1.
Game Theory (band)
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Game Theory is a power pop band founded in 1982 by singer/songwriter Scott Miller, combining melodic jangle pop with dense experimental production and hyperliterate lyrics. Millers posthumously completed Game Theory album, Supercalifragile, is expected in early 2017, Miller was the groups leader and sole constant member, presiding over frequently changing line-ups. Prior to founding Game Theory, Scott Miller had been the singer and songwriter of Alternate Learning, which issued an EP in 1979. Alternate Learning was based in Sacramento and Davis, California, Two members of the band, Jozef Becker and Nancy Becker, would join Miller in Game Theory. Alternate Learning was disbanded in early 1982, someone who was thinking against you, and you had to organize what his moves could be, and what your moves should be, to give yourself the minimum amount of failure. In a 1988 interview, Miller stated, Its a theory of probability thats a mathematical discipline that more or less has been applied improperly to real-life situations and its just that idea of a set of rules that gets misused that intrigued me about it. Kind of a comment on life in general—that you just have to have some sort of set of rules. That theme, according to Miller, was what many Game Theory songs were about and it may just be that the whole game that youre into is something very bogus and you should get out. By mid-1982, Scott Miller had assembled the first iteration of Game Theory, the group consisted of Miller, Nancy Becker, Fred Juhos, and Michael Irwin. The first Game Theory album was the Blaze of Glory LP, due to a lack of funds to both press the album and print a jacket, a thousand copies of the LP were packaged in white plastic trash bags with Xeroxed cover art glued to each bag. With Dave Gill replacing Michael Irwin on drums, two 12-inch EPs followed, in 1983, the group released the six-song EP Pointed Accounts of People You Know, recorded at Samurai Sound Studio, which was co-owned by Gill. The group then recorded the five-song Distortion EP in December 1983, the first three releases, originally released on Rational, were anthologized by Alias Records in 1993 as the Distortion of Glory CD. The early Game Theory was described as a pseudo-psychedelic pop quartet for which Miller sang, on the first three releases, Miller shared co-writing credits on The Young Drug with Alternate Learnings Carolyn ORourke, and on Life in July with Nancy Becker. Juhoss contributions were criticized as failing to mesh with Millers, and Miller later mused and we all had the impression that no one was ever going to get into my stuff and that his one or two would be the ones to catapult us to fame. Reviewers of Distortion of Glory wrote that the band had improved with each successive EP, notable songs included The Red Baron, cited as heartbreaking. An anguished acoustic lost-love song leavened by keyboardist Nancy Beckers mocking fifty or more backing vocal, as well as Shark Pretty, in 1984, the Dead Center LP was released in France, on the Lolita label. Dead Center was a compilation of selected tracks from Pointed Accounts of People You Know and Distortion, Real Nighttime, recorded in July 1984, marked the entrance of Mitch Easter as producer for the bands remaining releases. Easter was also credited as a guest musician on Real Nighttime, along with Quercio, the album was well-reviewed, appearing in the Village Voices annual poll of 1984s best releases
2.
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
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Winston-Salem is a city in and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. With a 2015 estimated population of 241,218, it is the second largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region and the fifth largest city in the state. Winston-Salem is home to the tallest office building in the region,100 North Main Street, formerly the Wachovia Building, Winston-Salem is called the Twin City for its dual heritage and City of the Arts and Innovation for its dedication to fine arts and theater and technological research. Camel City is a reference to the citys involvement in the tobacco industry related to locally based R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Companys Camel cigarettes. Winston-Salem is also known for its traditional furniture company, many locals refer to the city as Winston in informal speech. The Dash is referenced from the hyphen between Winston and Salem and was popularized by the nickname of the minor league baseball team. In 2012, the city was listed among the 10 best places to retire in the U. S. by CBS MoneyWatch, the city of Winston-Salem is a product of the merging of the two neighboring towns of Winston and Salem in 1913. The origin of the town of Salem dates to January 1753 and he called this area die Wachau named after the ancestral estate of Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf. The land, just short of 99,000 acres, was purchased from John Carteret. On November 17,1753, the first settlers arrived at what would become the town of Bethabara. This town, despite its growth, was not designed to be the primary settlement on the tract. Some residents expanded to a settlement called Bethania in 1759. Finally, lots were drawn to select suitable sites for the location of a new town. The town established on the site was given the name of Salem chosen for it by the Moravians late patron. On January 6,1766, the first tree was felled for the building of Salem, Salem was a typical Moravian settlement congregation with the public buildings of the congregation grouped around a central square, today Salem Square. These included the church, a Brethrens House and a Sisters House for the members of the Congregation. For many years members of the Moravian Church were permitted to live in the settlement. This practice had ended by the American Civil War, many of the original buildings in the settlement have been restored or rebuilt and are now part of Old Salem Museums & Gardens
3.
