1.
The Who
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The Who are an English rock band that formed in 1964. Their classic line-up consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered one of the most influential bands of the 20th century, selling over 100 million records worldwide and holding a reputation for their live shows. The Who developed from a group, the Detours, and established themselves as part of the pop art and mod movements, featuring auto-destructive art by destroying guitars. Their first single as the Who, I Cant Explain, reached the UK top ten, followed by a string of singles including My Generation, Substitute and Happy Jack. In 1967, they performed at the Monterey Pop Festival and released the US top ten single I Can See for Miles, the groups fourth album, 1969s rock opera Tommy, included the single Pinball Wizard and was a critical and commercial success. Live appearances at Woodstock and the Isle of Wight Festival, along with the live album Live at Leeds, with their success came increased pressure on lead songwriter and visionary Townshend, and the follow-up to Tommy, Lifehouse, was abandoned. Songs from the project made up 1971s Whos Next, which included the hit Wont Get Fooled Again, the group released the album Quadrophenia in 1973 as a celebration of their mod roots, and oversaw the film adaptation of Tommy in 1975. They continued to tour to large audiences before semi-retiring from live performances at the end of 1976, the release of Who Are You in 1978 was overshadowed by the death of Moon shortly after. Kenney Jones replaced Moon and the group resumed activity, releasing a film adaptation of Quadrophenia, after Townshend became weary of touring, the group split in 1982. The Who occasionally re-formed for live appearances such as Live Aid in 1985, a 25th anniversary tour in 1989 and they resumed regular touring in 1999, with drummer Zak Starkey. After Entwistles death in 2002, plans for a new album were delayed, Townshend and Daltrey continued as the Who, releasing Endless Wire in 2006, and continued to play live regularly. They are cited as an influence by rock, punk rock and mod bands. The founding members of the Who, Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend and John Entwistle, grew up in Acton, London and went to Acton County Grammar School. Townshend and Entwistle became friends in their year of Acton County. Both were interested in rock, and Townshend particularly admired Cliff Richards début single, Entwistle moved to guitar, but struggled with it due to his large fingers, and moved to bass on hearing the guitar work of Duane Eddy. He was unable to afford a bass and built one at home, after Acton County, Townshend attended Ealing Art College, a move he later described as profoundly influential on the course of the Who. Daltrey, who was in the year above, had moved to Acton from Shepherds Bush and he had trouble fitting in at the school, and discovered gangs and rock and roll
2.
Cardiff
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Cardiff is the capital and largest city in Wales and the eleventh-largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is the chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media. The unitary authority areas mid-2011 population was estimated to be 346,100, the Cardiff metropolitan area makes up over a third of the total population of Wales, with a mid-2011 population estimate of about 1,100,000 people. Cardiff is a significant tourist centre and the most popular destination in Wales with 18.3 million visitors in 2010. In 2011, Cardiff was ranked sixth in the world in National Geographics alternative tourist destinations, the city of Cardiff is the county town of the historic county of Glamorgan. Cardiff is part of the Eurocities network of the largest European cities, the Cardiff Urban Area covers a slightly larger area outside the county boundary, and includes the towns of Dinas Powys and Penarth. A small town until the early 19th century, its prominence as a port for the transport of coal following the arrival of industry in the region contributed to its rise as a major city. Cardiff was made a city in 1905, and proclaimed the capital of Wales in 1955, since the 1980s, Cardiff has seen significant development. A new waterfront area at Cardiff Bay contains the Senedd building, home to the Welsh Assembly, sporting venues in the city include the Millennium Stadium, SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff International Sports Stadium and Cardiff Arms Park. The city was awarded the title of European City of Sport twice, due to its role in hosting major sporting events, first in 2009. The Millennium Stadium hosted 11 football matches as part of the 2012 Summer Olympics, including the opening event. Caerdydd derives from the earlier Welsh form Caerdyf, the change from -dyf to -dydd shows the colloquial alteration of Welsh f and dd, and was perhaps also driven by folk etymology. This sound change had probably first occurred in the Middle Ages, Caerdyf has its origins in post-Roman Brythonic words meaning the fort of the Taff. The fort probably refers to that established by the Romans, the anglicised form Cardiff is derived from Caerdyf, with the Welsh f borrowed as ff /f/, as also happens in Taff and Llandaff. As English does not have the vowel the final vowel has been borrowed as /ɪ/, although some sources repeat this theory, it has been rejected on linguistic grounds by modern scholars such as Professor Gwynedd Pierce. A group of five Bronze Age tumuli is at the summit of The Garth, four Iron Age hill fort and enclosure sites have been identified within Cardiffs present-day county boundaries, including Caerau Hillfort, an enclosed area of 5.1 hectares. The fort was one of a series of military outposts associated with Isca Augusta that acted as border defences, the fort may have been abandoned in the early 2nd century as the area had been subdued. However, by this time a settlement, or vicus, was established
3.
