriel, singing lead on only two songs: "For Absent Friends" from 1971's Nursery Cryme album and "More Fool Me" from Selling England by the Pound, which was released in 1973. Following Gabriel's departure in 1975, Collins became the group's lead singer.
  
  wn.com/Phil_Collins
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  Rick Wakeman
  Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboard player, composer and songwriter best known for being the former keyboardist in the progressive rock band Yes. He is also known for his solo albums, contributing to the BBC comedy series Grumpy Old Men and for Rick's Place, his former radio show on Planet Rock that aired until December 2010.
  Wakeman was born in West London. He purchased his first electronic keyboard at 12 years of age. In 1968, he studied the piano, clarinet, orchestration and modern music at the Royal College of Music before leaving after a year in favour of session music work. He went on to feature on songs by artists including Black Sabbath,David Bowie, T. Rex, Elton John and Cat Stevens. Wakeman joined the folk group Strawbs in 1969 and played on three of their albums. He first joined Yes in 1971 to replace Tony Kaye, and left the group in 1974 to work on his solo career. He returned in 1976 before leaving with lead vocalist Jon Anderson in 1980. Wakeman was part of the side project Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, a group of ex-Yes members formed in 1989, and the eight-member Yes line-up that followed until his third departure in 1992. He returned for two years in 1995 and once more in 2002, where he was part of the band's 35th anniversary tour until its end in 2004.
  
  wn.com/Rick_Wakeman
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  Robbie Williams
  Robert Peter "Robbie" Williams (born 13 February 1974) is an English singer-songwriter, vocal coach and occasional actor. He is a member of the pop group Take That.
  Williams rose to fame in the band's first run in the early- to mid-1990s. After many disagreements with the management and certain group members, Williams left the group in 1995 to launch his solo career. On 15 July 2010, it was announced he had rejoined Take That and that the group intended to release a new album in November 2010 which became the second fastest-selling album of all-time in UK chart history and the fastest-selling record of the century.
  Williams has sold over 70 million records worldwide, which ranks him among the best-selling music artists worldwide. He is the best-selling British solo artist in the United Kingdom and the best selling non-Latino artist in Latin America. Six of his albums are among the top 100 biggest-selling albums in the United Kingdom. He has also been honoured with seventeen BRIT Awards—more than any other artist—and seven ECHO Awards. In 2004, he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame after being voted as the "Greatest Artist of the 1990s."
  
  wn.com/Robbie_Williams
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  Rod Stewart
  Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE (born 10 January 1945) is a British singer-songwriter, born and raised in North London, England, and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry.
  With his distinctive raspy singing voice, Stewart came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with The Jeff Beck Group and then Faces. He launched his solo career in 1969 with his debut album An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down (US: The Rod Stewart Album). His work with The Jeff Beck Group and Faces influenced heavy metal genres.
  With his career in its fifth decade, Stewart has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the best selling artists of all time. In the UK, he has had six consecutive number one albums, and his tally of 62 hit singles include 31 that reached the top 10, six of which gained the number one position. He has had 16 top ten singles in the U.S, with four of these reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked him the 17th most successful artist on the "The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists". He was voted at #33 in Q Magazine's list of the top 100 Greatest Singers of all time, and #59 on Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Singers of all time. As a solo artist, Stewart was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, and was inducted a second time, as a member of Faces, in April 2012.
  
  wn.com/Rod_Stewart
• Russ Titelman
  Russ Titelman (born 16 August 1944, Los Angeles, California) is an American record producer and songwriter. He has to date won three Grammy Awards. He earned his first producing the Steve Winwood song "Higher Love", and his second and third for Eric Clapton's Journeyman and Unplugged albums. Titelman also produced the 24 Nights live album of 1990 and the all-blues album From The Cradle, released in 1994.
  Beginning his career in the 1960s, he has worked with musicians such as The Monkees, Dion Dimucci, George Harrison, Bee Gees, Little Feat, Christine McVie, Meat Loaf, Paul Simon, Brian Wilson, The Allman Brothers Band, James Taylor, Rickie Lee Jones, Chaka Khan, Ry Cooder, Randy Newman, Gordon Lightfoot, Eric Clapton and Gerry Goffin. After having worked for Warner Bros. Records for 20 years, Titelman has been an independent producer since 1997.
  Titelman started his independent music label Walking Liberty Records in New York. One of his first productions for the label was the debut album by the Oklahoma based singer-songwriter Jared Tyler. Released in 2005, Blue Alleluia included guest appearances from Emmylou Harris, Mac McAnally and Mary Kay Place.
  
