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The Specials
The Specials, also known as the Special AKA, were an English 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, Jerry Dammers on keyboards, Lynval Golding and Roddy Radiation on guitars, Horace Panter on bass, John Bradbury on drums, and Dick Cuthell and Rico Rodriguez on horns. The band wore mod-style "1960s period rude boy outfits ( pork pie hats, tonic and mohair suits and loafers)". Their music combines the danceable rhythms of ska and rocksteady with the energy and attitude of punk. Lyrically, their work (often written by primary songwriter Dammers) presented overt political and social commentary. In 1980, their '' The Special AKA Live!'' EP, featuring lead track "Too Much Too Young", reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart. In 1981, the recession-themed single " Ghost Town" also hit No. 1 in the UK. After seven consecutive UK top 10 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coventry
Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centuries. Founded in the early Middle Ages, its city status was formally recognised in a charter of 1345. The city is governed by Coventry City Council, and the West Midlands Combined Authority. Historic counties of England, Formerly part of Warwickshire until 1451, and again from 1842 to 1974, Coventry had a population of 345,324 at the 2021 census, making it the tenth largest city in England and the 13th largest in the United Kingdom. It is the second largest city in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, after Birmingham, from which it is separated by an area of Green belt (United Kingdom), green belt known as the Meriden Gap; it is the third largest in the wider Midlands after Birmingham and Leicester. The city is part of a larger ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rico Rodriguez (musician)
Emmanuel "Rico" Rodriguez (17 October 1934 – 4 September 2015), also known as Rico, Reco or El Reco, was a Cuban-born Jamaican ska and reggae trombonist. He recorded with producers such as Karl Pitterson, Prince Buster, and Lloyd Daley. He was known as one of the first ska musicians. Beginning in the 1960s, he worked with the Members, the Specials, Jools Holland, and Paul Young. Career Rodriguez was born in Havana, Cuba, and at an early age moved with his family to Jamaica.Campbell, Howard (2012)Rico Rodriguez: Man From Wareika, ''Jamaica Observer'', 22 June 2012; retrieved 24 June 2012. He grew up there in Kingston, Jamaica, Kingston, and was taught to play the trombone by his slightly older schoolmate Don Drummond at the Alpha Boys School. In the 1950s, Rodriguez became a Rastafari movement, Rastafarian and was closely associated musically to the rasta drummer Count Ossie. In 1961, Rodriguez moved to the UK, where he joined live bands such as Georgie Fame's Georgie Fame a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Automatics
Automatics are an English punk rock and new wave band that was formed by Dave Philp in 1976 after a brief stint as the singer with The Boys. History Along with the Sex Pistols and The Damned, the Automatics regularly played the Marquee Club in London and toured clubs around the U.K. and Europe. Their hit song "When the Tanks Roll Over Poland Again", (released on Island Records in 1978) was number one on the punk/new wave charts. It was one of the first records to be produced by Steve Lillywhite, who was Philp's flatmate at the time, and who went on to produce U2. It is listed at 22 of the top 50 punk songs from that era by Punks Reunited. The Automatics also played gigs with Johnny Thunders and The Heartbreakers and Thunders himself played on the Automatics first album, ''Walking with the Radio'' (available through Angel Air, UK). The Automatics toured England with the Vibrators and played the Reading Festival in 1979. In 1980, Dave Philp moved to California, where he re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Free Nelson Mandela
"Nelson Mandela" (known in some versions as "Free Nelson Mandela") is a song written by British musician Jerry Dammers, and performed by the band the Special A.K.A. with a lead vocal by Stan Campbell. It was first released on the single "Nelson Mandela"/"Break Down the Door" in 1984. It was a protest against the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela by the apartheid South African government, and is considered a notable anti-apartheid song. The backing vocals were performed by Molly and Polly Jackson, two girls the band's drummer John Bradbury had "met in a bar in Camden", while the chorus was performed by session singers including Claudia Fontaine and Caron Wheeler, who later went on to appear with Soul II Soul. Unlike most protest songs, the track is upbeat and celebratory, drawing on musical influences from South Africa. The song peaked at number nine on the UK Singles Chart and was immensely popular in Africa. In December 2013, following the news of Nelson Mandela's dea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Top 40
In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " contemporary hit radio" is also a radio format. History According to producer Richard Fatherley, Todd Storz was the inventor of the format, at his radio station KOWH in Omaha, Nebraska. Storz invented the format in the early 1950s, using the number of times a record was played on jukeboxes to compose a weekly list for broadcast. The format was commercially successful, and Storz and his father Robert, under the name of the Storz Broadcasting Company, subsequently acquired other stations to use the new Top 40 format. In 1989, Todd Storz was inducted into the Nebraska Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame. The term "Top 40", describing a radio format, appeared in 1960. The Top 40, whether surveyed by a radio station or a p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghost Town (The Specials Song)
"Ghost Town" is a song by the British two-tone band the Specials, released on 12 June 1981. The song spent three weeks at number one and 11 weeks in total in the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart. Evoking themes of urban decay, deindustrialisation, unemployment and violence in inner cities, the song is remembered for being a hit at the same time as riots were occurring in British cities. Internal tensions within the band were also coming to a head when the single was being recorded, resulting in the song being the last single recorded by the original seven members of the group before splitting up. However, the song was hailed by the contemporary UK music press as a major piece of popular social commentary, and all three of the major UK music magazines of the time awarded "Ghost Town" the accolade of "Single of the Year" for 1981. It was the 12th-best-selling single in the UK in 1981. Background The tour for the group's '' More Specials'' album in late 1980 had been a fraught e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Special AKA Live!
