The Paramounts
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The Paramounts
The Paramounts were an English beat group based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. They had one hit single with their cover version of " Poison Ivy", which reached No. 35 on the UK Singles Chart in 1964, but are primarily known as the forerunner to Procol Harum. Career The origin of the Paramounts is unclear. They were either formed as "The Raiders" in 1959 when the members were at secondary school, or were one of the first "manufactured" bands, the organisers of a band competition at the Palace Hotel in Southend forming a group out of the best musicians in the contest. The Raiders had Robin Trower and Chris Copping (guitars), Mick Trower (lead vocals; older brother of Robin Trower) and Gary Nicholls (drums; born 1945 died April 2007). The initial line-up of the Paramounts from September 1960, was Gary Brooker (piano, ex-Johnny Short and the Coasters), Mick Brownlee (drums; born October 1943, Chiswick, West London died June 2017, ex-Mickey Law and the Outlaws), Chris Copping (bass), ...
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Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered to the north by Rochford and to the west by Castle Point. It is home to the longest pleasure pier in the world, Southend Pier. London Southend Airport is located north of the city centre. Southend-on-Sea originally consisted of a few poor fishermen's huts and farms at the southern end of the village of Prittlewell. In the 1790s, the first buildings around what was to become the High Street of Southend were completed. In the 19th century, Southend's status of a seaside resort grew after a visit from Princess Caroline of Brunswick, and Southend Pier was constructed. From the 1960s onwards, the city declined as a holiday destination. Southend redeveloped itself as the home of the Access credit card, due to its having one of the UK's first ...
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Phil Wainman
Philip Neil Wainman (born 7 June 1946, West London, England) is an English record producer and songwriter, primarily active in the 1970s. He is noted for his work with Sweet, XTC, Dollar, Mud, and the Bay City Rollers. His greatest chart success, however, was the production of "I Don't Like Mondays" by the Boomtown Rats, written by Bob Geldof and arranged by Fiachra Trench. Career In 1964, Wainman was working the European cabaret circuit with a band called The High Grades. He returned to the UK and joined the Paramounts in 1965 for a short period. The Paramounts had had a minor UK hit with a cover of the Coasters' " Poison Ivy", but Wainman did not appear on this track. Wainman was also a drummer with a session band named The Quotations. They released two drum themed beat/pop singles, 1966's "Hear Me a Drummer Man" / "Hear Those Drums" and 1968's "Going, Going Gone" / "Hey Paradiddle". He and pianist Harold Spiro later wrote the Yardbirds' "Little Games", which was produced by ...
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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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Chris Thomas (record Producer)
Christopher P. Thomas (born 13 January 1947 in Perivale, Middlesex, England) is an English record producer who has worked extensively with the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Procol Harum, Roxy Music, Badfinger, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Pete Townshend, Pulp and the Pretenders. He has also produced breakthrough albums for the Sex Pistols, the Climax Blues Band and INXS. Early life Thomas was classically trained on the violin and piano as a child and he began playing bass in London pop bands, turning down at one point the opportunity to play with Jimi Hendrix and Mitch Mitchell before Hendrix had struck fame. After several years, Thomas decided that he had little interest in making a career as a performing musician. In a 1998 interview, he stated "I realized that being in a band you were dependent on all these other people, and I also knew that if I'd ever been successful in a band, I would've wanted to stay in the studio and just make the records; I wasn't that interested in playing live ...
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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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Ain't Nothin' To Get Excited About
''Ain't Nothin' to Get Excited About'' is an album of rock and roll songs recorded in 1970 by the members of Procol Harum under the name Liquorice John Death. It was not released until 1997. History Strictly speaking, this is not a Procol Harum album; it was recorded shortly after the band had finished working on their 1970 album '' Home''. During these recording sessions, producer Chris Thomas asked the band to play some old favourites while he set up the equipment for recording. The band enjoyed playing these older songs, so a few months later Thomas booked the Abbey Road recording studio, and the band recorded all the tracks on this album in a single night. "We staggered out at dawn, having attempted about 45 songs. We didn't finish them all. I think the drummer collapsed half way through with laughter." "Well, I..." is the only song they played that was written by the group, and is drummer B.J. Wilson's sole songwriting credit. Although some tracks from the recording ses ...
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A Whiter Shade Of Pale
"A Whiter Shade of Pale" is a song by the English rock band Procol Harum that was issued as their debut record on 12 May 1967. The single reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart on 8 June and stayed there for six weeks. Without much promotion, it reached number 5 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. One of the anthems of the 1967 Summer of Love, it is one of the most commercially successful singles in history, having sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. In the years since, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" has become an enduring classic, with more than 1,000 known cover versions by other artists. With its Bach-derived instrumental melody, soulful vocals, and unusual lyrics, the music of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" was composed by Gary Brooker and Matthew Fisher, while the lyrics were written by Keith Reid. Originally, the writing credits only listed Brooker and Reid. In 2009, Fisher won co-writing credit for the music in a unanimous ruling from the Law Lords. In 1977, the song was nam ...