Power pop
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Power pop is a pop rock music subgenre that draws its inspiration from 1960s British and American rock music. It typically incorporates a combination of devices such as strong melodies, clear vocals and crisp vocal harmonies, economical arrangements. Instrumental solos are usually kept to a minimum, and blues elements are largely downplayed, in the 1980s and 1990s, power pop continued as a commercially modest genre but by the mid-1990s through the 2000s, power pop was mainly in the underground. While its cultural impact has waxed and waned over the decades, Power pop is a more aggressive form of pop rock that is based on catchy, melodic hooks and energetic moods. The Small Faces are often cited as being among the progenitors of power pop, the Whos role in the creation of power pop has been cited by singer-songwriter Eric Carmen of the Raspberries, who has said, Pete Townshend coined the phrase to define what the Who did. For some reason, it didnt stick to the Who, but it did stick to these groups came out in the 70s that played kind of melodic songs with crunchy guitars. It just kind of stuck to us like glue, and that was okay with us because the Who were among our highest role models, other acts such as the Knickerbockers, the Easybeats and the Outsiders contributed iconic singles. Writer John Borack has noted, Its also quite easy to draw a line from garage rock to power pop. Although the formative influences on the genre were primarily British, the bands that developed and codified power pop in the 1970s were nearly all American. The Raspberries 1972 hit single Go All The Way is an almost perfect embodiment of the elements of power pop, the most influential group of the period may have been Big Star. The Replacements even recorded a song entitled Alex Chilton in honor of Big Stars frontman, spurred on by the emergence of punk rock and new wave, power pop enjoyed a prolific and commercially successful period in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Although coined in the 1960s, and used as early as 1973 in reference to Sweet, as the novelist Michael Chabon has written, Power pop in its essential form. Did not come into existence for a number of years after it was first identified, like so much of the greatest work turned out by popular artists of the 1970s, true power pop is quintessential second-generation stuff. The term was used in reference to critics favorites Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe. Los Angeles-based Bomp. magazine championed power pop in its March 1978 issue, tying the genres roots to 1960s groups like the Who, like their punk brethren, late–1970s power pop groups favored a leaner and punchier sound than their early–1970s predecessors. Some occasionally incorporated synthesizers into their music, though not to the degree as did their new wave counterparts. Representative singles from the period include releases from the Bomp, records label by 20/20, Shoes and the Romantics. Major label groups like Cheap Trick, the Cars and Blondie merged power pop influences with other styles and achieved their first mainstream success with albums released in 1978
4.
R.E.M.