''Too Much Too Young - The Special A.K.A. Live!'' is a live Extended Play, EP by the Specials with Rico Rodriguez (musician), Rico Rodriguez, released on 11 January 1980. On the original release, the front cover credited the performers as ''The Special A.K.A. featuring Rico'', while the back cover mentions and the labels credited only The Specials. Renowned for their live shows, the Specials released a five-track live EP in January 1980 as the third single by the band. The EP featured "Too Much Too Young" (originally recorded on the album ''The Specials (album), The Specials'') with "Guns of Navarone (song), Guns of Navarone" recorded live in London; and "Skinhead Symphony" - a medley of "Long Shot Kick De Bucket", "The Liquidator (song), The Liquidator" and "Moon Hop, Skinhead Moonstomp" - which was recorded at Tiffany's in Coventry. Lead track "Too Much Too Young" was based on the 1969 song "Birth Control" by Lloyd Charmers. Contrary to what is sometimes stated, "Too Much Too Y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Punk Rock
Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced short, fast-paced songs with hard-edged melodies and singing styles with stripped-down instrumentation. Punk rock lyrics often explore anti-establishment and Anti-authoritarianism, anti-authoritarian themes. Punk embraces a DIY ethic; many bands self-produce recordings and distribute them through independent record label, independent labels. The term "punk rock" was previously used by American Music criticism, rock critics in the early 1970s to describe the mid-1960s garage bands. Certain late 1960s and early 1970s Detroit acts, such as MC5 and Iggy and the Stooges, and other bands from elsewhere created out-of-the-mainstream music that became highly influential on what was to come. Glam rock in the UK and the New York Dolls from New York ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rocksteady
Rocksteady is a music genre that originated in Jamaica around 1966. A successor of ska and a precursor to reggae, rocksteady was the dominant style of music in Jamaica for nearly two years, performed by many of the artists who helped establish reggae, including harmony groups such as the Techniques, the Paragons, the Heptones and the Gaylads; soulful singers such as Alton Ellis, Delroy Wilson, Bob Andy, Ken Boothe and Phyllis Dillon; musicians such as Jackie Mittoo, Lynn Taitt and Tommy McCook. The term ''rocksteady'' comes from a popular (slower) dance style mentioned in the Alton Ellis song "Rocksteady", that matched the new sound. Some rocksteady songs became hits outside Jamaica, as with ska, helping to secure the international base reggae music has today. Characteristics The Jamaican musicians and producers who developed rocksteady had grown up learning and playing jazz and had played through ska. In a similar way to what happened at Motown, the musicians respons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Musical ensemble, 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 compact discs (CDs) replaced LP record, LPs and cassette (format), cassettes 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 res ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mohair
Mohair (pronounced ) originated from the Arabic word [مهير] and it is a fabric or yarn made from the hair of the Angora goat (not Angora wool from the fur of the Angora rabbit). Both durable and resilient, mohair is lustrous with high sheen, and is often blended to add these qualities to a textile. Mohair takes dye exceptionally well. It feels warm in winter due to excellent insulating properties, while moisture-wicking keeps it cool in summer. It is durable, naturally elastic, flame-resistant and crease-resistant. It is considered a luxury fiber, like cashmere wool, cashmere, Alpaca fiber, alpaca, angora, and silk, and is more expensive than most sheep's wool. Mohair is composed mostly of keratin, a protein in the hair, wool, horns and skin of all mammals, but mohair's special properties are unique to the Angora goat. While it has scales like wool, they are not fully developed, thus, mohair feels different from common or standard wool. Mohair fiber is approximately 25–4 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
