1.
Bridgend
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Bridgend is a town in Bridgend County Borough in Wales,18 miles west of the capital Cardiff and 20 miles east of Swansea. The river crossed by the bridge, which gave the town its name, is the River Ogmore. This 8. 2% increase was the largest increase in Wales except for Cardiff, several prehistoric burial mounds have been found in the vicinity of Bridgend, suggesting that the area was settled before Roman times. The A48 between Bridgend and Cowbridge has a portion, known locally as Crack Hill, a Roman road, the Vale of Glamorgan would have been a natural low-level route west to the Roman fort and harbour at Neath from settlements in the east like Cardiff and Caerleon. In the decades after the Norman conquest of Anglo-Saxon England in 1066, groups of Norman barons arrived in Wales, and in the south and east created what would later become the Welsh Marches, while the north and west remained largely unconquered due to the harsh terrain. At Coity, the local Welsh chieftain Morgan Gam already had a stronghold, sometime in the 11th century Norman Lord Payn de Turberville approached Morgan to turn over control of Coity Castle to Turberville. Morgan Gam agreed, on condition that Turberville either fought Morgan for the land, Turberville married Sybil and became Lord of Coity, and rebuilt the castle. Newcastle Castle and Ogmore Castle were built by Robert Fitzhamon and William de Londres respectively, about 2 miles north-east of Ogmore Castle, Maurice de Londres founded the fortified Benedictine Ewenny Priory in 1141. These three castles provided a defensive triangle for the area — a quadrilateral if Ewenny Priory is included, Bridgend developed at a ford on the River Ogmore, which was on the main route between east and west Wales. Just north of the town, there is the confluence of three rivers, the Ogmore, the Llynfi and the Garw, South of Bridgend the River Ewenny merges with the River Ogmore and flows into the Bristol Channel. In the 15th century, a bridge was built as a permanent connection between the two sides of the Ogmore. Originally this bridge had four arches, but in the 18th century a massive flood washed two of them away, the rest of the bridge still stands and remains a focal point of the town, aesthetic restoration took place in 2006. Bridgend grew rapidly into an agricultural town and it became an important market town, a status it retained until the late 20th century. The discovery of coal in the South Wales Valleys north of Bridgend had a impact on the town. The first coal mining operations opened north of Bridgend in the 17th century, Bridgend itself never had coal deposits and remained a market town for some time, but the valleys of the three rivers grew into an important part of the South Wales coalfields. Ironworks and brickworks were established in the same period by John Bedford, although the ironworks faltered after his death. The Great Western Railway arrived and Bridgend was at the junction between the main London to Fishguard line and the branch to the three valleys. Frequent coal trains took coal down the valleys, and when the Vale of Glamorgan railway opened, several quarries opened in and around Bridgend town centre, some remnants of these can still be seen today near Brackla
2.
Virgin Records
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Virgin Records is a British-founded record label originally founded by English entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman in 1972. It was later sold to Thorn EMI in 1992, today, the operations of Virgin Records America, Inc. are still active and headquartered in Hollywood, California, as it operates exclusively under the Capitol Music Group since 2007. US artists include Knox Hamilton, LTric and Rise Against, in fact the first real store was above a shoe shop at the Tottenham Court Road end of Oxford Street. After making the shop into a success, they turned their business into a fully fledged record label, the name Virgin, according to Branson, arose from Tessa Watts, a colleague of his, when they were brainstorming business ideas. She suggested Virgin – as they were all new to business – like virgins, the original Virgin logo was designed by English artist and illustrator Roger Dean, a young naked woman in mirror image with a large long-tailed serpent and the word Virgin in Deans familiar script. A variation on the logo was used for the spin-off Caroline Records label and this was soon followed by some notable krautrock releases, including electronic breakthrough album Phaedra by Tangerine Dream, and The Faust Tapes and Faust IV by Faust. The Faust Tapes album retailed for 49p and as a result allowed this relatively unknown band to reach number 12 in the album charts, other early albums include Gongs Flying Teapot, which Daevid Allen has been quoted as having never been paid for. Under the guidance of Tessa Watts, Virgins Head of Publicity, shortly afterwards, the Notting Hill record shop was raided by police for having a window display of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, Heres the Sex Pistols in the window. After modified versions of the label came the red, white and blue design introduced in 1975. The current Virgin logo was created in 1978, commissioned by Simon Draper, brian Cooke of Cooke Key Associates commissioned a graphic designer to produce a stylised signature. In 1983 Virgin purchased Charisma Records, renaming it Charisma/Virgin, then later Virgin/Charisma, before folding the label in 1986, in the process they acquired Genesis and comedy group Monty Python. The Charisma label was reactivated in the US in 1990 and enjoyed success with such as Maxi Priest, Right Said Fred,38 Special. When this Charisma label was retired in 1992, all of its artists were, as before, in 1987, Venture Records was created for new age and modern classical artists including Klaus Schulze, who had been associated with Virgin since the early 1970s. 10 Records Immortal Records Delabel Caroline Records was a label used from 1973 to 1977. The name and logo were used for some American editions of Virgin records in the 1980s and 1990s. Caroline was primarily used for independent distribution until the label was reactivated in 2013, today, Caroline Records acts as an independent label taking the place of EMI Label Services, after Virgins former parent company EMI was purchased by Universal Music Group. Front Line Records was a label for issuing Jamaican and English reggae music from 1978 to approximately 1987, a short-lived associated label, Dindisc, had Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and The Monochrome Set during its brief existence, after which its recordings became part of Virgins catalogue. Noo Trybe Records was a hip hop label that existed from 1994 to 1999
3.
Universal Music Group
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Universal Music Group is an American-French global music corporation that is a subsidiary of the Paris-based French media conglomerate Vivendi. UMGs global corporate headquarters are in Santa Monica, California and it is considered one of the Big Three record labels, along with Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment. Universal Music was once the music attached to film studio Universal Pictures and its origins go back to the formation of the American branch of Decca Records in September 1934. The Decca Record Co. Ltd. of England spun American Decca off in 1939, MCA Inc. merged with American Decca in 1962. The present organization was formed when its parent company Seagram purchased PolyGram in May 1998, however, the name had first appeared in 1996 when MCA Music Entertainment Group was renamed Universal Music Group. The PolyGram acquisition included Deutsche Grammophon which traces its ancestry to Berliner Gramophone making Deutsche Grammophon UMGs oldest unit, UMGs Canadian unit traces its ancestry to a Berliner Gramophone breakaway firm the Compo Company. With the 2004 acquisition of Universal Studios by General Electric and merging with GEs NBC and this is the second time a music company has done so, the first being the separation of Time Warner and Warner Music Group. On June 25,2007, Vivendi completed its €1.63 billion purchase of BMG Music Publishing, after receiving European Union regulatory approval, doug Morris stepped down from his position as CEO on January 1,2011. Former chairman/CEO of Universal Music International Lucian Grainge was promoted to CEO of the company, Grainge later replaced him as chairman on March 9,2011. Morris became the chairman of Sony Music Entertainment on July 1,2011. With Grainges appointment as CEO at UMG, Max Hole was promoted to COO of UMGI, starting in 2011 UMGs Interscope Geffen A&M Records will be signing contestants from American Idol/Idol series. On January 2011, UMG announced it was donating 200,000 master recordings from the 1920s to 1940s to the Library of Congress for preservation, in March 2011, Barry Weiss became chairman & CEO of The Island Def Jam Music Group & Universal Republic Records. Both companies are restructuring under Weiss, in December 2011, David Foster was named Chairman of Verve Music Group. Among the other companies that had competed for the music business was Warner Music Group which was reported to have made a $2 billion bid. However, IMPALA has said it would fight the merger, coincidentally, UMG sister company StudioCanal has owned the EMI Films library for several years. On September 21,2012, the sale of EMI to UMG was approved in Europe, UMG divested Mute Records, Parlophone, Roxy Recordings, MPS Records, Cooperative Music, Now Thats What I Call Music. Jazzland, Universal Greece, Sanctuary Records, Chrysalis Records, EMI Classics, Virgin Classics, the Beatles recorded music library was allowed to remain with UMG despite being considered part of Parlophone and is now managed by UMGs reorganized Capitol Music Group worldwide. Robbie Williams, who had recorded for Chrysalis, had his transferred to Universals Island Records
4.
David Prowse
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David Prowse, MBE is an English bodybuilder, weightlifter and character actor in British film and television. Worldwide, he is best known for physically portraying Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, Prowse played the physical form of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy. Prowse claims he was told that he would be seen. Instead, actor Sebastian Shaw was used, Prowse reprised his role of Darth Vader for the video games Monopoly Star Wars and Star Wars, The Interactive Video Board Game. Prowse continues to associate himself with his role in the Star Wars films and is involved in the convention circuit. Despite this, he has not been included in recent reunions of the original cast, such as those for the Empire of Dreams documentary and the 2005 Vanity Fair cover. In July 2007, Prowse joined many others from the Star Wars films for the first ever Star Wars Celebration event held outside the United States and it was run by Lucasfilm Ltd. and the Cards Inc. Group, at the ExCeL Exhibition Centre in London, the occasion was to mark the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. Prowse played a cameo role in Star Wars fan films Order of the Sith, Vengeance and its sequel Downfall – Order of the Sith – alongside Jeremy Bulloch. These fanfilms were made in Britain in support of the charity Save the Children, in 2008, he was one of the cast members featured on Justin Lee Collinss Bring Back. Star Wars. In the film, Prowse commented that he had a dispute with George Lucas after he allegedly leaked reports of Darth Vaders death to the press, Prowse had previously suggested that Darth Vader could be Luke Skywalker’s father in a speech he gave to UC Berkeley in 1978. However, this was shortly after the release of Star Wars, gary Kurtz, the producer of The Empire Strikes Back, said in the 2015 documentary I Am Your Father that Prowses apparent plot spoiler was simply a good guess. Due to Hollywood accounting, the profits are sent as distribution fees to the studio. In July 2010, Prowse was banned by George Lucas from attending official Star Wars fan conventions, Lucas has reportedly given Prowse no reason, other than stating that Prowse burnt too many bridges between Lucasfilm and himself. A2015 Spanish documentary, by filmmaker Marcos Cabotá, entitled I Am Your Father, details Prowses current life and his blackballing by LucasFilm, the leaks featured in the documentary originated from a technician working on the films. Since 2002 Prowse has been an Honorary Member / Honorary Leader of the 501st Legion, within the United Kingdom, Prowse is also well known as the Green Cross Code Man, a superhero invented to promote a British road safety campaign for children in 1975. As a result of his association with the campaign, which ran between 1971 and 1990, he received the MBE in 2000. He had a role as F. Alexanders bodyguard Julian in the 1971 film A Clockwork Orange and he played a circus strongman in 1972s Vampire Circus, a Minotaur in the 1972 Doctor Who serial The Time Monster, and an android named Copper in The Tomorrow People in 1973
5.
