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Fantastic Star
''Fantastic Star'' is the ninth studio album by the British singer/songwriter Marc Almond. It was released in 1996 and reached number fifty-four on the UK Albums Chart. It includes the singles "Adored and Explored", "The Idol", "Child Star" and the double A-side "Brilliant Creatures" / "Out There". The album was Almond's last on a major record label until 2007's ''Stardom Road''. Accompanied by studio musicians and collaborators - specifically guitarist Neal X and John Coxon - Almond recorded the songs for the album over several years. This was due to his changing record labels and professional and personal difficulties. It was recorded at Red Bus Studios, London, The Stereo Society, New York, Skyline, New York, and GCHQ, London. Receiving mixed to positive reviews, the album was originally released as a CD and cassette in February 1996. The album was not reissued until 2023. The artwork was designed by 950 Fahrenheit with a cover photograph by Mike Owen. Background Marc Almond r ...
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Marc Almond
Peter Mark Sinclair "Marc" Almond, (born 9 July 1957) is an English singer. Almond first began performing and recording in the synthpop/ new wave duo Soft Cell where he became known for his distinctive soulful voice and androgynous image. He has also had a diverse career as a solo artist. His collaborations include a duet with Gene Pitney on the 1989 UK number one single "Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart". Almond's career spanning over four decades has enjoyed critical and commercial acclaim, and he has sold over 30 million records worldwide. He spent a month in a coma after a near-fatal motorcycle accident in 2004 and later became a patron of the brain trauma charity Headway. He was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2018 New Year Honours for services to arts and culture. Early life Almond was born in Southport, Lancashire, the son of Sandra Mary Diesen and Peter John Sinclair Almond, a Second Lieutenant in the King's Liverpool Regiment. He ...
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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 ...
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Andy Ross
Andrew Ross is an American musician. He has been the guitarist, keyboardist and vocalist for the rock band OK Go since 2005. He is also behind a solo project, Secret Dakota Ring, which released albums in 2004 and 2008. Ross is also co-founder of Serious Business Records, a label under which Secret Dakota Ring publish their records. Andy is lead developer of a mobile game developer company Space Inch, LLC. Biography Ross attended Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ..., where he had studied computer science, and became the bassist for the band Unsacred Hearts and guitarist for DraculaZombieUSA. Ross was also the bassist for a brief stint in early 2000s indie band Cold Memory, and was also the headliner for The A-Ross Experience. Other early bands ...
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John Cale
John Davies Cale (born 9 March 1942) is a Welsh musician, composer, singer, songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the American rock band the Velvet Underground. Over his six-decade career, Cale has worked in various styles across rock, drone, classical, avant-garde and electronic music. He studied music at Goldsmiths College, University of London, before relocating in 1963 to New York City's downtown music scene, where he performed as part of the Theatre of Eternal Music and formed the Velvet Underground. Since leaving the band in 1968, Cale has released sixteen solo studio albums, including the widely acclaimed '' Paris 1919'' (1973) and '' Music for a New Society'' (1982). Cale has also acquired a reputation as an adventurous record producer, working on the debut albums of several innovative artists, including the Stooges and Patti Smith. Early life and career John Davies Cale was born on 9 March 1942 in the mining village of Garnant in the valley ...
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David Johansen
David Roger Johansen (sometimes spelled ''David Jo Hansen''; born January 9, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known as a member of the seminal proto-punk band the New York Dolls. He is also known for his work under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter, and for playing the Ghost of Christmas Past in '' Scrooged''. Early life Johansen was born in the New York City borough of Staten Island to a librarian mother, Helen, and an insurance sales representative father, who had previously sung opera. His mother was Irish American and his father was Norwegian American. Career Johansen began his career in the late 1960s as the lead singer of the Vagabond Missionaries, a local Staten Island band and later in the early 1970s as the singer/songwriter in the proto-punk band the New York Dolls. The New York Dolls were in the Mercer’s scene, appearing on the bill at a New Year’s Eve 1972 gig with Ruby and the Rednecks. They released two albums, the eponymous ''New ...
