Mick Fleetwood
Michael John Kells Fleetwood is a British musician and actor, best known as the drummer, co-founder, de facto leader of the rock band Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood, whose surname was merged with that of the group's bassist John "Mac" McVie to form the name of the band, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Born in Redruth, Fleetwood lived in Egypt and Norway for much of his childhood years as his father travelled with the Royal Air Force. Choosing to follow his musical interests, Fleetwood travelled to London at the age of 15 combining with Peter Green, Jeremy Spencer and Bob Brunning, at Green's behest, to become the first incarnation of Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood would remain the only member to stay with the band through its ever-changing line-up. After several album releases and line-up changes, the group moved to the United States in 1974 in an attempt to boost the band's success. Here Fleetwood invited Lindsey Stevie Nicks to join. Buckingham and Nicks contributed to much of Fleetwood Mac's commercial success, including the celebrated album Rumours, while Fleetwood's own determination to keep the band together was essential to the band's longevity.
He has enjoyed a solo career, published written works, flirted with acting and vinification, as well as opened blues-themed restaurants in Alexandria, VA and Hawaii. Michael John Kells Fleetwood was born in Redruth, second child to John Joseph Kells Fleetwood and Bridget Maureen Fleetwood, his elder sister Susan Fleetwood, who died of cancer in 1995, became an actress. In early childhood Fleetwood and his family followed his father, a Royal Air Force fighter pilot, to Egypt. After about six years, they moved to Norway, he became fluent in Norwegian. Biographer Cath Carroll describes the young Fleetwood as "a dreamer, an empathetic youth" who, though intelligent, did not excel academically. According to his own autobiography, Fleetwood had an difficult and trying time academically at the English boarding schools he attended, including King's School, Sherborne and Wynstones School in Gloucestershire, he performed poorly on exams, which he attributes to his persistent inability to commit facts to memory.
He enjoyed acting during school in drag, was a competent fencer. At 6'6", he was an imposing figure, sported a beard and long hair for much of his life. "Mick was aristocratic," recalls Ken Caillat, a sound engineer on Rumours. "The way he formed sentences was impeccable. When he spoke, everyone listened, he was quiet and wise, he had a great sense of humour. He loved to laugh, but he was a straight shooter."Diverting from academic pursuits, Fleetwood took up the drums at a young age, grateful to his parents for their recognition that it was in music that he may find a future and their purchasing for him of a small "Gigster" drum kit when he was thirteen. His family encouraged his artistic side, his father composed poetry and was an amateur drummer himself. Fleetwood's early drumming was inspired by Cliff Richards' drummer in The Shadows, Tony Meehan, as well as that of the Everly Brothers. With his parents' support, he dropped out of school aged 15. At first he stayed with his younger sister Sally in Notting Hill.
After a brief stint working at Liberty in London, he found his first opportunity in music. Keyboard player Peter Bardens lived only a few doors away from Fleetwood's first home in London, upon hearing of the proximity of an available drummer, Bardens gave Fleetwood his first gig in Bardens' band'The Cheynes' in July 1963, thus seeding the young drummer's musical career, it would take him from The Cheynes – with whom he supported early gigs by the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds – to stints in The Bo Street Runners, where he replaced original drummer Nigel Hutchinson, who had enjoyed brief television fame on Ready Steady Go!. However, by April 1965, when Fleetwood joined the band, it was fading into obscurity. By February 1966 Bardens, who had left the group, called on Fleetwood to join his new band, the'Peter Bs', which soon expanded to become'Shotgun Express'. Peter Green, a guitarist in the Peter Bs, left to join John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers, followed by Fleetwood in April 1967, his new band featured John McVie.