Gary Numan
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Gary Anthony James Webb, professionally known as Gary Numan, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Born in Hammersmith, London, he first entered the industry as the lead singer of the new wave band Tubeway Army. After releasing two albums with the band, Numan released his solo album The Pleasure Principle in 1979. Most widely known for his chart-topping hits Are Friends Electric, and Cars, Numan achieved his peak of mainstream popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but maintains a loyal cult following. His signature sound consists of heavy synthesizer hooks fed through guitar effects pedals, Numan is also known for his distinctive voice and androgynous android persona. Born in Hammersmith, London, Numan was the son of a British Airways bus driver based at Heathrow Airport. He was educated at Town Farm Junior School in Stanwell, Surrey, Ashford County Grammar School, then Slough Grammar School in Berkshire and he joined the Air Training Corps as a teenager. He then briefly held jobs including forklift truck driver, air conditioning ventilator fitter. When Numan was 15 years old, his father bought him a Gibson Les Paul and he played in various bands, including Mean Street and The Lasers, before forming Tubeway Army with his uncle, Jess Lidyard, and Paul Gardiner. His initial pseudonym was Valerian, probably in reference to the hero in French science fiction comic series Valérian and he later picked the surname Numan from an advert in the Yellow Pages for a plumber whose surname was Neumann. Numan rose to prominence at the end of the 1970s as front man, writer, after recording an albums worth of punk-influenced demo tapes, he was signed by Beggars Banquet Records in 1978 and quickly released two singles, Thats Too Bad and Bombers, neither of which charted. A self-titled, new wave-oriented debut album later that year sold out its limited run and introduced Numans fascination with dystopian science fiction. Tubeway Armys third single, the dark-themed and slow-paced Down in the Park, also failed to chart and it was featured with other contemporary hits on the soundtrack for the movie Times Square, and a live version of the song can be seen in the movie Urgh. Following exposure in a advertisement for Lee Cooper jeans with the jingle Dont be a Dummy. The single took seven weeks before finally reaching No.1 at the end of June, the parent album Replicas simultaneously reached No.1. A few months later Numan found success in the charts on both sides of the Atlantic with Cars, which peaked at No.1 in the UK in 1979, No.1 in Canada and No.9 in the US in 1980. Cars and the 1979 album The Pleasure Principle were both released under Numans own stage name, the album reached number one in the UK, and a sell-out tour followed, the concert video it spawned is often cited as the first full-length commercial music video release. The Pleasure Principle was an album with no guitars, instead, Numan used synthesizers fed through guitar effects pedals to achieve a distorted, phased
6.
Joe Calzaghe
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Joseph William Joe Calzaghe, CBE is a Welsh former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2008. He is a world champion, having held the unified WBA, WBC, IBF, WBO, Ring magazine. As his super-middleweight and light-heavyweight reigns overlapped, he retired with the longest continual time as champion of any active fighter. Between 2006 and 2008, Calzaghe was rated by The Ring as one of the top ten boxers, pound for pound. He retired in February 2009 with a record, and as a reigning world champion. Calzaghe was often referred to as the Pride of Wales or the Italian Dragon, the latter being a play on the moniker Italian Stallion, in 2007, Calzaghe became BBC Sports Personality of the Year, by gaining 28. 19% of the public vote. This made Calzaghe the first Welsh winner of this award since show jumper David Broome in 1960 and he was awarded the Young Boxer of the Year Award in 1995. Calzaghe was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2014, Calzaghe was born in Hammersmith, London, to an Italian father, Enzo, and a Welsh mother, Jackie. The family moved to Wales when he was two old, their home is at Newbridge in South Wales. He attended Roots School System and still lives in the area, Calzaghe was the first person to be awarded the Freedom of Caerphilly, his home county, in 2009. The award was presented to Calzaghe in front of his family — father and trainer Enzo, mother Jackie, sister Sonia, girlfriend Jo-Emma Larvin, already a MBE, he was elevated to CBE in the 2008 Queens Birthday Honours. Calzaghe, a southpaw, began boxing at age nine, in more than 120 amateur contests, he won four schoolboy ABA titles, followed by three consecutive senior British ABA titles between 1990 and 1993. He reportedly had a record of 112–10. Calzaghe received his last defeats at the hands of Michael Smyth in the 1990 Welsh ABA Final, in October 1995, Calzaghe won the vacant British super-middleweight title, stopping the previously unbeaten Stephen Wilson in the eighth round. Despite Delaney being a fighter in his own right, Calzaghes critics said that he had still not really been tested. Calzaghe said in reply that he could only beat whoever was out there, Calzaghe rounded off the year with victories over two experienced opponents in Warren Stowe and Pat Lawlor. In November 1996, Calzaghe moved to Frank Warrens stable, Warren, who had managed Nigel Benn for his first twenty fights, declared, Joe Calzaghe is a far better prospect, in fact he is my fighter for the new millennium. Calzaghe continued his ways in 1997, defeating Carlos Christie, the unbeaten Tyler Hughes
7.
Steve Strange
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Steven John Harrington, better known by his stage name Steve Strange, was a Welsh pop singer. From the late 1970s he was a nightclub host and promoter, Harrington was born in Newbridge, Caerphilly, Wales. His grandfather moved with his family to Aldershot, Hampshire, where his father was serving in the British Army as a paratrooper. The family moved back to Wales and lived in Rhyl on the north coast and they then divorced and he moved with his mother back to Newbridge in South Wales where he attended Newbridge Grammar School. It merged with a school to form Newbridge Comprehensive School a year after he arrived there. After attending a Sex Pistols concert at the Castle Cinema in Caerphilly in 1976, additional members included future Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde, future Psychedelic Furs drummer Vince Ely, future Clash drummer Topper Headon and the Kid. They recorded a song called Free Hindley, after several gigs, the band split up around early 1978. Later in 1978, Harrington briefly joined the punk/new wave band The Photons as vocalist, the band were managed by punk impresario Andy Czezowski. Intended as a project, they signed to the small label Radar Records. Later that year, Visage signed a new deal with the major label Polydor and released their second single. The single became a top 10 hit in the UK and several other European countries, reaching one in Germany. As the public face of the band, Strange shot to stardom in Britain, Visage enjoyed a string of hit singles and two hit albums before later commercial disappointments led to their break-up in 1985. After the dissolution of Visage, Strange formed the short-lived band Strange Cruise with Wendy Wu, the group signed with EMI Records and released two singles and an album in 1986, though failed to gain any chart success. In the late 1970s, prior to their success with Visage, Strange and Visage partner Rusty Egan began to make a name for themselves as a nightclub host and DJ respectively. In 1978, they began organising Bowie nights on Tuesdays at Billys nightclub in Soho, adhering to Stranges strict door policy of admitting only the weird and wonderful, the club took off and became an essential location in the rise of what would become the New Romantic movement. Their next club venture, The Playground in 1984, was less successful, later in the 1980s, Strange went to Ibiza, Spain, and became an integral part of the budding trance club movement and hosting parties for celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone. In the early 1990s he was the host at the Double Bass club in Ibiza, in 2002, Strange took part in the Here and Now Tour, which featured a revival of various 80s pop acts. In 2004, he formed a new version of Visage, dubbed Visage Mk II
8.
Joe Frazier
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Joseph William Joe Frazier, nicknamed Smokin Joe, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1965 to 1981. He reigned as the heavyweight champion from 1970 to 1973. Frazier was known for his strength, durability, formidable punching power. Two years later Frazier lost his title when he was defeated by George Foreman and he fought on, beating Joe Bugner, losing a rematch to Ali and beating Quarry and Ellis again. Fraziers last world title came in 1975, but he was beaten by Ali in their brutal rubbermatch. He retired in 1976 following a loss to Foreman. He made a comeback in 1981, fighting just once, before retiring, the International Boxing Research Organization rates Frazier among the ten greatest heavyweights of all time. In 1999, The Ring magazine ranked him the 8th greatest heavyweight and he is an inductee of both the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame. Fraziers style was compared to that of Henry Armstrong and occasionally Rocky Marciano, dependent on bobbing, weaving. His best known punch was a left hook, which accounted for most of his knockouts. In his career he lost to two fighters, both former Olympic and world heavyweight champions, twice to Muhammad Ali, and twice to George Foreman. After retiring, Frazier made cameo appearances in several Hollywood movies and his son Marvis became a boxer—trained by Frazier himself—but was unable to match his fathers success. His daughter Jackie Frazier-Lyde also boxed professionally, Frazier continued to train fighters in his gym in Philadelphia. His later years saw periodic insults and bitter feelings towards Ali, Frazier was diagnosed with liver cancer in late September 2011 and admitted to hospice care. He died of complications from the disease on November 7,2011, Joe Frazier was the 12th child born to Dolly Alston-Frazier and Rubin in Beaufort, South Carolina. He was raised in a community of Beaufort called Laurel Bay. Young Frazier was affectionately called Billie Boy, Rubin Frazier had his left hand burned and part of his forearm amputated in a tractor accident the year his son was born. Rubin Frazier and his wife Dolly had been in their car when Arthur Smith, stefan Gallucci, a local barkeep, recounted the experience
9.
Roger Taylor (Queen drummer)
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Roger Meddows Taylor is an English musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the drummer for the rock band Queen, as a drummer, Taylor was recognised early in his career for his unique sound. As a songwriter, Taylor contributed songs to Queens albums from the beginning, composing at least one track on every album. He wrote or co-wrote three UK number 1s and contributed a further five major hits and he is also commonly known to have been the main writer on the international top-ten hit One Vision, although the track is credited to the whole band. As a producer, he has produced albums by Virginia Wolf, Jimmy Nail, in addition to his drum work, Taylor sometimes played keyboards, guitars and bass on his own songs. During the 1980s, in addition to his work with Queen, he formed a band known as The Cross, in which he was the lead singer. During the early 1980s, Taylor was also a panelist on the popular UK quiz show Pop Quiz, according to The Sunday Times Rich List, Taylor was worth £80 million or around $127 million as of 2011. In 2014, he appeared in The Life of Rock with Brian Pern as himself, Taylor is also well known for his falsetto vocal range. Roger Taylor was born in the West Norfolk & Lynn Hospital, Extons Road Kings Lynn, Norfolk, the new maternity ward was opened by the future Queen Elizabeth II where she was introduced to 16 new mothers including Mrs. Winifred Taylor, his mother. Taylor first lived at 87 High Street in Kings Lynn, Taylors first school was Rosebury Avenue school. Taylor moved to Truro, Cornwall, south west England, with his mother Winifred, father Michael, when he was seven years old, he and some friends formed his first band, the Bubblingover Boys, in which he played the ukulele. He briefly attended Truro Cathedral School, then, at the age of 13, at the age of 15, Taylor became a member of the Reaction, a very busy semi-pro rock band formed mainly of boys from Truro School. Taylor had originally learned guitar, but became a drummer when he realised he had a natural aptitude for it. Taylor taught himself to tune his drums, inspired by Keith Moon of The Who because of the drums sounds on the early Who records. Another key influence on Taylor was drummer Mitch Mitchell of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Taylor met Brian May and Tim Staffell in 1968 after a friend saw an advert on a noticeboard at Imperial College for a drummer. Smile included May on lead guitar, Staffell on lead vocals and bass, the band only lasted for two years before Staffell departed to join Humpy Bong, leaving the band with only a catalogue of nine songs, Earth Step On Me originally from May and Staffells band 1984. Doin Alright Blag Polar Bear Silver Salmon See What A Fool Ive Been If I Were a Carpenter a cover regularly featuring in their live set, april Lady a song presented to the band by Mercury Records during their second studio session. Smile reunited for several songs on 22 December 1992, Taylors band The Cross were headliners and he brought May and Staffell on to play Earth and If I Were a Carpenter
10.