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R. E. M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, that was formed in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, lead guitarist Peter Buck, bassist/backing vocalist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe. Released its first single—Radio Free Europe—in 1981 on the independent record label Hib-Tone, the single was followed by the Chronic Town EP in 1982, the bands first release on I. R. S. Following years of success, R. E. M. Achieved a mainstream hit in 1987 with the single The One I Love, the group signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1988, and began to espouse political and environmental concerns while playing large arenas worldwide. By the early 1990s, when alternative rock began to experience mainstream success, R. E. M. was viewed by subsequent acts such as Nirvana. The band then released its two most commercially successful albums, Out of Time and Automatic for the People, which veered from the established sound. R. E. M. s 1994 release, Monster, was a return to a more rock-oriented sound, the band began its first tour in six years to support the album, the tour was marred by medical emergencies suffered by three of the band members. Re-signed with Warner Bros. for a reported US$80 million, at the time the most expensive recording contract in history and its 1996 release, New Adventures in Hi-Fi, though critically acclaimed, fared worse commercially than expected. The following year, Bill Berry left the band, while Stipe, Buck, in 2007, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in their first year of eligibility. Disbanded amicably in September 2011, announcing the split on its website, in January 1980, Michael Stipe met Peter Buck in Wuxtry Records, the Athens record store where Buck worked. The pair discovered that they shared similar tastes in music, particularly in rock and protopunk artists like Patti Smith, Television. Stipe said, It turns out that I was buying all the records that was saving for himself, Stipe and Buck soon met fellow University of Georgia students Mike Mills and Bill Berry, who had played music together since high school and lived together in Georgia. The quartet agreed to collaborate on songs, Stipe later commented that there was never any grand plan behind any of it. Their still-unnamed band spent a few months rehearsing and played its first show on April 5,1980, at a friends birthday party held in a converted Episcopal church in Athens. After considering names like Twisted Kites, Cans of Piss, and Negro Wives, the band members eventually dropped out of school to focus on their developing group. They found a manager in Jefferson Holt, a store clerk who was so impressed by an R. E. M. performance in his hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. R. E. M. s success was almost immediate in Athens and surrounding areas, the band drew progressively larger crowds for shows, over the next year and a half, R. E. M. Toured throughout the Southern United States, touring was arduous because a touring circuit for alternative rock bands did not then exist
5.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, also known as UNC, or simply Carolina, is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. It is one of the 17 campuses of the University of North Carolina system, the first public institution of higher education in North Carolina, the school opened its doors to students on February 12,1795. The university offers degrees in over 70 courses of study through fourteen colleges, in 1952, North Carolina opened its own hospital, UNC Health Care, for research and treatment, and has since specialized in cancer care. The schools students, alumni, and sports teams are known as Tar Heels, the campus covers 729 acres of Chapel Hills downtown area, encompassing the Morehead Planetarium and the many stores and shops located on Franklin Street. Students can participate in over 550 officially recognized student organizations, the student-run newspaper The Daily Tar Heel has won national awards for collegiate media, while the student radio station WXYC provided the worlds first internet radio broadcast. North Carolina is one of the members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Competing athletically as the Tar Heels, North Carolina has achieved success in sports, most notably in mens basketball, womens soccer. As a result, Womans College was renamed the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, in 1955, UNC Chapel Hill officially desegregated its undergraduate divisions. During World War II, UNC Chapel Hill was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission, during the 1960s, the campus was the location of significant political protest. Prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, protests about local racial segregation which began quietly in Franklin Street restaurants led to mass demonstrations, the climate of civil unrest prompted the 1963 Speaker Ban Law prohibiting speeches by communists on state campuses in North Carolina. The law was criticized by university Chancellor William Brantley Aycock and university President William Friday. A group of UNC Chapel Hill students, led by Student Body President Paul Dickson, filed a lawsuit in U. S. federal court, and on February 20,1968, the Speaker Ban Law was struck down. From the late 1990s and onward, UNC Chapel Hill expanded rapidly with a 15% increase in student population to more than 28,000 by 2007. Professor Oliver Smithies was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2007 for his work in genetics, additionally, Aziz Sancar was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015 for his work in understanding the molecular repair mechanisms of DNA. The current chancellor is Carol Folt, the first woman to hold the post, UNC Chapel Hills 729-acre campus is dominated by two central quads, Polk Place and McCorkle Place. Adjacent to Polk Place is a sunken brick courtyard known as the Pit where students will gather, the Morehead–Patterson Bell Tower, located in the heart of campus, tolls the quarter-hour. In 1999, UNC Chapel Hill was one of sixteen recipients of the American Society of Landscape Architects Medallion Awards and was identified as one of 50 college or university works of art by T. A, gaines in his book The Campus as a Work of Art. The universitys campus is divided into three regions, usually referred to as north campus, middle campus, and south campus
6.
