MusicMight, formerly Rockdetector is a rock music website which provides artist and product information through a global website and an ongoing book series. Currently based in New Zealand, the site was founded by the late British writer Garry Sharpe-Young, and is backed by a small team of international writers who contribute to the site.

Database contents[link]

The database covers many styles and ages of rock music, such as thrash metal, black metal, death metal, radio rock and nu metal. As of December 2007, the database has over 59,400+ bands listed. The site includes over 92,000 releases in the database and almost 659,000 songs. The site also has an international concert guide of over 300,000 concerts, archiving from 1965. The site also features extensive and unique band biographies, many of which are the result of direct, first-hand interviews with band members conducted by Sharpe-Young during his many years as a Heavy Metal journalist.

Additional features include extensive discographies, pictures of the bands, their logos and their albums covers, upcoming concerts and album reviews.

The site was without updates for some time, bearing a message that a new expanded version of Rockdetector is on its way. On 1 September 2008 the site started after more than one year of re-programming and testing with an improved concept, layout and a re-designed database under the new name Musicmight.com with 60,000 artists and 144,000 persons included in the database.

Sharpe-Young died in March 2010.^[1]

Growth of MusicMight and Rockdetector[link]

Rockdetector books[link]

• Black Metal - September 2001
• Death Metal - September 2001
• Ozzy Osbourne - February 2002
• Thrash Metal - October 2002
• Power Metal - February 2003
• Doom, Gothic & Stoner Metal - February 2003
• 80s Rock - July 2003
• Black Sabbath - Never Say Die - 2004
• New Wave of American Heavy Metal - November 2005
• Sabbath Bloody Sabbath - The Battle For Black Sabbath - August 2006
• Thrash Metal - Amended - October 2007
• Death Metal - Amended - April 2008

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Coleman, Jennifer (2006-10-26). "www.rockdetector.com hits 50,000 bands". World Metal News. Bloodstock. http://www.bloodstock.uk.com/news/archives/13-www.rockdetector.com-hits-50,000-bands.html. Retrieved 2007-09-30. 
• "Garry Sharpe-Young of Rockdetector.com". Metal-Rules.com. http://metal-rules.com/interviews/Rockdetector.htm. Retrieved 2007-09-30. 
• "Rockdetector: A to Z of Death Metal; Garry Sharpe-Young". Cherry Red Books. Archived from the original on 2007-10-02. http://web.archive.org/web/20070210162548/http://www.cherryred.co.uk/books/rockdetector_death.php. Retrieved 2007-09-30. 

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2011)

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can; the talk page may contain suggestions. (December 2011)

The Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers performing live. Ed Simons (left) and Tom Rowlands (right)
Background information
Also known as	The 237 Turbo Nutters, The Dust Brothers, Chemical Ed & Chemical Tom
Origin	Manchester,[1] United Kingdom
Genres	Big beat, electronica,[2] techno, trip hop, alternative dance, neo-psychedelia[3]
Years active	1991–present
Labels	Junior Boy's Own, Astralwerks, Freestyle Dust, Virgin, Ultra
Website	TheChemicalBrothers.com
Members
Tom Rowlands Ed Simons

The Chemical Brothers are a British electronic music duo composed of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. Originating in Manchester^[1] in 1991, along with The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method, and fellow acts, they were pioneers at bringing the big beat genre to the forefront of pop culture.

History[link]

Background (1984–1991)[link]

Ed Simons was born in Herne Hill, South London on 9 June 1970 to a barrister mother and a father who was not around much when Simons was growing up. Simons' two main interests when he was young were aeroplanes and musicals. Simons attended two South London public schools, Alleyn's School and Dulwich College. During his school years, he developed a fondness for rare groove and Hip hop music, having frequented a club called The Mud Club from the age of 14. By the time he left school, his two main musical interests were two Manchester bands, New Order and The Smiths. After finishing school with 11 O levels and three A-levels, he continued on to study history, especially late medieval history, at the University of Manchester.^{[citation needed]}

Tom Rowlands, a childhood classmate of Simons', was born on 11 January 1971 in Kingston upon Thames, London. When Rowlands was very young, his family relocated to Henley-on-Thames. He later attended Reading Blue Coat School in Berkshire, during which time he became obsessed with Scotland, developing a fondness for the bagpipes in particular. In his early teens, his interest in music broadened to other genres. Initially, some of his favourites included the Oh What a Lovely War soundtrack, 2 Tone, the nascent gothic rock genre (Sisters of Mercy, Fields of the Nephilim) and the electro sounds of artists such as Kraftwerk, New Order, Cabaret Voltaire, and Heaven 17. He described the first Public Enemy album as the record that probably changed his life, and commented that "Miuzi Weighs a Ton" was one of the most amazing tracks he had ever heard.^{[citation needed]} Rowlands also started collecting hip hop records by artists like Eric B and Schoolly D. Rowlands left school with similar accomplishments to Simons', achieving nine O levels and three A levels. For university, he followed Simons to Manchester primarily to immerse himself in its music scene in general and the Haçienda in particular.^{[citation needed]}

Rowlands was also in a band called Ariel prior to meeting up with Simons. Ariel was formed in London by Rowlands and his friends Brendan Melck and Matt Berry. Their first single was "Sea of Beats", which was essentially a white label. Before Philip Brown set up Echo Logik Records, their first promo was "Bokadilo". Other songs, released on 12", included "Mustn't Grumble" and their most well-known, "Rollercoaster". After a year on Echo Logik they signed to the record label deConstruction. They insisted that they get a female singer and they recruited former Xpansions frontwoman Sally Ann Marsh, and after some disappointing songs like "Let It Slide" (Rowlands would later describe it as "a stinker") the band fell apart. One of the last things Ariel did was the song "T Baby" which was remixed by the pair.^{[citation needed]}

Rowlands and Simons then started to DJ at a club called "Naked Under Leather" in the back of a pub in 1992 under the alias of "The 237 Turbo Nutters" (named after the number of their house on Dickenson Road in Manchester and a reference to their Blackburn raving days). The pair would play hip hop, techno, and house.^[4]

The Dust Brothers (1992–1994)[link]

Rowlands and Simons called themselves The Dust Brothers, after the US production duo famous for their work with the Beastie Boys. After a while, they began to run out of suitable instrumental hip hop tracks to use, so they started to make their own. Using a Hitachi hi-fi system, a computer, a sampler, and a keyboard, they recorded "Song to the Siren", which sampled This Mortal Coil. "Song to the Siren" was released on their own record label, called "Diamond Records" (after Ed's nickname). In October 1992, they pressed 500 white label copies and took them to various dance record shops around London, but none would play it, saying that it was too slow (the track played at 111 BPM).^{[citation needed]} They sent a copy to London DJ Andrew Weatherall, who made it a permanent fixture in his DJ sets. Weatherall also signed the band to his Junior Boy's Own label.^{[citation needed]} In May 1993, Junior Boy's Own released "Song to the Siren".

Around June 1993, the Dust Brothers did their first remixes. The first was "Packet of Peace" for Justin Robertson's Lionrock outfit, followed by tracks for Leftfield, Republica, and The Sandals. Late in 1993, The Dust Brothers completed work on their Fourteenth Century Sky EP, released in January 1994. It contained the ground-breaking "Chemical Beats", which epitomized the duo's genre-defining big beat sound, later taken up by Fatboy Slim and many more. The EP also contained "One Too Many Mornings", which for the first time showed the less intense, more chilled-out side of The Dust Brothers. Both "One Too Many Mornings" and "Chemical Beats" would later appear on their debut album. Fourteenth Century Sky was followed later in 1993 by the My Mercury Mouth EP. "Chemical Beats" was also part of the soundtrack for the first edition of the Wipeout games series, having been featured in Wipeout for the PlayStation in 1995.^{[citation needed]}

In October 1994, The Dust Brothers became resident DJs at the small, but hugely influential Heavenly Sunday Social Club at the Albany pub in London's Great Portland Street.^{[citation needed]} The likes of Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller, James Dean Bradfield, and Tim Burgess were regular visitors. The Dust Brothers were subsequently asked to remix tracks by Manic Street Preachers and The Charlatans, plus Primal Scream's "Jailbird" and The Prodigy's "Voodoo People". These two remixes received television exposure, being playlisted by MTV Europe's "The Party Zone" in 1995. Early in 1994, The Dust Brothers were approached in the club one Sunday by Noel Gallagher, from Oasis, who at the time were becoming one of the most prominent guitar bands in Britain. Gallagher told the duo that he had a Balearic-inspired track which he had written and would like the Dust Brothers to remix. However, over time, Gallagher changed his mind, and in the end the Brothers did not remix it. The track was "Wonderwall".^{[citation needed]}

In March 1995, The Dust Brothers began their first international tour, which included the United States – where they played with Orbital and Underworld – then a series of European festivals. Also around this time, the original Dust Brothers threatened legal action over the use of their name, and so Rowlands and Simons had to decide on a new name quickly.^{[citation needed]} They decided to then call themselves "The Chemical Brothers" after "Chemical Beats" (Simons' grandmother had suggested they call themselves "The Grit Brothers").

