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Frank Sidebottom's Fantastic Shed Show
Christopher Mark Sievey (25 August 1955 – 21 June 2010) was an English musician, comedian and artist known for fronting the band the Freshies in the late 1970s and early 1980s and for his comic persona Frank Sidebottom from 1984 onwards. Sievey, under the guise of Sidebottom, made regular appearances on North West television throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, even becoming a reporter for ''Granada Reports''. Later, he presented ''Frank Sidebottom's Proper Telly Show in B/W'' for the Manchester-based television station Channel M. Throughout his career, Sidebottom made appearances on radio stations such as Manchester's Piccadilly Radio and on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 5, alongside Mark and Lard. Biography Early life and career (1955–1976) Sievey grew up in Ashton-on-Mersey, Sale, Cheshire (2.5 miles from Timperley). In 1969, when he was 14, Sievey began writing and recording his own music, and by the age of 15 was playing in local bands. In 1971, he hitch-hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kentish Town
Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England, in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town, close to Hampstead Heath. Kentish Town likely derives its name from Ken-ditch or Caen-ditch, meaning the "bed of a waterway." The area was initially a small settlement on the River Fleet, first recorded in 1207 during John, King of England, King John's reign. The early 19th century brought modernization to the area, and it became a popular resort due to its accessibility from London. Notably, Karl Marx resided at 46 Grafton Terrace in Kentish Town from 1856. The area saw further development after World War II and has a rich history of political representation, with the Holborn and St Pancras seat held by Labour Party (UK), Labour Party Prime Minister Keir Starmer as of July 2024. Kentish Town has also been a popular filming location for various movies and television shows. It is home to numerous independently owned shops, music venues, and cultural establish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billy Duffy
William Henry Duffy (born 12 May 1961) is an English rock musician, best known as the guitarist in the band the Cult. Early life Duffy was born and grew up in Manchester, England. He has Irish and Jewish heritage and ancestry. He began playing the guitar at the age of fourteen, being influenced by the music of Queen, Thin Lizzy, the Who, Aerosmith, Blue Öyster Cult, and the early work of Led Zeppelin. In the late 1970s he became involved in the punk movement, influenced by the New York Dolls, the Stooges, Buzzcocks, the Sex Pistols, and AC/DC. He started playing lead guitar with a number of different punk rock acts whilst still in school in the late 1970s, including the Studio Sweethearts. Career Formation of the Cult After leaving school, Duffy left Manchester when the Studio Sweethearts moved to London, working as a shop assistant at Johnsons in the King's Road. The Studio Sweethearts subsequently broke up and Duffy began playing lead guitar part-time with the ban ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plaster Of Paris
Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of buildings, while "render" commonly refers to external applications. The term stucco refers to plasterwork that is worked in some way to produce relief decoration, rather than flat surfaces. The most common types of plaster mainly contain either gypsum, lime, or cement,Franz Wirsching "Calcium Sulfate" in Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, 2012 Wiley-VCH, Weinheim. but all work in a similar way. The plaster is manufactured as a dry powder and is mixed with water to form a stiff but workable paste immediately before it is applied to the surface. The reaction with water liberates heat through crystallization and the hydrated plaster then hardens. Plaster can be relatively easily worked with metal tools and sandpaper and can be moulded, either ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fibreglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth. The plastic matrix may be a thermoset polymer matrix—most often based on thermosetting polymers such as epoxy, polyester resin, or vinyl ester resin—or a thermoplastic. Cheaper and more flexible than carbon fiber, it is stronger than many metals by weight, non- magnetic, non- conductive, transparent to electromagnetic radiation, can be molded into complex shapes, and is chemically inert under many circumstances. Applications include aircraft, boats, automobiles, bath tubs and enclosures, swimming pools, hot tubs, septic tanks, water tanks, roofing, pipes, cladding, orthopedic casts, surfboards, and external door skins. Other common names for fiberglass are glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), glass-fiber reinforced pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Papier-mâché
file:JacmelMardiGras.jpg, upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti Papier-mâché ( , , - the French term "mâché" here means "crushed and ground") is a versatile craft technique with roots in ancient China, in which waste paper is shredded and mixed with water and a binder to produce a pulp ideal for modelling or moulding, which dries to a hard surface and allows the creation of light, strong and inexpensive objects of any shape, even very complicated ones. There are various recipes, including those using cardboard and some mineral elements such as chalk or clay (carton-pierre, a building material). Papier-mâché reinforced with textiles or boiled cardboard (carton bouilli) can be used for durable, sturdy objects. There is even carton-cuir (cardboard and leather) There is also a "laminating process", a method in which strips of paper are glued together in layers. Binding agents include glue, starch or wallpaper paste. "Carton-paille" or strawboard was already describ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Fleischer