Brian May
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Brian Harold May, CBE is an English musician, singer, songwriter and astrophysicist, best known as the lead guitarist of the rock band Queen. He uses an electric guitar, called the Red Special. His compositions for the band include We Will Rock You, Tie Your Mother Down, I Want It All, Fat Bottomed Girls, Flash, Hammer to Fall, Save Me, Who Wants to Live Forever and The Show Must Go On. May was a co-founder of Queen with lead singer Freddie Mercury and drummer Roger Taylor, having performed with Taylor in the band Smile. As a member of Queen, May became regarded as a virtuoso musician, following the death of Mercury in 1991, Queen were put on hiatus for several years but were eventually reconvened by May and Taylor for further performances featuring other vocalists. In 2005, a Planet Rock poll saw May voted the 7th greatest guitarist of all time and he was ranked at No.26 on Rolling Stone magazines list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. In 2012, May was ranked the 2nd greatest guitarist of all time by a Guitar World magazine readers poll and he was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2005 for services to the music industry and for charity work. May attained a PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London in 2007 and was Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University from 2008 to 2013 and he was a science team collaborator with NASAs New Horizons Pluto mission. He is also a co-founder of the campaign, Asteroid Day. Asteroid 52665 Brianmay was named after him, may is also an animal rights activist, campaigning against the hunting of foxes and the culling of badgers in the UK. Brian Harold May, the child of Harold and Ruth May, was born in Hampton, London on 19 July 1947. He is of English and Scottish descent, with his mother being Scots, during this time, he formed his first band, named 1984 after George Orwells novel of the same name, with vocalist and bassist Tim Staffell. At Hampton Grammar School, he attained ten GCE Ordinary Levels and he studied Mathematics and Physics at Imperial College London, graduating with a BSc. in Physics with honours. In 2007, May obtained his PhD in astrophysics from Imperial College London, may formed the band Smile in 1968. The group included Tim Staffell as the singer and bassist, and later, drummer Roger Taylor. The band lasted for two years, from 1968 to 1970, as Staffell departed in 1970, leaving the band with a catalogue of nine songs. Smile would reunite for several songs on 22 December 1992, Taylors band The Cross were headliners, and he brought May and Staffell on to play Earth and If I Were a Carpenter. May also performed other songs that night
11.
Queen (band)
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Queen are a British rock band that formed in London in 1970. Their classic line-up was Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, before forming Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor had played together in a band named Smile. Freddie Mercury was a fan of Smile and encouraged them to experiment with elaborate stage. Mercury joined the band in 1970, suggested Queen as a new band name, John Deacon was recruited before the band recorded their eponymous debut album in 1973. The latter featured Bohemian Rhapsody, which stayed at one in the UK for nine weeks. The bands 1977 album News of the World contained We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions, by the early 1980s, Queen were one of the biggest stadium rock bands in the world. Their performance at the 1985 Live Aid concert has been ranked among the greatest in history by various music publications. In 1991, Mercury died of bronchopneumonia, a complication of AIDS, since then, May and Taylor have performed under the name of Queen with Paul Rodgers and Adam Lambert as vocalists on several tours. The band have released a total of 18 number-one albums,18 number-one singles, estimates of their record sales generally range from 150 million to 300 million records, making them one of the worlds best-selling music artists. Queen received the Outstanding Contribution to British Music Award from the British Phonographic Industry in 1990 and they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. In 1968, guitarist Brian May, a student at Londons Imperial College, may placed an advertisement on a college notice board for a Mitch Mitchell/Ginger Baker type drummer, Roger Taylor, a young dental student, auditioned and got the job. While attending Ealing Art College, Tim Staffell became friends with Farrokh Bulsara, Bulsara felt that he and the band had the same tastes and soon became a keen fan of Smile. In 1970, after Staffell left to join the band Humpy Bong, the band had a number of bass players during this period who did not fit with the bands chemistry. It was not until February 1971 that they settled on John Deacon and they recorded four of their own songs, Liar, Keep Yourself Alive, The Night Comes Down and Jesus, for a demo tape, no record companies were interested. It was also around this time Freddie changed his surname to Mercury, inspired by the line Mother Mercury, on 2 July 1971, Queen played their first show in the classic line-up of Mercury, May, Taylor and Deacon at a Surrey college outside London. Having attended art college, Mercury also designed Queens logo, called the Queen crest, the logo combines the zodiac signs of all four members, two lions for Leo, a crab for Cancer, and two fairies for Virgo. The lions embrace a stylised letter Q, the crab rests atop the letter with flames rising directly above it, There is also a crown inside the Q and the whole logo is over-shadowed by an enormous phoenix. The whole symbol bears a resemblance to the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom
12.
Igor Cavalera
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Igor Graziano Cavalera is a Brazilian musician. He is best known as the drummer for Brazilian heavy metal band Sepultura. Max left the band in 1996, and Cavalera himself would depart ten years later, the brothers have since reunited in the band Cavalera Conspiracy. He has played in the bands Nailbomb and Strife, and guest drumming in Brasileiro, as his hip-hop influences grew stronger he began to DJ. Cavalera is one half of DJ duo Mixhell, a project he founded with his wife Laima Leyton, Cavalera started playing drums around 7 years old. He was into music as a child but, after watching Queen live in 1981 along with his brother Max. When Sepultura was formed, Cavalera was the youngest member at the age of 13, Sepultura was a big success and gave Cavalera an early start. On April 21,1984, Cavalera played, for the first time, on a drum kit, which was borrowed from Helinho of the band Overdose. After the band split with his brother Max in 1996, their relationship underwent a crisis, in recent times their relationship has improved, with Max stating in an interview that a reunion with Sepultura was possible. Cavalera joined Maxs current band Soulfly on stage at the 2006 tenth annual D-Low Memorial Show, to play the Sepultura songs Roots Bloody Roots and it was the first time the brothers had played together in ten years. In 2006, with the release of Dante XXI, he began spelling his name Iggor, on January 13,2006, it was announced that he was taking a break from the band due to the birth of his fourth child, initially leaving Sepultura temporarily. He later announced that he was quitting Sepultura due to artistic incompatibility, Sepultura replaced him with Jean Dolabella. Cavalera was scheduled to collaborate with hip hop artist Necro. However, Necro mentioned later that the project not go ahead. In 2008 he released the album Inflikted together with his brother Max in a project named Cavalera Conspiracy and he is credited as having made a guest appearance on Biohazards 2001 release Uncivilization on the track Gone. In 2012, Cavalera performed drums for the entire Strife album Witness A Rebirth, Cavalera collects toys and football shirts and has many hobbies, including Brazilian jiu-jitsu, snowboarding, surfing, drawing and supporting Brazilian football club Palmeiras. He admires his father Graziano Cavalera as his role model and he has four children, Joana Bass Cavalera, Raissa Bass Cavalera, Iccaro Bass Cavalera, Antonio Leyton Cavalera and a stepson Pedro Leyton Pereira. In 1996 he started the fashion label Cavalera and he lives in London since 2013
13.
Sepultura
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Sepultura is a Brazilian heavy metal band from Belo Horizonte. Sepultura has had changes in its lineup since its formation, with Max and Igor Cavalera departing in 1996 and 2006. Sepulturas current lineup consists of vocalist Derrick Green, guitarist Andreas Kisser, bassist Paulo Jr. since Igor Cavaleras departure in 2006, there have been no original members left in the band. Paulo Jr. who has been a member of Sepultura since 1985, is the member to appear on every release. Kisser, who replaced Jairo Guedz in 1987, has played on all of the studio albums. Sepultura has released fourteen studio albums to date, the latest being Machine Messiah and their most successful records are Arise, Chaos A. D. and Roots. Sepultura was formed in 1984 in Belo Horizonte, the city of Minas Gerais. Gracilianos death deeply affected his sons, inspiring them to form a band after Max heard the album Black Sabbath Vol.4 the very same day. They chose the band name Sepultura, the Portuguese word for grave and they would travel to a record shop in São Paulo that mixed tapes of the latest records by American bands. Their listening habits changed dramatically after being introduced to Venom, as Igor Cavalera put it, The Cavalera brothers started listening to bands such as Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Kreator, Sodom, Megadeth, Exodus and Exciter. They also had influences on Brazilian metal from bands like Stress, Sagrado Inferno, by 1984, they had dropped out of school. After his departure, Max took over the vocal duties, Jairo Guedes was invited to join the band as lead guitarist. After about a year of performing, Sepultura signed to Cogumelo Records in 1985, later that year, they released Bestial Devastation, a shared EP with fellow Brazilian band Overdose. It was self-produced and recorded in just two days, the band recorded their first full-length album, Morbid Visions, in August 1986. It contained their first hit, Troops of Doom, which gained media attention. The band then decided to relocate to the city of São Paulo. In early 1987, Jairo Guedes quit the band, Guedes was replaced by São Paulo-based guitarist Andreas Kisser, and they released their second studio album, Schizophrenia, in 1987. The album reflected a change towards a more thrash metal-oriented sound
14.
Darth Vader
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Darth Vader, also known by his birth name Anakin Skywalker, is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. The character was created by George Lucas and has been portrayed by numerous actors and his appearances span the first six Star Wars films, as well as Rogue One, and his character is heavily referenced in Star Wars, The Force Awakens. He is also an important character in the Star Wars expanded universe of television series, video games, novels, literature and comic books. Originally a Jedi prophesied to bring balance to the Force, he falls to the side of the Force and serves the evil Galactic Empire at the right hand of his Sith master. He is also the father of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa, grandfather of Kylo Ren, Darth Vader has become one of the most iconic villains in popular culture, and has been listed among the greatest villains and fictional characters ever. The American Film Institute listed him as the third greatest movie villain in history on 100 Years. 100 Heroes and Villains, behind Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates, however, other critics consider him a tragic hero, citing his original motivations for the greater good before his fall to the dark side. After the success of the original Star Wars, series creator George Lucas hired science fiction author Leigh Brackett to write the sequel with him and they held story conferences and, by late November 1977, Lucas had produced a handwritten treatment. The treatment is similar to the film, except that Vader does not reveal he is Lukes father. In the first draft that Brackett would write from this, Lukes father appears as a ghost to instruct Luke, Lucas was disappointed with the script, but Brackett died of cancer before he could discuss it with her. With no writer available, Lucas had to write the next draft himself, in this draft, he made use of a new plot twist, Vader claiming to be Lukes father. According to Lucas, he found this draft enjoyable to write, the new plot element of Lukes parentage had drastic effects on the series. Anakin battled Kenobi on the site of a volcano and was badly wounded, meanwhile, Kenobi hid Luke on Tatooine while the Galactic Republic became the tyrannical Galactic Empire and Vader systematically hunted down and killed the Jedi. This change in character would provide a springboard to the Tragedy of Darth Vader storyline that underlies the prequel trilogy, after deciding to create the prequel trilogy, Lucas indicated the series would be a tragic one depicting Anakins fall to the dark side. He also saw that the prequels could form the beginning of one story that started with Anakins childhood. This was the step towards turning the film series into a saga. For the first prequel, Star Wars, Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Movie trailers focused on Anakin and a one-sheet poster showing him casting Vaders shadow informed otherwise unknowing audiences of the characters eventual fate. The movie ultimately achieved a goal of introducing audiences to Anakin
15.