Bardens would go on to join the band Camel. Green became a supportive bandmate who helped Fleetwood in his early experimentation with the drum kit. In his personal life meanwhile, Fleetwood soon became infatuated with model Jenny Boyd, the sister of whom, Pattie Boyd, would be wife to both George Harrison and Eric Clapton, he was, dismissed from the Bluesbreakers for repeated insobriety during gigs. Both Fleetwood and McVie were heavy drinkers, their combined efforts were too much for Mayall and the band to cope with. Green, feeling trapped within the Bluesbreakers left in June 1967. Recalling "his favourite rhythm section,'Fleetwood Mac'" – Mick Fleetwood and John McVie – Green elected to invite both to join him in his new band, Fleetwood Mac. Though McVie hesitated due to financial reasons, both joined Green by the summer of 1967 with a record contract on the horizon; the initial incarnation of Fleetwood Mac performed its first gig in August 1967 at the seventh annual Windsor Jazz and Blues Festival, playing a Chicago-style blues.
McVie hesitant to commit, was prompted to leave the Bluesbreakers and join Fleetwood Mac full-time when the former adopted a horns section with which he disagreed. He replaced Bob Brunning. McVie, Fleetwood and guitarist Je
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city in North West England, with an estimated population of 491,500 within the Liverpool City Council local authority in 2017. Its metropolitan area is the fifth-largest in the UK, with a population of 2.24 million in 2011. The local authority is Liverpool City Council, the most populous local government district in the metropolitan county of Merseyside and the largest in the Liverpool City Region. Liverpool is on the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary, lay within the ancient hundred of West Derby in the south west of the county of Lancashire, it became a borough in 1207 and a city in 1880. In 1889, it became a county borough independent of Lancashire, its growth as a major port was paralleled by the expansion of the city throughout the Industrial Revolution. Along with handling general cargo, raw materials such as coal and cotton, the city merchants were involved in the Atlantic slave trade. In the 19th century, it was a major port of departure for Irish and English emigrants to North America.
Liverpool was home to both the Cunard and White Star Line, was the port of registry of the ocean liner RMS Titanic, the RMS Lusitania, RMS Queen Mary and RMS Olympic. The popularity of the Beatles and other music groups from the Merseybeat era contributes to Liverpool's status as a tourist destination. Liverpool is the home of two Premier League football clubs and Everton, matches between the two being known as the Merseyside derby; the Grand National horse race takes place annually at Aintree Racecourse on the outskirts of the city. The city celebrated its 800th anniversary in 2007. In 2008, it was nominated as the annual European Capital of Culture together with Norway. Several areas of the city centre were granted World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 2004; the Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City includes the Pier Head, Albert Dock, William Brown Street. Liverpool's status as a port city has attracted a diverse population, drawn from a wide range of peoples and religions from Ireland and Wales.
The city is home to the oldest Black African community in the country and the oldest Chinese community in Europe. Natives and residents of the city of Liverpool are referred to as Liverpudlians, colloquially as "Scousers", a reference to "scouse", a form of stew; the word "Scouse" has become synonymous with the Liverpool accent and dialect. The name comes from the Old English lifer, meaning thick or muddy water, pōl, meaning a pool or creek, is first recorded around 1190 as Liuerpul. According to the Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names, "The original reference was to a pool or tidal creek now filled up into which two streams drained"; the adjective Liverpudlian is first recorded in 1833. Other origins of the name have been suggested, including "elverpool", a reference to the large number of eels in the Mersey; the name appeared in 1190 as "Liuerpul", the place appearing as Leyrpole, in a legal record of 1418, may refer to Liverpool. Another such suggestion is derivation from Welsh llyvr pwl meaning "expanse or confluence at the pool".
King John's letters patent of 1207 announced the foundation of the borough of Liverpool. By the middle of the 16th century, the population was still around 500; the original street plan of Liverpool is said to have been designed by King John near the same time it was granted a royal charter, making it a borough. The original seven streets were laid out in an H shape: Bank Street, Castle Street, Chapel Street, Dale Street, Juggler Street, Moor Street and Whiteacre Street. In the 17th century there was slow progress in population growth. Battles for control of the town were waged during the English Civil War, including an eighteen-day siege in 1644. In 1699 Liverpool was made a parish by Act of Parliament, that same year its first slave ship, Liverpool Merchant, set sail for Africa. Since Roman times, the nearby city of Chester on the River Dee had been the region's principal port on the Irish Sea. However, as the Dee began to silt up, maritime trade from Chester became difficult and shifted towards Liverpool on the neighbouring River Mersey.