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Matthew Fisher (musician)
Matthew Charles Fisher (born 7 March 1946) is an English musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his longtime association with the rock band Procol Harum, which included playing the Hammond organ on the 1967 single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", for which he subsequently won a songwriting credit. In his later life he became a computer programming, computer programmer, having qualified from University of Cambridge, Cambridge University. Biography Early life and career Fisher was born and grew up in Addiscombe, Croydon. He attended Selhurst High School#The original Selhurst High School for Boys, Selhurst Grammar School. He started playing in bands in his teens, initially playing bass guitar, but around 1964, after hearing The Animals and Georgie Fame, he decided that he would prefer to be an organist instead. He briefly considered a career as a music teacher. He enrolled for classical music, classical training at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Guildhall ...
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Keith Reid
Keith Stuart Brian Reid (born 19 October 1946 Allmusic.com biography by Jason Ankeny/ref>) is a lyricist and songwriter who wrote the lyrics of every song released by Procol Harum that was not previously recorded by someone else, with the exception of the songs on their 2017 album ''Novum''. Biography Reid grew up in London and is Jewish, the son of a Holocaust survivor. He left school at an early age to pursue a songwriting career. He met Gary Brooker, lead singer with Procol Harum, with whom he co-wrote most of the band's songs (some music was written by organist Matthew Fisher and by guitarist Robin Trower), in 1966. They began collaborating, and their composition "A Whiter Shade of Pale", Procol Harum's first single, was released in 1967. It reached the top of the UK Singles Chart and sold over six million copies worldwide. Keith Reid was an official member of Procol Harum and attended all their recording sessions and most of their concert performances, despite having no pe ...
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Chris Andrews (singer)
Christopher Frederick Andrews (born 15 October 1942) is an English-German singer-songwriter whose musical career started in the late 1950s. Career Andrews was born in Romford, Essex, England, and by his mid teens had formed his own group, Chris Ravel and the Ravers.Larkin C ''Virgin Encyclopedia of Sixties Music'', (Muze UK Ltd, 1997) ) p13 On 14 March 1959, he made his British television debut, performing on the '' Oh, Boy!'' show. He would later return in April to perform a cover of Cliff Richard's, "Move It". For Adam Faith, Andrews wrote "The First Time" (No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart, 1963) and "We Are in Love" (No. 11, 1964), and then a string of hits for Sandie Shaw. They included " Girl Don't Come" (No. 3, 1964/65), " I'll Stop at Nothing" (No. 4, 1965), " Message Understood" (No. 6, 1965) and " Long Live Love" ( No. 1, 1965). The latter remained a chart topper in the UK Singles Chart for three weeks. "Girl Don't Come" was covered by Cher on her debut album, ''All I Re ...
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Sandie Shaw
Sandie may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Sandie Clair (born 1988), French professional racing cyclist * Sandie Fitzgibbon, Irish former camogie player * Sandie Jones (1950/1951–2019), Irish singer * Sandie Lindsay, 1st Baron Lindsay of Birker (1879-1952), British academic * Sandie Pendleton (1840-1864), Confederate officer in the American Civil War * Sandie Richards (born 1968), Jamaican track and field athlete * Sandie Rinaldo (born 1950), Canadian television journalist and news anchor * Sandie Shaw (born 1947), English pop singer * Shelley Sandie (born 1969), Australian Olympic basketballer Arts and entertainment * ''Sandie'' (album), by Sandie Shaw * ''Sandie'' (comics), a British girls' comic * Sandie Merrick, a character on the ITV soap opera ''Emmerdale Farm'' Other uses * Sandie (cookie), a type of sugar or shortbread cookie, e.g. a pecan sandie * Sandie River, Taiwan See also *Sandy (other) *Sandi (other) Sandi may refer to: People *Sandi (given name) ...
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Ready Steady Go!
''Ready Steady Go!'' (or ''RSG!'') was a British rock/pop music television programme broadcast every Friday evening from 9 August 1963 until 23 December 1966. It was conceived by Elkan Allan, head of Rediffusion TV. Allan wanted a light entertainment programme different from the low-brow style of light entertainment transmitted by ATV. The programme was produced without scenery or costumes and with a minimum of choreography and make-up. Allan recruited a fellow journalist, Francis Hitching, as producer. Hitching became a major figure in light entertainment in the 1960s. Robert Fleming was the first director, followed by the documentary director Rollo Gamble, then Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Daphne Shadwell and Peter Croft. The programme was produced by Associated-Rediffusion, the weekday ITV contractor for London, called Rediffusion-London after 1964. The live show was eventually networked nationally. The show gained its highest ratings on 20 March 1964 when it featured the Beatle ...
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