  wn.com/Russ_Titelman
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  Ryan Molloy
  Ryan Molloy (born 21 November 1973) is a British singer, songwriter and actor, who replaced Holly Johnson as the lead singer in Frankie Goes to Hollywood. He has also been successful in musical theatre, appearing in a number of hit musicals in the UK.
  Originally from North Shields in Tyneside, he attended Monkseaton High School. He left high school at the age of 16 in 1992. Molloy later moved to London to train as an actor. He attended The Poor School; and later also trained at the University of California (UCLA), Los Angeles and New York.
  He began his musical career in the late 1990s, singing with a number of bands, including Ultra, supporting Jamiroquai and The Lighthouse Family.
  He appeared in a number of dramatic roles, including London productions of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice and Macbeth. In 2004 he gained a chorus role in the controversial production of Jerry Springer - The Opera. Molloy was a member of the original cast at the National Theatre, and went on to play the parts of the transvestite Tremont and the Angel Gabriel, for which he gained an Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also starred in the West End hit Taboo, playing Steve Strange alongside Boy George and Lyn Paul.
  
  wn.com/Ryan_Molloy
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  Shane MacGowan
  Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan (born 25 December 1957) is an Irish musician and singer, best known as the original singer and songwriter of The Pogues.
  MacGowan was born in Pembury, Kent, England in 1957, to Irish parents. MacGowan spent his early childhood in Tipperary before his family moved back to England when he was six and a half. He lived in many parts of the south-east, including Brighton and London.
  MacGowan's mother, Therese, was a singer and traditional Irish dancer, and had worked as a model in Dublin. In 1971, after attending Holmewood House School at Langton Green, Tunbridge Wells, MacGowan earned a literature scholarship and was accepted into Westminster School, a renowned English public school close to the Houses of Parliament. He was found in possession of drugs and was expelled in his second year.
  MacGowan got his first taste of fame in 1976 at a concert by English punk band The Clash, when his earlobe was damaged by Jane Crockford, later to be a member of The Mo-dettes. A photographer snapped a picture of him covered in blood and it made the papers, with the headline "Cannibalism At Clash Gig". Shortly after this, he formed his own punk rock band, The Nipple Erectors, later renamed "The Nips".
  
  wn.com/Shane_MacGowan
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  Shawn Colvin
  Shawn Colvin (b. January 10, 1956) is an American singer-songwriter and musician.
  Colvin was born in Vermillion, South Dakota and spent her youth in London, Ontario and Carbondale, Illinois. She learned to play guitar at the age of 10 and grew listening to her father's collection of music, which included artists such as Peter Seeger and the Kingston Trio.
  Colvin moved to Austin, Texas and joined a Western swing band called the Dixie Diesels. She then entered the the folk circuit in Illinois and San Francisco, California before forming the Shawn Colvin Band. She "strained her voice" singing rock songs took a sabbatical from singing at the age of 24.
  Colvin later moved to New York City and with a renewed voice became involved in the Fast Folk cooperative of Greenwich Village. Over time she became progressively more popular on the new folk circuit and while appearing in the off-Broadway shows, Diamond Studs, Pump Boys and Dinettes, and Lie of the Mind. She was featured in Fast Folk magazine, and in 1987 sang backup vocals on the song Luka by Suzanne Vega.
  
  wn.com/Shawn_Colvin
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  Sheryl Crow
  Sheryl Suzanne Crow (born February 11, 1962) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, musician, and actress. Her music incorporates elements of rock, folk, hip hop, country and pop. She has won nine Grammy Awards from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
  She has performed with The Rolling Stones and has sung duets with Mick Jagger,Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Luciano Pavarotti, John Mellencamp, Kid Rock, Michelle Branch, and Sting among others. She has performed backing vocals for Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Don Henley and Belinda Carlisle. She also sang as part of the back up vocals for the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary celebrating Dylan's 30 years as a recording artist. Crow has released seven studio albums, two compilations, and a live album, and has contributed to film soundtracks. She has sold 16 million albums in the United States and 35 million albums worldwide and her newest album, 100 Miles from Memphis, was released on July 20, 2010. Recently she appeared on NBC's 30 Rock, ABC's GCB and Cougar Town, Disney Channel's Hannah Montana Forever, and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.
  