In June 1995, they released their fourth single, the first under their new identity. "Leave Home" was released on Junior Boy's Own, as a preview of the imminent debut album and became the band's first chart hit, peaking at No. 17.

[edit] Exit Planet Dust (1995–1996)

In July 1995, The Chemical Brothers released their debut album Exit Planet Dust (the title inspired by their name change) on Freestyle Dust/Junior Boy's Own. It entered the UK charts at No. 9^{[citation needed]} and featured guest vocalist Beth Orton on the song "Alive Alone". It eventually went on to sell over a million copies worldwide, and was used on the soundtrack of the science fiction TV series pilot Virtuality.^{[citation needed]} Shortly after its release, The Chemical Brothers signed to Virgin Records, to which they took their own offshoot label, Freestyle Dust. For their next single, "Life Is Sweet", released in September 1995, they again used a guest vocalist, featuring their friend Tim Burgess, singer of The Charlatans. It reached No. 25 in the singles charts. The single was also Select magazine's "Single of the Month" for October.^{[citation needed]} The release included a Daft Punk remix of "Life Is Sweet".

In August 1995, The Chemical Brothers DJ'ed for Oasis at a Sheffield gig. The gig began to backfire when it became apparent that Liam Gallagher didn't seem to like any of the tracks they were spinning. The closest that they could come to pleasing him was the Happy Mondays' "Wrote for Luck".^{[citation needed]} Gallagher proceeded to kick The Chemical Brothers off the turntables and procured a friend from The Verve to continue to DJ. He subsequently favoured psychedelic material to the displeasure of the crowd.^{[citation needed]}

Around this period, The Stone Roses asked the Chemical Brothers to remix "Begging You", from their Second Coming album. After beginning work on a remix which they viewed as having potential, The Stone Roses changed their minds and the project was cancelled.^{[citation needed]}

In October 1995, the duo returned to the Heavenly Sunday Social for a second and final run of DJ dates. They then became residents at the Heavenly Social on Saturdays at Turnmills. In November, The Chemical Brothers played the Astoria Theatre in London. At this time the Brothers usually used a fusion of "Chemical Beats" and The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" as their encore. During the encore, however, Keith Flint from The Prodigy jumped up on stage to dance, wearing a T-shirt sporting the slogan "Occupation: mad bastard". A few from the crowd subsequently joined in. This resulted in a power cable being kicked loose, bringing the show to a temporary close.^{[citation needed]} The Chemical Brothers confessed to not being too bothered; "because he's Keith from The Prodigy, and he can do whatever the fucking hell he likes".^{[citation needed]} Just before Christmas, 1995, they played their biggest gig to date, with The Prodigy, at the Brixton Academy.^{[citation needed]}

In January 1996, Exit Planet Dust went gold. The Chemical Brothers released their first new material in six months on Virgin, the Loops of Fury EP. The four-track release was limited to 20,000 copies, but is now available for digital download. It entered the UK charts at No. 13. NME described the lead track as "splashing waves of synths across hard-hitting beats".^{[citation needed]} The EP also contained a Dave Clarke remix of "Chemical Beats", and two other new tracks, "Get Up on It Like This" and "(The Best Part Of) Breaking Up".

In February 1996, Select magazine published a list of the 100 best albums of the 1990s thus far. Exit Planet Dust was listed at Number 39.^{[citation needed]} In August 1996, The Chemical Brothers supported Oasis at Knebworth, where 125,000 people attended each of the two shows.^{[citation needed]}

During the 1995 Glastonbury Festival, Rowlands and Simons had another conversation with Noel Gallagher. Gallagher told them how much he liked Exit Planet Dust, and asked if he could sing on a future track, similar to the way Tim Burgess had worked on "Life Is Sweet". They didn't think much of the offer at the time, given how busy Gallagher would be with the release of Oasis' (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, plus the complexities of dealing with each others' record companies.^{[citation needed]} However, the duo later worked on a track which they thought would benefit from having a vocal on it. They sent Gallagher a tape of what they had done so far. He worked on it overnight, and left a message with them early the next morning that he was ready to record it. The track was called "Setting Sun" and was finally released in October 1996. It entered the UK charts at the top, giving the duo their first ever Number One single. "Setting Sun" was backed by a longer instrumental version, and also a new track "Buzz Tracks", which was not much more than a DJ tool. The three remaining members of The Beatles' lawyers later wrote to The Chemical Brothers, mistakenly claiming that they had sampled "Tomorrow Never Knows". Virgin Records hired a musicologist to prove that they did not sample the classic 1960s psychedelic song.^{[citation needed]}

Meanwhile, in 1996, Live at the Social Volume 1 was released by Heavenly Records, which became The Chemical Brothers' first mix CD (excluding Xmas Dust Up, a free album that came in a 1994 issue of NME). It was also the duo's first and only live album (excluding the EP Live 05).

[edit] Dig Your Own Hole (1997–1998)

In March 1997, the Brothers released the second track from their forthcoming album, to give the world a further taste of what to expect. "Block Rockin' Beats" went straight to No. 1 in the UK, possibly thanks, this time, to its Schoolly D vocal sample and re-working of the bassline from 23 Skidoo's single "Coup".^[5] The NME named it "Single of the Week" and said "It throbs like your head might if you had just done a length underwater in a swimming pool full of amyl."^{[citation needed]} It later won them a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.^[6]

In the US at this time, "Setting Sun" was sitting at Number 80 in the Billboard Top 100, after selling around 80,000 copies, an uncommon achievement for a European "dance" act. Sales from Exit Planet Dust were also around 150,000.^{[citation needed]}

On 7 April 1997 The Chemical Brothers released their second album, Dig Your Own Hole. It was recorded at the band's own south London studio, with the title taken from graffiti on the wall outside. The album was well received,^{[7][dead link]} with Mixmag rating it 10/10 and calling it "mad enough to be thrilling, slick enough for not even remotely trendy coffee tables".^{[citation needed]}

During the summer of 1997, the Brothers toured extensively, particularly in the United States. They also became residents at Tokyo's Liquid Rooms. In August, The Chemical Brothers achieved rapprochement with the US Dust Brothers, and asked them to remix the forthcoming single "Elektrobank".^{[citation needed]} They themselves also became highly sought-after for remixes for other artists. Metallica asked the Brothers several times to remix "Enter Sandman", but were repeatedly turned down.^{[citation needed]} In September, the next single from Dig Your Own Hole, "Elektrobank" was released. In November, the pair played at Dublin's Point Theatre, with support from Carl Cox. They also began a US tour in Detroit.

At the end of the year, Dig Your Own Hole's final track, the nine minute-long "The Private Psychedelic Reel", gave rise to a limited-edition mini-EP of the same name. The B-side consisted of a live version of "Setting Sun", recorded at the Lowlands Festival, Netherlands on 24 August 1997. Also in December, following four sold-out US shows, The Chemical Brothers toured the UK, finishing with a sold-out gig at London's Brixton Academy.^{[citation needed]}

In 1998, they concentrated more on DJ'ing, although some remixes did see the light of day, including "I Think I'm in Love" from Spiritualized. Both a vocal remix and an instrumental remix were included in the single release. Each clocked in at over seven-and-a-half minutes. Another remix completed by the Brothers was "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp" by Mercury Rev. This was another extension in the association between the two bands, since Mercury Rev's Jonathon Donahue contributed to "The Private Psychedelic Reel" on Dig Your Own Hole.^{[citation needed]}

In September 1998, a second mix album, Brothers Gonna Work It Out, was released. It contains some of their own tracks and remixes, as well as songs from artists who have influenced their sound, such as Renegade Soundwave, Meat Beat Manifesto, Carlos "After Dark" Berrios, and Kenny 'Dope' Gonzales.

