Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Noddy Holder
background	solo_singer
birth name	Neville John Holder
born	June 15, 1946Walsall, West Midlands, England
instrument	Vocals, guitar, bass
genre	Glam rock, hard rock
occupation	Singer-songwriter, actor, musician
years active	1966–present
associated acts	Slade, Dave Hill
notable instruments	Fender Telecaster,Gibson SG Junior,Ovation Deacon John Birch Cherry Red Gibson SG }}

Neville John "Noddy" Holder MBE (born 15 June 1946, Walsall, West Midlands, England) He then attended the new T. P. Riley Comprehensive School and passed 6 GCE O-level exams. He had formed a group called The Rockin' Phantoms with school friends at the age of 13. With money earned from his first job he bought a Höfner guitar and an amplifier. Holder turned professional with Steve Brett & the Mavericks. The band made four singles for Columbia Records.

He was born in the Caldmore area, near Walsall town centre, but moved to the Beechdale council estate in the north of the town as a child during the 1950s.

Slade

Don Powell (drummer) then persuaded Holder to join The In'Betweens. The group already included guitarist / bass guitarist Dave Hill and bass guitarist / keyboard player / violinist / songwriter Jim Lea and the four of them went on to eventually become Slade, one of Britain's top selling rock bands. The sheer power of Holder's vocals has rarely been equalled, but Slade did also record ballads, "How Does It Feel?" being widely acclaimed.

Lea and Holder turned out to have the group's most successful song-writing combination, composing most of the band's many hits.

Slade are best remembered for the single "Merry Xmas Everybody" written by Holder and Lea. Holder recorded the single with Slade in 1973, and the song became the band's sixth number one and the third Slade single to go straight in at number one in the UK chart. "Merry Xmas Everybody" has remained seasonally popular ever since and is regularly included as a festive classic on compilation albums. To date, in the UK alone, sales of this song have exceeded several million copies.

Post Slade and acting career

Since his departure from Slade in 1991, he has appeared in various TV shows, most notably The Grimleys (1999–2001) as music teacher Neville Holder, and had his own radio show on Piccadilly 1152 in Manchester in the 1990s and on Century and Capital Radio from 2000 to 2004. He also presented 31 editions of Noddy's Electric Ladyland on Men & Motors, was a team captain in BBC's A Question of Pop

Holder's voice was famously used in 2000 to record the lift announcements at the Walsall New Art Gallery.

In November 2004, he made a guest appearance in the second episode of Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere - where he played a garage mechanic called Mick Bustin. From 2005 Holder has appeared in an advertisement campaign for Nobby's Nuts and Crisps. Over the last twelve years Holder has voiced and appeared in many adverts for TV, film and radio. In 2006 Holder made a guest appearance in a music video for the Misty's Big Adventure single, "Fashion Parade".

Holder also occasionally appears on the BBC show Grumpy Old Men.

Holder is a regular TV critic and reviewer for The Radcliffe and Maconie Show on BBC Radio 2, and the three often talk about rock star gossip from all eras. Radcliffe often refers to Holder as 'Sir Nodward of Holdershire'.

Holder was the third celebrity to be inducted onto the Birmingham Walk of Stars. 27,000 people turned out to his induction ceremony, which took place on 9 December 2007 at Birmingham's 2007 Canal Boat Light Parade.

For Christmas 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 he has recorded a TV show countdown of hit Christmas tunes. On 24 December 2008, Holder appeared on British TV's BBC humorous news quiz show, Have I Got News for You as a member of Paul Merton's team. In January 2010 Holder and his wife appeared on All Star Mr. and Mrs. on ITV where they won the jackpot for charity.

Personal life

On 7 April 2004 in east Cheshire, he married TV producer Suzan Price, with whom he has a son, Django (named after Django Reinhardt), who was born in January 1995. From his previous marriage, to Leandra, Holder has two grown daughters, Jessica and Charisse.

He is also a fan of Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.

References

External links

Noddyholder.com

biographical article on MSN Lifestyle website, 15 June 2006, celebrating Noddy Holder's birthday

Category:1946 births Category:Living people Category:English male singers Category:English rock singers Category:English singer-songwriters Category:English guitarists Category:English rock guitarists Category:English rock bass guitarists Category:Members of the Order of the British Empire Category:British radio DJs Category:People from Walsall Category:People from Wolverhampton

cs:Noddy Holder da:Noddy Holder it:Noddy Holder nl:Noddy Holder pl:Noddy Holder ro:Noddy Holder fi:Noddy Holder

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Jeff Lynne
background	solo_singer
birth name	Jeffrey Lynne
alias	Otis Wilbury/Clayton Wilbury
born	December 30, 1947Shard End, Birmingham, England
instrument	Vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, piano, percussion, cello
genre	Progressive rock, pop rock, symphonic rock, art rock, pop
occupation	Musician, songwriter, producer
years active	1966–present
label	United Artists, Jet, Harvest, Epic, SonyBMG, Reprise
associated acts	Electric Light Orchestra, Traveling Wilburys, The Idle Race, The Move, George Harrison, Tom Petty, The Beatles, Olivia Newton-John, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan
website	ftmusic.com
notable instruments	Gibson Les PaulFender TelecasterGibson Hummingbird }}

Jeffrey "Jeff" Lynne (born 30 December 1947) is an English songwriter, composer, arranger, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer who gained fame as the leader and sole constant member of Electric Light Orchestra and was a co-founder and member of The Traveling Wilburys together with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty. Lynne has produced recordings for artists such as The Beatles, Brian Wilson, Roy Orbison, Dave Edmunds, Del Shannon and Tom Petty. He has co-written songs with Petty and also with George Harrison, whose 1987 album Cloud Nine was co-produced by Lynne and Harrison. Among the many compositions to his credit are such well-known hits as "Livin' Thing", "Evil Woman", "Turn to Stone", "Xanadu", "Sweet Talkin' Woman","Telephone Line", "Shine a Little Love", "Mr. Blue Sky", "Hold on Tight", "All Over the World", and "Don't Bring Me Down".

