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The Secret Policeman's Other Ball
The Secret Policeman's Other Ball was the fourth of the benefit shows staged by the British Section of Amnesty International to raise funds for its research and campaign work in the human rights field. It was the second of many shows to bear the celebrated "Secret Policeman's" title that became the iconic series known informally as The Secret Policeman's Balls. The show took place at the Drury Lane theatre in London over four nights between Wednesday 9 September and Saturday 12 September 1981. It was a successor to the 1979 show The Secret Policeman's Ball. Not all artists appeared at all performances: Phil Collins, for example, could not commit to all four and was present at the last two shows only. The show was directed by Monty Python alumnus John Cleese and produced by Martin Lewis and Peter Walker (Amnesty's fundraising officer). It subsequently yielded two separate movies (one version for the UK, directed by Julien Temple, and a quite different version for the US) and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and supporters around the world. The stated mission of the organization is to campaign for "a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments." The organization has played a notable role on human rights issues due to its frequent citation in media and by world leaders. AI was founded in London in 1961 by the lawyer Peter Benenson. Its original focus was prisoners of conscience, with its remit widening in the 1970s, under the leadership of Seán MacBride and Martin Ennals to include miscarriages of justice and torture. In 1977, it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In the 1980s, its secretary general was Thomas Hammarberg, succeeded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roxanne (The Police Song)
"Roxanne" is a song by English rock band The Police. The song was written by lead singer and bassist Sting and was released as a single on 7 April 1978, in advance of their debut album ''Outlandos d'Amour'', released 2 November. It was written from the point of view of a man who falls in love with a prostitute Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet .... When re-released on 12 April 1979, the song peaked at on the UK Singles Chart. The song ranked No. 388 on the ''Rolling Stone''s "Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and was voted No. 85 by VH1 on its list of the "100 Greatest Rock Songs". In 2008, "Roxanne" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame Award, Grammy Hall of Fame. Background The Police lead singer Sting wrote th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glad To Be Gay
"Glad to Be Gay" is a song by British punk rock/ new wave group Tom Robinson Band. It is one of their defining songs, and has been considered Britain's national gay anthem. Song information The song was originally written by Tom Robinson for a London gay pride parade in 1976, inspired by the directness and confrontational style of the Sex Pistols."Sing If You're Glad To be Gay" on BothWays.com. An out gay singer, he subsequently formed the Tom Robinson Band with three straight musicians. Robinson said he wrote the song to the tune of '''' by : " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colours (Donovan Song)
"Colours" is a song written and recorded by British singer-songwriter Donovan. The "Colours" single was released in the United Kingdom on 28 May 1965 through Pye Records (Pye 7N 15866) and a few months later in the United States through Hickory Records (Hickory 45-1324). The "Colours" single was backed with "To Sing for You" (previously included on ''What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid'') on the United Kingdom release and " Josie" (from ''What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid'') on the United States release. Release and reception Donovan followed up the success of "Catch the Wind" with "Colours", which featured a similar folk style. The single matched the success of "Catch the Wind" in the United Kingdom, reaching No. 4 on the charts. In the United States, "Colours" reached No.61, and marked a decline in the artist's popularity relative to "Catch the Wind". A different mix of the song (without harmonica) was released on his second album ''Fairytale''. ''Billboard'' praised the "i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sunshine Superman (song)
"Sunshine Superman" is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It was released as a single in the United States through Epic Records (Epic 5–10045) in July 1966, but due to a contractual dispute the United Kingdom release was delayed until December 1966, where it appeared on Donovan's previous label, Pye Records (Pye 7N 17241). The single was backed with "The Trip" on both the US and UK releases. It has been described as "[one of the] classics of the counterculture of the 1960s, era", and as "the quintessential bright summer sing along". "Sunshine Superman" reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the United States (Donovan's only single to do so) and subsequently became the title track of his third album. When finally released in the UK, it reached No. 2. A different mix of "The Trip" (without harmonica) is also included in the album. The single version of "Sunshine Superman" was edited down from its original four-and-a-ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kent Music Report