In May 1999, The Chemical Brothers played three UK dates in Manchester, Sheffield and Brighton, their first since December 1997. Also that month, they released their first new original material in two years, a track called "Hey Boy, Hey Girl". This was more house-influenced than hip hop. In interviews at the time, Rowlands and Simons indicated that the track was inspired by nights out at Sheffield club Gatecrasher.^{[citation needed]} The track was also one of their more commercially accessible tracks and went to number 3 in the UK charts.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Surrender (1999)

The third album, Surrender, was released in June 1999. It featured vocals from Noel Gallagher, Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue, and Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval. As "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" had suggested, the album was more house-oriented than the previous two. On one of the album's stand out tracks, "Out of Control", New Order's Bernard Sumner supported by Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie provided vocals. It reached No. 1 in the UK album charts,^{[citation needed]} and was widely praised in the print media. The Michel Gondry-directed music video for "Let Forever Be", which utilized ground-breaking video and film effects in its depiction of a young woman's nightmares, also received a lot of attention.^{[citation needed]}

Later that summer, The Brothers headlined the Glastonbury dance tent on the Friday night, followed by a UK tour which ended in December and included Homelands Scotland on 4 September.^{[citation needed]} In November, "Out of Control", featuring Sumner and Gillespie on vocals, was released as a single. The release also contained the Sasha remix. The final single from Surrender, in February 2000, was the five track "Music: Response" EP, containing the title track and two remixes, plus Electronic Battle Weapon 4, named "Freak of the Week", and a track called "Enjoyed", which was essentially a remix of "Out of Control" by the Brothers themselves.

A CD copy of Surrender was placed in the third Blue Peter time capsule, buried in January 2000. That same month, they appeared on Primal Scream's album Xtrmntr at track 11 with a remix.

[edit] Come with Us (2000–2003)

In June 2000, Tom and Ed played the Pyramid stage at the Glastonbury Festival pulling in the largest audience ever seen in the Festival's history.^{[citation needed]} In August 2000 they played to a large crowd at the main stage at Creamfields festival, Ireland. In December 2000, The Chemical Brothers aired one of their new tracks, "It Began in Afrika" at their New York DJ gigs, supporting U2.^{[citation needed]}

In 2001, they were quite active with releases and live performances. Early in the year, they began working on a fourth album, provisionally titled Chemical Four. The first track which fans got a taste of was "It Began in Afrika", as previously played in their DJ set in New York. The track would make its live debut in California in April 2001, at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Another new track, "Galaxy Bounce", also got its public debut at Coachella.^{[citation needed]} As had become customary for their releases and experiments, "It Began in Afrika" was first pressed as a promo, as part of the "Electronic Battle Weapon" series. It received much airplay on dance music radio shows in the UK, and became more and more popular in clubs over the course of the summer. It also became one of the "anthems" in Ibiza as the summer progressed.^{[citation needed]} It was given a full commercial single release in September, reaching No. 8 in the UK singles chart, even though no promotional video was made for the track.^{[citation needed]}

Rowlands and Simons also remixed a track from Fatboy Slim's Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars, entitled "Song for Shelter". This remix was released as a single on 3 September 2001 (one week before "It Began in Afrika") as the CD2 single for "Song for Shelter / Ya Mama". It reached No. 30 in the UK Singles Charts (sales were combined with the CD1 single).^{[citation needed]}

The Chemical Brothers finished work on another album, Come with Us, in October 2001. It featured collaborations with Richard Ashcroft of The Verve ("The Test"), and long-time collaborator Beth Orton ("The State We're In"). The album was released in January 2002, preceded by a single, "Star Guitar", a melodic Balearic beat number, with a promotional video by Michel Gondry that featured passing scenery synchronized to the beat viewed through a train window. What would be the second track on the album, "It Began in Afrika", was released 10 September 2001 to be circulated around the clubbing scene where it was a popular hit.^{[citation needed]} "Star Guitar" was also released as a DVD single, the pair's first.

The album, Come with Us, was less well received than their previous albums, but nonetheless went straight to No. 1 in the UK album charts in the first week of its release, selling 100,000 copies.^{[citation needed]} In April, the title track from the album was released as a single with remixes by Fatboy Slim as part of a double-A sided release with "The Test".

During the summer of 2002, The Chemical Brothers traveled the festival circuit to promote the album. Later in 2002, they released two EPs, one specifically aimed at Japan and the other the US (entitled AmericanEP). Both contained remixes, live versions and B-sides. Additionally, the band produced New Order's final non-album single "Here to Stay", and remixed the song as well.

One of their other major songs from this album was "Galaxy Bounce", which was popular and featured as the main title music for the Xbox game Project Gotham Racing. It was also included on the soundtrack for the movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. "Star Guitar" was featured as a song on the PSP's Lumines II.^{[citation needed]}

Two other songs, "Come with Us (Introduction)" and "Star Guitar (Title Screen)", were featured on a PlayStation 2 racing game titled WRC II: Extreme. Both songs are instrumental.

The Song My Elastic Eye from the Come with Us album was played in the 2004 movie The Butterfly Effect^[8] starring Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart.

Late 2002 and early 2003 saw Rowlands and Simons back in the studio working on new material, including "The Golden Path", a collaboration with Wayne Coyne, the lead singer of The Flaming Lips. This was released in September 2003, at the same time as a "best of" album, entitled Singles 93–03, marking ten years of The Chemical Brothers' releases. Singles 93–03 included most, but not all, of their singles. A second new track, in addition to "The Golden Path", was included on the album, called "Get Yourself High". Singles 93–03 was also released on DVD, with extra features including selected live performances and interviews with Rowlands, Simons, and many of their collaborators from throughout the period. "Get Yourself High", which featured Canadian rapper k-os on vocals, was released as a single in November 2003.

In late 2003 and 2004, The Chemical Brothers continued to work in the studio on new material and a remix of "Slow" by Kylie Minogue. After being released on rare white label vinyl, it was subsequently given a commercial release in March on CD (on her next single "Red Blooded Woman") and on exclusive 12" vinyl picture disc (containing two other Kylie remixes). In Summer 2004 they returned to the festival circuit, including appearances at the Glastonbury Festival, Tokyo, Scotland, and Ireland. They also visited South America for the second time (the first time being in 1999), arriving at Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. It was during these sets that they played new material, including "Acid Children", which proved to be one of the most popular new tracks.^{[citation needed]}

In September 2004, The Chemical Brothers released the seventh "Electronic Battle Weapon". "Electronic Battle Weapon 7" was being released as a one-sided promo-only 12", containing "Acid Children". A marked departure from the Chemical Brothers' previous musical endeavours, it featured a screeching 303 bassline and a distinctive vocal sample; a pitch-altered vocal sample proclaiming "You Are All My Children Now!", which is lifted from the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. It was coupled with the projection of a sinister clown mouthing these same words at their live gigs.^{[citation needed]}

The Electronic Battle Weapon series of promo releases have typically been newly recorded Chemical Brothers tracks, released on promo to allow DJs to test them in a club environment, and to gauge their popularity.

[edit] Push the Button (2004–2006)

In 2004, The Chemical Brothers began work on Push the Button, their fifth studio album, which features collaborations with Tim Burgess, Kele Okereke, and Anwar Superstar, amongst others. The album was released on 24 January 2005.

"Galvanize", which features rapper Q-Tip on vocals, was the first single to be taken from Push the Button, and premiered exclusively on iTunes. The single was released on 17 January 2005, and entered the UK chart at No. 3. The second single, "Believe" (featuring Kele Okereke from Bloc Party), failed to crack the top 10, but still made it into the top 20, peaking at No. 18.^{[citation needed]} "The Boxer", featuring Tim Burgess, became the duo's first single to fail to crack the top 40.