Barbican Centre
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The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The Centre hosts classical and contemporary concerts, theatre performances, film screenings. It also houses a library, three restaurants, and a conservatory, the Barbican Centre is member of the Global Cultural Districts Network. The London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra are based in the Centres Concert Hall, in 2013, it once again became the London-based venue of the Royal Shakespeare Company following the companys departure in 2001. The Barbican Centre is owned, funded, and managed by the City of London Corporation and it was built as The Citys gift to the nation at a cost of £161 million and was officially opened to the public by Queen Elizabeth II on 3 March 1982. The Barbican Centre is also known for its brutalist architecture, Barbican Hall, capacity 1,943, home of the London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. It is one of the largest public libraries in London and has an arts library, a large music library. The Barbican Library houses the London Collection of historical books and resources, some of which date back 300 years, the library presents regular literary events and has an art exhibition space for hire. The music library has two free practice pianos for public use, the Barbican Centre had a long development period, only opening long after the surrounding Barbican Estate housing complex had been built. It is situated in an area which was bombed during World War II. The Barbican Centre, designed by Chamberlin, Powell and Bon in the Brutalist style, has a complex layout with numerous entrances. Lines painted on the ground help would-be audience members avoid getting lost on the walkways of the Barbican Housing Estate on the way to the centre, the Barbican Centres design – a concrete ziggurat – has always been controversial and divides opinion. It was voted Londons ugliest building in a Grey London poll in September 2003, in September 2001, arts minister Tessa Blackstone announced that the Barbican Centre complex was to be a Grade II listed building. It has been designated a site of architectural interest for its scale, its cohesion. The same architectural practice also designed the Barbican Housing Estate and the nearby Golden Lane Estate, project architect John Honer later worked on the British Library at St Pancras – a red brick ziggurat. In the mid-1990s, an improvement scheme by Theo Crosby, of the Pentagram design studio, added statues. That improvement scheme added a bridge linking the Silk Street foyer area with the lakeside foyer area. The centres Silk Street entrance, previously dominated by an access for vehicles, was modified to give pedestrian access
7.
Scott Miller (pop musician)
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In 2014, Omnivore Recordings began releasing a series of reissues of Millers entire Game Theory catalog, which had for decades been out of print. A biography of Miller by Brett Milano was published in October 2015, Scott Miller was born in Sacramento, California in 1960. He was of Scottish and Irish ancestry, and his mothers family had lived in the Sacramento area since at least the 1850s California Gold Rush. His father, Vaughn Miller, was an Army veteran of World War II who had a career working for the State of California. Miller was a child, whose musical interests began sometime as a six or seven year old, listening to the Monkees. However, his earliest musical influences were wider-ranging, springing from his fathers record collection – lots of Broadway show tunes. But the things I was really interested in were these New York folk scene records, and after that it was the Beatles all the way. They were gods walking the earth to me, at age nine, while taking folk and classical guitar lessons from Tiny Moore, Miller was writing little albums worth of derivative songs, and started his first band, innocently calling it The Monkees. He later noted, We were really little kids, and we didnt realize you had to have your own personality, I was Mike Nesmith, of course, naming the serious Monkee known as a songwriter. By 1971, Millers lessons switched to guitar, and he had pretty serious bands from seventh grade on. Miller began recording his music at age 15, when he got his first TEAC multitrack recording machine and he reminisced in 1993, Writing songs like the Beatles and trying to obtain real equipment – thats been my goal in life since I can remember. Another passion of Millers youth was art, until college, he noted, I was extremely serious about being a visual artist, and only so-serious about doing music. I was producing really bad music and really good art, Millers first band to release commercial recordings, Alternate Learning, released its self-titled 7 EP in 1979, and a full-length LP called Painted Windows in 1981, on Rational Records. Alternate Learning was formed in 1977 in Sacramento, moved in 1978 to Davis, California, Game Theory was formed by Miller in 1982 in Davis, California, and moved its base to the Bay Area in 1985. From 1982 to 1990, Game Theory released five albums and two EPs, not including compilations, the early Game Theory was described as a pseudo-psychedelic pop quartet for which Miller sang and wrote almost all of the material. The group, a college-rock favorite associated with the Paisley Underground scene of L. A. and Davis, the Davis-based first line-up of Game Theory featured Miller on lead guitar and vocals, with keyboard player Nancy Becker, bassist Fred Juhos, and drummer Michael Irwin. This line-up released the groups debut LP, Blaze of Glory, with new drummer Dave Gill, two EPs followed, Pointed Accounts of People You Know and Distortion. The groups second album, Real Nighttime, marked the entrance of producer Mitch Easter
8.
