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Andromeda Heights
''Andromeda Heights'' is the sixth studio album by the English pop group Prefab Sprout. It was released by Kitchenware Records on 2 May 1997. It peaked at number 7 in the UK Albums Chart. "A Prisoner of the Past" and "Electric Guitars" were also released as singles, peaking at number 30 and number 53, respectively, in the UK Singles Chart. The high-tech recording studio that Paddy McAloon built for himself at his home in County Durham is also called Andromeda heights. Critical reception Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic stated that "the album doesn't quite fulfill the hopes of the group's fervent followers." He added, "''Andromeda Heights'' is a solid Prefab Sprout record, filled with elegant melodies, wry lyrics and immaculate production, but after seven years, that nevertheless ranks as a disappointment." Track listing Personnel Credits adapted from liner notes. Musicians ''(billed as "The Andromeda Heights Orchestra")'' * Paddy McAloon – vocals, piano, keyboards, pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prefab Sprout
Prefab Sprout are an English pop band from Witton Gilbert, County Durham who rose to fame during the 1980s. Formed in 1978 by brothers Paddy and Martin McAloon and joined by vocalist, guitarist and keyboard player Wendy Smith in 1982, they released their debut album '' Swoon'' to critical acclaim in 1984. Their subsequent albums, including 1985's ''Steve McQueen'' and 1990's '' Jordan: The Comeback'', have been described by Paul Lester of ''The Guardian'' as "some of the most beautiful and intelligent records of their era". Frontman Paddy McAloon is regarded as one of the great songwriters of his time and the band have been credited with producing some of the "most beloved" pop music of the 1980s and 1990s. Nine of their albums reached the Top 40 in the UK Albums Chart and one of their singles, "The King of Rock 'n' Roll", peaked at number seven in the UK Singles Chart. The band's other popular songs include "When Love Breaks Down" and "Cars and Girls". In recent years, Padd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wendy Smith (singer)
Wendy Smith (born 31 May 1963) is an English musician, best known as being a singer and guitarist in the band Prefab Sprout. In 2015, she became the director of creative learning at The Sage in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. Career Smith was born in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Smith joined the band Prefab Sprout in 1983 after seeing them live in their early concerts, and featured on six of their studio albums as a singer, guitarist and keyboard player. The last album she recorded with the group was 1997's ''Andromeda Heights'', though Smith herself admits that she didn't actually leave the band until 2001. One review of Prefab Sprout's second studio album, ''Steve McQueen'', described Smith as having "fairy-dusted he album with herbreathy harmonies." After an inactive period of the band in the late 1990s, coupled with Smith being pregnant, she moved first into teaching, and then becoming the head of practitioner development at Sage Gateshead in 2003. She becam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1997 Albums
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of '' Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of the most observed comets of the 20th century; Golden Bauhinia Square, where sovereignty of Hong Kong is handed over from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China; the 1997 Central European flood kills 114 people in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Germany; Korean Air Flight 801 crashes during heavy rain on Guam, killing 229; Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner land on Mars; flowers left outside Kensington Palace following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in a car crash in Paris., 300x300px, thumb rect 0 0 200 200 Titanic (1997 film) rect 200 0 400 200 Harry Potter rect 400 0 600 200 Comet Hale-Bopp rect 0 200 300 400 Death of Diana, Princess of Wales rect 300 200 600 400 Handover of Hong Kong rect 0 400 200 600 Mars P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Official Charts Company
The Official Charts (legal name: The Official UK Charts Company Limited) is a British inter-professional organization that compiles various "official" record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France. In the United Kingdom, its charts include ones for singles, albums and films, with the data compiled from a mixture of downloads, purchases (of physical media) and streaming. The OCC produces its charts by gathering and combining sales data from retailers through market researchers Kantar, and claims to cover 99% of the singles market and 95% of the album market, and aims to collect data from any retailer who sells more than 100 chart items per week. The OCC is operated jointly by the British Phonographic Industry and the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) (formerly the British Association of Record Dealers (BARD)) and is incorporated as a private company limited by shares jointly owned by BPI and ERA. The Chart Information Network (CIN) took over as compilers of the o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anne Magill
Anne Magill (born in Millisle, Northern Ireland) is a painter who now lives and works in Brighton, England. Biography Born in Northern Ireland, Magill studied a foundation course at Liverpool Polytechnic before moving to London to study at St. Martins School of Art between 1981 and 1984. She subsequently became an illustrator, working for magazine and publishing houses, design and ad agencies. Her newspaper clients included ''The Sunday Times'', ''The Observer'' and ''Today''. Magill worked as a courtroom artist for both the BBC and for ITN. Her commercial clients have included British Airways, Marks & Spencer, Nike, Levi Strauss, Heineken, Canary Wharf, Saatchi & Saatchi and The Body Shop. She is a past winner of the Benson & Hedges Illustration Awards. Her first solo exhibition was in 1992 and since then she has regularly exhibited in London galleries as well as showing in Europe, the United States and Ireland. Philanthropy In March 2010 Magill donated a painting, "Still", ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stylorouge