Rock music
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It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by blues, rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of genres such as electric blues and folk. Musically, rock has centered on the guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar. Typically, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse-chorus form, like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political in emphasis. Punk was an influence into the 1980s on the subsequent development of subgenres, including new wave, post-punk. From the 1990s alternative rock began to rock music and break through into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop. Similarly, 1970s punk culture spawned the visually distinctive goth and emo subcultures and this trio of instruments has often been complemented by the inclusion of other instruments, particularly keyboards such as the piano, Hammond organ and synthesizers. The basic rock instrumentation was adapted from the blues band instrumentation. A group of musicians performing rock music is termed a rock band or rock group, Rock music is traditionally built on a foundation of simple unsyncopated rhythms in a 4/4 meter, with a repetitive snare drum back beat on beats two and four. Melodies are often derived from older musical modes, including the Dorian and Mixolydian, harmonies range from the common triad to parallel fourths and fifths and dissonant harmonic progressions. Critics have stressed the eclecticism and stylistic diversity of rock, because of its complex history and tendency to borrow from other musical and cultural forms, it has been argued that it is impossible to bind rock music to a rigidly delineated musical definition. These themes were inherited from a variety of sources, including the Tin Pan Alley pop tradition, folk music and rhythm, as a result, it has been seen as articulating the concerns of this group in both style and lyrics. Christgau, writing in 1972, said in spite of some exceptions, rock and roll usually implies an identification of male sexuality, according to Simon Frith rock was something more than pop, something more than rock and roll. Rock musicians combined an emphasis on skill and technique with the concept of art as artistic expression, original. The foundations of music are in rock and roll, which originated in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Its immediate origins lay in a melding of various musical genres of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music, with country. In 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience, debate surrounds which record should be considered the first rock and roll record. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis
4.
Soul music
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Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s. It combines elements of African-American gospel music, rhythm and blues, Soul music became popular for dancing and listening in the United States, where record labels such as Motown, Atlantic and Stax were influential during the Civil Rights Movement. Soul also became popular around the world, directly influencing rock music, catchy rhythms, stressed by handclaps and extemporaneous body moves, are an important feature of soul music. Other characteristics are a call and response between the lead vocalist and the chorus and a tense vocal sound. The style also occasionally uses improvisational additions, twirls and auxiliary sounds, Soul music reflected the African-American identity and it stressed the importance of an African-American culture. The new-found African-American consciousness led to new styles of music, which boasted pride in being black, Soul music dominated the U. S. R&B chart in the 1960s, and many recordings crossed over into the pop charts in the U. S. By 1968, the music genre had begun to splinter. Some soul artists developed funk music, while other singers and groups developed slicker, more sophisticated, by the early 1970s, soul music had been influenced by psychedelic rock and other genres, leading to psychedelic soul. The United States saw the development of neo soul around 1994, there are also several other subgenres and offshoots of soul music. The term soul had been used among African-American musicians to emphasize the feeling of being an African-American in the United States, according to another source, Soul music was the result of the urbanization and commercialization of rhythm and blues in the 60s. The phrase soul music itself, referring to music with secular lyrics, is first attested in 1961. The term soul in African-American parlance has connotations of African-American pride, gospel groups in the 1940s and 1950s occasionally used the term as part of their name. The jazz style that derived from gospel came to be called soul jazz, important innovators whose recordings in the 1950s contributed to the emergence of soul music included Clyde McPhatter, Hank Ballard, and Etta James. Ray Charles is often cited as popularizing the genre with his string of hits starting with 1954s I Got a Woman. Singer Bobby Womack said, Ray was the genius and he turned the world onto soul music. Charles was open in acknowledging the influence of Pilgrim Travelers vocalist Jesse Whitaker on his singing style, little Richard and James Brown were equally influential. Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson are also acknowledged as soul forefathers. Cooke became popular as the singer of gospel group The Soul Stirrers
5.