The album and single "Galvanize" won a Grammy at the Grammy Awards of 2006. One of the songs in this album, "The Big Jump", appears in the video game Burnout Revenge, as well as Project Gotham Racing 3. The track "Surface to Air" features a pulsing chord progression and bassline reminiscent of the intro to the Strokes song "The Modern Age".^{[original research?]}

An unofficial, remixed version of the album entitled Flip the Switch was released as a free download, along with the Believe EP, featuring six further remixes of "Believe".^{[9][dead link]}

In September 2006, The Chemical Brothers were revealed as the first musicians to be involved in Tate Tracks. Tate Modern invited various groups and songwriters to choose a work that inspired them from the gallery's collection of modern art and then write a track about it. The Chemical Brothers' submission, Rock Drill, was inspired by the Jacob Epstein sculpture Torso in Metal from The Rock Drill, and can be heard on headphones in front of the work in the gallery. From October 2006, it also became available to hear online at the Tate Tracks website.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] We Are the Night (2007–2009)

The Brothers announced in June 2006 on their official web forum that the duo had been working on fresh material, specifically an album, codenamed "Chemical 6".^{[10][dead link]} Simons also wrote that the band would be playing select venues in the Summer 2007 season, specifying Rome, and also Fabric in London.^{[citation needed]} Simons is also quoted as saying that the duo are "hoping to put a battle weapon out for the summer"^{[11][dead link]}, possibly referring to the Electronic Battle Weapon series, the somewhat experimental tracks the band occasionally release on white label.

Electronic Battle Weapons 8 & 9 were debuted on Pete Tong's BBC Radio 1 show on 8 December 2006. The double sided vinyl was finally released just before The Chemical Brother's much anticipated New Year's Eve gig at the famous Turnmills in London. The vinyl had a limited edition release worldwide and has been received well by fans, DJs, and critics alike.^{[citation needed]} Electronic Battle Weapon 8, at about six and a half minutes, is very distinct from the "big acid" style that the earlier Battle Weapons adhered to. It is characterised by 'thundering' drums with a rising synth line. A version of this track features on the We Are the Night album and is entitled "Saturate". "Electronic Battle Weapon 9" is a typical Chemicals dancefloor track with their trademark vocoder vocals coupled with sirens and a basic 'tribal' melody.^{[citation needed]}

At the same Turnmills gig, the Brothers also played a previously unreleased song at midnight to welcome 2007, which went down well with the crowd.^{[citation needed]} This track eventually emerged as "Burst Generator", found on the forthcoming album We Are the Night. Many were left wondering if the latest in the Electronic Battle Weapon series were simply one off experiments or signal a new direction they could take with the new album, perhaps swaying from their genre defining big beat albums of the past.^{[citation needed]} The song was also the band's 100th released song.

On 21 March 2007, The Chemical Brothers officially announced their forthcoming album on MySpace. The new album, entitled We Are the Night, was released on 2 July 2007 in the United Kingdom and 17 July 2007 in the United States. The Chemical Brothers cited a delay in the production of artwork for this delay.^{[12][dead link]} EMI subsequently released an online Chemical Brothers computer game as an apology.^[13] The track listing was released to the fans on the official mailing list on 10 April. The new album is heavily collaborated, with the likes of Klaxons ("All Rights Reversed"), Midlake ("The Pills Won't Help You Now"), Ali Love ("Do It Again"), and Willy Mason ("Battle Scars").^[14]

On 12 April 2007, Pete Tong again had the privilege of giving the world the very first preview of a Chemicals track. This time it was the first single "Do It Again" off their new album, aired on his BBC Radio 1 "In New Music We Trust" show.^{[citation needed]}. The official release of the single was 4 June (digital download) and 14 June (12", 7", and CD). The album went on general release in the UK on 2 July 2007.

In September 2007, The Chemical Brothers played a free live gig in Trafalgar Square as part of the Becks Fusions event. All who attended were provided with 3D glasses to view the on-screen visual effects.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, The Chemical Brothers' music was featured in a movie adaption of Irvine Welsh's best-selling novel Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance.

The Chemical Brothers supplied a new track for the Heroes soundtrack, titled "Keep My Composure".^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Further and motion picture soundtracks (2010–present)

On 30 March 2010, the band announced on their website that their seventh studio album, titled Further, would be released on 22 June and would be "the band's first to be released with corresponding films made specifically to match each of the 8 audio tracks." The films were made with long-time visuals collaborators Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall. The album was described as their most "psychedelic and melodic to date".^{[by whom?]} Before the release of the album, the band played four shows in May at the London Roundhouse where they played the album and its accompanying films in their entirety. The films featured on a special edition DVD and on the iTunes LP edition.^{[15][dead link]}

Most reviews have been positive, with BBC Music declaring that "...synths are brutally manhandled and pushed to their limits across the eight tracks".^[16] The Irish Times reported that "This is a very impressive collection that is carried along with a stirring sense of velocity and momentum".^{[17][dead link]} However, praise was not unanimous for the album, with the American rock magazine Spin giving it a rating of three out of five stars.^[18]

At the New York Comic Con, on 10 October 2010, English film director Joe Wright announced that The Chemical Brothers would be scoring the soundtrack to his upcoming film, Hanna.^[19] Wright, who had worked with The Chemical Brothers in the past as a member of the visual company Vegetable Vision, stated that he was "very excited to finally... work with a more modern beat. There's a lot of bass, it's very loud."^[20] The soundtrack was released exclusively on iTunes on 15 March 2011 and on CD on 4 July 2011.

Two weeks after the announcement regarding Hanna, rumors began circulating that The Chemical Brothers had recorded part of the score for the movie Black Swan, after a post in Ed Simon's Twitter account. A second post on the Chemical Brothers' own Twitter account seemed to confirm this.^{[citation needed]} On 22 November 2010, a Black Swan music video was released along with the movie trailer. This featured a different version of the track "Don't Think" and announced that the movie would feature new music from The Chemical Brothers, along with a handful of other artists.^[21] The next day, the names of the eight tracks not composed by Clint Mansell – Black Swan's main composer – were released, listing The Chemical Brothers as contributing three new songs for the movie.^[22] On 29 November, an exclusive video was posted on RollingStone.com, containing more footage of the alternate version of "Don't Think".^[23] Mansell's work was released the next day. No announcement has been made yet on whether the original tracks not by Mansell would be given a release or not.

Live[link]

The Chemical Brothers are credited as being one of the few truly arena-sized electronic acts. Their live acts comprise large screens displaying psychedelic images, strobe lights, and lasers that project over the crowd.^{[citation needed]} There has been speculation over how much of their live gigs are pre-recorded, although they insist (on their official website FAQ) that they have a mere outline of track order and the rest is mixed live. This would seem to be confirmed by concertgoers who have seen gigs on consecutive nights and have posted notable differences between the sets played.

The Brothers have also played at many major festivals, including Glastonbury, Fuji Rock, Reading, the HFStival, and Leeds festival. They currently hold the record for most gigs performed in a year at the Brixton Academy. The brothers have infamously, despite their high status in the mainstream, never appeared on Top of the Pops, with the use of music videos to replace the performance, sometimes accompanied by a video apologising for their absence. In 1999, a live US tour video of "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" was shown, even though the song was not in the top 40 at the time, and also released other singles before then at the time.

In addition to performing their own music, they also hold regular DJ nights where they mix other artist's tracks (in the style of Brothers Gonna Work It Out).

As with their recorded albums, The Chemical Brothers are well known for their incorporation of guest vocalists into their live performances. Notable appearances in recent gigs have included Bernard Sumner of New Order, who sang on the original "Out of Control", Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, and Tim Burgess.

The duo also played at the launch event for the Wii video game console.^{[citation needed]}

On the night of 1 September 2007, The Chemical Brothers played at the main stage of the Electric Picnic to a crowd of around 20,000.^{[citation needed]}

The Chemical Brothers appeared in Los Angeles on 29 September 2007, headlining the 13th Annual Nocturnal Wonderland Festival.^{[citation needed]}

The duo was one of the headliners for Roskilde Festival 2008 in Denmark. The festival is held from 3–6 July and is the biggest festival in Northern Europe.^{[citation needed]}

The Chemical Brothers played at London's Olympia Grand Hall on 30 August 2008. This was the first time any major band has played at Olympia's Grand Hall in over 10 years.^{[citation needed]}

On 18 April 2009, The Chemical Brothers performed a DJ Set at the Coachella Festival, at which they premiered two previously unnamed new tracks. The tracks were the bonus track "Don't Think" and "Escape Velocity", both of which were later included on the album Further.^{[citation needed]}

On 8 February 2010, they confirmed their presence at Sónar Festival in Barcelona in June 2010. They also announced they would be performing another two nights at the London Roundhouse in Camden, on 20 and 21 May. Due to phenomenal demand, as tickets sold out within two minutes, they added a further two nights; 22 and 23 May.^{[citation needed]}

On 3 September 2010, they performed at North Coast Music Festival in Chicago. The following day they performed at Electric Zoo festival in New York City.^{[citation needed]}

On 4–14 March 2011, they headlined the Future Music Festival in five cities across Australia.^{[citation needed]}

On 27 March 2011, they headlined Ultra Music Festival in Miami, FL and closed out the Main Stage for the weekend. They also were the closing performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on Friday 15 April 2011.^{[citation needed]}

The Chemical Brothers headlined the UK dance festival Creamfields in Cheshire on 27 August 2011.^{[24][dead link]}

The band also played at the 'Other Stage' at Glastonbury Festival 2011 as that stage's lead headliners.