As trade from the West Indies, including sugar, surpassed that of Ireland and Europe, as the River Dee continued to silt up, Liverpool began to grow with increasing rapidity. The first commercial wet dock was built in Liverpool in 1715. Substantial profits from the slave trade and tobacco helped the town to prosper and grow, although several prominent local men, including William Rathbone, William Roscoe and Edward Rushton, were at the forefront of the abolitionist movement. By the start of the 19th century, a large volume of trade was passing through Liverpool, the construction of major buildings reflected this wealth. In 1830, Liverpool and Manchester became the first cities to have an intercity rail link, through the Liverpool and Manchester Railway; the population continued to rise especially during the 1840s when Irish migrants began arriving by the hundreds of thousands as a result of the Great Famine. In her poem "Liverpool", which celebrates the city's worldwide commerce, Letitia Elizabeth Landon refers to the Macgregor Laird expedition to the Niger River, at that time in progress.
Great Britain was a major market for cotton imported from the Deep South of the United States, which fed the textile industry in the country. Given the crucial place of both cotton and slavery in the city's economy, during the American Civil War Liverpool was, in the words of historian Sven Beckert, "the most pro-Confederate place in the world outside the Confederacy itself." For periods during the 19th century, the wealth of Liverpool
The Jimi Hendrix Experience
The Jimi Hendrix Experience was an American-English rock band that formed in Westminster, London, in September 1966. Singer and guitarist Jimi Hendrix, drummer Mitch Mitchell, bassist Noel Redding comprised the group, active until June 1969. During this time, they became one of the most popular acts in rock. Starting in April 1970, Hendrix and bassist Billy Cox performed and recorded until Hendrix's death on September 18, 1970; this trio was sometimes billed as the "Jimi Hendrix Experience", but the title was never formalized. Influential in the popularization of hard rock and psychedelic rock, the Experience was best known for the skill and charisma of their frontman, Jimi Hendrix. All three of the band's studio albums, Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland, were featured in the top 100 of the Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, at positions 15, 82 and 54 respectively. In 1992, the Jimi Hendrix Experience was inducted into the Roll Hall of Fame.
Jimi Hendrix arrived in England on September 24, 1966, with his new manager and former Animals bassist, Chas Chandler, formed a backing band with bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. Mitchell was a seasoned London drummer with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames. Hendrix chose Redding because of his attitude towards his hairstyle. Redding played bass in the band; the name "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" was coined by their business manager Michael Jeffery. The first official appearance of "The Jimi Hendrix Experience" was at the Novelty in Évreux, France, on October 13, 1966. Six days the band played their first UK gig at a private showcase at the Scotch of St James. Though conceived as back-up band for Hendrix, the Experience, as a unit, gained fame and critical acclaim. Following the lead of Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience was one of the first groups to popularize the "power trio" format, which limited a rock band's line-up to guitar and drums. Hendrix combined rhythm guitar styles, using fuzz and wah-wah pedals to modify his tone.
Mitchell sometimes utilized jazz-influenced grooves, while Redding played simple bass lines that helped to anchor the band's sound. Visually, they set the trend in psychedelic hairstyles, their early performances, such as at The Bag O'Nails in London, were attended by some of the biggest names in the English rock scene, including members of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, guitarists Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. The Who's Pete Townshend admitted, " changed the whole sound of electric guitar and turned the rock world upside down". Clapton agreed: "after Pete Townshend and I went to see him play, I thought, it, the game was up for all of us, we may as well pack it in." The group came to prominence in the US after the June 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, one of the first major rock music festivals. The band's performance ended with Hendrix famously setting his psychedelically painted Fender Stratocaster on fire. After the festival they toured with the Monkees, but left the tour two weeks reportedly due to lack of audience response.
