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Harsh Reality
Harsh Reality are a little-known, proto-prog band formed in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England, in 1968 out of the remnants of the Freightliner Blues Band (formerly the Revolution). The band consisted of Mark Griffiths and Dave Jenkins on guitars, Alan Greed on lead vocals and organ, Roger Swallow on drums, and Steve Miller on bass and backing vocals. They released a single for Philips Records in 1968 ("Tobacco Ash Sunday" / "How Do You Feel") before releasing their only album, ''Heaven and Hell'', also on Philips in 1969. A final single followed soon after, before the band split in 1969. Their ''Heaven and Hell'' LP is now a highly sought-after rarity, selling for hundreds of pounds between eager collectors. For this reason, Harsh Reality is somewhat famous/infamous in collecting circles. Though seen as part of the proto-progressive rock era, their work represented a marriage between the sounds of Procol Harum, Traffic and early Deep Purple. Following the band's demise, R ...
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Harsh Reality
Harsh Reality are a little-known, proto-prog band formed in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England, in 1968 out of the remnants of the Freightliner Blues Band (formerly the Revolution). The band consisted of Mark Griffiths and Dave Jenkins on guitars, Alan Greed on lead vocals and organ, Roger Swallow on drums, and Steve Miller on bass and backing vocals. They released a single for Philips Records in 1968 ("Tobacco Ash Sunday" / "How Do You Feel") before releasing their only album, ''Heaven and Hell'', also on Philips in 1969. A final single followed soon after, before the band split in 1969. Their ''Heaven and Hell'' LP is now a highly sought-after rarity, selling for hundreds of pounds between eager collectors. For this reason, Harsh Reality is somewhat famous/infamous in collecting circles. Though seen as part of the proto-progressive rock era, their work represented a marriage between the sounds of Procol Harum, Traffic and early Deep Purple. Following the band's demise, R ...
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Deep Purple
Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Originally formed as a psychedelic rock, psychedelic and progressive rock band, they shifted to a heavier sound with their 1970 album ''Deep Purple in Rock''. Deep Purple, together with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, have been referred to as the "unholy trinity of British hard rock and heavy metal in the early to mid-seventies". They were listed in the 1975 Guinness World Records, ''Guinness Book of World Records'' as "Loudest band, the globe's loudest band" for a 1972 concert at London's Rainbow Theatre and have sold over 100 million records worldwide. Deep Purple have had several line-up changes and an eight-year hiatus (1976–1984). The first four line-ups, which constituted the band's original 1968–1976 run, are officially indica ...
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Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million singles in the United Kingdom and is the third-top-selling artist in UK Singles Chart history, behind the Beatles and Elvis Presley. Richard was originally marketed as a rebellious rock and roll singer in the style of Presley and Little Richard. With his backing group, the Shadows, he dominated the British popular music scene in the pre-Beatles period of the late 1950s to early 1960s. His 1958 hit single "Move It" is often described as Britain's first authentic rock and roll song. In the early 1960s, he had a prosperous screen career with films including '' The Young Ones'', '' Summer Holiday'' and '' Wonderful Life'' and his own television show at the BBC. Increased focus on his Christian faith and subsequent softening of his music led t ...
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The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021) and Phillip "Phil" Everly (January 19, 1939 – January 3, 2014), the duo combined elements of rock and roll, country, and pop, becoming pioneers of country rock. The duo was raised in a musical family, first appearing on radio singing along with their father Ike Everly and mother Margaret Everly as "The Everly Family" in the 1940s. When the brothers were still in high school, they gained the attention of prominent Nashville musicians like Chet Atkins, who began to promote them for national attention. They began writing and recording their own music in 1956, and their first hit song came in 1957, with " Bye Bye Love", written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. The song hit No. 1 in the spring of 1957, and additional hits would follow through 1958, many of them written by the Bryants, ...
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David Essex
David Essex (born David Albert Cook; 23 July 1947) is an English singer, songwriter, and actor. Since the 1970s, he has attained 19 Top 40 singles in the UK (including two number ones) and 16 Top 40 albums. Internationally, Essex had the most success with his 1973 single "Rock On". He has also had an extensive career as an actor. Life and career Early life Essex was born in Plaistow, Essex (now a neighbourhood in the London Borough of Newham, included within Greater London on 23rd July 1947).Sarah Fielding. "From Rags to 'Rock On': How David Essex Became a Star." ''Music Scene.'December 1973.p. 18. His father, Albert, was an East End docker and his mother, Olive (née Kemp), was a self-taught pianist and an Irish Traveller. His grandfather, Thomas Kemp, was nicknamed "Philimore", which was the anglicised version of "Philly Mor" – being Irish for "Big Philly". Essex was two years old when his parents moved out of the overcrowded home the family was sharing with relatives, t ...