On February 1, 2012, The Chemical Brothers released a concert movie into theaters which was available for viewing only that day. It was entitled "Don't Think" after one of their songs they played in the concert. The concert was played at the Fuji Rock Festival 2011 in Japan.

On 17 March 2012, the Chemical Brothers headlined at the Future Music Festival Asia 2012 at Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia.

On September 17 and 18 2012, the Chemical Brothers will perform for the first time in Bogota and Medellin, Colombia.

Logo[link]

The typeface used to write the typical "The Chemical Brothers" logo is derived from Sho,^[25] designed by Karlgeorg Hoefer in 1992. The Chemical Brothers' original logo differs only in a few details from orthodox Sho, e.g. in the letters a and b. Mergenthaler Linotype Company holds the licence for this typeface.

Discography[link]

Studio albums

• Exit Planet Dust (1995)
• Dig Your Own Hole (1997)
• Surrender (1999)
• Come with Us (2002)
• Push the Button (2005)
• We Are the Night (2007)
• Further (2010)

Soundtrack albums

• Hanna (2011)

Live albums

• Don't Think (2012)

Main compilation albums

• Brothers Gonna Work It Out (1998)
• Singles 93-03 (2003)
• Brotherhood (2008)

See also[link]

• Big beat
• Electronic Battle Weapon

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• The Chemical Brothers discography at Discogs
• The Chemical Brothers at the Internet Movie Database
• Don't Think The Movie (Trailer)

Young De
Background information
Birth name	Demrick Shelton
Origin	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Genres	Hip-Hop R&B
Occupations	Rapper
Instruments	Rapping
Labels	Audio Hustlaz Entertainment
Associated acts	B-Real, Kurupt, Xzibit, DJ Skee, Soul Assassins, Cashis, The Dogg Pound, Mitchy Slick, Damizza, Apathy, Ras Kass, Adil Omar, Snoop Dogg, Cypress Hill, Crooked I, Bitza , Sen Dog, thekeenone
Website	Official Myspace

Demrick Shelton, better known by his stage name Young De, is a rapper from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, currently residing in Los Angeles, California. He is known for his collaborations with high profile artists such as Xzibit, Kurupt, Snoop Dogg, Too $hort and B-Real of Cypress Hill. He is also recognized as a protege of Kurupt and B-Real.

Career[link]

The beginning of his career started in 2005 when Kurupt met the group 'Tangled Thoughts' which consisted of Young De, Casanova 'Cas' and Tekneek 'Tek' and took them to California. They released their debut album in 2007, titled 'From Philly 2 Cali' witch feat Kurupt, Roscoe, Reyes Bros and more. After the succes of their album they released 2 mixtapes titled 'T.H.O.' and 'Every Hood's Tha Same'. Young De released his debut mixtape titled Audio Hustlaz Vol. 1 which B-Real contributed to as a producer, co-executive Producer (with Damizza) and was heavily featured on several tracks. It was presented by DJ Skee and hosted by Kurupt. Besides the Audio Hustlaz Vol. 1 mixtape, Young De also released the Homeland Security mixtape in collaboration with Shady/Interscope artist Ca$his. Homeland Security was hosted by DJ Whoo Kid and released by Eminem's Shady Records and featured collaborations with B-Real, Royce Da 5'9 and Crooked I among others. A video was shot & directed by Matt Alonzo for the single "In God's Hands" featuring Mitchy Slick and produced by then 19 year old producer "Los" (Baby Ree productions), He is also featured on B-Real's 2009 album, Smoke N Mirrors, performing on 5 of the 15 songs.

Young De has also performed alongside Ice Cube, Tha Dogg Pound, Too $hort, DJ Muggs, E-40 and Xzibit on the Westcoast Tour in March 2009. In April he toured alongside Xzibit on the first part of the Euro vs. Dollar Tour. In August/September, he joined B-Real for the promotional tour of his Smoke N Mirrors album release, only to return to Europe in December 2009 for the second part of the Euro vs. Dollar Tour, headlining Xzibit.

In late 2009, Young De along with Xzibit and B-Real formed a super group called Serial Killaz. The first single, "Body Bags", was released by the end of 2009. The trio's album is to be released in 2011.^{[dated info]} Apart from his work with the previously listed, he has also collaborated with Cypress Hill, Snowgoons, Kid Frost, Krayzie Bone, Ill Bill, Adil Omar, Apathy, Mitchy Slick, Freeway, Sen Dog, Deen, Bitza and others.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]}

Discography[link]

Mixtapes[link]

• "Audio Hustlaz Vol. 1" (Presented by DJ Skee)
• "Homeland Secutity" (with Cashis)
• "De Is For Demrick" (with DJ Fingaz) with production by 21 The Producer
• "T.H.O (The Free Mixtape)" (with Tangled Thoughts)
• "Every Hood's The Same" (with Tangled Thoughts)
• "Neva LOOK Back"

Albums[link]

• From Philly 2 Cali (with Tangled Thoughts)

Featured Singles[link]

• "It Ain't Nothin" (with Cypress Hill)
• "Jumpoff" (with Tangled Thoughts)
• "Blaze of Glory"
• "Man On The Moon" (with Xzibit)
• "What It Is" (with Xzibit)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official Myspace page
• Official Facebook page
• Official Twitter page
• Official Audio Hustlaz website

Ennio Morricone
Morricone at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival
Background information
Also known as	Maestro
Born	(1928-11-10) November 10, 1928 (age 83)
Origin	Rome, Italy
Genres	Film music, classical music, pop music, jazz, lounge music, easy listening
Occupations	Composer, orchestrator, music director, conductor, trumpeter
Years active	1946–present
Associated acts	Bruno Nicolai, Alessandro Alessandroni, Mina, Yo-Yo Ma, Mireille Mathieu, Joan Baez, Andrea Bocelli, Roger Waters, Sarah Brightman, Amii Stewart, Paul Anka, Milva, Gianni Morandi, Dalida, Catherine Spaak, Pet Shop Boys, Hayley Westenra, and others
Website	http://www.enniomorricone.it

Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, Italian pronunciation: [ˈɛnnjo morriˈkoːne], (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer and conductor, who has written music for more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years.^[1] His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces. Morricone is most famous for his work in the Spaghetti Westerns directed by his friend Sergio Leone, including A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) but his career includes a wide range of composition genres making him one of the film world's most versatile artists. He is considered as one of the most influential film music composers of the 20th century.

Born in Rome, Italy, Morricone took up the trumpet as a child and attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia to take lessons on the instrument at the age of nine. He formally entered a conservatory at the age of 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony programme. He received his trumpet diploma in 1946 and started working professionally, composing the music to "Il Mattino" ("The Morning"). Morricone soon gained popularity by writing his first background music for radio dramas and quickly moved into film.^[2]

In the 1950s he received the "Diploma in Instrumentation for Band" (fanfare) where he won a diploma in Composition under the composer Goffredo Petrassi. In 1955, Morricone started to ghost write and arrange music for other, already established film composers. Morricone soon came to the attention of his former school friend Sergio Leone, who hired Morricone to compose the music to some of his best known films. Together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, A Fistful of Dollars.

In the 80s and 90s, Morricone continued to write the music for Leone's later films, including Once Upon a Time in America (1984). He also composed the music to Joffé's The Mission (1986), De Palma's The Untouchables (1987) and Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso (1988). His more recent compositions include the scores for Malèna (2000), Fateless (2005), and Baaria - La porta del vento (2009).