The Big Shot Chronicles
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The Big Shot Chronicles is Game Theorys third full-length album, released in 1986. Produced by Mitch Easter, it was recorded with a new line-up of Game Theory members after leader and songwriter Scott Miller moved the base from Davis to San Francisco. The album was reissued on September 23,2016 on Omnivore Recordings as part of the labels re-issue campaign of the Game Theory catalog, by early 1985, all of the original members of Game Theory had left the band, except for Miller. Miller relocated to San Francisco together with future Game Theory member Donnette Thayer, Miller assembled a new line-up in the San Francisco Bay Area, featuring Shelley LaFreniere on keyboards, Gil Ray on drums, and Suzi Ziegler on bass. The newly formed San Francisco version of Game Theory commenced a tour in 1985 in support of Game Theorys previous album, Real Nighttime. During a break in the middle of the tour for Real Nighttime. Prior to touring in support of The Big Shot Chronicles in 1986, Suzi Ziegler left the band shortly after the conclusion of the Real Nighttime tour in 1985. For the 1986 tour, Donnette Thayer joined Game Theory as rhythm guitarist and vocalist and this line-up remained together to record and tour for two subsequent albums, Lolita Nation and Two Steps from the Middle Ages. The Big Shot Chronicles, released in 1986, was recorded in September 1985 at Mitch Easters Drive-In Studio in Winston-Salem, according to John Borack, Easter did his usual Herculean job behind the console, getting great guitar sounds whether they be gritty and electric. In an October 1986 interview, Miller discussed Mitch Easters role as producer, He helps from the technical end and he doesnt say, Youre going to need a lot of backing vocals here or Use this guitar on this. I usually do most of that stuff, Id say I end up doing half of the production myself. He does pretty much all of the engineering and some of the things youd call production, like he decides where you stand when you do the vocals, and you know, Were going to have a nylon stocking between you and the microphone, some tricks like that. Hell do things like say No, that vocal track wasnt good and he makes a lot of quality decisions, he sort of figures out what we want and has in his head what he thinks a good pop records gonna be and works toward that. Also, he knows how to use all his equipment precisely and utterly, Miller added, Mitch and I are real historians, were both really into 70s rock. The song Ive Tried Subtlety, I said, I want a sound just like Low by David Bowie. Referring to the song Like a Girl Jesus, Miller later recalled that even the spacey sounding instruments were recorded in one take, according to Trouser Press, the title also paraphrases John Cheevers The Wapshot Chronicle. In 2008, Scott Miller wrote that most of the lyrics on album came from dreams Id had, one emotion is missing, never does Miller sing about anger at anyone besides himself. Nerd passion, instead, becomes nerd passive-aggression, barbed puns, in a January 1988 interview, Miller called the album the happiest of the last few, adding It seems like Real Nighttime and Lolita Nation both have this real chip on their shoulders
9.