The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July 1987. From June 1988, the Australian Recording Industry Association, which had been using the top 50 portion of the report under licence since mid-1983, chose to produce their own listing as the ARIA Charts. Before the Kent Report, ''Go-Set'' magazine published weekly Top-40 Singles from 1966, and Album charts from 1970 until the magazine's demise in August 1974. David Kent later published Australian charts from 1940 to 1973 in a retrospective fashion, using state by state chart data obtained from various Australian radio stations. Background Kent had spent a number of years previously working in the music industry at both EMI and Phonogram records and had developed the report initially as a hobby. The Kent Music Report was first release ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Shall Be Released
"I Shall Be Released" is a 1967 song written by Bob Dylan. Dylan recorded two primary versions. The first recording was made in collaboration with the Band during the Basement Tapes sessions in 1967, and released on '' The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3'' in 1991. A remixed version of the 1967 recording was rereleased with a preliminary take on '' The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete'' in 2014. Of the initial demo, ''Rolling Stone''s Jann Wenner said, "Curiously enough the music in this song and the high pleading sound of Dylan's voice reminds one of the Bee Gees." The earliest official release of the song was by English musician Boz Burrell under the name Boz, whose version was released as a single on May 3, 1968 on Columbia. The Band recorded their version of the song for their debut album ''Music from Big Pink'', released two months later in July 1968, with Richard Manuel singing lead vocals, and Rick Danko and Levon Helm harmonizing on the chorus. The s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catch The Wind (song)
"Catch the Wind" is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. Pye Records released "Catch the Wind" backed with "Why Do You Treat Me Like You Do?" as Donovan's debut release (Pye 7N.15801) in the United Kingdom on 28 February 1965. The single reached No. 4 in the United Kingdom singles chart. Hickory Records released the single in the United States in April 1965 (Hickory 45-1309), where it reached No. 23 in the United States Billboard Hot 100. '' Cash Box'' described it as a "medium-paced, folk-styled low-down bluesey romancer," with a Bob Dylan-like vocal. In May 1965, Pye Records released a different version of "Catch the Wind" on Donovan's debut LP record album What's Bin Did and What's Bin Hid (NPL.18117). While the single version featured vocal echo and a string section, the album version lacked those elements and instead featured Donovan playing harmonica. When Epic Records was compiling '' Donovan's Greatest Hits'' in 1968, the label ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Universal Soldier (song)
"Universal Soldier" is a song written and recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. The song was originally released on Sainte-Marie's debut album ''It's My Way!'' in 1964. "Universal Soldier" was not an immediate popular hit at the time of its release, but it did garner attention within the contemporary folk music community. It became a hit a year later when Donovan covered it, as did Glen Campbell. Sainte-Marie said of the song: "I wrote 'Universal Soldier' in the basement of The Purple Onion coffee house in Toronto in the early sixties. It's about individual responsibility for war and how the old feudal thinking kills us all." Sainte-Marie has said she approached writing the song from the perspective of a student writing an essay for a professor who didn't see eye-to-eye with her perspective, hoping to present him with a different point of view. Composition In the six verses of the song, a soldier of different heights, ages, religious and political backgro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
In The Air Tonight
"In the Air Tonight" is the debut solo single by English drummer and singer-songwriter Phil Collins. It was released as the lead single from Collins's debut solo album, '' Face Value'', in January 1981. Collins co-produced "In the Air Tonight" with Hugh Padgham, who became a frequent collaborator in the following years. It reached No. 2 on the UK Singles chart behind the posthumous release of John Lennon's "Woman". It reached No. 1 in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden, and the top 10 in Australia, New Zealand and several other European territories. It reached No. 19 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the United States, but reached No. 2 on the Rock Tracks Chart, later certified gold by the RIAA, representing 500,000 copies sold. The song's music video, directed by Stuart Orme, received heavy play on MTV when the new cable music video channel launched in August 1981. "In the Air Tonight" remains one of Collins' best-known hits, often cited as his signature song, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Fingers
Johnnie Fingers (born John Peter Moylett, 10 September 1956) is an Irish keyboardist and co-founding member of the new wave band The Boomtown Rats. He was notable for his attire of striped pyjamas on stage and his melodic piano style. Background Fingers came from a large family of actors, artists and musicians. His cousin is his fellow Boomtown Rat Pete Briquette, as their mothers, Margaret "Peggy" (Bowles) Cusack and Cecilia "Sheila" (Bowles) Moylett, were sisters. They are nephews of Irish conductor and composer Michael Bowles. He learned the piano from a young age from "Miss Grist" who he claims "stole his youth". After the demise of the Boomtown Rats in 1986, he founded Gung~Ho with his fellow Boomtown Rats member Simon Crowe and Yoko Kurokawa in 1987. Fingers is now married with two children. Fingers decided to not return to the Boomtown Rats when the band was reunited in 2013, as he lives in Tokyo. Career He currently lives in Tokyo, Japan, where he continues to work in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