Morricone has received two Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, five BAFTAs during 1979–1992, seven David di Donatello, eight Nastro d'Argento, and the Polar Music Prize in 2010. In 2007, he received the Academy Honorary Award "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music" and has been nominated for a further five Oscars in the category of Best Original Score during 1979–2001, but has never won competitively.

Biography[link]

Early career[link]

Ennio Morricone was born in Rome, the son of Libera and Mario Morricone, a jazz trumpeter.^[3] Morricone wrote his first compositions when he was six years old and was encouraged to develop his natural talents.^[4] Compelled to take up the trumpet, he attended the National Academy of Santa Cecilia to take lessons on the instrument at the age of nine. Morricone formally entered the conservatory in 1940 at the age of 12, enrolling in a four-year harmony program. According to various reports, he completed it in either two years or six months (date approximate).^[5] He studied the trumpet, composition, choral music, and choral direction under Goffredo Petrassi, who deeply influenced him and to whom Morricone has dedicated concert pieces.

These were the difficult years of World War II in the heavily bombed "open city"; the composer remarked that what he mostly remembered of those years was the hunger. His wartime experiences influenced many of his scores for films set in that period.

After he graduated, he continued to work in classical composition and arrangement. In 1946, Morricone received his trumpet diploma and in the same year he composed "Il Mattino" ("The Morning") for voice and piano on a text by Fukuko, first in a group of 7 "youth" Lieder. Other serious compositions are "Imitazione" (1947) for voice and piano on a text by Giacomo Leopardi and "Intimità" for voice and piano on a text by Olinto Dini.

In the early 1950s, Morricone began writing his first background music for radio dramas. Nonetheless he continued composing classical pieces as "Distacco I e Distacco II" for voice and piano on a text by Ranieri Gnoli, "Verrà la Morte" for contralto and piano on a text by Cesare Pavese, "Oboe Sommerso" for baritone and five instruments on a text by Salvatore Quasimodo.^[6]

Although the composer had received the "Diploma in Instrumentation for Band" (fanfare) in 1952, his studies concluded in 1954, obtaining a diploma in Composition under the composer Goffredo Petrassi. In 1955, Morricone started to write or arrange music for films credited to other already well-known composers (ghost writing). He occasionally adopted Anglicized pseudonyms, such as Dan Savio and Leo Nichols.

Morricone wrote more works in the climate of the Italian avant-garde. A few of these compositions have been made available on CD, such as "Ut", his trumpet concerto dedicated to the soloist Mauro Maur, one of his favorite musicians; some have yet to be premiered. From the mid-sixties and onwards, he was part of Gruppo di Improvvisazione di Nuova Consonanza, a group of composers who performed and recorded avant garde free improvisations, even scoring a few films during the 1970s.

Leone film scores[link]

Well-versed in a variety of musical idioms from his RCA experience, Morricone began composing film scores in the early 1960s.^[5] Though his first films were undistinguished, Morricone's arrangement of an American folk song intrigued director and former schoolmate Sergio Leone. Leone hired Morricone, and together they created a distinctive score to accompany Leone's different version of the Western, A Fistful of Dollars (1964).^[5] As budget strictures limited Morricone's access to a full orchestra, he used gunshots, cracking whips, whistle, voices, guimbarde (jaw harp), trumpets, and the new Fender electric guitar, instead of orchestral arrangements of Western standards à la John Ford. Morricone used his special effects to punctuate and comically tweak the action—cluing in the audience to the taciturn man's ironic stance.^[5] Though sonically bizarre for a movie score, Morricone's music was viscerally true to Leone's vision.

	The Good, The Bad and The Ugly main theme noicon From The Good, the Bad and the Ugly film score
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As memorable as Leone's close-ups, harsh violence, and black comedy, Morricone's work helped to expand the musical possibilities of film scoring.^[5] Morricone was initially billed on the film as Dan Savio.^[5]

Morricone composed music for over 40 Westerns (the last was North Star (1996)), most of them Spaghetti Westerns. He scored Sergio Leone's Spaghetti Westerns, from A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and including For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), as well as later films such as A Fistful of Dynamite (1971), My Name Is Nobody (1973), and A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe (1975). The collaboration with Leone is considered one of the exemplary collaborations between a director and a composer.

With the score of A Fistful of Dollars, Morricone began his 10-year collaboration with his childhood friend Alessandro Alessandroni and his Cantori Moderni. Alessandroni provided the whistling and the twanging guitar on the film scores, while his Cantori Moderni were a flexible troupe of modern singers. Morricone specifically exploited the solo soprano of the group, Edda Dell'Orso, at the height of her powers—"an extraordinary voice at my disposal".

In addition, Morricone composed music for many other, not so popular Spaghetti Westerns, including Duello nel Texas (1963), Le pistole non discutono (1964), A Pistol for Ringo (1965), The Return of Ringo (1965), Navajo Joe (1966), The Big Gundown, (1966), Face to Face (1967), Death Rides a Horse (1967), The Hellbenders (1967), A Bullet for the General (1967), The Mercenary (1968), Tepepa (1968), The Great Silence (1968), Guns for San Sebastian (1968), …And for a Roof a Sky Full of Stars (1968), The Five Man Army (1969), Queimada! (1969), Vamos a matar, compañeros (1970), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), Sonny and Jed (1972), and Buddy Goes West (1981).

Notable film scores[link]

	The Mission main theme - Gabriel's Oboe noicon From The Mission film score
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Most of Morricone's film scores of the 1960s were composed outside the Spaghetti Western genre, while still using Alessandroni's team. Their music included the themes for Il Malamondo (1964), Slalom (1965), The Battle of Algiers (1965), and Listen, Let's Make Love (1967). In 1968, Morricone reduced his work outside the movie business and wrote scores for 20 films in the same year. The scores included psychedelic accompaniment for Mario Bava's superhero romp Danger: Diabolik (1968). The next year marked the start of a series of evocative scores for Dario Argento's stylized thrillers, including The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1969), The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971), and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1974).^[5] In 1970, Morricone wrote the score for Violent City. That same year, he received his first Nastro d'Argento for the music in Metti una sera a cena (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1969) and his second only a year later for Sacco e Vanzetti (Giuliano Montaldo, 1971), in which he had made a memorable collaboration with the legendary American folk singer and activist Joan Baez. In 1973, he scored a theme for the crime film Revolver (1973). Morricone composed the score for John Carpenter's science-fiction/horror movie The Thing (1982)^[7] as well as Brian De Palma's war drama Casualties of War (1989).^[8]

Morricone has worked for television, from a single title piece to variety shows and documentaries to TV series, including the US TV Western The Men From Shiloh (1970), Moses (1974) and Marco Polo (1982). One notable composition, "Chi Mai" was used in the films, Maddalena (1971) and Le Professionnel (1981) as well as the TV series The Life and Times of David Lloyd George (1981). It was a surprise hit in the UK, almost topping the charts. He wrote the score for the Mafia television series La piovra seasons 2 to 10 from 1985 to 2001, including the themes "Droga e sangue" ("Drugs and Blood"), "La morale", and "L'immorale".^[9] Morricone worked as the conductor of seasons 3 to 5 of the series. He also worked as the music supervisor for the television project La bibbia ("The Bible"). In the late 1990s, he collaborated with his son, Andrea, on the Ultimo crime dramas. Their collaboration yielded the BAFTA-winning Nuovo cinema Paradiso. In 2003, Ennio Morricone scored another epic, for Japanese television, called Musashi and was the Taiga drama about Miyamoto Musashi, Japan's legendary warrior. A part of his "applied music" is now applied to Italian television films.

Concerts and live orchestrations[link]

Since 2001, Morricone has been on a world tour, the latter part sponsored by Giorgio Armani, with the Orchestra Roma Sinfonietta, touring London (Barbican 2001; 75th birthday Concerto, Royal Albert Hall 2003), Paris, Verona, and Tokyo. Morricone performed his classic film scores at the Munich Philharmonie in 2005 and Hammersmith Apollo Theatre in London, UK, on 2006-12-01 and 2006-12-02.