Suzanne Vega
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Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American singer-songwriter and record producer, best known for her eclectic folk-inspired music. Two of Vegas songs reached the Top 10 of various international chart listings, Luka, the latter was originally an a cappella version on Vegas album, which was then remade in 1990 as a dance track produced by the British dance production team DNA. Vega has released nine albums to date, the latest of which is Lover, Beloved, Songs from an Evening with Carson McCullers. Suzanne Nadine Peck was born July 11,1959, in Santa Monica and her mother, Pat Vega, is a computer systems analyst of German-Swedish heritage. Her father, Richard Peck, is of Scottish-English-Irish origin and they divorced soon after her birth. Her stepfather, Edgardo Vega Yunqué, also known as Ed Vega, was a writer and teacher from Puerto Rico, when Vega was two and a half, her family moved to New York City. She grew up in Spanish Harlem and the Upper West Side and she was not aware of having a different biological father until she was nine years old. They met for the first time in her late 20s and remain in contact and she attended the High School of Performing Arts where she studied modern dance and graduated in 1977. In 1984, she received a label recording contract, making her one of the first Fast Folk artists to break out on a major label. Vegas self-titled debut album was released in 1985 and was received by critics in the U. S. it reached platinum status in the United Kingdom. Produced by Lenny Kaye and Steve Addabbo, the songs feature Vegas acoustic guitar in straightforward arrangements, a video was released for the albums song Marlene on the Wall, which went into MTV and VH1s rotations. During this period Vega also wrote lyrics for two songs on Songs from Liquid Days by composer Philip Glass, Vegas song Left of Center co-written with Steve Addabbo for the 1986 John Hughes film Pretty in Pink reached No.32 on the UK Singles Chart in 1986. Her next effort, Solitude Standing, garnered critical and commercial success and it includes the international hit single Luka, which is written about, and from the point of view of, an abused child—at the time an uncommon subject for a pop hit. While continuing a focus on Vegas acoustic guitar, the music is more strongly pop-oriented, the a cappella Toms Diner from this album was later a hit, remixed by two British dance producers under the name DNA, in 1990. The track was originally a bootleg, until Vega allowed DNA to release through her record company, Vegas third album, Days of Open Hand, continued in the style of her first two albums. In 1992 she released the album 99. 9F° and it consists of a mixture of folk music, dance beats and industrial music. This record was awarded Gold status by the RIAA in recognition of selling over 500,000 copies in the U. S, the single Blood Makes Noise from this album peaked at number-one on Billboards Modern Rock Tracks. Her fifth album, Nine Objects of Desire, was released in 1996, the music varies between a frugal, simple style and the industrial production of 99. 9F°
10.
Big Star
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Big Star was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens, and Andy Hummel. The group broke up in 1974, and reorganized with a new line-up nearly 20 years later. In its first era, the musical style drew on the vocal harmonies of the Beatles, as well as the swaggering rhythms of the Rolling Stones. To the resulting power pop, Big Star added dark, existential themes, Big Stars first album—1972s #1 Record—was met by enthusiastic reviews, but ineffective marketing by Stax Records and limited distribution stunted its commercial success. After a third album was deemed non-commercially viable and shelved before receiving a title, four years later, the first two Big Star LPs were released together in the UK as a double album. The bands third album was issued soon afterward, titled Third/Sister Lovers. Shortly thereafter, Chris Bell was killed in a car accident at the age of 27, the Big Star discography drew renewed attention in the 1980s when R. E. M. and the Replacements as well as other popular bands cited the group as an influence. In 1992, interest was stimulated by Rykodiscs reissues of the bands albums. In 1993, Chilton and Stephens reformed Big Star with recruits Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of the Posies, the band remained active, performing tours in Europe and Japan, and released a new studio album, In Space, in 2005. Chilton died on March 17,2010, after being admitted to a New Orleans hospital with heart problems, Hummel, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2008, died on July 19,2010. These deaths left Stephens as the sole surviving founding member, Big Star was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2014. Alex Chilton was the singer for the blue-eyed soul group the Box Tops from 1967 to 1970. Following his stint with the Box Tops, he recorded a studio album. He was offered the role of lead vocalist for Blood, Sweat & Tears, a song Chilton wrote nearly six years after he first witnessed a Beatles performance, Thirteen, referred to the event with the line Rock n roll is here to stay. Attracted by Icewaters music, Chilton showed the three his new song Watch the Sunrise, and was asked to join the band, both Watch the Sunrise and Thirteen were subsequently included on Big Stars first album, #1 Record. The now four-piece band adopted the name Big Star when one member was given the idea from a store often visited for snacks during recording sessions. Although all four members contributed to songwriting and vocals on the first album, Chilton and Bell dominated as a duo intentionally modeled on John Lennon, the album was recorded by Ardent founder John Fry, with Terry Manning contributing occasional backing vocals and keyboards. The title #1 Record was decided towards the end of the sessions and evinced, albeit as a playful hope rather than a serious expectation