In 2008, The Washington Times named Lynne the fourth greatest record producer in music history.

Musical career

Early career

In 1963, Jeff Lynne, Robert Reader and David Walsh formed a group using little more than Spanish guitars and cheap electrical instruments to produce music. They were originally named "The Rockin' Hellcats" before changing to "The Handicaps" and finally to "The Andicaps". They practised at Shard End Community Centre and performed weekly. However, in 1964, Robert Reader and David Walsh left the band and Lynne brought in replacements. At the end of 1964, Lynne decided to leave the band to replace Mick Adkins of the local band "The Chads".

In 1966, Lynne joined the line-up of The Nightriders as guitarist. The band would soon change their name to The Idle Race, a name allegedly given to them sarcastically by his grandmother Evelyn Lynne who probably disapproved of pop music as not being a proper job. Despite recording two critically acclaimed albums with the band and producing the second, success eluded him. In 1970, Lynne accepted a lifeline from friend Roy Wood to join the line-up of the more successful band The Move.

The Electric Light Orchestra: 1970–86

Lynne contributed many songs to The Move's last two albums while formulating, with Roy Wood and Bev Bevan, a band built around a fusion of rock and classical music. This project would eventually become the highly successful Electric Light Orchestra (ELO). Problems led to Wood's departure in 1972, after the band's eponymous first album, leaving Jeff Lynne as the band's dominant creative force. Thereafter followed a succession of band personnel changes and increasingly popular albums: 1973's ELO II and On The Third Day, 1974's Eldorado and 1975's Face the Music.

By A New World Record, Lynne had almost developed the roots of the group into a more complex and unique pop-rock sound mixed with studio strings, layered vocals, and tight, catchy pop singles. Jeff Lynne's now almost complete creative dominance as producer, songwriter, arranger, lead singer and guitarist could make ELO appear to be an almost solo effort. However, the ELO sound and the focus of Lynne's writing was also shaped by Louis Clark's and Richard Tandy's co-arranging, under Jeff's direction (notably the large string sections), Bev Bevan's drumming, and Richard Tandy's integration of the Moog, harmonium, and Mellotron, with more novel keyboard technology, gave Jeff's songs a more symphonic sound.

The pinnacle of ELO's chart success and worldwide popularity was the expansive 1977 double album Out of the Blue, which was largely conceived in a Swiss chalet during a two-week writing marathon. The band's 1978 world tour featured an elaborate "space ship" set and laser light show. In order to recreate the complex instrumental textures of their albums, the band used pre-recorded supplemental backing tracks in live performances. Although that practice has now become commonplace, it caused considerable derision in the press of the time. Jeff Lynne has often stated that he prefers the creative environment of the studio to the rigours and tedium of touring.

In 1979, Lynne followed up the success of Out of the Blue with Discovery, which held No. 1 in the UK for 5 weeks. The album is primarily associated with its two disco-flavoured singles ("Shine a Little Love" and "Last Train to London") and with the title's word play on "disco" and "very". However, the remaining seven non-disco tracks on the album reflected Lynne's range as a pop-rock songwriter, including a heavy, mid-tempo rock anthem ("Don't Bring Me Down") that, despite its use of a drum loop, could be considered the antithesis of disco. In an April 2008 interview, Lynne fondly recalled his forays into dance music:

In 1979, Lynne rejected an offer for ELO to headline the Knebworth Concert in the UK, allowing Led Zeppelin to headline instead.

In the absence of any touring to support Discovery, Lynne had time to contribute five tracks to the soundtrack for the 1980 movie musical Xanadu. The score yielded a pair of top-40 singles, with the title track "Xanadu" reaching number one in the UK. Nevertheless, Lynne was not integrated into the development of the film, and his material subsequently had only superficial attachment to the plot. Xanadu performed weakly at the box office (although it later has experienced popularity as a cult favourite). Lynne subsequently disavowed his limited contribution to the project, although he later re-recorded the title song (with his lead vocal) for the 2000 box set Flashback. In 2007, the film was loosely adapted into a successful Broadway musical, incorporating almost all of the songs from the original film, and also using two other ELO hits: "Strange Magic" and "Evil Woman".

The 1980s

In 1981 Lynne took the band in a somewhat different direction with the science-fiction themed album Time, reaching number one for two weeks in the UK, producing the second Top 3 single in less than two years. The strings were still featured, but with heavily synthesised textures. Following a marginally successful tour, Lynne kept this general approach with 1983's Secret Messages and a final contractually-obligated ELO album Balance of Power in 1986. Lynne discusses the contractually-obligated nature of the final albums on the short interview included with the 'Zoom' DVD. ELO now had only three remaining official members (Lynne, Bevan and Tandy), and Lynne began devoting more time to producing.