Funk
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Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid- 1960s when African American musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of soul music, jazz, and rhythm and blues. Like much of African-inspired music, funk typically consists of a groove with rhythm instruments playing interlocking grooves. Funk uses the same richly-colored extended chords found in jazz, such as minor chords with added sevenths and elevenths. Other musical groups, including Sly and the Family Stone and Parliament-Funkadelic, soon began to adopt, Funk samples have been used extensively in genres including hip hop, house music, and drum and bass. It is also the influence of go-go, a subgenre associated with funk. The word funk initially referred to a strong odor and it is originally derived from Latin fumigare via Old French fungiere and, in this sense, it was first documented in English in 1620. In 1784 funky meaning musty was first documented, which, in turn, in early jam sessions, musicians would encourage one another to get down by telling one another, Now, put some stank on it. At least as early as 1907, jazz songs carried titles such as Funky, as late as the 1950s and early 1960s, when funk and funky were used increasingly in the context of jazz music, the terms still were considered indelicate and inappropriate for use in polite company. According to one source, New Orleans-born drummer Earl Palmer was the first to use the word funky to explain to other musicians that their music should be made more syncopated, the style later evolved into a rather hard-driving, insistent rhythm, implying a more carnal quality. This early form of the set the pattern for later musicians. The music was identified as slow, sexy, loose, riff-oriented, a great deal of funk is rhythmically based on a two-celled onbeat/offbeat structure, which originated in sub-Saharan African music traditions. New Orleans appropriated the bifurcated structure from the Afro-Cuban mambo and conga in the late 1940s, New Orleans funk, as it was called, gained international acclaim largely because James Browns rhythm section used it to great effect. Funk creates an intense groove by using strong guitar riffs and bass lines, like Motown recordings, funk songs used bass lines as the centerpiece of songs. Slap basss mixture of thumb-slapped low notes and finger popped high notes allowed the bass to have a rhythmic role. In funk bands, guitarists typically play in a style, often using the wah-wah sound effect. Guitarist Ernie Isley of The Isley Brothers and Eddie Hazel of Funkadelic were notably influenced by Jimi Hendrixs improvised solos, Eddie Hazel, who worked with George Clinton, is one of the most notable guitar soloists in funk. Ernie Isley was tutored at an age by Jimi Hendrix himself. Jimmy Nolen and Phelps Collins are famous funk rhythm guitarists who both worked with James Brown, on Browns Give It Up or Turnit a Loose, Jimmy Nolens guitar part has a bare bones tonal structure
6.
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
7.
Jeff Beck
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Geoffrey Arnold Jeff Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of the three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds, Beck also formed The Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. Although he recorded two hit albums as an act, Beck has not established or maintained the sustained commercial success of many of his contemporaries and bandmates. He is often called a guitarists guitarist, Beck has earned wide critical praise and received the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance six times and Best Pop Instrumental Performance once. In 2014 he received the British Academys Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music, Beck has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, as a member of the Yardbirds and as a solo artist. Geoffrey Arnold Beck was born on 24 June 1944 to Arnold and Ethel Beck at 206 Demesne Road, Wallington, as a 10-year-old, Beck sang in a church choir. When fabricating a neck for his next try he attempted to use measurements for a bass guitar, Beck has cited Les Paul as the first electric guitar player who impressed him. Beck has said that he first heard an electric guitar when he was 6 years old and he asked his mother what it was. After she replied it was a guitar and was all tricks, he said. Cliff Gallup, lead guitarist with Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, was also a musical influence, followed by B. B. King. Upon leaving school he attended Wimbledon College of Art, after which he was employed as a painter and decorator, a groundsman on a golf course. Becks sister Annetta introduced him to Jimmy Page when both were teenagers, Beck left Nightshift to join the Tridents in October 1964. The Tridents played at the Walton Hop in Walton-on-Thames, and as the band for the Walton Hop talent show. Beck joined the Rumbles, a Croydon band, in 1963 for a period as lead guitarist, playing Gene Vincent and Buddy Holly songs. Later in 1963 he joined the Tridents, a band from the Chiswick area and they were really my scene because they were playing flat-out R&B, like Jimmy Reed stuff, and we supercharged it all up and made it really rocky. I got off on that, even though it was only twelve-bar blues and he was a session guitarist on a 1964 Parlophone single by the Fitz and Startz titled Im Not Running Away, with B-side So Sweet. In March 1965, Beck was recruited by the Yardbirds to succeed Eric Clapton on the recommendation of fellow session musician Jimmy Page, who had been their initial choice. Beck was actually pictured on the cover of For Your Love, from September to November 1966, Beck shared lead guitar duties in the Yardbirds with Page, who initially joined as bass player in June that year
8.