Ennio Morricone at the United Nations Headquarters

He made his North American concert debut on January 29, 2007 Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City and four days later at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The previous evening, Morricone had already presented at the United Nations a concert comprising some of his film themes, as well as the cantata Voci dal silenzio to welcome the new Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. A Los Angeles Times review bemoaned the poor acoustics and opined of Morricone: "His stick technique is adequate, but his charisma as a conductor is zero." Morricone, though, has said: "Conducting has never been important to me. If the audience comes for my gestures, they had better stay outside."

On December 12, 2007, Morricone conducted the Roma Sinfonietta at the Wiener Stadthalle in Vienna, presenting a selection of his own works. Together with the Roma Sinfonietta and the Belfast Philharmonic Choir, Morricone performed at the Opening Concerts of the Belfast Festival at Queen's, in the Waterfront Hall on October 17 and 18, 2008. Morricone and Roma Sinfonietta also held a concert at the Belgrade Arena (Belgrade, Serbia) on February 14, 2009.

On April 10, 2010, Morricone conducted a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Roma Sinfonietta and (as in all of his previous London concerts) the Crouch End Festival Chorus. On August 27, 2010, he conducted a concert in Hungary. Two other concerts took place in Verona and Sofia (Bulgaria) on 11 and 17 September 2010.^[10]

Recent works[link]

Morricone provided the string arrangements on Morrissey's "Dear God Please Help Me" from the album Ringleader of the Tormentors in 2006.^[11]

Quentin Tarantino originally wanted Morricone to compose the soundtrack for his most recent film, Inglourious Basterds. However, Morricone refused because of the sped-up production schedule of the film.^[12][13][14] Tarantino did use several Morricone tracks from previous films in the soundtrack.

Morricone instead wrote the music for Baaria - La porta del vento, the most recent movie by Giuseppe Tornatore. The composer is also writing music for Tornatore's upcoming movie Leningrad.

In spring and summer 2010, Morricone worked with Hayley Westenra for a collaboration on her album Paradiso.^[15] The album features new songs written by Morricone, as well as some of his best known film compositions of the last 50 years.^[16][17] Hayley recorded the album with Morricone's orchestra in Rome during the summer of 2010.^[18][19][20]

Public reputation[link]

	"Se telefonando" noicon Sample from "Se telefonando".
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In 1956, Morricone started to support his family by playing in a jazz band and arranging pop songs for the Italian broadcasting service RAI.^[5] He was hired by RAI in 1958, but quit his job on his first day at work when he was told that broadcasting of music composed by employees was forbidden by a company rule. Subsequently, Morricone became a top studio arranger at RCA, working with Renato Rascel, Rita Pavone, and Mario Lanza.^[5] A particular success was one of his own songs, "Se telefonando".^[21][22]

Performed by Mina, it was a standout track of Studio Uno 66, the fifth-biggest-selling album of the year 1966 in Italy.^[23] Morricone's sophisticated arrangement of "Se telefonando" was a combination of melodic trumpet lines, Hal Blaine–style drumming, a string set, a '60s Europop female choir, and intensive subsonic-sounding trombones. The Italian Hitparade #7 song had eight transitions of tonality building tension throughout the chorus.^[21][22]

During the following decades, the song was covered by several performers in Italy and abroad—most notably by Françoise Hardy and Iva Zanicchi (1966), Delta V (2005), Vanessa and the O's (2007), and Neil Hannon (2008).^[24] In the reader's poll conducted by the la Repubblica newspaper to celebrate Mina's 70th anniversary in 2010, 30,000 voters picked the track as the best song ever recorded by Mina.^[25] Throughout the '60s Morricone composed songs for other artists including Milva, Gianni Morandi, Paul Anka, Amii Stewart, and Mireille Mathieu.

Personal life[link]

On 13 October 1956, he married Maria Travia and had his first son, Marco, in 1957. Travia has written lyrics to complement her husband's pieces. Her works include the Latin texts for The Mission. They have three sons and a daughter, in order of birth: Marco, Alessandra, the conductor and film composer Andrea (Andrew), and Giovanni (a filmmaker^[26] who lives in New York City).

Influence and modern references[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2011)

Morricone at the 2009 Venice film festival.

Morricone's influence also extends into the realm of pop music. Hugo Montenegro had a hit with a version of the main theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in both the United Kingdom and the United States. This was followed by his album of Morricone's music in 1968.

Aside from his music having been sampled by everyone from rappers (Jay-Z) to electronic outfits (the Orb), Morricone wrote "Se Telefonando", which became Italy's fifth biggest-selling record of 1966 and has since been re-recorded by Françoise Hardy, among many others, and scored the strings for "Dear God, Please Help Me" on Morrissey's 2006 "Ringleader of the Tormentors" album.

Morricone's film music was also recorded by many artists. John Zorn recorded an album of Morricone's music, The Big Gundown, with Keith Rosenberg in the mid-1980s. Lyricists and poets have helped convert some of his melodies into a songbook.

Morricone collaborated with world music artists, like Portuguese fado singer Dulce Pontes (in 2003 with Focus, an album praised by Paulo Coelho and where his songbook can be sampled) and virtuoso cellist Yo-Yo Ma (in 2004), who both recorded albums of Morricone classics with the Roma Sinfonietta Orchestra and Morricone himself conducting.

In 1990 the American singer Amii Stewart, best known for the 1979 disco hit "Knock On Wood", recorded a tribute album entitled Pearls - Amii Stewart Sings Ennio Morricone for the RCA label, including a selection of the composer's best known songs. Since the mid 1980s Stewart resides in Italy, the Pearls album features Rome's Philharmonic Orchestra and was co-produced by Morricone himself.

The 2003 Quentin Tarantino film Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2 makes extensive use of several Morricone pieces from several 1960s film scores. The 2009 film Inglourious Basterds also uses many Morricone pieces, as well as sharing "Il Mercenario (Ripresa)" with Kill Bill.

Metallica uses Morricone's The Ecstasy of Gold as an intro at their concerts (shock jocks Opie and Anthony also use the song at the start of their XM Satellite Radio and CBS Radio shows.) The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra also played it on Metallica's Symphonic rock album S&M. Ramones used the theme from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as a concert intro. The theme from A Fistful Of Dollars is also used as a concert intro by The Mars Volta.

His influence extends from Michael Nyman to Anna Calvi to Muse.^[27] He even has his own tribute band, a large group which started in Australia, touring as The Spaghetti Western Orchestra.

Morricone is mentioned by Myles, a musician/scorer (played by Jack Black in The Holiday), as creator of magical sounds that formed a character as much as lines of music in his films. This played out in a scene at a video rental store between Black and actress Kate Winslett.

In 2007, the tribute album We All Love Ennio Morricone was released. It features performances by various artists, including Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, Bruce Springsteen and Metallica.

On their 2008 album "Red of Tooth and Claw" the independent rock band, Murder by Death, composed and included a song as a theme/tribute to Morricone entitled "Theme (for Ennio Morricone)."

British band Muse cites Morricone as an influence for the songs "City of Delusion", "Hoodoo", and "Knights of Cydonia" on their album Black Holes and Revelations.^{[citation needed]}. The band has recently started playing the song "Man With A Harmonica" live played by Chris Wolstenholme, as an intro to "Knights of Cydonia".^[28]

In January 2010, tenor Donald Braswell II released his album "We Fall and We Rise Again" on which he presented his tribute to Ennio Morricone with his original composition entitled "Ennio".

The score for The Thing 2011 prequel film composed by Marco Beltrami was inspired and uses several elements from Morricone's original soundtrack from the 1982 film of the same name.

Discography[link]

Ennio Morricone has sold over 50 million records worldwide,^[29][30] including 6.5 million copies in France^[31] and more than two million albums in Korea.^[32]

Top worldwide film grosses[link]

Ennio Morricone has been involved with eight movies grossing over $25 million at the box office:^[33]

Other successful movies with Morricone's work are Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 (2003, 2004) and Inglourious Basterds (2009), though the tracks used are sampled from older pictures.

Awards[link]

He received his first Academy Award nomination in 1979, for the score to Days of Heaven (Terrence Malick, 1978).^[34] He was later nominated for a further two awards; in 1986 for The Mission^[34] and in 1987 for The Untouchables.^[34] He later nominated for the score to Bugsy (Barry Levinson) (1991). His last nomination was for Malèna (2000).

Morricone and Alex North are the only composers to receive the Honorary Oscar since the award's introduction in 1928.^[35] North was nominated for fifteen Oscars, but like Morricone, he never won competitively.