During his time in the Electric Light Orchestra, Lynne did manage to release a few recordings under his own name. In 1976, Lynne covered The Beatles songs "With a Little Help from My Friends" and "Nowhere Man" for All This and World War II. In 1977, Lynne released his first solo single, the disco-flavoured "Doin' That Crazy Thing"/"Goin' Down To Rio". Despite ELO's high profile at that time, it received little airplay and failed to chart. In 1984 Lynne and ELO keyboardist Richard Tandy contributed two original songs "Video!" and "Let It Run" to the film Electric Dreams (they also provided a third song, "Sooner or Later", which was released as the b-side of "Video!"). Lynne also wrote the song "The Story of Me," which was recorded by the Everly Brothers on their comeback album EB84.

Even before the official end of ELO, Lynne began his move toward focusing almost exclusively on studio production work. Lynne produced and wrote the 1983 top-40 hit "Slipping Away" for Dave Edmunds and played on sessions (with Richard Tandy) for Edmunds' album, Information. Lynne also produced six tracks on Edmunds' follow-up album in 1984, Riff Raff.

In contrast to the dense, boomy, baroque sound of ELO, Lynne's post-ELO studio work has tended toward more minimal, acoustic instrumentation and a sparse, "organic" quality that generally favours light room ambience and colouration over artificial reverb, especially on vocals. Lynne's recordings also often feature the jangling compressed acoustic guitar sound pioneered by Roger McGuinn and a heavily gated snare drum sound.

Lynne's influence by the Beatles was clearly evident in his ELO work and the connection to the Beatles was strengthened when Lynne produced George Harrison's Cloud Nine, a successful comeback album for the ex-Beatle, released in 1987, featuring the popular singles "Got My Mind Set on You", "When We Was Fab" (where Lynne played the violin in the video), and "This is Love", two of the three songs co-written by Lynne.

Jeff Lynne's association with Harrison led to the 1988 formation of the Traveling Wilburys, a studio "supergroup" that included George Harrison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison (as well as Lynne himself), and resulted in two albums (Vol. 1 and Vol. 3), both co-produced by Lynne. In 1988 Lynne also worked on Roy Orbison's album Mystery Girl co-writing and producing Orbison's last major hit, "You Got It", plus two other tracks on that album. For Rock On!, the final Del Shannon album, Jeff Lynne co-wrote "Walk Away" and finished off several tracks after Shannon's death.

In 1989, Lynne co-produced Full Moon Fever by Tom Petty, which included the hit singles "Free Fallin'", "I Won't Back Down", and "Runnin' Down a Dream", all co-written by Lynne. This album and Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 both received nominations for the Grammy Award for Best Album of the Year in 1989. The Traveling Wilburys won a Grammy for "Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal" that year. Lynne's song "One Way Love" was released as a single by Agnetha Faltskog and appeared on her second post-ABBA album, Eyes of a Woman. Lynne co-wrote and produced the track "Let It Shine" for Beach Boys founder Brian Wilson's first solo album in 1988. Lynne also contributed three tracks to an album by Duane Eddy and "Falling In Love" on Land of Dreams for Randy Newman.

The 1990s

In 1990, Lynne collaborated on the Wilburys' follow up Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 and shortly after that released his first solo album Armchair Theatre, with old friends George Harrison and Richard Tandy featuring the singles "Every Little Thing" and "Lift Me Up". The album received some positive critical attention but little commercial success. Lynne also provided the song "Wild Times" to the motion picture soundtrack Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in 1991.

In 1991, Lynne returned to the studio with Petty, co-writing and producing the album Into the Great Wide Open for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which featured the singles "Learning to Fly" and "Into the Great Wide Open". The following year he produced Roy Orbison's posthumous album King of Hearts, featuring the single "I Drove All Night".

In February 1994, Lynne fulfilled a lifelong dream by working with the three surviving Beatles on the Anthology album series. At George Harrison's request, Lynne was brought in to assist in reevaluating John Lennon's original studio material. The songs "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" were created by digitally processing Lennon's demos for the songs and overdubbing the three surviving band members to form a virtual Beatles reunion that the band had mutually eschewed during Lennon's lifetime. Lynne has also produced records for Ringo Starr and worked on Paul McCartney's Grammy nominated album Flaming Pie.

Lynne's work in the 1990s also includes production of a 1993 album for singer/songwriter Julianna Raye entitled Something Peculiar and production or songwriting contributions to albums by Roger McGuinn (Back from Rio), Joe Cocker (Night Calls), Aerosmith (Lizard Love), Tom Jones (Lift me Up), Bonnie Tyler (Time Mends a Broken Heart), the film Still Crazy, Hank Marvin (Wonderful Land and Nivram), Et Moi (Drole De Vie), and the Tandy Morgan Band (Action).

In 1996, Lynne was officially recognised by his peers when he was awarded the Ivor Novello Award for "Outstanding Contributions to British Music" for a second time.

The 2000s

Following legal action to get the ELO name back from Bevan's touring group ELO Part II, Lynne released a new album in 2001 under the ELO moniker entitled Zoom. Although the album featured guest appearances by Ringo Starr, George Harrison and original ELO keyboardist Richard Tandy, it was essentially a second Jeff Lynne solo album, with Lynne multi-tracking a majority of the instruments and vocals. The album received positive reviews but had no hit singles. Despite bearing little sonic relationship to the halcyon ELO days of the late 1970s, it was marketed as a "return to the classic ELO sound" in an attempt to connect with a loyal body of fans and jump-start a planned concert tour (with Lynne and Tandy as the only returning original ELO members). While a live performance was taped at CBS Television City over two consecutive nights and shown on PBS (with subsequent DVD release), the tour itself was cancelled.