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Chris Spedding
Christopher John Spedding (born Peter Robinson, 17 June 1944) is an English musician, singer, guitarist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and record producer. In a career spanning more than 50 years, Spedding is best known for his studio session work. By the early 1970s, he had become one of the most sought-after session guitarists in England. Spedding has played on and produced many albums and singles. He has also been a member of eleven rock bands: the Battered Ornaments, Frank Ricotti Quartet, King Mob, Mike Batt and Friends, Necessaries, Nucleus, Ricky Norton, Sharks, Trigger, and the Wombles. In May 1976, Spedding also produced the very first Sex Pistols recordings. AllMusic has described Spedding as "one of the UK's most versatile session guitarists, ehas had a long career on two continents that saw him tackle nearly every style of rock and Spedding, a long-time friend of Chrissie Hynde, was a regular concert feature artist with the Pretenders on their ...
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John Coxon (musician)
Spring Heel Jack is an English electronic music duo, consisting of John Coxon and Ashley Wales. Formed in 1993 in London, England, Spring Heel Jack began their career exploring drum and bass and jungle, but have since branched out into free improvisation and jazz, collaborating with many musicians from Europe and the United States. History Wales was formerly a composer of contemporary classical music and leader of the band Crazy About Love, while Coxon was a successful remixer and producer (most notably for Betty Boo) prior to their joining forces. Their first three drum and bass albums released during the 1990s earned positive reviews for their innovative take on the genre. They also co-wrote and produced the 1996 track "Walking Wounded," a major UK hit for Everything But The Girl featuring Ben Watt who had earlier been sacked from Crazy About Love. The cinematic ''Disappeared'' (2000) marked a transition for Wales and Coxon, and featured the British saxophonist Joh ...
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Steve Nieve
Steve Nieve ( "naïve"; born Stephen John Nason, 21 February 1958) is an English musician and composer. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Nieve has been a member of Elvis Costello's backing bands the Attractions, the Imposters and Madness. He has also experienced success as a prolific session musician, featured on a wide array of other artists' recordings. In 2003, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Elvis Costello and the Attractions. Early years Nieve was born in Bishop's Stortford, England, and attended the Royal College of Music, but dropped out in 1977 to join Costello's backing band the Attractions. Nason received his musical moniker "Nieve" (pronounced " naïve") while on the Attractions' first tour for Stiff Records. It was bestowed by tourmate Ian Dury who had been astonished by Nason's innocent query, "What's a groupie?" Before that, at least briefly, he had been using the stage name "Steve A'dore" (a pun on stevedore). Career Ni ...
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Encyclopedia Of Popular Music
''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' is an encyclopedia created in 1989 by Colin Larkin. It is the "modern man's" equivalent of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music'', which Larkin describes in less than flattering terms.''The Times'', ''The Knowledge'', Christmas edition, 22 December 2007- 4 January 2008. It was described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". History of the encyclopedia Larkin believed that rock music and popular music were at least as significant historically as classical music, and as such, should be given definitive treatment and properly documented. ''The Encyclopedia of Popular Music'' is the result. In 1989, Larkin sold his half of the publishing company Scorpion Books to finance his ambition to publish an encyclopedia of popular music. Aided by a team of initially 70 contributors, he set about compiling the data in a pre-internet age, "relying instead on information gleaned from music magazines, individual expertise ...
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AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guide' ...
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Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, which owned it until Universal Music Group (UMG) took control of part of it in 2013. It is ultimately owned by UMG subsidiary Virgin Records Limited (until 2013 by EMI Records Limited, nowadays known as Parlophone Records and owned by UMG's competitor Warner Music Group). The studio's most notable client was the Beatles, who used the studio – particularly its Studio Two room – as the venue for many of the innovative recording techniques that they adopted throughout the 1960s. In 1976, the studio was renamed from EMI in honour of their final recorded album, ''Abbey Road''. In 2009, Abbey Road came under threat of sale to property developers. In response, the British Government protected the site, granting it English Herita ...
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Record Store Day
Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fans, artists, and thousands of independent record stores around the world. A number of records are pressed specifically for Record Store Day, with a list of releases for each country, and are only distributed to shops participating in the event. Record Store Day is headquartered in the United States, where it began. Official organizers operate in the UK, Ireland, Mexico, Europe, Japan and Australia. Background Originally pitched as an idea to create an event similar to Free Comic Book Day by Bull Moose Music's Chris Brown and Criminal Record's Eric Levin, the concept for Record Store Day was created during a brainstorming session at a meeting of independent record store owners in Baltimore, Maryland. Record Store Day was founded in 2007 ...
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