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Stranger Comes To Town
''Stranger Comes to Town'' is the fifth studio album from English songwriter and musician Steve Harley, which was released by Absolute in 2010. The album was produced by Harley. Background Harley has described ''Stranger Comes to Town'' as "a sort-of protest album" and "a state-of-the-nation report". He told '' The York Press'' in 2010, "I'm not a grumpy old man but what's happening to this country? I don't like the dumbing-down from the moment our Prime Minister said 'Call me Tony'. I've been angry ever since. Kids are growing up in a world where there's no deference. What was wrong with 'sir' or 'madam'? The album is a new-fashioned protest album. It's not ''Blowin' in the Wind'' or 'Masters of War', but deep down, what are we coming to?" He added to ''The Bolton News'', "I'm sick of the greedy people running the country and the fact that everything is being dumbed down." Speaking to ''Classic Rock'' in 2010, Harley also commented on the album's theme, "The essence of the stori ...
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Steve Harley
Steve Harley (born Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice; 27 February 1951) is an English singer and songwriter, best known as frontman of the rock group Cockney Rebel, with whom he still tours, albeit with frequent and significant personnel changes. Early life Harley was born in 1951 in Deptford, London, the second of five children. His father was a milkman and his mother a semi-professional jazz singer. During the summer of 1953, Harley contracted polio, causing him to spend four years in hospital between the ages of three and 16. He underwent two major surgeries in 1963 and 1966. After recovering from the first operation at the age of 12, Harley was introduced to the poetry of T. S. Eliot and D. H. Lawrence, the prose of John Steinbeck, Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway, and the music of Bob Dylan, which inspired him to a career of words and music. From the age of nine, Harley began taking classical violin lessons and would later play as part of his grammar school orchestra. Age ...
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Retired Boxer
''Retired Boxer'' is the seventh self-released music cassette album by singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston, recorded in 1984. The album's nine songs are performed in Johnston's usual confessional piano ballad style. This album, like those before it, was recorded with a consumer grade tape player. Evidence of this is found in the warbling tape hiss and distortion. Background Retired Boxer was Johnston's first album recorded in Austin, Texas, a location where he found much success. During the recording of 'Hi, How Are You' the previous year, Johnston was living with his sister Margie but disappeared in April of 1984 after his mother suggested institutionalizing him. He only told his parents where he was on Fathers Day of that year. He had purchased a moped and rode it to the local carnival where he began working at the Corn Dog Stand. Six months laterDaniel Johnston - 'Continued Story / Hi How Are You' Liner Notes (Eternal Yip Eye Music/High Wire Music, EYE-002, 2006) the carnival a ...
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Daily Express
The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet in 1900 by Sir Arthur Pearson. Its sister paper, the ''Sunday Express'', was launched in 1918. In June 2022, it had an average daily circulation of 201,608. The paper rose to become the largest circulation newspaper in the world under Lord Beaverbrook, going from 2 million in the 1930s to 4 million in the 1940s. It was acquired by Richard Desmond's company Northern & Shell in 2000. Hugh Whittow was the editor from February 2011 until he retired in March 2018. In February 2018 Trinity Mirror acquired the ''Daily Express'', and other publishing assets of Northern & Shell, in a deal worth £126.7 million. To coincide with the purchase the Trinity Mirror group changed the name of the company to ''Reach''. Hugh Whittow resigned as editor ...
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Record Collector
''Record Collector'' is a British monthly music magazine. It was founded in 1980 and distributes worldwide. History The early years The first standalone issue of ''Record Collector'' was published in March 1980, though its history stretches back further. In 1963, publisher Sean O'Mahony (alias Johnny Dean) had launched an official Beatles magazine, ''The Beatles Book''. Although it shut down in 1969, ''The Beatles Book'' reappeared in 1976 due to popular demand. Through the late-1970s, the small ads section of ''The Beatles Book'' became an increasingly popular avenue through which collectors could make contact and buy, sell, or trade Beatles records. Reflecting a burgeoning collecting scene in the 1970s, as time went by, the adverts were becoming dominated by traders who were interested in rare vinyl unassociated with the Beatles. In September 1979, ''The Beatles Book'' came with a record collecting supplement, and the response was positive enough for O'Mahony to launch ''Re ...
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The Quality Of Mercy (album)
''The Quality of Mercy'' is the sixth studio album by English rock band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, which was released by Gott Discs in 2005. The album was Steve Harley's first studio album in 9 years and the first in 29 years to be released under the Cockney Rebel name. The album was produced entirely by Harley, with Jim Cregan co-producing the track "A Friend for Life". The album's title is based on the Shakespearean phrase. Writing and recording Harley began working on the recording of a new studio album in 2000 and during that year he began talks with various record companies. In September 2000, he commented in his online diary, "Plans to further the recording career in hand. Negotiations are taking place daily and constantly. I am determined that 'A Friend for Life' will be available in the shops and on the radio in time for the next Spring band tour, with an album, God willing, in the can. I am the eternal optimist, as you probably know. I have 'A Friend for Life' and 'Wh ...