Speculation remains rife as to the reason (or reasons), for the cancellation of this tour. Certainly, initial ticket sales were disappointing, with publicity for the concerts minimal. Although often cited by fans as a reason for the tour cancellation, the events and aftermath of 11 September occurred subsequent to the official cancellation of the tour. Greg Bissonette (ELO drummer), when asked, described it as "the greatest tour I never went on!"

Earlier in 2001, Lynne began working with George Harrison on what would turn out to be Harrison's final album, Brainwashed. After Harrison's death from cancer on 29 November 2001, Lynne returned to the studio in 2002 to help finish the uncompleted album. Lynne was also heavily involved in the memorial Concert for George, held at London's Royal Albert Hall in November 2002, singing the lead vocal on "The Inner Light", "I Want to Tell You" and "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)", and subsequently produced the Surround Sound audio mix for the Concert For George DVD released in November 2003. The DVD received a Grammy.

Lynne reunited in 2006 with Tom Petty to produce his third solo release, Highway Companion.

ASCAP honoured Jeff Lynne with the Golden Note Award during their inaugural "I Create Music" EXPO on 24 April 2009, the presenter was Paul Williams. ASCAP's Golden Note Award is presented to songwriters, composers, and artists who have achieved extraordinary career milestones. Previous honorees include Tom Petty, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, Sean "Diddy" Combs and Garth Brooks, to name a few.

Lynne said in a Reuters article on 23 April 2009, that he has finally been working on the long awaited follow-up to his 1990 solo debut album Armchair Theatre with a possible tentative release date of "later this year".

He also produced four tracks on Regina Spektor's fifth album Far, released 23 June 2009.

In a March 2010 interview with the Daily Express newspaper, Lynne confirmed he is working on a new album with Joe Walsh and simultaneously "writing a couple of albums under his own name, though he won't tell us in which musical direction he's heading."

Lynne has recently contributed a cover of Buddy Holly's "Words of Love" for the upcoming tribute album, Listen to Me: Buddy Holly to be released on 6 September 2011.

Albums Lynne participated on

The Idle Race

The Birthday Party (October 1968)

Idle Race (November 1969)

The Move

Looking On (December 1970)

Message from the Country (8 October 1971)

Electric Light Orchestra

The Electric Light Orchestra (1971)

ELO 2 (1973)

On the Third Day (1973)

Eldorado, A Symphony (1974)

Face the Music (1975)

A New World Record (1976)

Out of the Blue (1977)

Discovery (1979)

Xanadu (1980)

Time (1981)

Secret Messages (1983)

Balance of Power (1986)

Zoom (2001)

Traveling Wilburys

Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 (1988)

Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 (1990)

The Traveling Wilburys Collection (2007)

Others

He sang "With a Little Help from My Friends" for the movie All This and World War II, sang on the Beatles single "Free as a Bird", and performed at the Concert for George.

He sang Buddy Holly's "Words of Love" for the album Listen To Me: Buddy Holly, to be released in September 2011.

Solo discography

Albums

:Armchair Theatre

:Released: 12 June 1990 :Peak Chart Positions: #7 Norway, #8 Sweden, #22 Canada, #24 UK,

:"Lift Me Up" / "Sirens"

:Released: September 1990 :Peak Chart Positions: # 37 Canada

See also

Jeff Lynne and The Beatles

References

External links

elo.biz Official Website

Jeff Lynne Song Database

Discovery - welcome to the show ELO & Jeff Lynne information page

Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:Electric Light Orchestra members Category:English male singers Category:English multi-instrumentalists Category:English record producers Category:English rock guitarists Category:English songwriters Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:The Move members Category:People from Birmingham, West Midlands Category:People associated with The Beatles Category:Traveling Wilburys members Category:Musicians from Birmingham, West Midlands

ca:Jeff Lynne cs:Jeff Lynne da:Jeff Lynne de:Jeff Lynne es:Jeff Lynne fr:Jeff Lynne ko:제프 린 it:Jeff Lynne he:ג'ף לין ka:ჯეფ ლინი nl:Jeff Lynne ja:ジェフ・リン no:Jeff Lynne pl:Jeff Lynne pt:Jeff Lynne ro:Jeff Lynne ru:Линн, Джефф simple:Jeff Lynne fi:Jeff Lynne sv:Jeff Lynne th:เจฟฟ์ ลินน์

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Name	Roy Wood
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Roy Adrian Wood
Born	November 08, 1946Kitts Green, Birmingham, England
Genre	Progressive rock, pop rock, jazz fusion, symphonic rock, art rock, pop, glam rock
Occupation	Musician, singer-songwriter, composer, producer, arranger
Years active	1964–present
Instrument	Multi-instrumentalist
Label	United Artists, Deram, Regal Zonophone, Fly, Cube, Harvest, EMI, Warner Bros., Jet, Cheapskate, Speed, Legacy
Associated acts	Mike Sheridan and The NightridersThe NightridersThe MoveElectric Light Orchestra WizzardWizzo BandRoy Wood's HelicoptersThe RockersThe Roy Wood Big Band The Wombles with Roy WoodRoy Wood Rock & Roll Band
Website	Roywood.co.uk }}

Roy Adrian Wood (born 8 November 1946) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the bands The Move, Electric Light Orchestra, and Wizzard. As a songwriter, he contributed a number of hits to the repertoire of these bands.