Star Wars
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Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise, centered on a film series created by George Lucas. It depicts the adventures of characters a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The franchise began in 1977 with the release of the film Star Wars and it was followed by the successful sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, these three films constitute the original Star Wars trilogy. A prequel trilogy was released between 1999 and 2005, which received mixed-to-negative reactions, a sequel trilogy began in 2015 with the release of Star Wars, The Force Awakens. All seven films were nominated for Academy Awards and have been successes, with a combined box office revenue of over $7.5 billion. Spin-off films include Star Wars, The Clone Wars and Rogue One, Star Wars also holds a Guinness World Records title for the Most successful film merchandising franchise. In 2015, the value of the Star Wars franchise was estimated at USD $42 billion. In 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for $4.06 billion and earned the rights to all subsequent Star Wars films. Walt Disney Studios owns digital distribution rights to all the Star Wars films, the events depicted in the Star Wars franchise take place in an unnamed fictional galaxy at an undetermined point in the distant past. Many species of creatures are depicted. Robotic droids are also commonplace and are built to serve their owners. Space travel is common, and many planets in the galaxy are members of a single galactic government. In the prequel trilogy, this is depicted in the form of the Galactic Republic, at the end of the trilogy and throughout the original trilogy. Preceding and during the trilogy, this government is the New Republic. One of the prominent elements of Star Wars is the Force and it is described in the first produced film as an energy field created by all living things surrounds us, penetrates us, binds the galaxy together. While the Force can be used for good, known as the side, it also has a dark side that, when pursued, imbues users with hatred, aggression. The sequel trilogy introduces the Knights of Ren, an order of practitioners of the side of the Force aligned with the First Order. The first film in the series, Star Wars, was released on May 25,1977 and this was followed by two sequels, The Empire Strikes Back, released on May 21,1980, and Return of the Jedi, released on May 25,1983
16.
EMI
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EMI was a British multinational conglomerate founded in March 1931 and was based in London. At the time of its break-up in 2012, it was the fourth-largest business group and its EMI Records Ltd. group of record labels included EMI Records, Parlophone, Virgin Records and Capitol Records. EMI also had a publishing arm, EMI Music Publishing—also based in London with offices globally. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE100 Index, other members of the Sony consortium include the Estate of Michael Jackson, The Blackstone Group, and Abu Dhabi–owned investment fund Mubadala Development Company. The new vertically integrated company produced sound recordings as well as recording, the companys gramophone manufacturing led to forty years of success with larger-scale electronics and electrical engineering. He was killed in 1942 whilst conducting flight trials on an experimental H2S radar set, post-war, the company resumed its involvement in making broadcasting equipment, notably providing the BBCs second television transmitter at Sutton Coldfield. It also manufactured broadcast television cameras for British television production companies as well as for the BBC, the commercial television ITV companies also used them alongside cameras made by Pye and Marconi. Exports of this piece of equipment were low, however, the company was also for many years an internationally respected manufacturer of photomultipliers. This part of the business was transferred to Thorn as part of Thorn-EMI, in 1958 the EMIDEC1100, the UKs first commercially available all-transistor computer, was developed at Hayes under the leadership of Godfrey Hounsfield, an electrical engineer at EMI. In 1973 EMI was awarded a prestigious Queens Award for Technological Innovation for what was called the EMI scanner. After brief, but brilliant, success in the imaging field, EMIs manufacturing activities were sold off to other companies. Subsequently, development and manufacturing activities were sold off to companies and work moved to other towns such as Crawley. Emihus Electronics, based in Glenrothes, Scotland, was owned 51% by Hughes Aircraft, of California, US and it manufactured integrated circuits electrolytic capacitors and, for a short period in the mid-1970s, hand-held calculators under the Gemini name. Early in its life, the Gramophone Company established subsidiary operations in a number of countries in the British Commonwealth, including India, Australia. Over 150,000 78-rpm recordings from around the world are held in EMIs temperature-controlled archive in Hayes, in 1931, the year the company was formed, it opened the legendary recording studios at Abbey Road, London. During the 1930s and 1940s, its roster of artists included Arturo Toscanini, Sir Edward Elgar, during this time EMI appointed its first A&R managers. These included George Martin, who brought the Beatles into the EMI fold. When the Gramophone Company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company in 1931, at this point RCA had a majority shareholding in the new company, giving RCA chair David Sarnoff a seat on the EMI board
17.
VH1
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VH1 is an American cable television network based in New York City that is owned by the Viacom Global Entertainment Group, a unit of Viacom Media Networks. The channel was first launched on January 1,1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting Systems short-lived Cable Music Channel and it was originally created by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, at the time a division of Warner Communications and the original owner of MTV. As of February 2015, approximately 92.6 million US households receive VH1, also frequently featured in the networks early years were videos for Motown and other 60s oldies consisting of newsreel and concert footage. It was introduced on January 1,1985 with the performance of The Star-Spangled Banner by Marvin Gaye. From the start, Video Hits One was branded as a version of its sister/parent channel. It played more jazz and R&B artists than MTV and had a rotation of urban-contemporary performers. Its early on-camera personalities were New York radio veterans Don Imus, Frankie Crocker, Scott Shannon, Jon Bauman, Bobby Rivers, later VJs included Tim Byrd of WPIX-FM, a station whose eclectic ballad-and-R&B oriented format mirrored that of VH-1, and Alison Steele. Rosie ODonnell later joined the outlets veejay lineup, ODonnell would also host a comedy show featuring various comedians each episode. The format left room for occasional ad-libs by the VJ, a godsend for emcees such as Imus, in true Imus style, he used a 1985 segment of his VH-1 show to jokingly call smooth-jazz icon Sade Adu a grape for her oval-shaped head. At first many different musicians guest-hosted the program, but eventually musician/songwriter Ben Sidran became the permanent host, new-Age music videos continued to play on the channel into the 1990s. They would be seen on the Sunday morning 2-hour music video block titled Sunday Brunch, once VH1 established itself a few years later, they catered to Top 40, adult contemporary, classic rock, and 1980s mainstream pop. For a time, even music videos aired in a one-hour block during the afternoons. They started out using MTVs famous Kabel typeface font for their music video credit tags and it was later replaced in 1991 by a larger font, with the year the video was made added to the lower column that identified the label on which the album was released. In 1993, the name of the director was included at the bottom of the credits. Every week, the Top 21 Video Countdown usually had a different guest host, occasionally, they had themed countdowns as well, such as Elvira hosting scary videos for Halloween in 1991. Long blocks of videos by a particular artist or band, theme. One popular weekend program was called Video Rewind, in blocks of 1980s videos from one particular year would play for an hour. There was also a short-lived hour-long program called By Request in which viewers could call a 1–900 hotline number to request their videos, also in 1991, a popular morning program was introduced called Hits News & Weather that ran from 7 AM to 9 AM ET
18.
MTV
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MTV is an American cable and satellite television channel owned by Viacom Media Networks and headquartered in New York City. Launched on August 1,1981, the originally aired music videos as guided by television personalities known as video jockeys. In its early years, MTVs main target demographic was young adults and it has received criticism towards this change of focus, both by certain segments of its audience and musicians. MTVs influence on its audience, including issues involving censorship and social activism, has also been a subject of debate for several years, in recent years, MTV had struggled with the secular decline of music-related cable media. In April 2016, MTV announced it would start to return to its original music roots with the reintroduction of the classic MTV series MTV Unplugged. It was also reported that the series MTV Cribs would be making a return on Snapchat, MTV has spawned numerous sister channels in the US and affiliated channels internationally, some of which have gone independent. As of July 2015, approximately 92,188,000 US households have received MTV, several earlier concepts for music video-based television programming had been around since the early 1960s. The Beatles had used music videos to promote their records starting in the mid-1960s, CBS rejected the idea, but Williams premiered his own musical composition Classical Gas on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, where he was head writer. The series featured clips from various popular artists, but was canceled by its distributor in 1971. The channel, which featured video disc jockeys, signed a deal with US Cable in 1978 to expand its audience from retail to cable television, the service was no longer active by the time MTV launched in 1981. The QUBE system offered many specialized channels, One of these specialized channels was Sight on Sound, a music channel that featured concert footage and music-oriented television programs. With the interactive QUBE service, viewers could vote for their favorite songs, the original programming format of MTV was created by media executive Robert W. Pittman, who later became president and chief executive officer of MTV Networks. Pittman had test-driven the music format by producing and hosting a 15-minute show, Album Tracks, the inspiration for PopClips came from a similar program on New Zealands TVNZ network named Radio with Pictures, which premiered in 1976. The concept itself had been in the works since 1966, when record companies began supplying the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation with promotional music clips to play on the air at no charge. Few artists made the trip to New Zealand to appear live. A shortened version of the shuttle launch ID ran at the top of hour in various forms. The first music video shown on MTV was The Buggles Video Killed the Radio Star and this was followed by the video for Pat Benatars You Better Run. Sporadically, the screen would go black when an employee at MTV inserted a tape into a VCR, MTVs lower third graphics that appeared near the beginning and end of music videos would eventually use the recognizable Kabel typeface for about 25 years
19.
Kerrang!
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Kerrang. is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music, currently published by Hamburg based Bauer Media Group. It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a supplement in the Sounds newspaper. In the early 2000s it became the best-selling British music newspaper, angus Young of AC/DC appeared on Kerrang. s first cover. Launched as a magazine, Kerrang. began to appear on a fortnightly basis later. The original owner was United Newspapers who then sold it to EMAP in 1991, during the 1980s and early 1990s the magazine placed many thrash and glam metal acts on the cover but later discarded them when grunge acts such as Nirvana rose to fame. Readers often criticise the magazine for repeating this process every time a new musical trend becomes popular, Kerrang. s popularity rose again with the hiring of editor Paul Rees circa 2000 when the nu metal genre, featuring bands like Limp Bizkit and Slipknot were becoming more popular. Rees went on to edit Q magazine and Ashley Bird took over as editor from 2003 to 2005, however the magazines sales went quickly into decline in 2003 and Paul Brannigan took over as editor in May 2005. Prior to this Metallicas James Hetfield referred to their sound as power metal, with the emergence of emo and metalcore, Kerrang. began to heavily feature this musical trend. However, the revamp was not welcomed by all readers and many complaints were received about Kerrang. s sudden emphasis on emo, Brannigan took the magazine into its most commercially successful period with a record ever ABC for the title of 80,186 copies. In 2008, EMAP sold its magazine to current owner Bauer Media Group. Brannigan left Kerrang. in 2009 and Nichola Browne was appointed editor and she later stepped down in April 2011. Former NME features editor and GamesMaster deputy editor James McMahon was appointed as editor on 6 June 2011, Kerrang. s website, www. kerrang. com, was launched in summer 2001 by Dan Silver. Kerrang. ’s parent company Emap acquired the name from a Norwegian cybersquatter by the name of Steingram Stegane for a token sum of £666. Kerrang. s website is dedicated to finding out information to do with the magazine and also the latest information on the current bands. The website hosts Kerrang. s online shop, podcasts, message board, TV and radio segments ensuring even more opportunities to sell associated merchandise, launched its own online forum with the rants and raves section taking up most of the traffic. Though initially extremely popular, the number of users began to peter out around 2005 with the number of people online dropping to as low as 10 when previously it had been closer to the 100 figure. According to Alexa www. kerrang. com generates 60,000 pageviews per month and is ranked 66, since 1993, the magazine has held an annual awards ceremony to mark the most successful bands in the interests of their readers. The event is presented by music celebrities, with many others outside the industry who attend the event
20.