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Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel
Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel are a British glam rock band from the early 1970s from London. Their music covers a range of styles from pop to progressive rock. Over the years they have had five albums in the UK Albums Chart and twelve singles in the UK Singles Chart. Career Steve Harley grew up in London's New Cross area and attended Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham Boys' School. His musical career began in the late 1960s when he was busking (with John Crocker aka Jean-Paul Crocker) and performing his own songs, some of which were later recorded by him and the band. The original Cockney Rebel After an initial stint as a music journalist, the original Cockney Rebel was formed when Harley hooked up with his former folk music partner, Crocker ( fiddle / mandolin / guitar) in 1972. Crocker had just finished a short stint with Trees and they advertised and auditioned drummer Stuart Elliott, bassist Paul Jeffreys, and guitarist Nick Jones. This line-up played one of the band's first ...
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UK Independent Albums Chart
The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the relevance of the chart dwindled in the 1990s as major-label ownership blurred the boundary between independent and major labels. Separate independent charts are currently published weekly by the Official Charts Company. History In the wake of punk, small record labels began to spring up, as an outlet for artists that were unwilling to sign contracts with major record companies, or were not considered commercially attractive to those companies. By 1978, labels like Cherry Red, Rough Trade, and Mute had started up, and a support structure soon followed, including independent pressing, distribution and promotion. These labels got bigger and bigger, and by 1980 they were having Top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart. Chart success was limited, h ...
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UK Albums Chart
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts Company (OCC) on Fridays (previously Sundays). It is broadcast on BBC Radio 1 (top 5) and found on the OCC website as a Top 100 or on UKChartsPlus as a Top 200, with positions continuing until all sales have been tracked in data only available to industry insiders. However, even though number 100 was classed as a hit album (as in the case of The Guinness Book of British Hit Albums) in the 1980s until January 1989, since the compilations were removed this definition was changed to Top 75 with follow-up books such as The Virgin Book of British Hit Albums book only including this data. As of 2021, the OCC still only tracks how many UK Top 75s album hits and how many weeks in Top 75 albums chart each artist has achieved. To qualify for the Offi ...
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BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage. The service maintains 50 foreign news bureaus with more than 250 correspondents around the world. Deborah Turness has been the CEO of news and current affairs since September 2022. In 2019, it was reported in an Ofcom report that the BBC spent £136m on news during the period April 2018 to March 2019. BBC News' domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, in Broadcasting House in central London. Parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in London. Through BBC English Regions, the BBC also has regional centres across England and national news c ...
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Jim Cregan
James Cregan (born 9 March 1946) is an English rock guitarist and bassist, best known for his associations with Family, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel and Rod Stewart. Cregan is a former husband of the singer Linda Lewis and worked with her as a record producer. He has also worked with London Quireboys, Glass Tiger, Katie Melua and formed ''Farm Dogs'' with Bernie Taupin. Career Born in Yeovil, Somerset, to Irish parents, Cregan joined The Falcons, When aged fourteen, which was formed whilst he attended Poole Grammar School. After developing his next band ''The Disastisfied Blues Band'', Cregan briefly joined with future Traffic frontman Dave Mason, in ''Julian Covay and the Machine'' in 1967 and moved on to join the rock and soul band ''The Ingoes'' as a vocalist and guitarist. This band soon morphed into the psychedelic Blossom Toes the same year, who later turned to guitar-led rock. After recording Julie Driscoll's solo album '' 1969,'' Cregan joined the soft rock band Stud ...
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Sebastian (song)
"Sebastian" is a song by the British rock band Cockney Rebel, fronted by Steve Harley. It was released as the band's debut single in 1973 from their album ''The Human Menagerie''. The song was written by Harley and produced by Neil Harrison. Background "Sebastian" was written and first performed by Harley during his days of busking in the early 1970s, before Cockney Rebel were formed in late 1972. Having trained as a journalist for three years, Harley embarked on his musical career through "floor-spotting" within London folk clubs in 1971–72, and began busking in London in 1972. Speaking to the '' Daily Express'' in 2007, Harley recalled, "I started busking in the early 70's, which gave me a platform to experiment on the public with my songs. I had one called 'Sebastian', which was six minutes of gothic poetry! I got absolutely no money." Cockney Rebel recorded their debut album ''The Human Menagerie'', including "Sebastian", at Air Studios, London, in the summer of 1973, afte ...
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BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. The Radio 2 about page says: "With a repertoire covering more than 40 years, Radio 2 plays the widest selection of music on the radio—from classic and mainstream pop to a specialist portfolio including classical, country, folk, jazz, soul, rock 'n' roll, gospel and blues." Radio 2 broadcasts throughout the UK on FM between and from studios in Wogan House, adjacent to Broadcasting House in central London. Programmes are broadcast on FM radio, digital radio via DAB, digital television and BBC Sounds. According to RAJAR, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 14.4 million with a listening share of 16.1% as of September 2022. History 1967–1986 The network was launched at 5:30am on Saturday 30 September 1967, replacing ...
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