Blue Murder (band)

Blue Murder were an English heavy metal band, founded by ex-Whitesnake, Tygers of Pan Tang and Thin Lizzy guitarist John Sykes.

Background

Blue Murder was formed by John Sykes in 1988. As he was partially responsible for the success of their multiplatinum-selling self-titled album, Whitesnake's label Geffen signed a record deal with Sykes following his dismissal from the band.

In the nascent stages of the band, drummer Cozy Powell - with whom Sykes had played in Whitesnake - was attached to the project. Ray Gillen, who had previously sung for Black Sabbath and later for Badlands - not the same band Badlands (née John Sloman's Badlands) that Sykes once played in - sang for an early version of Blue Murder, and reportedly the band recorded demos with him.

Upon comparing the original demos with Sykes singing to the demos with Ray Gillen on vocals, A&R executive John Kalodner encouraged Sykes to handle the vocal duties himself, though Tony Martin (who replaced Gillen in Black Sabbath) briefly worked with the band.

Blue Murder

Blue Murder may refer to:

Blue Murder (folk)

Blue Murder is an occasional English folk supergroup, consisting at various times of various members of Swan Arcade, Coope Boyes and Simpson, Waterson:Carthy and The Watersons.

Dave and Heather Brady and Jim Boyes of Swan Arcade and The Watersons' Norma and Lal Waterson gathered at Whitby Folk Week in August 1986 for a charity concert for the benefit of the local school. The ensemble, probably performing as The Boggle Hole Chorale, performed at the Festival's final ceilidh.

In 1987, Ian Anderson invited The Watersons and Swan Arcade to appear at Bracknell Festival, separately and together. The collective group was named "Blue Murder" by Martin Carthy. The line up for the festival was: Martin Carthy, with Norma, Lal, Rachel and Mike Waterson, plus Heather Brady, Dave Brady and Jim Boyes.

This version of Blue Murder performed in 1987 and 1988 at Wath upon Dearne in South Yorkshire, at The Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, at a variety of British festivals, and at the Brossella Festival in Brussels. A demo was put together from their Wath concert performance and a track from a concert in Bracknell appears on The Carthy Chronicles (Free Reed FRQCD-60), but this incarnation of the band made no studio recordings.

Blue Murder (UK TV series)

Blue Murder is a British crime drama television series based in Manchester, originally broadcast on ITV from 2003 until 2009, starring Caroline Quentin as DCI Janine Lewis and Ian Kelsey as DI Richard Mayne. Five series of the programme were broadcast over the course of six years.

Blue Murder was cancelled by the network in March 2010 due to falling ratings. Quentin herself said of the cancellation; "It's been axed, which is a big disappointment. The last series was the best we'd ever made. I thought it was fantastic. It took us a long time to get it right but we all felt we'd finally cracked it. It would have been nice to have the opportunity to finish the series. But I understand how it works. TV has got to move on. We did five or six years of it. That's a good innings and we had a good time. It's time for something different."

Background

Blue Murder centres on a single mother of four, DCI Janine Lewis (Caroline Quentin), trying to balance a demanding career with raising her young family, whilst constantly battling with her ex-husband, who has since started a new family of his own.