Career

Wood's first group in Birmingham in the early 1960s was The Falcons, which he left in 1963 to join Gerry Levene and the Avengers. He then moved to Mike Sheridan and the Nightriders (the band later became The Idle Race). During this period, Wood attended the Moseley College of Art, from which he was expelled in 1964.

From this basis, and other Birmingham-based groups, was formed The Move, and they quickly entered the UK Singles Chart. Their single, "Night of Fear", climbed to #2 in early 1967. Their third hit, "Flowers in the Rain", was the first song played at the launch of BBC Radio 1 in 1967, and the band evolved over a three year period. After the departure of The Move's lead singer Carl Wayne, Wood's influence became more prominent. In 1967 Wood supplied backing vocals on the track, "You Got Me Floatin'", on The Jimi Hendrix Experience's album, Axis: Bold as Love.

Wood was keen on musical experimentation and was in this respect one of the most progressive musicians of his time, taking the 'pop group' into new areas. He was an early proponent of combining rock and roll and pop music with other styles, such as classical music, or the big band sound, and introduced classically-styled string and brass sections into the pop record. in 1972, Wood's composition Songs Of Praise was shortlisted by the BBC as one of six possible choices for the UK entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1972. When performed by The New Seekers on the Cliff Richard vehicle It's Cliff Richard!, the song finished in last place with 3,842 votes. The group included the track on their album We'd Like To Teach The World To Sing. Wood recorded his own version of Songs of Praise, releasing it on the B-Side of his 1973 single, Dear Elaine.

When The Move was still on tour, he founded, together with his band colleagues Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan, the Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), which was later to gain major commercial success. The original intention was to continue with both The Move and ELO, but the former soon ceased to exist.

ELO's early live performances were chaotic, and after increasing tensions, Wood left in July 1972 and formed a new group, Wizzard, which assembled cellists, brass players and a bigger rhythm section, with several drummers and percussionists. Wood emulated the wall of sound production style of Phil Spector while successfully and affectionately pastiching the rock and roll style of the early 1960s. Meanwhile, he released several solo albums, exploring further musical directions. His 1973 album, Boulders, was an almost entirely solo effort, right down to the sleeve artwork, with Wood playing a wide variety of musical instruments. A second solo album Mustard (1975), including contributions by Phil Everly and Annie Haslam, was less successful.

Wood was mentioned as singer as well as player of guitars, bass guitar, cello, flute, sitar, saxophones, clarinet, recorders, oboe, bassoon, drums, Double Bass and keyboards.

Earlier, in July 1972, Wood played bass guitar on all the tracks for Bo Diddley's Chess Records album The London Bo Diddley Sessions.

By the late 1970s, Wood was appearing less in public; commercial success faded away, and his musical experiments did not always match popular taste, but he remained productive in the studio as musician, producer and songwriter. He was a fan of Elvis Presley, but never succeeded in getting him to adopt one of his compositions. However, he was untiring as a producer for other acts, most successfully doo-wop revivalists Darts. In 1976, Wood recorded The Beatles songs "Lovely Rita" and "Polythene Pam" for the ill-fated musical documentary, All This and World War II.

In 1977 he formed the Wizzo Band, a jazz-rock ensemble, whose only live performance was a BBC simultaneous television and radio broadcast in stereo. The Wizzo Band split early the following year after cancelling a nationwide tour.

Between 1980 and 1982 Wood released a few singles under his own name and also as Roy Wood's Helicopters, and played some live dates under this name, with a band comprising Robin George (guitar), Terry Rowley (keyboards), Jon Camp (bass), and Tom Farnell (drums). The release of what would have been the last of these singles, "Aerial Pictures", backed with "Airborne", was cancelled owing to the lack of chart success for its predecessors, but both sides appeared for the first time in 2006 on a compilation CD, Roy Wood - The Wizzard!. "Aerial Pictures", using the original backing track, subsequently became a solo single for former Move vocalist, Carl Wayne.

Wood also made a one-off rock and roll medley single with Phil Lynott, Chas Hodges and John Coghlan, credited to The Rockers, "We Are The Boys" (1983), and played a leading role in the Birmingham Heart Beat Charity Concert 1986, on 15 March 1986, which was later televised in part by the BBC. As well as designing the logo, Wood performed in a line-up which also included the Electric Light Orchestra and the Moody Blues.

After a period away from the limelight, following the release of the album Starting Up (1987), a cover version of the Len Barry hit "1-2-3", and a guest vocal appearance on one track on Rick Wakeman's The Time Machine, he went on the road with 'Roy Wood's Army'. He also recorded two tracks with Lynne around this time ("If You Can't Get What You Want" and "Me and You"), which were never released.

Collectively, hit records by The Move, Electric Light Orchestra, Wizzard, and Wood's own solo singles demonstrated an impressive chart run for an individual, both as composer and performer. Altogether he had more than 20 singles in the UK Singles Chart under various guises, including three UK #1 hits. His most regularly broadcast song is the seasonal Wizzard single "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday". In 1995 he released a new live version as the 'Roy Wood Big Band', which charted at #59, and in 2000 he joined forces with Mike Batt and The Wombles, for a re-working of "I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday" and of the Wombles' hit "Wombling Merry Christmas", together in one song which reached #22.