  wn.com/Sheryl_Crow
• Stephen Lipson
  Stephen J. Lipson is a musician (principally on guitar) and producer who has worked with numerous artists, including Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Cher, Grace Jones, Paul McCartney, Pet Shop Boys, Simple Minds, Lindisfarne, and Annie Lennox.
  Lipson started out as an engineer for The Rolling Stones, before becoming a protégé of Trevor Horn at ZTT. There, he worked as an engineer, producer, guitarist, keyboardist and bassist on various projects, including Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Grace Jones (co-writing "Slave to the Rhythm"), Act, Betsy Cook and Propaganda.
  In more recent years, he has produced artists including Juanes with his album P.A.R.C.E., Ronan Keating, Geri Halliwell, Daniel Bedingfield, Gareth Gates, Rachel Stevens, S Club 7 and Will Young. He produced two tracks for the 2007 American Idol winner Jordin Sparks' eponymous debut. He produced Jeff Beck's 2010 album Emotion & Commotion.
  In 2006, he co-founded The Producers with Trevor Horn, Chris Braide and Lol Creme. The new Ultravox album Brilliant to be published at May 28, 2012 was produced by Lipson.
  
  wn.com/Stephen_Lipson
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  Terry Reid
  Terry Reid (born 13 November 1949, Huntingdon, England) is an English rock vocalist and guitarist. He has performed with high profile musicians, as a supporting act, a session musician, and sideman.
  After leaving school at the age of 15, Reid joined Peter Jay's Jaywalkers after being spotted by the band's drummer, Peter Jay. At the time Reid was playing for a local band, The Redbeats. His public profile was enhanced in 1966 when The Jaywalkers were named as a support act for The Rolling Stones for their concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Graham Nash of The Hollies became friends with Reid at that concert and suggested The Jaywalkers sign up with Columbia Records to record with producer John Burgess. Their first single, the Soul-inspired "The Hand Don't Fit the Glove" was a minor hit in 1967, but by then The Jaywalkers had already decided to disband.
  Reid came to the attention of hits producer Mickie Most, who became his manager. His first single with Most, "Better By Far," became a radio favourite, but the album, Bang Bang, You're Terry Reid, was not a commercial success. A 1968 tour of the United States with Cream did much to gain Reid a loyal following. His final performance of the tour at the Miami Pop Festival garnered positive reviews from the music press.
  
  wn.com/Terry_Reid
• Tessa Niles
  Tessa Niles (née Webb) is an English singer, best known as a backing singer for a wide variety of artists.
  Born in Kent, Niles began her professional singing career, as both a lead and a backing vocalist, in 1979. Throughout her career, Niles has worked with many artists including ABC, Eric Clapton, Kiri Te Kanawa, The Rolling Stones, Annie Lennox, Tears For Fears, Duran Duran, Kylie Minogue, David Bowie, The Police, Take That, Grace Jones, Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Steve Winwood, Morrissey-Mullen, Snowy White, Tom Jones, Marillion, Fish, Pet Shop Boys, Buddy Guy, B*Witched, Victoria Beckham, Nick Carter, Cliff Richard, Mike + The Mechanics, Zucchero, Status Quo, Robbie Williams, Gary Numan, Wham!, Dusty Springfield, The The, Jimmy Nail, Cher, Cabaret Voltaire and John Denver.
  In the mid-1980s, Niles was featured the lead vocalist (along with Clive Griffin) for the jazz ensemble Bandzilla, which was led by her then husband Richard Niles. The band toured and were featured as the resident house band on the Channel 4 television show Don't Miss Wax in 1987. In 1991, the band released their debut album, Blue Movies, again featuring Niles as lead vocalist.
  
