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Nigel Grainge
Nigel Grainge (4 October 1946 – 11 June 2017) was a British music executive, and the founder of Ensign Records in 1976. Biography Born to Jeanette and Cecil Grainge on 4 October 1946 in North London where he grew up, Grainge was heavily influenced towards music by his father Cecil, who owned a record shop. Each weekend his father would bring him a new record to play at home. As a young boy he attended Coldfall Primary School in Muswell Hill from 1954 to 1958 and then went on to Christ’s College, Finchley, North London. He began his career in the record business as a Sales Office assistant at Phonogram UK in 1970. After promotion to become US-affiliated labels Manager, he was responsible for the marketing and chart success of many hits (some unlikely) by acts such as Faron Young, the Detroit Emeralds, The Stylistics, Chuck Berry, Rod Stewart (switching "Maggie May" from an original 'B' side), and eventually became the company's successful head of A&R from 1974 to 1976. ...
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Santa Monica
Santa Monica (; Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 U.S. Census population was 93,076. Santa Monica is a popular resort town, owing to its climate, beaches, and hospitality industry. It has a diverse economy, hosting headquarters of companies such as Hulu, Universal Music Group, Lionsgate Films, and The Recording Academy. Santa Monica traces its history to Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica, granted in 1839 to the Sepúlveda family of California. The rancho was later sold to John P. Jones and Robert Baker, who in 1875, along with his Californio heiress wife Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker, founded Santa Monica, which incorporated as a city in 1886. The city developed into a seaside resort during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the creation of tourist attractions such as Palisades Park, the Santa Monica Pier, Ocean Park, and the Hotel Casa del Mar. Hi ...
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Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as " Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and " Johnny B. Goode" (1958). Writing lyrics that focused on teen life and consumerism, and developing a music style that included guitar solos and showmanship, Berry was a major influence on subsequent rock music.Campbell, M. (ed.) (2008). ''Popular Music in America: And the Beat Goes On''. 3rd ed. Cengage Learning. pp. 168–169. Born into a middle-class black family in St. Louis, Berry had an interest in music from an early age and gave his first public performance at Sumner High School. While still a high school student, he was convicted of armed robbery and was sent to a reformator ...
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Omnibus Press
Omnibus Press is a publisher of music-related books. It publishes around 30 new titles a year to add to a backlist of over 250 titles currently in print. History Omnibus Press was launched in 1972 as a general non-fiction publisher to complement the sheet music published and distributed by its parent company Music Sales Group. Music Sales had launched a separate company called Book Sales Ltd and the earliest Book Sales catalogue, issued in the early 70s, included compilations of underground comic strips, art and photography titles and one of the earliest books on the then newly discovered art of video. After former ''Melody Maker'' music journalist Chris Charlesworth joined as Omnibus editor in 1983, it was decided to concentrate exclusively on music books, and among its earliest acquisitions was Rock Family Trees by music archivist Pete Frame which remains in print and have been the basis of two BBC TV series. Over the succeeding decades Omnibus has published many biographies ...
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Chris Hill (DJ)
Chris Hill (born 8 January 1945) is a British disc jockey. He worked at the club ''Lacy Lady'' in Ilford, as well as at the ''Goldmine'' Canvey Island and was the head of the 'Soul Mafia' a group of DJs which included Greg Edwards, DJ Froggy, Jeff Young and Robbie Vincent, in London and the South East of England into the early 1980s. He had a major input into the creation of the British 'Brit Funk' music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Career Early DJ experience Hill's first residency was at ''The Cock'' public house in Orsett, Essex in the late 1960s where he would play jazz records. The Canvey Island ''Goldmine'' owner, Stan Barrett and manager Kenny Faulkner came to The Cock and offered Hill the residency. Hill stated: "They’d heard about me and when I started at The Goldmine on Canvey Island in November 1972, people there didn’t understand a ‘Soul’ night." In 1975-1976, he promoted his 'swing revival nights' playing the music of Count Basie, Jimmie Lunce ...
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Flash And The Pan
Flash and the Pan were an Australian new wave musical group (essentially an ongoing studio project) formed in 1976 by Harry Vanda and George Young, both former members of the Easybeats; they were a production and songwriting team known as Vanda & Young. The group's first chart success was their 1976 debut single, "Hey, St. Peter", which reached number five in the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. The next single, "Down Among the Dead Men", peaked at number four in Australia in 1978; it was re-titled as "And the Band Played On" for international release. Their eponymous debut album followed in December 1978, featuring the track " Walking in the Rain", originally the B-side to "Hey St. Peter". The song was later covered by Grace Jones, and released as the last single from her album '' Nightclubbing'' (May 1981). Her version was most successful in New Zealand, reaching number 34. Flash and the Pan's second album, '' Lights in the Night'' (early 1980), peaked at No.&nbs ...
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I Don't Like Mondays
"I Don't Like Mondays" is a song by Irish new wave group the Boomtown Rats about the 1979 Cleveland Elementary School shooting in San Diego. It was released in 1979 as the lead single from their third album, '' The Fine Art of Surfacing''. The song was a number-one single in the UK Singles Chart for four weeks during the summer of 1979, and ranks as the sixth-biggest hit of the UK in 1979. Written by Bob Geldof and Johnnie Fingers, the piano ballad was the band's second single to reach number one on the UK chart. Background and writing According to Geldof, he wrote the song after reading a telex report at Georgia State University's campus radio station, WRAS, on the shooting spree of 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer, who fired at children in a school playground at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California, on 29 January 1979, killing two adults and injuring eight children and one police officer. Spencer showed no remorse for her crime; her explanation f ...