With the Experience, Hendrix recorded several hit singles, such as "Hey Joe", "Purple Haze", "The Wind Cries Mary", "Burning of the Midnight Lamp" and "All Along the Watchtower", three successful albums: Are You Experienced, Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland. By April 1969, Hendrix's deteriorating relations with Redding were coming to a head, he felt his musical development was hampered by the trio format; the original group held together long enough to fulfill their existing engagements, culminating in the Denver Pop Festival on June 29, 1969. After hearing that Hendrix was planning to expand the Experience lineup without first consulting him, Redding quit the group and returned to England. Hendrix and Mitchell experimented with a larger ensemble. Sometimes referred to as Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, they performed at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969. By November the lineup split and Hendrix returned to the trio format with Cox and drummer Buddy Miles. After recording the Band of Gypsys album and an aborted performance in January 1970, Miles was fired.
Michael Jeffery called Mitchell about reforming the Experience. Both agreed to participate in a tour. Hendrix was reluctant to bring Redding back into the fold. In early February 1970, Jeffery set up an interview with Rolling Stone magazine to announce the return of the group, published on March 19, 1970 in Rolling Stone as "J. H.: The End of a Beginning Maybe". Redding waited for weeks to hear back about rehearsals for the upcoming tour, when he spoke with Mitchell's girlfriend, he learned that he had been replaced by Cox. Before the tour started, Hendrix called it "The Cry of Love Tour"; the group itself was referred to as "Jimi Hendrix" and sometimes the "Jimi Hendrix Experience". The trio toured and recorded in the US from April until August 1970. At the end of August, the European leg of the tour began, as a headliner at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970. During a break in the tour, Hendrix died on September 18, 1970. In 1992, the Experience was inducted into the Roll Hall of Fame. Noel Redding was found dead in his home in Ireland on May 11, 2003.
While touring in the US, Mitch Mitchell was found dead on November 12, 2008 in his room at the Benson Hotel in Portland, Oregon. Jimi Hendrix – lead vocals, guitars Mitch Mitchell – drums, backing vocals Noel Reddin
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars and keyboards that were popular in rock and roll started to be used by jazz musicians those who had grown up listening to rock and roll. Jazz fusion arrangements vary in complexity; some employ groove-based vamps fixed to a single key or a single chord with a simple, repeated melody. Others use elaborate chord progressions, unconventional time signatures, or melodies with counter-melodies; these arrangements, whether simple or complex include improvised sections that can vary in length, much like in other form of jazz. As with jazz, jazz fusion employs brass and woodwind instruments such as trumpet and saxophone, but other instruments substitute for these. A jazz fusion band is less to use piano, double bass, drums, more to use electric guitar, bass guitar, drums; the term "jazz rock" is sometimes used as a synonym for "jazz fusion" and for music performed by late 1960s and 1970s-era rock bands that added jazz elements to their music.
After a decade of popularity during the 1970s, fusion expanded its improvisatory and experimental approaches through the 1980s in parallel with the development of a radio-friendly style called smooth jazz. Experimentation continued in the 2000s. Fusion albums those that are made by the same group or artist, may include a variety of musical styles. Rather than being a codified musical style, fusion can be viewed as approach. In 1967 John Coltrane died, because rock was the most popular genre of music in America, DownBeat magazine declared in a headline that "Jazz as We Know It Is Dead". Guitarist Larry Coryell, sometimes called the godfather of fusion, referred to a generation of musicians who had grown up on rock and roll when he said, "We loved Miles but we loved the Rolling Stones." In 1966 he started the band the Free Spirits with Bob Moses on drums and recorded the band's first album. Out of Sight and Sound was released in 1967, the same year DownBeat began to report on rock music. After the Free Spirits, Coryell was part of a quartet led by vibraphonist Gary Burton, releasing the album Duster with its rock guitar influence.
Burton produced the album Tomorrow Never Knows for Count's Rock Band, which included Coryell, Mike Nock, Steve Marcus, all of them former students at Berklee College in Boston. The pioneers of fusion emphasized exploration, electricity, intensity and volume. Charles Lloyd played a combination of rock and jazz at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1966 with a quartet that included Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette. Lloyd adopted the trappings of the California psychedelic rock scene by playing at the rock venue the Fillmore, wearing colorful clothes, giving his albums titles like Dream Weaver and Forest Flower, which were bestselling jazz albums in 1967. Flautist Jeremy Steig experimented with jazz in his band Jeremy & the Satyrs with vibraphonist Mike Mainieri; the jazz label Verve released the first album by rock guitarist Frank Zappa in 1966. Rahsaan Roland Kirk performed with Jimi Hendrix at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London. AllMusic states that "until around 1967, the worlds of jazz and rock were nearly separate".