Max Fleischer (born Majer Fleischer ; July 19, 1883 – September 11, 1972) was an American animator and studio owner. Born in Kraków, in Austrian Poland, Fleischer immigrated to the United States where he became a pioneer in the development of the animated cartoon and served as the head of Fleischer Studios, which he co-founded with his younger brother Dave. He brought such comic characters as Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Popeye, and Superman to the movie screen, and was responsible for several technological innovations, including the Rotoscope, the " Follow the Bouncing Ball" technique pioneered in the '' Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes'' films, and the " Stereoptical Process". Film director Richard Fleischer was his son. Early life Majer Fleischer was born July 19, 1883, to a Jewish family in Kraków (then in the Austrian Partition of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). He was the second of six children of a tailor from Dąbrowa Tarnowska, Aaron Fleischer, who later changed his na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), Tom Newman. They grew to be a worldwide success over time, with the success of platinum performers Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson, Devo, Tangerine Dream, Genesis (band), Genesis, Phil Collins, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, OMD, the Human League, Culture Club, Simple Minds, the Spice Girls, Lenny Kravitz, the Sex Pistols, and Mike Oldfield among others, meaning that by the time it was sold, it was regarded as a major label, alongside other large international independents such as A&M Records, A&M and Island Records. Virgin Records was sold to Thorn EMI in 1992. EMI would later be acquired by Universal Music Group (UMG) in 2012 with UMG creating the Virgin EMI Records division. The Virgin Records name continues to be used by UMG in certain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Freshies
The Freshies are an English punk rock / power pop band, formed in Manchester in 1978. The band was founded by singer-songwriter and comedian Chris Sievey, whose best-known creation – comedy character Frank Sidebottom – originated as a mascot for the group. Over a four-year period between their formation and break-up in 1982, the Freshies released several singles, as well as three studio albums. Since Sievey's death in 2010, the Freshies reformed for sporadic appearances at tribute events to their founder; these occasionally included his son Harry Sievey on lead vocals and guitar, until his passing in 2017. Original members Barry Spencer and Rick Sarko reformed the band permanently in 2019, following the release of the documentary ''Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story''. This lineup of the Freshies includes Paul Taylor (guitar) and Chris Connolly (drums). In 2020, the band announced plans to release their first new material since 1982. Career Chris Sievey had recorded sin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camouflage (Chris Sievey Song)
"Camouflage" is a single released by the English musician and comedian Chris Sievey in 1983. The single is notable for its B-side, which rather than containing another song, contains the audio tones for three programs Sievey created for the Sinclair ZX81 computer. Two programs were for a video game Sievey created called ''Flying Train'', and the other was the code for the music video to "Camouflage". The video claimed that this was "the world's first computer promo". Origin The song was released during a hiatus with Sievey's band the Freshies. The documentary film ''Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story'' features clips from interviews Sievey gave at the time of the song's release, stating that it came about when he went to pay a telephone bill and instead purchased a ZX81. He then learned how to program and created the song, "which used the Cold War as a metaphor for love's frustrations." While the A-side was a conventional single, the B-side contained what sounds like random noise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Teardrop Explodes
The Teardrop Explodes were an English post-punk/neo-psychedelic band formed in Liverpool in 1978. Best known for their Top Ten UK single " Reward", the group originated as a key band in the emerging Liverpool post-punk scene of the late 1970s. The group also launched the career of group frontman Julian Cope as well as that of keyboard player and co-manager David Balfe (later a record producer, A&R man and founder of Food Records). Other members included early Smiths producer Troy Tate. Along with other contemporary Liverpudlian groups, The Teardrop Explodes played a role in returning psychedelic elements to mainstream British rock and pop, initially favouring a modernised version of lightly psychedelic late 1960s-influenced beat-group sound (sometimes described as "bubblegum trance") and later exploring more experimental areas. In addition to their musical reputation, the band (and Cope in particular) had a reputation for eccentric pronouncements and behaviour, sometimes verg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MCA Records
MCA Records was an American record label owned by MCA Inc. established in 1972, though MCA had released recordings under that name in the UK from the 1960s. The label achieved success in the 1970s through the 1980s, often by acquiring other record labels, from ABC to Motown to Geffen. MCA Inc. became Universal Studios, Inc., in 1996, and the MCA record label was folded into Universal Music Group's Geffen Records in 2003, but Universal's MCA Nashville use the moniker. History Background The U.S. arm of Britain's Decca Records was established in New York in 1934 In 1937, the owner of Decca, Edward R. Lewis, chose to split off the UK Decca company from the U.S. company (keeping his U.S. Decca holdings), fearing the financial damage that would arise for UK Companies if the emerging hostilities of Nazi Germany should lead to war – correctly foreseeing World War II. Lewis sold the remainder of his American Decca holdings when war did break out. U.S.-based Decca Records ke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Read
Michael David Kenneth Read (born 1 March 1947) is an English radio disc jockey, writer, journalist and television presenter. Read has been a broadcaster since 1976, best known for having been a DJ with BBC Radio 1, and television host for music chart series ''Top of the Pops'', children's programme '' Saturday Superstore'' and music panel game '' Pop Quiz''. He is also a prolific author, having written over 50 books, including his autobiography, ''Seize the Day''. Read currently hosts ''The Heritage Chart Show'' on various radio stations and Talking Pictures TV. He also co-hosts ''The Footage Detectives'' with Talking Pictures TV founder Noel Cronin. Early life Michael David Kenneth Read was born 1 March 1947 in Bury, north of Manchester, the only child of a publican. The family moved from Manchester to Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, when he was an infant. He attended Woking Grammar School followed by a sixth-form college. Later, Read worked as an estate agent, and recorded unde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