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Rat Trap
A rat trap is a trap designed to catch rats. Designs are often larger variations on mousetraps. Types of traps Spring traps for large rodents such as rats or squirrels are powerful enough to break the animal's neck or spine. They may break human fingers as well, whereas an ordinary spring-based mousetrap is very unlikely to break a human finger. Rat spring traps may not be sensitive enough to spring when a mouse takes the bait. A ''rat cage trap'' is a metal cage box-shaped device that is designed primarily to catch rats without killing them. Food bait (not poisoned) is put in the cage trap. When an animal enters the cage and moves toward the bait, the mechanism triggers and closes a door over the entry point. The animal is caught alive and without injury. The animal can be transported and released elsewhere or subsequently killed. Glue traps are non-poisonous sticky glue spread over card boards and the like and kept in places rats frequent, which gets them stuck to it whe ...
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The Boomtown Rats
The Boomtown Rats are an Irish rock band originally formed in Dublin in 1975. Between 1977 and 1985, they had a series of Irish and UK hits including "Like Clockwork", "Rat Trap", "I Don't Like Mondays" and "Banana Republic". The original line-up comprised five musicians from Dún Laoghaire in County Dublin; Gerry Cott (rhythm guitar), Simon Crowe (drums), Johnnie Fingers (keyboards), Bob Geldof (vocals) and Garry Roberts (lead guitar), plus Fingers' cousin Pete Briquette (bass). The Boomtown Rats broke up in 1986, but reformed in 2013, without Fingers or Cott. Garry Roberts died in 2022. The band's fame and notability have been overshadowed by the charity work of frontman Bob Geldof, a former journalist with the '' New Musical Express''. History 6 piece band Five of the six members originate from Dún Laoghaire, Ireland; Pete Briquette was originally from Ballyjamesduff, County Cavan, Ireland. Having been booked for their first gig under the name The Nightlife Thugs, the gro ...
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All Platinum Records
All Platinum Records was a record company started in 1967 by singer/writer/producer Sylvia Robinson and her husband, businessman Joe Robinson, who had previously worked in the recording industry. All Platinum and its subsidiary labels, including Stang, Vibration, Turbo and Astroscope, specialised in soul and R&B music. Many of the company's releases were recorded at its Soul Sound Studios, using the company's in-house musicians, at its Englewood, New Jersey base. The company released four singles that reached number one on the Billboard R&B chart but failed to top the Hot 100 pop chart. The label started as Platinum Records but the prefix of 'All' was added to avoid confusion with a Miami label. The company, with Sylvia helming the creative operations as well as producing or co-producing many releases, racked up a series of R&B and Pop hits during the 70s, despite being only a small independent concern. The company's mainstay act was the all-male group, The Moments (later Ray, ...
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The Steve Miller Band
The Steve Miller Band is an American rock music, rock band formed in 1966 in San Francisco, California. The band is led by Steve Miller (musician), Steve Miller on guitar and lead vocals. The group had a string of mid- to late-1970s hit singles that are staples of classic rock, as well as several earlier psychedelic rock albums. Miller left his first band to move to San Francisco and form the Steve Miller Blues Band. Shortly after Harvey Kornspan negotiated the band's contract with Capitol Records in 1967, the band shortened its name to the Steve Miller Band. In February 1968, the band recorded its debut album, ''Children of the Future (Steve Miller Band album), Children of the Future''. It went on to produce the albums ''Sailor (album), Sailor'', ''Brave New World (Steve Miller Band album), Brave New World'', ''Your Saving Grace'', ''Number 5 (Steve Miller Band album), Number 5'', ''Rock Love'', ''Fly Like an Eagle (album), Fly Like an Eagle'', ''Book of Dreams'', among others. Th ...
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10cc
10cc are an English rock band formed in Stockport in 1972. The group initially consisted of four musicians – Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme – who had written and recorded together since 1968. The group featured two songwriting teams. Stewart and Gouldman were predominantly pop songwriters, who created most of the band's accessible songs. Godley and Creme were the predominantly experimental half of 10cc, featuring art and cinematically inspired writing. Every member of 10cc was a multi-instrumentalist, singer, writer and producer. Most of the band's records were recorded at their own Strawberry Studios (North) in Stockport and Strawberry Studios (South) in Dorking, with most of those engineered by Stewart. From 1972 to 1978, 10cc had five consecutive UK top-ten albums: ''Sheet Music'' (1974), '' The Original Soundtrack'' (1975), '' How Dare You!'' (1976), ''Deceptive Bends'' (1977) and ''Bloody Tourists'' (1978). 10cc also had twelve singles reach ...
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Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Their music reflects a wide range of influences, including blues, soul music, psychedelic rock and traditional Irish folk music, but is generally classified as hard rock or sometimes heavy metal. Two of the founding members, drummer Brian Downey and bass guitarist, lead vocalist and principal songwriter Phil Lynott, met while still in school. Lynott led the group throughout their recording career of twelve studio albums, writing most of the material. The singles "Whiskey in the Jar" (a traditional Irish ballad), "The Boys Are Back in Town" and "Waiting for an Alibi" were international hits. After Lynott's death in 1986, various incarnations of the band emerged over the years based initially around guitarists Scott Gorham and John Sykes, though Sykes left the band in 2009. Gorham later continued with a new line-up including Downey. In 2012, Gorham and Downey decided against recording new material as Thin Lizzy s ...
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