As members of Miles Davis's band, Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock played electric piano on Filles de Kilimanjaro. Davis wrote in his autobiography that in 1968 he had been listening to Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone; when Davis recorded Bitches Brew in 1969, he abandoned the swing beat in favor of a rock and roll backbeat and bass guitar grooves. The album "mixed free jazz blowing by a large ensemble with electronic keyboards and guitar, plus a dense mix of percussion." Davis played his trumpet like an electric guitar -- pedals. By the end of the first year, Bitches Brew sold 400,000 copies, four times the average for a Miles Davis album. Over the next two years the aloof Davis recorded more worked with many sideman, appeared on television, performed at rock venues. Just as Davis tested the loyalty of rock fans by continuing to experiment, his producer, Teo Macero, inserted recorded material into the Jack Johnson soundtrack, Live-Evil, On the Corner. Although Bitches Brew gave him a gold record, the use of electric instruments and rock beats created consternation among some jazz critics, who accused Davis of betraying the essence of jazz.
Music critic Kevin Fellezs commented that some members of the jazz community regarded rock music as less sophisticated and more commercial than jazz. Davis's 1969 album In a Silent Way is considered his first fusion album. Composed of two side-long improvised suites edited by Teo Macero, the album was made by pioneers of jazz fusion: Corea, Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, John McLaughlin. A Tribute to Jack Johnson has been cited as "the purest electric jazz record made" and "one of the most remarkable jazz rock discs of the era". According to music journalist Zaid Mudhaffer, the term "jazz fusion" was coined in a review of Song of Innocence by David Axelrod when it was released in 1968. Axelrod said. Miles Davis dropped out of music in 1975 because of problems with drugs and alcohol, but his sidemen took advantage of the creative and financial vistas, opened. Herbie Hancock brought elements of funk and electronic music into commercially successful albums such as Head Hunters and Feets, Don't Fail Me Now.
Several years after recording Miles in the Sky with Davis, guitarist George Benson becam
Sammy Hagar
Samuel Roy Hagar known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock vocalist, songwriter and entrepreneur. Hagar came to prominence in the 1970s with the hard rock band Montrose, he launched a successful solo career, scoring an enduring hit in 1984 with "I Can't Drive 55". He enjoyed commercial success when he replaced David Lee Roth as the lead singer of Van Halen in 1985, but left in 1996, he returned to the band for a two-year reunion from 2003 to 2005. On March 12, 2007, Hagar was inducted into the Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Van Halen, his musical style consists of hard rock and heavy metal. A businessman, Hagar founded the Cabo Wabo Tequila brand and restaurant chain, as well as Sammy's Beach Bar Rum, his current musical projects include being the lead singer of The Circle. Named after his maternal grandfather, Samuel Roy Hagar was born in Salinas, United States, on October 13, 1947, but his family soon moved to Fontana, where his father worked at the Kaiser Steel Mill. Sammy Hagar graduated from Fontana High School.
As a teenager, Hagar became interested in the burgeoning Southern California music scene. He fronted the Fabulous Castilles, when he was 14 years old; as part of a duo known as Samson & Hagar, backed by the Peppermint Trolley Company, he released a 7" single on Ranwood Records with the tracks, "Reach Out to Find Me" and "Read My Thoughts."That same year, Hagar joined the Johnny Fortune Band as a vocalist and rhythm guitarist. Hagar was a member of a string of other pre-Montrose bands including Big Bang, Dustcloud, Cotton and Manhole, he next became a member of the Justice Brothers, along with guitarist Bob Anglin, keyboardist Al Shane, bassist Jeff Nicholson, drummer David Lauser. The Justice Brothers were the house band at a bar called "The Nightclub" in San Bernardino, before they relocated to San Francisco. Hagar's first major success came with the group Montrose, on their debut and second albums, which included the first song Hagar wrote, "Bad Motor Scooter". After conflicts during a European tour with the band's founder, Ronnie Montrose, Hagar quit the group.