Most recently, he has formed the Roy Wood Rock & Roll Band for occasional live dates and television performances in the UK. They were confirmed as the support act for Status Quo at several UK dates in November and December 2011.

Discography

Albums

Boulders (1973) - UK #15; US Billboard 200 #176

The London Bo Diddley Sessions (1973) - with Wood playing bass

Mustard (1975)

Super Active Wizzo (1977)

On The Road Again (1979) - not released in the UK

The Singles (1982) - UK #37

Starting Up (1987)

Solo singles

"When Gran'ma Plays the Banjo" (1972)

"Dear Elaine" (1973) - UK #18

"Forever" (1973) - UK #8

"Goin' Down the Road" (1974) - UK #13

"Oh What a Shame" (1975) - UK #13

"Look Thru' the Eyes of a Fool" (1975)

"Any Old Time Will Do" (1976)

"Keep Your Hands on the Wheel" (1978)

"(We're) On the Road Again" (1979)

"Rock City" - Helicopters (1980)

"Sing Out the Old — Bring In the New" (1980)

"Green Glass Windows" - Roy Wood's Helicopters (1981)

"Down to Zero" (1981)

"It's Not Easy" (1982)

"O.T.T." (1982)

"We are the Boys (Who Make All the Noise)" - The Rockers (1983)

"Under Fire" (1985)

"Sing Out the Old — Bring In the New" - new recording (1985)

"Raining in the City" (1986)

"1-2-3" (1987)

All the above titles recorded by Carl Wayne were as a solo artist, after he left The Move in 1969.

Chronological album discography

For the complete Move discography see The Move Discography For the complete ELO discography see Electric Light Orchestra discography For the complete Wizzard discography see Wizzard Discography

The Move (1968) - The Move

Shazam (1970) - The Move

Looking On (1970) - The Move

Message from the Country (1971) - The Move

The Electric Light Orchestra (1971) - ELO

ELO 2 (1973) - ELO (Although uncredited at the time, Wood played cello and bass on "In Old England Town" and "From the Sun to the World").

Wizzard Brew (1973) - Wizzard

Boulders (1973) - Solo

Introducing Eddy & The Falcons (1974) - Wizzard

Mustard (1975) - Solo

Super Active Wizzo (1977) - Wizzo Band

On The Road Again (1979) - Solo

Starting Up (1987) - Solo

Main Street (2000) - Wizzard

References

External links

Roy Wood's website

[ Biography page at the Allmusic website]

The Move Information Station

Roy Wood honorary doctorate photographs (University of Derby)

Roy Wood memorabilia and interviews

Category:1946 births Category:Living people Category:People from Birmingham, West Midlands Category:English songwriters Category:English rock guitarists Category:English male singers Category:English record producers Category:British rock cellists Category:The Move members Category:Electric Light Orchestra members Category:English multi-instrumentalists Category:Musicians from Birmingham, West Midlands

de:Roy Wood es:Roy Wood fr:Roy Wood ja:ロイ・ウッド ro:Roy Wood ru:Вуд, Рой fi:Roy Wood sv:Roy Wood

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
Name	Mike Read
Birth date	March 01, 1947
Birth place	Manchester, England
Known for	Saturday Superstore; Radio 1
Occupation	radio host, television presenter, writer
Nationality	British }}

Michael David Kenneth Read (born 1 March 1947) is an English radio disc jockey, writer, journalist and television presenter.

Early life

Read is the only child of a publican and was born in Manchester, but the family moved to Walton-on-Thames when he was still an infant. He attended Woking Grammar School followed by a sixth-form college. He was an estate agent for a while and recorded under various names including Mickey Manchester.

Broadcasting career

Read's professional broadcasting career began in March 1976 at Reading's Radio 210, where he co-hosted a show with Steve Wright, before joining Radio Luxembourg late in 1977.

He joined BBC Radio One at the end of 1978 and was soon presenting the night time programme before John Peel's show, where he championed new groups and featured live sessions. He was one of the most popular Roadshow presenters during his time at the station and took over the Breakfast Show on Monday 5 January 1981, a spot notable for his on-air decision in 1984 not to play the Frankie Goes to Hollywood single "Relax" due to supposedly obscene lyrics.

Following on from his five-year stint on Radio 1's Breakfast Show, Read took over a Sunday morning show in 1986, from 10am-12.30pm. In 1987, he moved to Saturday Mornings from 10am-1pm, and also to a Sunday afternoon show from 1-3pm, where he played classic tracks. In addition he hosted Round Table and later went back to it as the renamed Singled Out on Friday evenings, where musicians and disc jockeys would review the new single releases.

Read's Saturday morning show ended in September 1988 and his Sunday afternoon oldies shows finished in January 1989, when Alan Freeman rejoined the station to host an oldies version of Pick of the Pops. From January 1989 to September 1990 Read presented a weekly show called The Mike Read Collection which went out on Monday evenings, and still remained on the Friday panel show Singled Out (which had by then gone back to its original name of Round Table). He remained in this slot until 1991.