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Jonathan Kelly
Jonathan Kelly (born Jonathan Ledingham, 8 July 1947 – 2 May 2020) was an Irish folk rock singer-songwriter, who enjoyed a varied career in music, playing with many musicians and groups, including Eric Clapton and Tim Staffell. He formed Jonathan Kelly's Outside in 1973. Biography Born in Drogheda, County Louth, he attended Drogheda Grammar School. He played bass guitar for Humpy Bong which featured former Bee Gees drummer Colin Petersen. The band did not progress but released one single, "Don't You Be Too Long". Kelly would then retain Petersen as his manager and release two albums through RCA Records, RCA, ''Twice Around the Houses'' and ''Wait til They Change the Backdrop''. Outside was made up of Kelly, Snowy White and Chas Jankel on guitars, Dave Sheen on drums and Trevor Williams (bassist), Trevor Williams (ex-Audience (band), Audience) on bass guitar. White went on to play with Pink Floyd and Thin Lizzy before a successful solo career, and Jankel later played with Ian ...
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Record Label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing, promotion, and enforcement of copyright for sound recordings and music videos, while also conducting talent scouting and development of new artists, and maintaining contracts with recording artists and their managers. The term "record label", derives from the circular label in the center of a vinyl record which prominently displays the manufacturer's name, along with other information. Within the mainstream music industry, recording artists have traditionally been reliant upon record labels to broaden their consumer base, market their albums, and promote their singles on streaming services, radio, and television. Record labels also provide publicists, who assist performers in gaining positi ...
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Progressive Rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Initially termed "progressive pop", the style was an outgrowth of psychedelic bands who abandoned standard pop traditions in favour of instrumentation and compositional techniques more frequently associated with jazz, folk, or classical music. Additional elements contributed to its " progressive" label: lyrics were more poetic, technology was harnessed for new sounds, music approached the condition of "art", and the studio, rather than the stage, became the focus of musical activity, which often involved creating music for listening rather than dancing. Progressive rock is based on fusions of styles, approaches and genres, involving a continuous move between formalism and eclecticism. Due to its historical reception, the scope of progressiv ...
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Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in European harmony and African rhythmic rituals. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. But jazz did not begin as a single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere. In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz (a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisationa ...
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Session Musician
Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a tour. Session musicians are usually not permanent or official members of a musical ensemble or band. They work behind the scenes and rarely achieve individual fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders. However, top session musicians are well known within the music industry, and some have become publicly recognized, such as the Wrecking Crew, the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and The Funk Brothers who worked with Motown Records. Many session musicians specialize in playing common rhythm section instruments such as guitar, piano, bass, or drums. Others are specialists, and play brass, woodwinds, and strings. Many session musicians play multiple instruments, which lets them play in a wider range of musical situations, genres an ...
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Ray Russell (musician)
Raymond 'Ray' Russell (born 4 April 1947) is an English session musician who is primarily a guitarist. He is also a record producer and composer. In 1973 he was a member of the band Mouse, which released a progressive rock album entitled ''Lady Killer'' for the Sovereign record label. His TV compositions have included ''A Touch of Frost'', '' Bergerac'', ''Plain Jane'', ''A Bit of a Do'', ''Rich Tea and Sympathy'', ''The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries'', '' Dangerfield'' and '' Grafters'', as well as many other British and American television programmes. He also played in the DVD ''Simon Phillips Returns'' with Simon Phillips and Anthony Jackson. With colleagues Mo Foster and Ralph Salmins, Russell gives musical seminars at UK educational establishments. In 2008 Russell, drummer Ralph Salmins, and sound engineer Rik Walton created Made Up Music, a music library that distributes music on its web site and by sending portable hard drives to music editors. The company sells musi ...
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Al Stewart
Alastair Ian Stewart (born 5 September 1945) is a Scottish born singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician who rose to prominence as part of the British folk revival in the 1960s and 1970s. He developed a unique style of combining folk-rock songs with delicately woven tales of characters and events from history. Stewart is best known for his 1976 hit single " Year of the Cat", from the platinum album of the same name. Though '' Year of the Cat'' and its 1978 platinum follow-up ''Time Passages'' brought Stewart his biggest worldwide commercial successes, earlier albums such as '' Past, Present and Future'' from 1973 are often seen as better examples of his intimate brand of historical folk-rock, a style to which he returned in later albums. Stewart is a key figure in British music and he appears throughout the musical folklore of the revivalist era. He played at the first-ever Glastonbury Festival in 1970, knew Yoko Ono before she met John Lennon, and shared a London flat with ...
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