Bassist Bill Church and drummer Denny Carmassi played in Hagar's backing band. After Montrose' second album Paper Money, Hagar began his solo career. In the mid-1970s, Hagar began a solo touring career with increasing success, he enjoyed moderate success on Capitol Records under the tutelage of A&R man Carter, with such albums as Nine on a Ten Scale and hits such as "Red", which would build his persona and style, leading to his nickname as "The Red Rocker". However, Hagar felt that Carter did not play to his strengths as "a heavy-metal guy" and instead tried to generate Top 40 hits with little success. Hagar was scheduled to open for Boston in San Bernardino, during their 1979 world tour. Prior to the show, Hagar was replaced on the bill by the up-and-coming Los Angeles club band The Knack. Hagar split with Carter for his 1979 Street Machine album, but after it and 1980's Danger Zone failed to break out, Hagar felt that Capitol was not supporting him sufficiently. Hagar left Capitol for the newly formed Geffen Records and made some personnel changes, including enlisting long-time friend and former Justice Brothers bandmate David Lauser as his drummer.
His first Geffen release, Standing Hampton, was his biggest-selling album to date and went platinum on the strength of songs such as "There's Only One Way to Rock". The follow-up, Three Lock Box, generated his first pop Top 40 hit single and his highest-charting solo single on the Billboard Hot 100, "Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy", which peaked at #13 in early 1983. Hagar continued to enjoy commercial success in the 1980s, with his best-known song, "I Can't Drive 55", from his 1984 album VOA, reaching #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. By this time, Hagar had become a headlining act in many parts of the United States and Europe. In 1987, Hagar had his first #1 hit on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks with "Give to Live" from I Never Said Goodbye, released after he had joined Van Halen. In 1983 and 1984, Hagar and Neal Schon formed the supergroup HSAS along with former Foghat bassist Kenny Aaronson and former Santana drummer Michael Shrieve. HSAS released an album, Through the Fire; the tracks which appeared on the album were recorded live, but crowd noise was removed during the mixing process to create the feel of a studio album.
As intended from its start, HSAS was a short-lived project. One song in particular, a cover of "A Whiter Shade of Pale", received some airplay, peaking at #94 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, while "Top of the Rock" became an under-the-radar airplay favorite in markets such as Seattle, Washington. In 1985, after parting ways with vocalist David Lee Roth, the remaining members of the band Van Halen contacted many potential replacements. In July, given Eddie Van Halen's appreciation of Montrose and at his car mechanic's suggestion, the band auditioned and hired Hagar to fill the opening. With Hagar at the front, Van Halen produced four multi-platinum, #1 Billboard charting albums: 5150, OU812, For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, Balance, as well as many chart hits, including nine #1 Mainstream Rock hits. During Hagar's stint as Van Halen's vocalist, the band was informally referred to by fans as "Van Hagar" as a way to distinguish the band from the previous David Lee Roth era. Internal disputes led to Hagar's departure from the band in June 1996.
Hagar disagreed with a decisi
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio and archives the history of the best-known and most influential artists, producers and other notable figures who have had some major influence on the development of rock and roll. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was established on April 20, 1983, by Atlantic Records founder and chairman Ahmet Ertegun. In 1986, Cleveland was chosen as the Hall of Fame's permanent home. Founder Ahmet Ertegun assembled a team that included attorney Suzan Evans, Rolling Stone magazine editor and publisher Jann S. Wenner, attorney Allen Grubman, record executives Seymour Stein, Bob Krasnow, Noreen Woods; the Foundation began inducting artists in 1986. The search committee considered several cities, including Philadelphia, Detroit, New York City, Cleveland. Cleveland lobbied for the museum, with civic leaders in Cleveland pledging $65 million in public money to fund the construction, citing that WJW disc jockey Alan Freed both coined the term "rock and roll" and promoted the new genre—and that Cleveland was the location of Freed's Moondog Coronation Ball credited as the first major rock and roll concert.