After Radio One

Read left Radio 1 in 1991 and moved to Capital Gold, (then a London-only station), presenting his Mike Read Collection, which went out on a Sunday night, before taking on the weekday Drivetime show in mid-1992, where he remained until he left the station in late 1995. Also in 1992 he was heard on BBC Radio 2 presenting special shows looking back at Cliff Richard's career and playing his music. In addition to a daily show on Capital Gold, he joined Classic FM, where he presented a weekend show. In 1996, he presented the networked Breakfast Show on Classic Gold stations around the UK. From September 1999, he presented the Breakfast Show on Jazz FM in the North of England, then in 2001 joined Spirit FM in Chichester, initially presenting a Sunday show from 10am to 1pm before moving to a weekday afternoon show from 2 to 3pm, playing music from various featured years.

Between 2003 and 2004, Read presented a Saturday morning show on the Magic network around the UK. In May 2005, he became the weekday morning presenter on Big L 1395, a station modelled on the 1960s pirate radio station. He has also done occasional stints on Talksport. In November 2008 he took time out from Big L to present the 3pm-7pm Drivetime show on Hull-based station KCFM for a week (10–14 November) as cover for Shaun Tilley. Mike became the third ex-Radio 1 DJ to broadcast on the station, along with Tony Blackburn and Paul Burnett. From 17 November 2008, he launched a 10am-2pm weekday programme slot on Star 107.5 covering Gloucestershire and the Malverns. Read recently presented a weekday show between 5am and 7am (Feb 09 - Sept 09) on internet radio station Wight FM (this was voicetracked). He also presented a regular slot called "Dancing Through The Decades" on Saturday evenings between 6 and 10pm on KCFM.

In October 2009 Read was reported to be part of a team of veteran DJs forming a new radio station One Gold to rival the BBC.

In November 2009 Mike began hosting a mid-morning show on the TotalStar network in the west of England.

Read has won many 'broadcaster of the year' awards including Sonys, Smash Hits and Carl Alan Awards.

From 1 November 2010, he returned to BigL with a daily show from 8am-12pm Mon-Fri.

Television

He combined his radio work with a second career as a TV presenter, hosting the popular 1980s Saturday morning programme Saturday Superstore, as well as the Saturday Night music game show Pop Quiz, which regularly got audiences of 10 million and featured rock and pop stars answering music trivia questions. The show spawned board game and computer game spin-offs. The penultimate episode of Pop Quiz in 1984 featured a face-off between pop bands Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran, and in 1994 he returned to host a one-off special of the show for the anniversary of Top Of The Pops. The format was revived twice, firstly in 1994 by the BBC with Chris Tarrant as the host, and then in June 2008 a revamped Pop Quiz, filmed without a studio audience and in a pub (rather than a television studio) in which the participants were members of the public, aired on Red TV. This was, again hosted by Read.

Additionally, he presented UK Gold's TV genre quiz Goldmaster in 1997, having more memorably presented Top of the Pops on many occasions between 1978 and 1989, and hosted Yorkshire Television's children's series Pop Quest from 1977 to 1979.

In 2004, Read was one of the contestants recruited for the jungle-based ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! though his stay in the Australian outback was short-lived — he was the first celebrity to be evicted by the viewing public. He is a regular newspaper reviewer for Sky News.

Music and arts

Songwriting

Read wrote and performed the pop-punk song "High Rise" (based on his Radio One intro jingle) in 1979 under the guise of "The Trainspotters". Read wrote lyrics to Simon May's TRIC Award-winning Trainer TV theme. The resulting UK Top 30 single, "More to Life", was performed by Cliff Richard. Read provided a guest rap on Slade's 1991 UK Top 30 hit Radio Wall Of Sound.

After I'm a Celebrity..., Read recorded a charity single when he lyrically re-worked Hank Mizell's Jungle Rock and as The Jungle Boys (with Neil 'Razor' Ruddock and Lord Charlie Brocket had a UK Top 30 hit single. The follow-up, which made the top 75 was a new version of Mungo Jerry's In The Summertime. In 2005, Read's song Grief Never Grows Old featured on a charity recording in aid of victims of the 2004 Tsunami. Performed by an ensemble of artists named One World Project, the single reached Number 4 in the UK singles chart.

Read has written music to accompany many poems written by John Betjeman. Thirty of these songs were recorded by artists including Cliff Richard, David Essex, and Gene Pitney for the 2006 various artists' album Words/Music, and subsequently re-released in 2008 as a double CD titled Sound of Poetry.

Musicals

Read has had many musicals on stage, including Young Apollo, Oscar,(which closed after one performance), Great Expectations, A Christmas Carol, Cliff the Musical and Ricky Nelson...Teenage Idol. He took one of the lead roles in the Cliff Musical, touring with it and appearing for a three month run in the West End at the Price of Wales Theatre. His Betjeman show, based on his many collaborations with Sir John Betjeman form the basis of a show that has occasionally been staged for charities, including The Royal Marsden Hospital and Children With Leukaemia. Eminent actors appearing in his musicals and shows have included Nyree Dawn Porter, Brian Glover, Colin Baker, Anton Rogers, Jeremy Irons, Alvin Stardust and Bernard Cribbins.

Books and poetry

He was one of the founder editors of the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles, the best-known UK chart reference book, and also co-wrote many of the other Guinness music books.