Scuzz
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Scuzz is a British music television channel owned and operated by Sony Pictures Television. It launched on 17 April 2003 and has gone on to be the highest-rated rock TV station on satellite platform Sky which is available in over 12 million homes in the UK and Ireland. The channel broadcasts rock, pop-punk, and metal, with unsigned. Scuzz tends to play a selection of music videos compared with the other British rock channels MTV Rocks. Although K. and Scuzz do share quite a few songs, the channel has been known to break many UK artists including Enter Shikari, Young Guns, You Me At Six, Bullet For My Valentine, Lower Than Atlantis and more recently Mallory Knox. International bands are often first broadcast on Scuzz TV, the likes of Avenged Sevenfold, Sleeping With Sirens, Pierce The Veil, Letlive, All Time Low, the channel shows many exclusive music videos for their first time. Scuzz often plays live concerts including Slipknot, Korn, Devildriver and 36 Crazyfists and they show various interview shows including On Record, Scuzz Meets, The Lowdown which centers around British rock festival Download Festival, and more recently a series called Access All Areas. Scuzz TV presenters include Sophie K, Daniel P Carter, Jon Mahon, Scuzz has a presence at the majority of the UK and some international rock festivals. It is owned by Sony Pictures Television, on Monday 17 November 2008, CSC Media Group launched a +1 timeshift of Scuzz, Scuzz +1. It was available 24 hours a day on Sky channel 375, on Friday 21 November 2008, just four days after Scuzz +1 officially launched, it was closed down as the EPG slot had been bought by news channel NHK World TV. On Tuesday 29 September 2009, Scuzz was removed from Freesat channel 502, on 3 November 2010, NME TV was replaced with Scuzz on Freesat channel 503. On 15 July 2013, Scuzz was replaced by Chart Show Dance on Freesat channel 503, on 5 June 2013, Scuzz swapped positions with Flava on Sky. The channel moved from 374 to 367, while Flava moved from 367 to 374, Scuzz was given a new look and revamp on 1 April 2006. Replacing the old black and white logo and song titles to a blue, as of at least 31 December 2007, Scuzz was once again revamped, being given a much more industrial style look. Scuzz - Official site Scuzzs channel on YouTube
21.
Backstreet Boys
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The Backstreet Boys are an American vocal group, formed in Orlando, Florida in 1993. The group consists of AJ McLean, Howie D, Nick Carter, Kevin Richardson, and Brian Littrell. The group rose to fame with their international album, Backstreet Boys. In the following year released their second international album Backstreets Back. They rose to superstardom with their studio album Millennium and its follow-up album. After a two-year hiatus, they regrouped and released a comeback album Never Gone, after the conclusion of the Never Gone Tour in 2006, Richardson left the group to pursue other interests. The group then released two albums as a quartet, Unbreakable and This Is Us, in 2012, the group announced that Richardson had rejoined them permanently. In the following year they celebrated their 20th anniversary and released their first independent album, the group also released their first documentary movie, titled Backstreet Boys, Show Em What Youre Made Of in January 2015. The Backstreet Boys have sold over 130 million records worldwide, making them the boy band in history. They are the first group since Sade to have their first nine albums reach the top 10 on the Billboard 200, and they also received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 22,2013. Howie Dorough and AJ McLean were natives of Orlando, Florida, the three, realizing that they could harmonize together, decided to form a trio. Cousins Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell, both from Lexington, Kentucky, sang in church choirs and festivals when they were children. Richardson moved to Orlando in 1990, where he worked at Walt Disney World, eventually, he met Dorough, Carter, and McLean through a co-worker, and the four decided to form a group. In the course of all this, Lou Pearlman in 1992 placed an ad in the Orlando Sentinel to compose a vocal group, McLean, who was the first to audition for Pearlman in his living room, became the groups first member. In January 1993, Pearlman held a casting call and hundreds of young performers auditioned at his blimp hangar in Kissimmee. Eventually, Carter, Dorough, and Richardson were selected after meeting Pearlmans expectations, Littrell flew from Kentucky to Orlando to formally join the group on April 20,1993, a day after receiving a phone call from Richardson about it. Thus, April 20 became their anniversary date, Pearlman decided to call them Backstreet Boys, after Orlandos Backstreet Market, an outdoor flea market near International Drive which was also a teen hangout. The Backstreet Boys had their very first performance at SeaWorld Orlando on May 8,1993, the group then continued to perform in various venues during summer 1993, from shopping malls, restaurants, to a high-profile charity gala in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
22.
Richard Marx
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Richard Noel Marx is an American adult contemporary and pop/rock singer, songwriter, musician and record producer who has sold over 30 million records. He had a stream of hit singles in the late 1980s and 1990s, including Endless Summer Nights, Right Here Waiting, Now and Forever, Hazard and At the Beginning with Donna Lewis. Although some of his hit songs were ballads, many of his songs have had a classic rock style, such as Dont Mean Nothing, Shouldve Known Better, Satisfied. Marx placed himself in the books by being the first solo artist to have his first seven singles hit the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. His record sales worldwide exceed 30 million, the latter song won several Grammy Awards. His 14th and latest chart topper, Long Hot Summer, performed by Keith Urban, gave Marx the distinction of having a song he wrote or co-wrote top the charts in four different decades. Marx was born in Chicago, Illinois, the child of Ruth, a former singer, and Dick Marx. He has three half-siblings from his fathers previous marriage, Marx began his career in music at the age of 5, singing commercial jingles written by his fathers company, its list of advertising hits includes Arm & Hammer, Ken-L Ration and Nestlé Crunch. Marx was 17 and living in Highland Park, Illinois when a tape of his songs ended up in the hands of Lionel Richie, Richie thought Marx had the talent and told the teen, I cant promise you anything, but you should come to L. A. After graduating from North Shore Country Day School, Marx moved to Los Angeles, Marx initially sang backing vocals for various artists, and also had a minor acting role in the television movie Coach Of The Year, which starred Robert Conrad. He was singing for Kenny Rogers in 1984 when he overheard Rogers say he needed a new song, within days, Marx gave him the demo of Crazy. Rogers recorded it, along another of Marx’s songs, What About Me. This also featured James Ingram and Kim Carnes, the trio recording hit #1 Adult Contemporary and #15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1984 while Crazy hit #1 Country and #5 AC the following year. Soon after, Marx began working with producer David Foster and writing songs for the group Chicago, while working as a songwriter and doing background vocals, Marx continued to pursue his own record deal. He gave Marx a recording contract with the opportunity to write, the next two singles, Should’ve Known Better and Endless Summer Nights reached #3 and #2, respectively. The fourth single release, Hold On to the Nights, earned Marx his first #1 Pop single, with the success of his self-titled album, he embarked on his first world tour, initially opening for REO Speedwagon, but quickly began headlining his own shows. His first tour kept him on the road for 14 months, in 1988, Marx was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance - Solo for Don’t Mean Nothing. Repeat Offender, Marx’s second album, was released in May 1989 and it rose to #1 on Billboards album chart
23.
BBC
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. It is headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, the BBC is the worlds oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees. It employs over 20,950 staff in total,16,672 of whom are in public sector broadcasting, the total number of staff is 35,402 when part-time, flexible, and fixed contract staff are included. The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBCs radio, TV, britains first live public broadcast from the Marconi factory in Chelmsford took place in June 1920. It was sponsored by the Daily Mails Lord Northcliffe and featured the famous Australian Soprano Dame Nellie Melba, the Melba broadcast caught the peoples imagination and marked a turning point in the British publics attitude to radio. However, this public enthusiasm was not shared in official circles where such broadcasts were held to interfere with important military and civil communications. By late 1920, pressure from these quarters and uneasiness among the staff of the licensing authority, the General Post Office, was sufficient to lead to a ban on further Chelmsford broadcasts. But by 1922, the GPO had received nearly 100 broadcast licence requests, John Reith, a Scottish Calvinist, was appointed its General Manager in December 1922 a few weeks after the company made its first official broadcast. The company was to be financed by a royalty on the sale of BBC wireless receiving sets from approved manufacturers, to this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate and entertain. The financial arrangements soon proved inadequate, set sales were disappointing as amateurs made their own receivers and listeners bought rival unlicensed sets. By mid-1923, discussions between the GPO and the BBC had become deadlocked and the Postmaster-General commissioned a review of broadcasting by the Sykes Committee and this was to be followed by a simple 10 shillings licence fee with no royalty once the wireless manufactures protection expired. The BBCs broadcasting monopoly was made explicit for the duration of its current broadcast licence, the BBC was also banned from presenting news bulletins before 19.00, and required to source all news from external wire services. Mid-1925 found the future of broadcasting under further consideration, this time by the Crawford committee, by now the BBC under Reiths leadership had forged a consensus favouring a continuation of the unified broadcasting service, but more money was still required to finance rapid expansion. Wireless manufacturers were anxious to exit the loss making consortium with Reith keen that the BBC be seen as a service rather than a commercial enterprise. The recommendations of the Crawford Committee were published in March the following year and were still under consideration by the GPO when the 1926 general strike broke out in May. The strike temporarily interrupted newspaper production and with restrictions on news bulletins waived the BBC suddenly became the source of news for the duration of the crisis. The crisis placed the BBC in a delicate position, the Government was divided on how to handle the BBC but ended up trusting Reith, whose opposition to the strike mirrored the PMs own
24.
BBC One Wales
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BBC One Wales is a television channel operated by BBC Cymru Wales. It is the Welsh variation of the UK-wide BBC One and is broadcast in Wales from Broadcasting House in Cardiff, BBC One Wales broadcasts around three hours of non-news programmes for Wales each week alongside six hours a week of national news for Wales from Wales Today. Continuity from the main BBC One network service is carried overnight until the handover to the BBC News Channel, a high-definition simulcast of BBC One Wales launched on 29 January 2013 on Freeview, Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media. Unlike BBC One HD, controversially, BBC One Wales HD and BBC One Northern Ireland HD, are currently stereo only, on 10 December 2013, BBC One Wales HD was swapped with the SD channel on Skys EPG for HD subscribers. BBC One Wales listings at BBC Online BBC Wales at BBC Online
25.
Eminem
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Marshall Bruce Mathers III, known professionally as Eminem, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Eminem is the best-selling artist of the 2000s in the United States, throughout his career, he has had 10 number-one albums on the Billboard 200 and five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. Globally, he has more than 172 million albums, thus being one of the worlds best-selling artists. Rolling Stone ranked him 83rd on its list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and they were followed by Encore in 2004, another critical and commercial success. Eminem went on hiatus after touring in 2005, releasing Relapse in 2009, both won Grammy Awards and Recovery was the best-selling album of 2010 worldwide, the second time he had the international best-selling album of the year. Eminems eighth album, 2013s The Marshall Mathers LP2, won two Grammy Awards, including Best Rap Album, it expanded his record for the most wins in that category and his Grammy total to 15. In addition to his career, Eminem is an original member of the Midwest hip hop groups Soul Intent. He is also known for his collaborations with fellow Detroit-based rapper Royce da 59, Eminem has developed other ventures, including Shady Records, with manager Paul Rosenberg, which helped launch the careers of artists such as 50 Cent. Eminem has also established his own channel, Shade 45, on Sirius XM Radio. In November 2002, he starred in the hip hop film 8 Mile, Eminem has made cameo appearances in the films The Wash, Funny People, The Interview and the television series Entourage. Eminem was born on October 17,1972, in St. Joseph, Missouri, Debbie was 14 when she met 18-year-old Bruce, at age 17, she nearly died during her 73-hour labor. Eminems parents were in a band called Daddy Warbucks, playing in Ramada Inns along the Dakotas–Montana border before their separation, Bruce left the family, moving to California and having two other children, Michael and Sarah. Debbie had son Nathan Nate Kane Samara on February 3,1986, during his childhood, Eminem and Debbie shuttled between Michigan and Missouri, rarely staying in one house for more than a year or two and living primarily with family members. In Missouri, they lived in places, including St. Joseph, Savannah. As a teenager Eminem wrote letters to his father, according to Debbie, friends and family remember Eminem as a happy child, but a bit of a loner who was often bullied. One bully, DeAngelo Bailey, severely injured Eminems head, Debbie filed a lawsuit against the school in 1982, Eminem spent much of his youth in a working-class, primarily black, Detroit neighborhood. He and Debbie were one of three white households on their block, and Eminem was beaten by black youths several times, as a child he was interested in storytelling, aspiring to be a comic-book artist before discovering hip hop. Eminem heard his first rap song on the Breakin soundtrack, a gift from Debbies half-brother Ronnie Polkinghorn, when Polkinghorn committed suicide in 1991, Eminem stopped speaking for days and did not attend his funeral
26.