Stylorouge is a graphic design studio based in Yalding, Kent, formed in London by creative director Rob O'Connor in 1981. Art work created by the studio has included record sleeve designs for bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees for their 1981's '' Once Upon a Time: The Singles'' compilation vinyl which was certified gold, Enya, Blur (it designed the band's first logo, and was still working with them in 2013), The Cure, Gary Glitter, Morrissey, The Sisters of Mercy, Stereophonics, Killing Joke, Sandie Shaw, Adam Ant, Catatonia, Jesus Jones, Squeeze, Crowded House, Dr John, Simple Minds, Sarah Brightman and Menswear. It was also responsible for the design and art direction of the original posters for the British film ''Trainspotting'', dubbed "some of the most iconic and memorable ilm postersof all time", and which inspired the poster by PolyGram for the sequel, ''Trainspotting 2''. The studio was also credited with adding the exclamation point to the name of then teenage band ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Clark (keyboardist)
Alan Clark (born 5 March 1952) is an English musician who was the first keyboardist and co-producer of the rock band Dire Straits. In 2018, Clark was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a significant member of Dire Straits. Early years As a six-year-old child, Alan received piano lessons. From the age of nine years he taught himself. At the age of 13 and while still a pupil at Chester-le-Street Grammar School, he began to play Hammond organ in working men's clubs in the northeast of England, and thereafter forged a successful career in music which included playing with a reformed Geordie which featured Brian Johnson (who would later join AC/DC), playing and recording with a duo called Splinter who were signed to George Harrison's Dark Horse label, playing and recording with Gallagher & Lyle, and playing on a tour of major UK festivals with Lindisfarne. Career Clark joined Dire Straits in 1980 and remained a major influence on the band's music until the band's even ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calum Malcolm
Calum Malcolm is a Scottish record producer, sound engineer and keyboardist, who is based in Edinburgh, Scotland. He started his career in rock music with the band The Headboys in 1977. From 1974, he has worked with bands and musicians such as The Blue Nile, Capercaillie, Clannad, Emily Barker, Fish, The Go-Betweens, Hue and Cry, Maire Brennan, Nazareth, Orange Juice, Aztec Camera, The Fire Engines, Mark Knopfler, Prefab Sprout, Runrig, Steve Adey, Kris Drever, The Silencers, Simple Minds and Wet Wet Wet; whilst Barb Jungr, Claire Martin, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Carol Kidd are others whom Malcolm has worked alongside in the recording studio. His working credits also include The Boys of the Lough, Brian McNeill, It's Immaterial, Josef K, Mike Lindup, Stéphane Grappelli, The Happy Family, Tom Anderson, Tommy Smith, William Jackson and on Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martin Taylor (guitarist)
Martin Taylor, MBE (born 20 October 1956) is a British jazz guitarist who has performed in groups, guitar ensembles, and as an accompanist. Biography Early life Taylor was born in Harlow, Essex, into a family with a musical heritage and a Gypsy tradition. At the age of four, he received his first guitar from his father, jazz bassist William 'Buck' Taylor who only took up music at 30. Buck frequently played the music of the Quintette du Hot Club de France, so the young Martin Taylor became inspired by guitarist Django Reinhardt. At age eight, he was already playing in his father's band and at 15 he quit school to become a professional musician. The band Martin joined at 15 called the ''Oo-yah Band'' was led by Lennie Hastings, a jazz drummer who spent many years with the Alex Welsh band. The band included Nick Stevenson (trumpet), Peter Skivington (bass guitar), Ron Brown (trombone), Jamie Evans (piano), Malcolm Everson (clarinet and baritone saxophone). Over the next few years ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
County Durham
County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly â€About North East England. Retrieved 30 November 2007. The ceremonial county spawned from the historic County Palatine of Durham in 1853. In 1996, the county gained part of the abolished ceremonial county of Cleveland.Lieutenancies Act 1997 . Retrieved 27 October 2014. The county town is the of |
Pop Music
Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describes all music that is popular and includes many disparate styles. During the 1950s and 1960s, pop music encompassed rock and roll and the youth-oriented styles it influenced. ''Rock'' and ''pop'' music remained roughly synonymous until the late 1960s, after which ''pop'' became associated with music that was more commercial, ephemeral, and accessible. Although much of the music that appears on record charts is considered to be pop music, the genre is distinguished from chart music. Identifying factors usually include repeated choruses and hooks, short to medium-length songs written in a basic format (often the verse-chorus structure), and rhythms or tempos that can be easily danced to. Much pop music also borrows elements from other styles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-selling Single (music), singles in the United Kingdom, based upon physical sales, paid-for downloads and music streaming, streaming. The Official Chart, broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and MTV (Official UK Top 40), is the UK music industry's recognised official measure of singles and albums popularity because it is the most comprehensive research panel of its kind, today surveying over 15,000 retailers and digital services daily, capturing 99.9% of all singles consumed in Britain across the week, and over 98% of albums. To be eligible for the chart, a Single (music), single is currently defined by the Official Charts Company (OCC) as either a 'single bundle' having no more than four tracks and not lasting longer than 25 minutes or one digital audio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