In his own right he is the author of 35 books, the most current being Forever England a new biography of Rupert Brooke, Major to Minor: The Rise and Fall of the Songwriter (2000) and, with Richard Havers, Read's Musical Reciter (2004), a collection of trivia from the music business. His poetry books include The Aldermoor Poems, Elizabethan Dragonflies, A Room With Books and the latest, New Poems for Old Paintings. Also on the Poetry front he has edited and supplied biographies for the two best-selling poetry books 100 Favourite Poems and 100 Favourite Humorous Poems and contributed to many of the Poets' England series. He has just completed his first crime novel and is currently working on a second.

Contemporary art

In October 2007, Read embarked on a career in the world of contemporary art, with a gallery of works in the medium of confectionery entitled Choc Art. The work includes recreations of album sleeves by The Beatles, his own take on the iconic map of the London Underground, and works based on the paintings of L.S. Lowry . By the beginning of 2008 he has created over 25 canvasses. Two galleries had exhibitions of his Choc Art at the latter end of 2007 in Surrey and Hampshire and another in Essex in January 2008.

Personal life and ventures

Stalkers

Read had a stalker who had changed her name to Blue Tulip Rose Read and believed that she was married to him. Rose appeared in a 1996 Channel 4 documentary as part of a fame theme night.

Politics

Having spoken three times at Conservative Party conferences, including in 2006 entertaining guests at a Tory conference dinner with a ten minute political rap, Read claims he was asked to run for the Conservative Party nomination for the London Mayoral elections in 2008. His article announcing that he was instead putting his energies behind Boris Johnson's ultimately successful candidacy, published on The Guardian's Comment is Free blog on 17 July 2007, attracted a then record 1,132 comments, most of them derisive.

The Rupert Brooke Society

In 1999, Read founded the Rupert Brooke Society of which he was Chairman for a few years as well as editing the Society's twice-yearly magazine and creating a museum at The Orchard Grantchester with Robin Callan.

2009 Christmas Charity Single

Mike Read promoted a Christmas Charity Single - released on 6 December 2009 called "My Christmas Card To You". Proceeds were promised to 'The Shooting Star Children's Hospice'. The single was written by Mike Read, Elliott Frisby and Roy Wood of Wizzard. The music video also featured Dave Hill of Slade, David Hamilton and Mr. Christmas. The single failed to chart, and at its peak was the 80,397th most popular track on amazon.co.uk. It is unclear how much money the project raised for charity.

References

External links

Mike Read Online*

Mike Read's Radio Station on the Costa Blanca, Spain. OneGOLD Radio*

My Christmas Card To You Music Video - Released 06/12/2009*

Big L Radio London International website

Category:1947 births Category:Living people Category:People from Manchester Category:British radio DJs Category:English musical theatre composers Category:English radio personalities Category:English songwriters Category:English television presenters Category:I'm a Celebrity…Get Me out of Here! contestants Category:Participants in British reality television series

Coordinates	41°52′55″N87°37′40″N
name	Pauline Black
alt	Pauline Black of Selecter, San Francisco, 2005
background	solo_singer
birth name	Pauline Black
birth date	October 23, 1953
instrument	Vocals
genre	Ska
occupation	Musician, singer, actress
years active	1979–present
label	2 Tone. Chrysalis
associated acts	The Selecter
website
notable instruments	}}

Pauline Black (born Belinda Magnus, 23 October 1953) in Romford is a British singer, actress and author most notable as the lead singer of The Selecter. Black was born to an Anglo-Jewish mother and Nigerian father. She was adopted by a white middle-aged couple and given the name Pauline Vickers. Her father, Gordon Adenle, had come to London from Nigeria to study engineering and was a Yoruba prince. Black was unaware of her Jewish heritage until the age of 42 when she traced her birth mother.

Music career

Black was a founder member of Selecter who were formed in 1979 and described as leaders of the ska revival movement with, The Specials and Madness.

Rolling Stone Magazine said of Black "Hands down, Pauline Black possessed the best voice that ever graced a 2-Tone release. Blessed with a bewitching soprano and dramatic panache, Black's voice reached plateaus that made every other musical detail sound like part of a backdrop painted just to set the stage for her entrance"

The Selecter split-up in 1982 but have sporadically reformed since 1994. 2011 saw another revival of Selecter with Black and Gaps Hendrickson from the original band.

Television and acting career

After Selecter had split up, Black was co-host, with Bob Carolgees and Spit the Dog, on the childrens' television quiz show, Hold Tight. She developed an acting career in television and theatre, appearing in dramas such as The Vice, The Bill, Hearts and Minds and 2000 Acres of Sky. She won the 1991 Time Out award for Best Actress, for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in the play All or Nothing At All. She also starred next to Christopher Lee in the horror film, Funny Man.

Radio career

In 2007, Black narrated the BBC Four documentary Soul Britannia, which chronicles the history of British soul music. She later appeared in the follow-up Reggae Britannia as an interviewee, and as a member of The Selecter.

Book writing career

In 2011 Black released her autobiography, Black by Design.

References

External links

Official Pauline Black site

30th anniversary of 2-Tone with Pauline Black from The Selecter (abc.net.au)

Category:1953 births Category:Black British musicians Category:Black British actors Category:British Jews Category:British pop singers Category:British actors Category:Living people Category:Alumni of Coventry University Category:English people of Nigerian descent Category:People from Romford Category:British television actors Category:British film actors Category:Adoptees Category:British television presenters Category:People of Yoruba descent Category:British people of Greek descent

fr:Pauline Black