  wn.com/Tessa_Niles
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  Thomas Dolby
  Thomas Dolby (born Thomas Morgan Robertson; 14 October 1958) is an English musician and producer. Best known for his 1982 hit "She Blinded Me with Science", and 1984 single "Hyperactive!", he has also worked extensively in production and as a session musician.
  Robertson was born in London, England, contrary to information in early 1980s press releases that reported his birthplace as Cairo, Egypt. His father, Martin Robertson, was an internationally distinguished professor of classical Greek art and archeology at the University of London and Oxford University, and in his youth Thomas lived or worked in France, Italy and Greece. He attended Abingdon School in 1975-76, completing his A Levels whilst there. Thomas Dolby spoke of his early musical experiences in a 2012 interview:
  He later married actress Kathleen Beller in 1988; the couple have three children together.
  Dolby is member #00001 of the current incarnation of the Flat Earth Society, a pseudoscientific group.
  The Thomas Dolby stage name originated from a nickname that Thomas picked up around the age of 13. Thomas was always messing around with keyboards and tapes and the like, so his friends nicknamed him Dolby, which came from the name Dolby Laboratories. Later, when Thomas was 18 or 19 years old, British singer Tom Robinson was popular, so the then-Thomas Robertson chose to adopt the stage name "Thomas Dolby" when he began working professionally. Early publicity implied that "Dolby" was a middle name, and that the artist's full name was Thomas Morgan Dolby Robertson; this is not true, but he does sometimes informally go by the initials TMDR.
  
  wn.com/Thomas_Dolby
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  Tina Turner
  Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American singer and actress whose career has spanned more than 50 years. She has won numerous awards. Turner started out her music career with husband Ike Turner as a member of the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Success followed with a string of hits including "River Deep, Mountain High" and the 1971 hit "Proud Mary". With the publication of her autobiography I, Tina (1986), Turner revealed severe instances of spousal abuse against her by Ike Turner prior to their 1976 split and subsequent 1978 divorce. After virtually disappearing from the music scene for several years following her divorce from Ike Turner, she rebuilt her career, launching a string of hits beginning in 1983 with the single "Let's Stay Together" and the 1984 release of her fifth solo album Private Dancer.
  Her musical career led to film roles, beginning with a prominent role as The Acid Queen in the 1975 film Tommy, and an appearance in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. She starred opposite Mel Gibson as Aunty Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome for which she received the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture, and her version of the film's theme, "We Don't Need Another Hero", was a hit single. She appeared in the 1993 film Last Action Hero.
  
  wn.com/Tina_Turner
• Tom Brislin
  Tom Brislin is an American keyboardist, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from New Jersey. He is the founding member of the rock band Spiraling, and plays or has played keyboards with several well-known acts. Brislin is currently a Contributing Editor for Keyboard Magazine.
  As Solo Artist:
  With You Were Spiraling:
  With Spiraling:
  With Meat Loaf:
  With Patti Rothberg:
  With Yes:
  With Other Artists:
  
  wn.com/Tom_Brislin
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  Tori Amos
  Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; August 22, 1963) is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. Amos originally served as the lead singer of 1980s synthpop group Y Kant Tori Read, and as a solo artist was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s. She was also noteworthy early in her solo career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument. Some of her charting singles include "Crucify", "Silent All These Years", "God", "Cornflake Girl", "Caught a Lite Sneeze", "Professional Widow", "Spark", "1000 Oceans", and "A Sorta Fairytale", her most commercially successful single in the U.S. to date.
  As of 2005, Amos had sold 12 million albums worldwide. She has been nominated for 8 Grammy Awards. Amos was also named one of People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in 1996.
  Amos was born in Newton, North Carolina. When she was two, her family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she began to play the piano. By age five, she had begun composing instrumental pieces on piano and, while living in Rockville, Maryland, she won a full scholarship to the Preparatory Division of the Peabody Conservatory of Music. Her scholarship was discontinued at age 11 and she was asked to leave. Amos has asserted that she lost the scholarship because of her interest in rock and popular music, coupled with her dislike for reading from sheet music. In 1972, The Amos family moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, where her father, Reverend Edison Amos, became pastor of the Good Shepherd United Methodist church. At the age of 13 she began playing at gay bars and piano bars, chaperoned by her father.
  