Freed was a member of the hall of fame's inaugural class of inductees in 1986. In addition, Cleveland cited radio station WMMS, which played a key role in breaking several major acts in the U. S. during the 1970s and 1980s, including David Bowie, who began his first U. S. tour in the city, Bruce Springsteen, Roxy Music, Rush among many others. A petition drive was signed by 600,000 fans favoring Cleveland over Memphis, Cleveland ranked first in a 1986 USA Today poll asking where the Hall of Fame should be located. On May 5, 1986, the Hall of Fame Foundation chose Cleveland as the permanent home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Author Peter Guralnick said. Cleveland may have been chosen as the organization's site because the city offered the best financial package; as The Plain Dealer music critic Michael Norman noted, "It was $65 million... Cleveland wanted it here and put up the money." Co-founder Jann Wenner said, "One of the small sad things is we didn't do it in New York in the first place," but added, "I am delighted that the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is in Cleveland."
During early discussions on where to build the Hall of Fame and Museum, the Foundation's board considered the Cuyahoga River. The chosen location was along East Ninth Street in downtown Cleveland by Lake Erie, east of Cleveland Stadium. At one point in the planning phase, when a financing gap existed, planners proposed locating the Rock Hall in the then-vacant May Company Building, but decided to commission architect I. M. Pei to design a new building. Initial CEO Dr. Larry R. Thompson facilitated I. M. Pei in designs for the site. Pei came up with the idea of a tower with a glass pyramid protruding from it; the museum tower was planned to stand 200 ft high, but had to be cut down to 162 ft due to its proximity to Burke Lakefront Airport. The building's base is 150,000 square feet; the groundbreaking ceremony took place on June 7, 1993. Pete Townshend, Chuck Berry, Billy Joel, Sam Phillips, Ruth Brown, Sam Moore of Sam and Dave, Carl Gardner of the Coasters and Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum all appeared at the groundbreaking.
The museum was dedicated on September 1, 1995, with the ribbon being cut by an ensemble that included Yoko Ono and Little Richard, among others, before a crowd of more than 10,000 people. The following night an all-star concert was held at the stadium, it featured Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, Al Green, Jerry Lee Lewis, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, Iggy Pop, John Fogerty, John Mellencamp, many others. In addition to the Hall of Fame inductees, the museum documents the entire history of rock and roll, regardless of induction status. Hall of Fame inductees are honored in a special exhibit located in a wing that juts out over Lake Erie. Since 1986, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has selected new inductees; the formal induction ceremony has been held in New York City 26 times. As of 2018, the induction ceremonies alternate each year between New Cleveland; the 2009 and 2012 induction weeks were made possible by a public–private partnership between the City of Cleveland, the State of Ohio, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, local foundations, civic organizations and individuals.
Collectively these entities invested $5.8 million in 2009 and $7.9 million in 2012 to produce a week of events, including free concerts, a gospel celebration, exhibition openings, free admission to the museum, induction ceremonies filled with both fans and VIPs at Public Hall. Millions viewed the television broadcast of the Cleveland inductions; the economic impact of the 2009 induction week activities was more than $13 million, it provided an additional $20 million in media exposure for the region. The 2012 induction week yielded similar results. There are seven levels in the building. On the lower level is the Ahmet M. Ertegun Exhibition Hall, the museum's main gallery, it includes exhibits on the roots of roll. It featu
Leslie West
Leslie West is an American rock guitarist and songwriter. He is best known as a founding member of the hard rock band Mountain. West was born to a Jewish family, he grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey, in East Meadow, New York, Forest Hills, New York and Lawrence, New York. After his parents divorced, he changed his surname to West, his musical career began with the Vagrants, an R&B/blue-eyed soul-rock band influenced by the likes of the Rascals, one of the few teenage garage rock acts to come out of the New York metropolitan area itself. The Vagrants had two minor hits in the Eastern US: 1966's "I Can't Make a Friend" and a cover of Otis Redding's "Respect" the following year; some of the Vagrants' recordings were produced by Felix Pappalardi, working with Cream on their album Disraeli Gears. In 1969, West and Pappalardi formed the pioneering hard rock act Mountain, the title of West's debut solo album. Rolling Stone identified the band as a "louder version of Cream". With Steve Knight on keyboards and original drummer N. D. Smart, the band appeared on the second day of the Woodstock Festival on Saturday, August 16, 1969 starting an 11-song set at 9 pm.