Bon Jovi
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Bon Jovi is an American rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Formed in 1983, Bon Jovi consists of singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi, pianist and keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, lead guitarist Phil X. Phil X and McDonald both became members in 2016. In 1986, Bon Jovi achieved widespread global recognition with their third album, the bands fourth album, New Jersey was equally successful in 1988. In 1992, the returned with the album Keep the Faith. Their 2000 single Its My Life, which followed a second hiatus, Bon Jovi have been known to use different styles in their music, which has included country for their 2007 album Lost Highway. Thus far, Bon Jovi has released 13 studio albums, plus six compilations, the band has sold more than 130 million records worldwide and performed more than 2,700 concerts in over 50 countries for more than 34 million fans. Bon Jovi was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2006, Jon Bon Jovi began playing piano and guitar in 1975, at the age of 13, with his first band Raze. At 16, Bon Jovi met David Bryan and formed a band called Atlantic City Expressway, still in his teens, Bon Jovi played in the band John Bongiovi and the Wild Ones, playing local clubs like The Fast Lane, and opening for known acts in the area. By 1980, he formed band, The Rest, and opened up for New Jersey acts such as Southside Johnny. Bon Jovi made several demos—including one produced by Billy Squier—and sent them to record companies and his first professional recording was as lead vocals in R2-D2 We Wish You a Merry Christmas, which was part of the Christmas in the Stars album which his cousin co-produced. In 1983, a then-unknown Bon Jovi visited a local radio station WAPP103. 5FM The Apple in Lake Success, New York, and wrote and sang the jingles for the station. He spoke with DJ Chip Hobart and to the director, John Lassman. Bon Jovi was reluctant, but eventually gave them the song, WAPP worked with WOR-TV in nearby Secaucus, NJ on a music video show, Rock 9 Videos, for a short time in 1984. The studio musicians who helped record Runaway—known as The All Star Review—were guitarist Tim Pierce, keyboardist Roy Bittan, drummer Frankie LaRocka, the song began to get airplay in the New York area, then other sister stations in major markets picked up the song. In March 1983, Bon Jovi called David Bryan, who in turn called bassist Alec John Such, tapped to play lead guitar was Bon Jovis neighbor, Dave Sabo —though he never officially joined the band. He and Jon promised each other that made it first. Sabo later went on to form the group Skid Row, Jon saw and was impressed with hometown guitarist Richie Sambora
27.
Linkin Park
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Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Formed in 1996, the rose to international fame with their debut album Hybrid Theory. Their following studio album Meteora continued the success, topping the Billboard 200 album chart in 2003. In 2003, MTV2 named Linkin Park the sixth-greatest band of the video era. Billboard ranked Linkin Park No.19 on the Best Artists of the Decade chart, in 2012, the band was voted as the greatest artist of the 2000s in a Bracket Madness poll on VH1. In 2014, the band was declared as the Biggest Rock Band in the World Right Now by Kerrang. Having adapted nu metal and rap metal to a radio-friendly yet densely layered style in Hybrid Theory and Meteora, the album topped the Billboard charts and had the third-best debut week of any album that year. The band continued to explore a wider variation of musical types in their album, A Thousand Suns, layering their music with more electronic sounds. Their fifth album, Living Things, combines elements from all of their previous records. Their sixth album, The Hunting Party, returned to a rock sound. Their upcoming album One More Light is expected to be released May 19,2017, the band has collaborated with several other artists, most notably with rapper Jay Z in their mashup EP Collision Course, and many others on the remix albums Reanimation and Recharged. Linkin Park has sold over 70 million albums worldwide and has won two Grammy Awards, Linkin Park was founded by three high school friends, Mike Shinoda, Rob Bourdon, and Brad Delson. The three attended Agoura High School in Agoura Hills, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. After graduating from school, the three began to take their musical interests more seriously, recruiting Joe Hahn, Dave Phoenix Farrell. Though limited in resources, the began recording and producing songs within Shinodas makeshift bedroom studio in 1996, resulting in a four-track demo tape. Tensions and frustration within the band grew however after they failed to land a record deal, the lack of success and stalemate in progress prompted Wakefield, at that time the bands vocalist, to leave the band in search of other projects. Farrell also left to tour with Tasty Snax, a Christian punk, Bennington, formerly of a post-grunge band by the name of Grey Daze, became a standout among applicants because of the dynamic in his singing style. The band then agreed on changing its name from Xero to Hybrid Theory, in 1999 the band released a self-titled extended play, which they circulated across internet chat-rooms and forums with the help of an online street team
28.
Newport, Wales
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Newport is a cathedral and university city and unitary authority area in south east Wales. It is located on the River Usk close to its confluence with the Severn Estuary, at the 2011 census it is the third largest city in Wales, with a city population of 145,700 and an urban population of 306,844. The city forms part of the Cardiff-Newport metropolitan area with a population of 1,097,000, Newport has been a port since medieval times, when the first Newport Castle was built by the Normans. The town outgrew the earlier Roman town of Caerleon, immediately upstream and it grew significantly in the 19th century, when its port became the focus of coal exports from the eastern valleys of South Wales. Until the rise of Cardiff from the 1850s, Newport was Wales largest coal-exporting port and it was the site of the last large-scale armed insurrection in Britain, the Newport Rising of 1839 led by the Chartists. During the 20th century, when the docks declined in importance and it was granted city status in 2002. Newport hosted the Ryder Cup in 2010, the city was the venue for the 2014 NATO summit. It is the largest urban area within the county boundaries of Monmouthshire. The City of Newport, which includes surrounding rural areas as well as the built up area, is governed by Newport City Council. Bronze Age fishermen settled around the estuary of the River Usk. In AD75, on the edge of their empire. According to legend, in the late 5th century Saint Woolos church was founded by Saint Gwynllyw, the church was certainly in existence by the 9th century and today has become Newport Cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of Monmouth. The Normans arrived from around 1088–1093 to build the first Newport Castle and river crossing downstream from Caerleon, the settlement of Newport is first mentioned as novo burgus established by Robert, Earl of Gloucester in 1126. The name was derived from the original Latin name Novus Burgus, the city can sometimes be found labelled as Newport-on-Usk on old maps. The original Welsh language name for the city, Casnewydd-ar-Wysg means New castle-on-Usk, the original Newport Castle was a small motte-and-bailey castle in the park opposite Newport Cathedral. It was buried in rubble excavated from the Hillfield railway tunnels that were dug under Stow Hill in the 1840s and no part of it is currently visible. Around the settlement, the new town grew to become Newport, obtaining its first charter in 1314 and was granted a second one, by Hugh Stafford, in the 14th century friars came to Newport where they built an isolation hospital for infectious diseases. After its closure the hospital lived on in the place name Spitty Fields, austin Friars also remains a street name in the city
29.
Skindred
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Skindred are a Welsh metal band formed in Newport in 1998. Their musical style mixes heavy metal, alternative rock, and reggae, the band also integrate elements of hardcore punk, dancehall, jungle, ska, hip hop, drum and bass, dubstep, and various other influences into their music. Dub War was formed in Newport in 1993, and eventually signed with Earache Records, in 2002, Skindred released its debut album, Babylon. After being reissued in 2003 by RCA Records, the album was re-released by Lava Records on 14 August 2004, in 2005, the single Pressure peaked at No.30 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. In 2006, Babylon once again charted at No.1 on the Top Reggae Albums chart, on 23 October 2007, Skindred released its second album, Roots Rock Riot on Bieler Bros. In the United States, the peaked at No.6 on the Top Heatseekers chart. The album Shark Bites and Dog Fights was released in September 2009, in 2011, Dan Sturgess was added to Skindreds live lineup. The bands fourth album, Union Black, was released 25 April 2011 exclusively to the UK & Europe. On 1 July, it was released in Germany, Austria, the band promoted this with a UK tour, supported by American post-hardcore group Chiodos and Blackpool band Me Vs Hero. The London show was filmed for Scuzz TV in the UK, in March 2013 the band posted a studio walkthrough of The Chairworks Studio in Cas Vegas, announcing their work on their 5th album. In April 2013, the officially announced the title for their new album to be Kill The Power. The album was released on January 24,2014. It debuted on the chart at #37 and then climbed to #32 where it peaked. Between their 5th and 6th albums, Skindred left their label BMG, on October 30,2015, The band released the album Volume. Marking the shortest amount of time between albums, alongside the standard release, a deluxe edition of the album that contained a documentary called Rude Boys For Life was available for pre-order through pledge music. The album debuted on the chart at #55 where it peaked. Fuse TV Daily Download Late Night with Conan OBrien Skindreds bassist Daniel Pugsley filled in on bass duties for the punk band Gogol Bordello for their appearance on Later. With Jools Holland on 16 June 2006, Skindred has appeared at a multitude of international music festivals
30.
Dead Son Rising
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Dead Son Rising is the nineteenth studio album by the British musician Gary Numan, released on 15 September 2011. On 12 August 2011, The Quietus debuted a radio edit of the song Dead Sun Rising on their website, on 28 August 2011, the official Gary Numan website debuted a short promo edit of the video for the first single, The Fall. After the albums release it spent only one week on the UK album charts, the Album also reached as high as number 5 in the German alternative albums chart. Dead Son Rising grew out of a set of demos Numan had left over from previous projects, it’s grown into another animal, something more experimental. ’ The album was co-written and co-produced by Numan with Ade Fenton. The tracks We Are The Lost and Dead Sun Rising both contain elements from a fantasy story Numan has been writing over the last few years. The album also includes two instrumentals, Resurrection and Into Battle, showcasing some of the material that Numan. All lyrics written by Gary Numan, all composed by Gary Numan. Big Noise Transmission had the working titles of Captured Underground Noise Transmission. Dead Sun Rising is a version of What Have I Become from the 2006 Jagged sessions. When The Sky Bleeds, He Will Come had the working title of Dragging Loop. For The Rest Of My Life is a version of Always from the 2000 Pure sessions. The Fall is a version of Look from the 2000 Pure sessions. It has existed in a variety of different mixes since it debuted live several years ago and we Are The Lost is a reworked version of Mercy from the 2006 Jagged sessions, and featured on the Small Black Box tour audio programme. The album was released in three different formats,48 Page Art book each page is 315mm x 310mm
31.
The Moore Show
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The Moore Show is a British television talk show presented by Kevin Moore and produced by Joanna Soh. The show began filming in April 2011 under the name of The Moore Show - Prime Time, covering a range of topics including the paranormal, self-help and celebrity chat with many of the shows interviews focusing on spiritual subject matters. Notable names which have been on the show include British Astronomer Patrick Moore, Coronation Street actor William Roache, Star Wars actor David Prowse and psychic medium, Colin Fry. Before airing the show gained notoriety in the press for being totally manned by students of The University of Glamorgan where the show is filmed at the universitys Atrium campus, in October 2011 Rohani Productions Ltd started work on a second show. The Moore show re-branded itself in May 2013 as a Radio onTV show under the new name The Moore Show – Alternative Late Night Talk. The Moore Show started as a late night talk show on The University of Glamorgans Atrium Campus Atrium student radio station Tequila Radio in October 2008. The radio show expanded to over thirteen FM stations across the UK as a pre-recorded show, the Radio Show plans to go live across multiple FM stations in mid-2013
32.