  wn.com/Tori_Amos
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  Trevor Horn
  Trevor Charles Horn, CBE (born 15 July 1949) is an English pop music record producer, songwriter, musician and singer. He was born in Houghton-le-Spring in northeastern England.
  Horn has produced commercially successful songs and albums for numerous British and international artists. He won a Grammy Award for producing "Kiss from a Rose" by Seal. As a musician, he has had chart success with the bands The Buggles, Yes and Art of Noise. He also owns a significant stake in the recording company ZTT Records, Sarm Studios and a music publishing company, Perfect Songs. The three are combined under the corporate umbrella of SPZ.
  Trevor Horn grew up in Houghton-le-Spring, which is part of the municipality of Sunderland, England. His parents, John and Elizabeth, were from Hetton-le-Hole, which is near Sunderland. His father worked as an engineer, with technology related to milk production as his specialty. Trevor has two sisters, Janet and Marjorie, and a brother, Ken. Both sisters eventually emigrated to Canada.
  
  wn.com/Trevor_Horn
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  Trevor Rabin
  Trevor Charles Rabin (born 13 January 1954) is a South African born musician, best known as a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for the British progressive rock band Yes from 1982–1994, then as a film composer.
  Rabin was born into a family of classical musicians in Johannesburg, South Africa, where his father Godfrey was lead violinist for the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and also a lawyer. Educated at Parktown Boys' High School in Johannesburg, he took formal piano training before discovering the guitar at age 12. He joined one of his first bands, The Other, when he was 13. His parents encouraged his talents toward rock music, although Rabin would maintain his interest in classical music throughout his career. Rabin also briefly studied orchestration at the University of Johannesburg and trained to be a conductor; he later arranged and conducted for many artists in South Africa.
  Rabin's early influences included Arnold Schoenberg, Tchaikovsky, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix. He also dabbled with progressive and heavy rock with his first band, The Conglomeration, as well as joining the prominent anti-apartheid rock band Freedom's Children for a year in 1972. During this same period, Rabin became a highly sought after session guitarist and bassist, playing with many jazz bands in South Africa. When Rabin fulfilled his obligation to the South African Army at age 19, he served with the entertainment division.
  
  wn.com/Trevor_Rabin
• Walter Afanasieff
  Walter Afanasieff (born February 10, 1958) is a multiple Grammy-award-winning record producer and songwriter. He is best known for his long association with Mariah Carey, for whom he was producer and co-writer for several years, beginning in 1990. He won the 1999 Grammy Award in the Record of the Year category for producing “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion, and the 2000 Grammy Award for Non-Classical Producer of the Year.
  Afanasieff has written and produced music for many other artists, including Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Luther Vandross, Destiny's Child, Kenny G, Michael Bolton, Darren Hayes (Savage Garden), Andrea Bocelli, Johnny Mathis, Kenny Loggins, Barbra Streisand, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony, Mika, Babyface, Josh Groban, Jordin Sparks, Tina Arena, Lara Fabian, and Leona Lewis.
  Afanasieff was born Vladimir Nikitich Afanasieff (Russian: Владимир Никитич Афанасьев) in São Paulo, SP, Brazil to Russian parents Nikita and Tatiana. His father is from Leningrad in the Soviet Union and his mother is from Harbin, China. His parents met in Brazil in the early 1950s.
  
  wn.com/Walter_Afanasieff
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  Whitney Houston
  Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American recording artist, actress, producer, and model. In 2009, the Guinness World Records cited her as the most-awarded female act of all-time. Houston was one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold over 170 million albums, singles and videos worldwide. She released seven studio albums and three movie soundtrack albums, all of which have diamond, multi-platinum, platinum or gold certification. Houston's crossover appeal on the popular music charts, as well as her prominence on MTV, starting with her video for "How Will I Know", influenced several African American female artists to follow in her footsteps.
  Houston is the only artist to chart seven consecutive No. 1 Billboard Hot 100 hits. She is the second artist behind Elton John and the only female artist to have two number-one Billboard 200 Album awards (formerly "Top Pop Album") on the Billboard magazine year-end charts. Houston's 1985 debut album Whitney Houston became the best-selling debut album by a female act at the time of its release. The album was named Rolling Stone's best album of 1986, and was ranked at number 254 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Her second studio album Whitney (1987) became the first album by a female artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 albums chart.
  
  wn.com/Whitney_Houston
• Wikipedia Persondata
  wn.com/Wikipedia_Persondata