The band's original incarnation saw West and Pappalardi sharing vocal duties and playing guitar and bass, respectively. New drummer Corky Laing joined the band shortly after Woodstock, they had success with "Mississippi Queen", which reached No. 21 on the Billboard charts and No. 4 in Canada. It was followed by the Jack Bruce-penned "Theme For an Imaginary Western". Mountain is one of the bands considered to be forerunners of heavy metal. After Pappalardi left Mountain to concentrate on various production projects and Laing produced two studio albums and a live release with Cream bassist Jack Bruce under the name West and Laing. Mountain reformed in 1973 only to break up again in late 1974, but since 1981 it has continued to reform and record on a regular basis. West, along with keyboard player Al Kooper of Blood, Sweat & Tears, recorded with The Who during the March 1971 Who's Next New York sessions. Tracks included a cover of Marvin Gaye's "Baby Don't You Do It," and early versions of "Love Ain't For Keepin'" and The Who's signature track "Won't Get Fooled Again".
Though the tracks were not included on the album, they appear as bonus tracks on the 1995 and 2003 reissues of Who's Next and on the 1998 reissue of Odds & Sods. West played guitar for the track "Bo Diddley Jam" on Bo Diddley's 1976 20th Anniversary of Rock'n' Roll all-star album. Leslie West teamed up with Ian Gillan of Deep Purple fame, to co-write and play guitar on the song "Hang Me Out To Dry" from the Gillan album ToolBox, released in Europe in 1991. Leslie West and Joe Bonamassa recorded Warren Haynes' ``. West released it on Guitarded, Bonamassa on A New Day Yesterday. West contributed the music and co-wrote the lyrics to the song "Immortal" on Clutch's 2001 album Pure Rock Fury, a reworked cover of the song "Baby I'm Down" from West's first album. In 2005 he contributed to Ozzy Osbourne's Under Cover album, performing guitar on a remake of "Mississippi Queen" In addition to fronting Mountain, West continues to record and perform on his own, his solo album, entitled Blue Me, was released in 2006 on the Blues Bureau International label.
In 2007 Mountain released Masters of War on Big Rack Records, an album featuring 12 Bob Dylan covers that saw Ozzy Osbourne providing guest vocals on a rendition of the title track. West had acting roles in The Money Pit. West was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame on October 15, 2006. West married his fiancée Jenni Maurer on stage after Mountain's performance at the Woodstock 40th anniversary concert in Bethel, New York. Over 15,000 people were present and the couple walked through a bridge of guitars held by Levon Helm, Larry Taylor and Corky Laing among others. West now lives in New Jersey. Johnny Ramone from Forest Hills and a fan of West, has called him, "one of the top five guitar players of his era". West continues to make occasional appearances on radio, notably on Howard Stern's radio show. In May 1987, West played the band leader in a series of late night pilot shows for Howard Stern on the FOX network, he taped a total of five shows with Stern. Stern went on to form a new show dubbed the Channel 9 show without Leslie.
On June 20, 2011, West had his lower right leg amputated as a result of complications from diabetes. West made his first public appearance after his surgery on August 13, 2011. In 2014, West was a guest performer on Primitive Son, his 2015 album, peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Top Blues Albums chart. West is renowned for helping popularize the Gibson Les Paul Jr. guitar with P-90 pickups, along with the use of Sunn Amplifiers, to create a tone which became his trademark sound. West used two Les Paul Juniors, one "TV Yellow" and the other a sunburst. West used a modified Gibson Flying V, with the neck pickup removed and a P-90 pickup fitted at the bridge position, West had a two-pickup Flying V which he used after the Flying V with the ash tray broke. West used a plexiglass Electra guitar, a Japanese copy of the better known Ampeg made Dan Armstrong guitar, for slide. West played a Westone Pantera guitar. From 1977 to 1982, he used a signature on-board eff