Fear Factory
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Fear Factory is an American heavy metal band that was formed in 1989. During the bands career, they have released nine albums and have evolved through a succession of styles, including nu metal, death metal, groove metal. Fear Factory was enormously influential on the metal scene in the mid-to-late 1990s. In April 2009, a new lineup was announced, Cazares returned as lead and rhythm guitarist, and Gene Hoglan as drummer. Bell and Stroud reprised their roles, and the band completed a seventh studio album titled Mechanize. Former members Christian Olde Wolbers and Raymond Herrera—both of whom were playing in Arkaea—disputed the legitimacy of the new lineup, since then, Fear Factory has released two more albums, The Industrialist and Genexus. Over the years, Fear Factory has seen changes in its members, Bell being the only consistent member since 1989. The band has performed at three Ozzfests and the inaugural Gigantour. Their singles have charted on the US Mainstream Rock Top 40 and albums on the Billboard Top 40,100, and 200, Fear Factory was formed in 1989 under the name Ulceration, which the band agreed would just be a cool name. The bands origins can be traced to a formed by guitarist Dino Cazares—formerly of The Douche Lords—and drummer Raymond Herrera in Los Angeles. Their first line-up was completed with the addition of bassist Dave Gibney, Bell, who was allegedly recruited by an impressed Cazares, who overheard him singing New Years Day by U2. Cazares played bass on the first three Fear Factory albums Concrete, Soul of a New Machine and Demanufacture, on which Cazares changed many of the riffs during the recording and it took Cazares two weeks to get the appropriate guitar tone. Cazares created, wrote and recorded all the music on the album, Christian joined the band two weeks before they were scheduled to go on tour to promote the album. He stated that had contributed musical changes to a couple of songs on the album, in his own words, this has not been a significant contribution. According to Brian Russ of The BNR Metal Pages, the demos are remarkable for integrating these influences into the death metal sound. Bells pioneering fusion of death growls and clean vocals in the same song. The use of grunts and throat singing combined with clean vocals later defined the nu metal, many vocalists in todays metal scene use two or more methods of singing and vocalizing lyrics. The band contributed two songs to the L. A, the band played its first show on October 31,1990
33.
Burton C. Bell
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Burton Christopher Bell is an American musician and vocalist. Bell is best known as co-founder and frontman of the metal band Fear Factory and his singing style mixes clean and shouted vocals with death growls. Prior to his role in Fear Factory, Bell was in the band Hate Face, in 1989 after Hateface disbanded, his housemate Dino Cazares invited him to meet a drummer to possibly work with. On October 31,1990, Bell, Cazares, Herrera, the group recorded four studio albums before Fear Factory disbanded temporarily in 2002. The band reformed in 2004 with Christian Olde Wolbers switching from bass to guitar, during the following period of inactivity within the band, Cazares and Bell patched up their differences, and in 2009 decided to have Fear Factory return to form. Bell is the member to have appeared on every Fear Factory release. In 2012, Burton and Dino received the Revolver Golden Gods Icon award, after Fear Factorys hiatus in 2002, Bell went on to form Ascension of the Watchers with John Bechdel at Bechdels studio in Mifflinburg, PA. The Watchers released an online only selling EP entitled Iconoclast in 2005, on February 19,2008, Ascension of the Watchers released their first full-length album Numinosum. Bell has performed guest vocals on many records in addition to taking lead vocal duties for G/Z/Rs Plastic Planet album released in 1995, due to commitments with Fear Factory, Bell was not the vocalist for G/Z/Rs second album, Black Science. Burton recorded a track for UK metal band This Is Menace, Burton performed live in the encore segments of the Ministry 2008 Tour singing songs such as Stigmata, Thieves and So What taking over vocal duties from Al Jourgensen. Burton has joined with Byron Stroud to form City of Fire who released their album in August 2009. Burton featured on Delains 2012 album We Are The Others, providing vocals for the track Where is the Blood, Bell was one of the young audience members in Nirvanas music video for Smells Like Teen Spirit. Although there are only a few snippets of him in this video, all appearances are as a vocalist, unless mentioned otherwise
34.
Lance Henriksen
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Henriksen is also notable for his voice acting, having voiced Kerchak the gorilla in Walt Disney Animation Studios Tarzan and Admiral Steven Hackett in BioWares Mass Effect video game trilogy. Henriksen was born in New York City and his father was a Norwegian merchant sailor and boxer nicknamed Icewater who spent most of his life at sea. His mother, Margueritte Werner, struggled to work as a dance instructor, waitress. His parents divorced when he was two old, and he was raised by his mother. As he grew up, Henriksen found himself in trouble at various schools, Henriksen served in the United States Navy from 1955–58 and attained the rank of Petty Officer Third Class. Henriksens first job in the world was as a designer of theatrical sets, in fact. It was also around this time that Henriksen taught himself to read, for his first role, he put the entire script to tape with the help of a friend, learning everyones part in addition to his own. In his early 30s, Henriksen graduated from the prestigious Actors Studio, in film, he first appeared in It Aint Easy in 1972. Henriksen went on to portray a variety of supporting roles in noteworthy genre films such as Dog Day Afternoon, Steven Spielbergs Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Damien, Omen II. When James Cameron was writing the film The Terminator, he had originally envisioned Henriksen, regardless, the role ultimately went to Arnold Schwarzenegger. Henriksen did appear in the film, in the role of Sergeant Hal Vukovich. Henriksen is perhaps best known for portraying the android Bishop, an artificial life-form, in Aliens and he also played Charles Bishop Weyland, the man Bishops appearance was based on, in Alien 3 and Alien vs. Predator. Henriksen and Bill Paxton are the two actors to have been killed by a terminator, a xenomorph and a predator. Henriksen also portrayed vampire leader Jesse Hooker in Kathryn Bigelows vampire cult film Near Dark and he acted in a movie called Stone Cold with Brian Bosworth in 1991. He played the character Chains Cooper, Hard Target is one of Henriksens favorite films. He especially enjoyed working with director John Woo, saying He let me do some work as an actor. No never came out of his mouth, it was always What could this be, hes one of the greatest directors ever, gentle, communicative and supportive. He caught everything that was important to me as an actor on film, the times Ive seen my work and gone Jesus, they cut the behaviour, the motivation, the only reason I made the movie in the first place
35.
Boy George
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George Alan ODowd, known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer, songwriter, DJ, fashion designer and photographer. He is the singer of the Grammy and Brit Award-winning pop band Culture Club. He was part of the English New Romantic movement which emerged in the late 1970s to the early 1980s and his music is often classified as blue-eyed soul, which is influenced by rhythm and blues and reggae. He was lead singer of Jesus Loves You during the period 1989–1992 and his 1990s and 2000s-era solo music has glam influences, such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop. More recently, he has released fewer music recordings, splitting his time between songwriting, DJing, writing books, designing clothes, and photography. Boy George was born George Alan ODowd in Eltham, London, on 14 June 1961, to Jeremiah and Dinah ODowd, George was a follower of the New Romantic movement which was popular in Britain in the early 1980s. He lived in various squats around Warren Street in Central London and he and his friend Marilyn were regulars at Blitz, a London nightclub run by Steve Strange and Rusty Egan. The pop artists that inspired him were Siouxsie and the Banshees, David Bowie, T. Rex, Roxy Music, Boy Georges androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of music entrepreneur Malcolm McLaren, who arranged for George to perform with the group Bow Wow Wow. Going by the stage name Lieutenant Lush, his tenure with Bow Wow Wow proved problematic with lead singer Annabella Lwin, George eventually left the group and started his own band with bassist Mikey Craig. They were joined by Jon Moss and then guitarist Roy Hay, the band recorded demos that were paid for by EMI Records but the label declined to sign them. Virgin Records expressed interest in signing the group in the UK for European releases, while Epic Records handled the US and they recorded their debut album Kissing to Be Clever and it was released in 1982. The single Do You Really Want to Hurt Me. became an hit, reaching No.1 in a dozen countries around the world. This was followed by the Top 5 hit Time in the US and UK and this gave Culture Club the distinction of being the first group since the Beatles to have three Top 10 hits in the US from a debut album. Their next album, Colour By Numbers was an success, topping the UK charts. The single Church of the Poison Mind became a Top 10 hit, and Karma Chameleon became an hit, peaking at No.1 in sixteen countries. It hit No.1 in the US where it stayed for three weeks and it was the best-selling single of the year in the United Kingdom, where it spent six weeks at No.1. Victims and Its a Miracle were further Top 5 UK hits, the bands third album Waking Up with the House on Fire was not as big a hit as its predecessors. Although the first single, The War Song, was a No.2 hit in the UK, George then provided a lead vocal role on the Band Aid international hit single Do They Know Its Christmas
36.
Martin Kemp
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He is the younger brother of Gary Kemp, who is also a member of Spandau Ballet and an actor. Martin Kemp finished third in the series of Celebrity Big Brother 2012. In 2017, Kemp is taking on the role as a judge on the new BBC show, Martin Kemp was born to parents Frank and Eileen Kemp at their house in Islington, north London, and attended Rotherfield Junior School. At the age of 7 he began to attend the Anna Scher Childrens Theatre drama club with his brother Gary, in his last year with Anna Scher, he won a role in The Glittering Prizes, appearing alongside Tom Conti and Nigel Havers. Kemp grew up in north London and attended Central Foundation Boys School on Cowper Street, along with other famous ex-pupils, a large photo of him adorns a wall of fame at the school. After leaving school at 16, he began an apprenticeship in a print factory, kemps life changed when Steve Dagger, the manager of his brother Garys band the Gentry, suggested he should replace the bands bass player. Kemp learned to play bass in three months and performed for the first time with the Gentry at a college party, eventually the band was renamed “Spandau Ballet and Kemp left his printing job to concentrate on the band full-time. Spandau Ballet went on to have a deal of success in the New Romantic Era. True also gave the band their first UK number one album, Kemp also performed with the band on the popular 1984 famine relief project song Do They Know Its Christmas. Written by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, because of a dispute over royalties, the band split up in the early 1990s. After a 20-year hiatus, newspaper reports claimed early in 2009 that Spandau Ballet was set to reform later that year and this was confirmed by the band at a press conference held on board HMS Belfast on 25 March 2009. The band also announced a tour, beginning with dates in the UK. Kemp and his brother Gary returned to acting in 1990, both of them appearing in the British film The Krays, in which played the notorious gangster twins Ronald and Reginald Kray. Their performances received a deal of critical acclaim. After The Krays, Martin Kemp moved to Los Angeles in the early 1990s and made appearances in series such as The Outer Limits and Highlander. He also appeared in several Hollywood films such as Waxwork II, Lost in Time, in 1995 Kemp moved back to the United Kingdom and took a break from acting for a short while, recovering from removal of two benign brain tumours. He then resumed his career in 1998 when he made guest appearance in the ITV police drama series The Bill. He went on to become popular for his role as villain Steve Owen in the BBCs top soap opera and his character was involved in some of the soaps highest rated storylines such as the Saskia Duncan murder and Who Shot Phil
37.