Morricone received an honorary Academy Award on February 25, 2007, presented by Clint Eastwood, "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music." With the statuette came a standing ovation. Not only nominated five times, but also he received a lifetime achievement Oscar, five Baftas and two Golden Globes.^[36] In conjunction with the honor, Morricone released a tribute album, We All Love Ennio Morricone, that featured as its centerpiece Celine Dion's rendition of "I Knew I Loved You" (based on "Deborah's Theme" from Once Upon a Time in America), which she performed at the ceremony. Behind-the-scenes studio production and recording footage of "I Knew I Loved You" can be viewed in the debut episode of the QuincyJones.com Podcast.^[37] The lyric, as with Morricone's Love Affair, had been penned by Oscar-winning husband-and-wife duo Marilyn and Alan Bergman. Morricone's acceptance speech was in his native Italian tongue and was interpreted by Clint Eastwood, who stood to his left. Eastwood and Morricone had in fact met two days earlier—for the first time in 40 years—at a reception.

List of prizes and awards[link]

• 1965 – Nastro d'Argento for A Fistful of Dollars
• 1967 – Diapason d'Or
• 1969 – Premio Spoleto Cinema
• 1970 – Nastro d'argento for Metti una sera a cena
• 1971 – Nastro d'argento for Sacco e Vanzetti
• 1972 – Cork Film International for La califfa
• 1979 – Academy Awards nomination for Days of Heaven
• 1979 – Premio Vittorio de Sica
• 1981 – Premio della critica discografica for Il prato
• 1984 – Premio Zurlini
• 1985 – Nastro d'argento and BAFTA for Once Upon A Time In America
• 1986 – Academy Awards Nomination, BAFTA and Golden Globe Awards for The Mission
• 1986 – Premio Vittorio de Sica
• 1988 – Academy Awards nomination, Nastro d'argento, BAFTA and Grammy Awards for The Untouchables
• 1988 – David di Donatello for Gli occhiali d'oro
• 1989 – David di Donatello for Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
• 1989 – Ninth Annual Ace Winner for Il Giorno prima
• 1989 – Pardo d'Oro alla carriera Locarno Film Festival
• 1990 – BAFTA, Prix Fondation Sacem del XLIII Cannes Film Festival and David di Donatello for Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
• 1991 – David di Donatello for Stanno tutti bene
• 1992 – Academy Award nomination for Bugsy
• 1992 – Pentagramma d'oro
• 1992 – Premio Michelangelo
• 1992 – Grolla d'oro alla carriera (Saint Vincent)
• 1993 – David di Donatello and Efebo d'Argento for Jonas che visse nella balena
• 1993 – Globo d'oro Stampa estera in Italia
• 1993 – Gran Premio SACEM audiovisivi
• 1994 – ASCAP Golden Soundtrack Award (Los Angeles)
• 1995 – Premio Rota
• 1995 – Golden Lion Honorary Award by the Venice Film Festival
• 1996 – Premio citta' di Roma
• 1996 – Premio Cappelli
• 1996 – Premio Accademia di Santa Cecilia
• 1997 – Premio Flaiano
• 1998 – Columbus Prize
• 1999 – Erich Wolfgang Korngold Internationaler Preis für Film
• 1999 – Exsquibbidles Film Academy lifetime achievement award
• 2000 – Golden Globe for The Legend of 1900 (1998)
• 2000 – David di Donatello and Nastro d'argento for Canone Inverso
• 2000 – Academy Awards nomination for Malèna
• 2000 – Nastro d'argento for Malèna
• 2001 – Mikeldi de Honor at "Zinebi – International Festival of Documentary and Short Films" of Bilbao
• 2002 – Honorary Degree by the "Seconda Università" of Rome
• 2003 – Golden Eagle Award by the Russian National Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences of Russia for 72 Meters (film)
• 2003 – Honorary Senator of the Filmscoring Class of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München
• 2006 – Grand Officer OMRI, nominated by Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
• 2007 – Honorary Academy Award for career achievement
• 2007 – The Film & TV Music Award for Lifetime Achievement
• 2007 – David di Donatello and Nastro d'argento for La sconosciuta
• 2008 – Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental, performed by Bruce Springsteen
• 2008 – Knight of the Legion of Honour
• 2009 – Medal of Merits for Macedonia^[38]
• 2009 – America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation
• 2010 – Polar Music Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of the Arts

Sources[link]

• Horace, B. Music from the Movies, film music journal double issue 45/46, 2005: ISSN 0967-8131
• Miceli, Sergio. Morricone, la musica, il cinema. Milan: Mucchi/Ricordi, 1994: ISBN 88-7592-398-1
• Miceli, Sergio. "Morricone, Ennio". The Nesw Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 3. Dal 1960 al 1969. Gremese, 1993: ISBN 88-7605-593-2
• Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 4. Dal 1970 al 1979* A/L. Gremese, 1996: ISBN 88-7605-935-0
• Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 4. Dal 1970 al 1979** M/Z. Gremese, 1996: ISBN 88-7605-969-5
• Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 5. Dal 1980 al 1989* A/L. Gremese, 2000: ISBN 88-7742-423-0
• Poppi, R., M. Pecorari. Dizionario del cinema italiano. I film vol. 5. Dal 1980 al 1989** M/Z. Gremese, 2000: ISBN 88-7742-429-X

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Lhassa, Anne, and Jean Lhassa: Ennio Morricone: biographie. Les Planches. Lausanne: Favre; [Paris]: [diff. Inter-forum], 1989. ISBN 2-8289-0418-0,
• Wagner, Thorsten. "Improvisation als 'weiteste Ausdehnung des Begriffs der aleatorischen Musik': Franco Evangelisti und die Improvisationsgruppe Nuova Consonanza". In ...hin zu einer neuen Welt: Notate zu Franco Evangelisti, edited by Harald Muenz.48-60, 2002. Saarbrücken: Pfau-Verlag. ISBN 3-89727-177-X.
• Webb, Michael D. Italian 20th Century Music: The Quest for Modernity. London: Kahn & Averill. ISBN 978-1-871082-89-0

External links[link]

	Book: Ennio Morricone
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ennio Morricone

Eva Simons (Born April 27, 1984) is a Dutch singer-songwriter. She started her music career at 18 when she auditioned for the Dutch "Popstars the Rivals", eventually joining the girl group Raffish before leaving the group to focus on a solo career.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Raised in Amsterdam, Simons grew up in a family of musicians, with a pianist father and vocalist mother. Simons is a classically trained pianist and has been writing compositions since she was a child, getting her first record deal at the age of 13. She is also a graduate from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.^[1]

In 2004, Eva decided to audition for the Dutch "Popstars the Rivals". She became a part of the girl group Raffish, receiving a golden record and several number 1 hits before leaving the group to pursue a solo career.

2009-present: Rise to fame, Silly Boy and Debut Album[link]

In 2009, Eva’s song “Silly Boy” gained popularity on the Internet. The song became one of the most notorious tracks online, generating over 20+ million views. After this success, she signed a worldwide deal at EMI. The song actually started out life as a demo idea for another high profile US female act, and gained much notoriety after Kayne West posted it in his blog, with Eva's vocal, and incorrect credits for the songs performer.

In mid 2010, Eva & Mike Hamilton (also known as the writing team Topline Ink) wrote the song “Take Over Control”. They played the idea to DJ Afrojack, who produced the hit single, which spent 6 weeks on the Billboard Top Dance Airplay Chart, topped iTunes dance charts globally, and gained Platinum status in Australia and certified Gold in the US. The song has become a globally dance crossover anthem, propelling the profiles of both Eva and Afrojack worldwide.

In 2011, as well as touring across the globe, Simons has gone on to sign a major label US deal, and is featured on LMFAO's track "Best Night". In addition to this, Eva has also collaborated with Will.i.am on tracks for his upcoming solo album.

In early March 2012, it was announced that Eva Simons will join LMFAO in the North American "Sorry For Party Rocking" tour.^[2]

On March 20, 2012, Simons premiered her new single, "I Don't Like You", which was released in most countries on March 26 under Interscope Records. The track is produced by Zedd. In March 2012, Eva Simons and RedOne (works with Porcelain Black, Lady GaGa, Jennifer Lopez, and many more) were working together.

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

Album appearances[link]

Music videos[link]

As main artist[link]

As featured artist[link]

Appearances[link]

References[link]