Gary Kemp
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Gary James Kemp is a British pop musician and actor who is the guitar player and chief songwriter for the 1980s new wave band Spandau Ballet. His brother, Martin Kemp, plays guitar in the band. Gary Kemp also provided backing vocals on many of the tracks to lead singer Tony Hadley, Kemp was born of parents Eileen and Frank Kemp in St Bartholomews Hospital, Smithfield, London, and grew up in Islington, London, in a working class family. He attended Rotherfield Junior School and Dame Alice Owens school in Potters Bar and he was active in the Anna Scher Childrens Theatre drama club, along with his brother, Martin. In 1968 he began appearing in TV and film, including a role in the 1972 film Hide & Seek, Kemp eventually decided to concentrate on a career in music, and in the late 1970s, he formed a band called The Cut with school friends. The band became the Makers and the Gentry, and was eventually renamed Spandau Ballet, after recording Spandau Ballets final album, Heart Like a Sky, Kemp and his brother returned to acting. He earned criticism from his band members, Tony Hadley, Steve Norman and John Keeble. The success of film was the death-knell for Spandau Ballet. In 1999, Hadley, Norman and Keeble attempted to sue Kemp for alleged unpaid royalties. They claimed that an agreement had existed between Kemp and the rest of the band, whereby Kemp, who was the songwriter in the band. The claims were denied by Kemp, and Hadley, Norman. Although initially vowing to appeal the verdict, they decided against this. In 2004 Kemp made an attempt to reform Spandau Ballet, in early 2009, newspaper reports claimed that the band was set to reform later that year. The rumours were confirmed by the band at a conference held on board HMS Belfast in London on 25 March 2009. In 2012, Kemps songwriting for Spandau Ballet was recognised with an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Song Collection, Kemp released a solo album entitled Little Bruises in 1995, followed by a tour of the UK and Ireland. He has written songs with a number of writers for other artists. Two of his songs appeared on the album by American soap star Jacob Young in 2001. In January 2008, Kemp appeared on a celebrity special of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, with his brother Martin to raise awareness of and funds for the Encephalitis Society
38.
Steve Norman
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Steven Antony Norman is an English musician who plays saxophone, guitar, percussion, and other instruments, for Spandau Ballet. Steve Norman was born in Stepney, and was considered a prodigy in music. He started pursuing an interest in music as a guitarist in a Dame Alice Owens School band called The Cut with Gary Kemp, Tony Hadley. The band was later named The Makers, The Gentry and then Spandau Ballet, Spandau Ballet signed with Chrysalis Records. By the third Spandau Ballet album, Norman brought percussion to the mix and introduced the saxophone, with Spandau Ballet, Norman toured the globe and continued to have hits throughout the 1980s. In 1985 Norman appeared with Spandau Ballet at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium, because of a dispute over royalties, the band split up in the early 1990s. After a 20-year hiatus, newspaper reports claimed early in 2009 that Spandau Ballet was set to reform later that year, on 25 March 2009, Norman, Gary Kemp, Martin Kemp, Tony Hadley and John Keeble announced their reunion at a press conference on board HMS Belfast. The band also announced their Reformation Tour starting in October 2009, steve Norman was credited with co-writing Once More, the first new Spandau Ballet single in 20 years. In the early 1990s after the band went their ways, Norman moved to Ibiza. During his time on the island, Norman collaborated with musicians and producers who resided in Ibiza, including Lenny Krarup, Nacho Sotomayor, Stefan Zauner. Norman also worked with Rafa Peletey on various projects, including Funky Jacks Saxomatic percussion mix, Norman formed a partnership with Hed Kandi, DJ John Jones and Martin Ikin from Soul Purpose called The Collective. Their first production was a re-working of Joe Smooths Promised Land featuring Peyton on lead vocals, in 2013, Norman played on three tracks on Bruce Foxtons album, Back in the Room. He also played on James Stevensons album Everythings Getting Closer To Being Over released in 2014, Norman has performed at various concerts in aid of The Princes Trust charity. He also played at the Free Nelson Mandela concert some years later along with Tony Hadley, Norman writes a regular column reviewing CDs for the magazine, Ibiza Now. In 2001, Norman and Rafa Peletey formed a team called Cloudfish. They invited Shelley Preston to provide the vocals, as a result, Cloudfish became a band with Norman, Preston and Peletey writing and producing their own songs. Peletey left in 2003 to front his own band, joining up with Norman, Cloudfish have continued to write, produce and perform and were featured artists on the eponymous CD of the Italian quintet, Quintessenza. Cloudfish sold out a number of concerts including the one at Ronnie Scotts nightclub and their song So High was included on the CD compilation, Dome Ibiza, The Chillout Session Vol.2
39.
Visage (band)
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Visage were a British synthpop band, formed in London in 1978. The band became closely linked to the burgeoning New Romantic fashion movement of the early 1980s, in the UK, the band achieved two Top 20 albums and five Top 30 singles before the commercial failure of their third album led to their break-up in 1985. The band has seen various changes over the years, all fronted by vocalist Steve Strange. In 2013, the most recent line-up of the band released Hearts and Knives, the bands fifth and final album, Demons to Diamonds, was released in 2015, nine months after Strange had died following a heart attack. Strange had briefly been in the wave bands The Moors Murderers and The Photons. The trio recorded a demo included a cover of the Zager. Producer Martin Rushent had heard some of the material at Billys nightclub. Visage released their first single Tar on Radar in September 1979, by this time, however, Strange and Egan had relocated their themed club nights to the Blitz club in Covent Garden and the New Romantic movement had begun in earnest. Although Visages self-titled debut album had completed for several months. The bands second single, Fade to Grey, was released at the same time, the single became a huge hit in early 1981, making the top ten in the UK and several other countries, and reaching no.1 in Germany and Switzerland. The album also became a Top 20 hit in the UK and was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry, in the autumn of 1981 Visage went into the studio again and recorded The Anvil as a five-piece band without McGeoch and only limited guest work from Adamson. Like their first album, The Anvil earned a Silver disc in the UK, following this, Ure left the band to concentrate on his work with Ultravox, who were now even more successful than Visage. Creative differences with Strange and Egan were also cited as reasons for his departure at the time, the trouble with Visage was that there were too many chiefs, six characters all wanting an equal say without putting in an equal amount of work. I was doing most of the writing and producing, and we all knew Steve was the frontman, but when it became successful, jealousy and that was never the way it was intended. Visage, now without Ure, McGeoch and Adamson but now with the addition of bassist Steve Barnacle, recorded the stand-alone single Pleasure Boys, the single failed to prolong their string of hits and peaked just outside the UK top 40. Although still recording, Visage then took a hiatus from releasing any new material due to contractual difficulties with their management company. Polydor issued a best of compilation, Fade to Grey – The Singles Collection, which included all of the singles released to date and the previously unreleased In the Year 2525. Although the album was certified Gold in the UK for pre-release sales to stores, in 1984, with their contractual problems resolved, Visage returned with their third album, Beat Boy
40.
EMI Records
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The label was later launched worldwide. Records Ltd. legal entity was created in 1957 as the record manufacturing and it oversaw EMIs various labels, including The Gramophone Co. Ltd. Columbia Graphophone Company, and Parlophone Co. Ltd, in July 1965, the standalone EMI Record companies were extracted from E. M. I. Records Ltd. and folded into The Gramophone Company Ltd, on 1 July 1973, The Gramophone Co. Ltd. was renamed EMI Records Ltd. Records Ltd. was wound down and its activities were absorbed into EMI Records Ltd, earlier, on 1 January 1973, all of The Gramophone Company Ltd. pop labels had been rebranded as EMI. EMI Records then signed new acts that became global successes, Kraftwerk, Renaissance, Queen, Olivia Newton-John, Iron Maiden, Kate Bush, Sheena Easton, Pink Floyd, in 1997, EMI Records American division was folded into Virgin Records. In 2010, EMI Records opened a music division, EMI Records Nashville, which includes on its roster Troy Olsen, Alan Jackson, Kelleigh Bannen. EMI Records Nashville is a label to the Capitol Nashville unit of Universal Music Group. EMI Christian Music Group was renamed Capitol Christian Music Group, EMI Classics was sold to Warner Music Group on February 2013. After EU regulatory approval, EMI Classics was absorbed into Warner Classics on July 2013, abbey Road Studios List of record labels
41.
Twitter
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Twitter is an online news and social networking service where users post and interact with messages, tweets, restricted to 140 characters. Registered users can post tweets, but those who are unregistered can only read them, users access Twitter through its website interface, SMS or a mobile device app. Twitter Inc. is based in San Francisco, California, United States, Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams and launched in July. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, in 2012, more than 100 million users posted 340 million tweets a day, and the service handled an average of 1.6 billion search queries per day. In 2013, it was one of the ten most-visited websites and has described as the SMS of the Internet. As of 2016, Twitter had more than 319 million monthly active users. On the day of the 2016 U. S. presidential election, Twitter proved to be the largest source of breaking news, Twitters origins lie in a daylong brainstorming session held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. Jack Dorsey, then a student at New York University. The original project name for the service was twttr, an idea that Williams later ascribed to Noah Glass, inspired by Flickr. The developers initially considered 10958 as a code, but later changed it to 40404 for ease of use. Work on the project started on March 21,2006, when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9,50 PM Pacific Standard Time, Dorsey has explained the origin of the Twitter title. we came across the word twitter, and it was just perfect. The definition was a short burst of inconsequential information, and chirps from birds, and thats exactly what the product was. The first Twitter prototype, developed by Dorsey and contractor Florian Weber, was used as a service for Odeo employees. Williams fired Glass, who was silent about his part in Twitters startup until 2011, Twitter spun off into its own company in April 2007. Williams provided insight into the ambiguity that defined this early period in a 2013 interview, With Twitter and they called it a social network, they called it microblogging, but it was hard to define, because it didnt replace anything. There was this path of discovery with something like that, where over time you figure out what it is, Twitter actually changed from what we thought it was in the beginning, which we described as status updates and a social utility. It is that, in part, but the insight we eventually came to was Twitter was really more of an information network than it is a social network, the tipping point for Twitters popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive conference. During the event, Twitter usage increased from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000, the Twitter people cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages, remarked Newsweeks Steven Levy
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The Stool Pigeon (newspaper)
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The Stool Pigeon was an independent bi-monthly free UK music newspaper, printed in the format of a Victorian tabloid. It was founded in 2005 by designer Mickey Gibbons and editor Phil Hebblethwaite and had a circulation of more than 50,000. The initial print run of 10,000 had grown to 60,000 copies after five years, with five issues appearing per year, distributed free in 72 towns, the papers articles are written by established music journalists, industry figures and musicians. Founded by a magazine designer, Mickey Gibbons, The Stool Pigeon had a strong print identity that was modelled on Victorian tabloids. According to editor Hebblethwaite, This is an affair with the printed word. We go to libraries to study old newspapers – we will never just be a website, in a way, Stool Pigeon is the equivalent of a vinyl record. As for its philosophy, Hebblethwaite has said, It will never follow hype, shake the oily hands of those who wish to influence her, lick the arses of musicians. Stool Pigeon ceased publication with its last issue December/January 2013, according to TransitionTradition, The Stool Pigeon offered a candid, if not sometimes ruthless, response to the music industry from the inside outwards. A2011 article in Music Week reported that The Stool Pigeon had a readership in excess of 50,000 readers in the UK and Ireland, putting it ahead of titles like Kerrang. The paper was available in Berlin. Official website The Stool Pigeon on Twitter The Stool Pigeon on Facebook Feature on The Stool Pigeon on The Quietus