Nine Inch Nails
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Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock band founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. Despite this, the band has had feuds with the corporate side of the recording industry. Reznor returned to self-releasing material with the second Nine Inch Nails EP, as the bands main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only constant member of the group, and remains solely responsible for its direction. This changed however in 2016 when Atticus Ross was introduced as a permanent member of Nine Inch Nails alongside the announcement of Not the Actual Events, after recording a new album, Reznor usually assembles a live band to perform onstage with him. The touring band features a lineup that often rearranges songs to fit a live setting. On stage, Nine Inch Nails often employs visual elements to accompany performances, Nine Inch Nails has been nominated for thirteen Grammy Awards, and won twice for the songs Wish and Happiness in Slavery in 1992 and 1996, respectively. In 1997, Reznor appeared in Time magazines list of the years most influential people, in 2004, Rolling Stone placed Nine Inch Nails at 94 on its list of the 100 greatest artists of all time. In 2014, Nine Inch Nails was named as nominees for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 2015, they were nominated a second time. Koster agreed and allowed Reznor to use it whenever it was empty, while completing the early recordings, Reznor was unable to find a band that could articulate the material as he desired. Instead, inspired by Prince, Reznor played all the instruments except drums himself and this role remains Reznors on most of the bands studio recordings, though he has occasionally involved other musicians and assistants. Nine Inch Nails debut was at the Phantasy Theater in Lakewood, in 1988, after playing its first shows supporting Skinny Puppy, Reznors ambition for Nine Inch Nails was to release one 12-inch single on a small European label. Several labels responded favorably to the material and Reznor signed with TVT Records. The overall sound on Purest Feeling is lighter than that of Pretty Hate Machine, several songs feature live drumming and guitar work throughout. Reznor coined the name Nine Inch Nails because it abbreviated easily, other rumored explanations have circulated, alleging that Reznor chose to reference Jesus crucifixion with nine-inch spikes, or Freddy Kruegers nine-inch fingernails. The English letters NIN are also noted for their resemblance to the modern Hebrew characters of the Tetragrammaton, the Nine Inch Nails logo, which consists of the letters set inside a border, was designed by Reznor and Gary Talpas. The logo first appeared on the video for Nine Inch Nails debut single, Down in It. Talpas, a native of Cleveland, would continue to design Nine Inch Nails packaging art until 1997, written, arranged, and performed by Reznor, Nine Inch Nails first album Pretty Hate Machine debuted in 1989. It marked his first collaboration with Adrian Sherwood and Mark Flood Ellis, Reznor asked Sean Beavan to mix the demos of Pretty Hate Machine, which had received multiple offers for record deals
9.
John Entwistle
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John Alec Entwistle was an English singer, songwriter, composer, musician, film and music producer. In a music career spanned more than 40 years, Entwistle was best known as the original bass guitarist for the English rock band the Who. He was the member of the band to have formal musical training. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Who in 1990, Entwistles instrumental approach used pentatonic lead lines, and a then-unusual treble-rich sound created by roundwound RotoSound steel bass strings. He was nicknamed The Ox and Thunderfingers, the latter because his digits became a blur across the four-string fretboard, in 2011, he was voted as the greatest bass guitarist of all time in a Rolling Stone magazine readers poll. John Alec Entwistle was born on 9 October 1944 in Chiswick and his father, Herbert, played the trumpet and his mother, Maud, played the piano. His parents marriage failed soon after he was born, and he was raised by his mother at his grandparents house in South Acton. Divorce was uncommon in the 1940s, and this contributed to Entwistle becoming reserved and his musical career began aged 7, when he started taking piano lessons. He did not enjoy the experience and after joining Acton County Grammar School aged 11, switched to the trumpet and he met Pete Townshend in the second year of school, and the two formed a trad jazz band, the Confederates. The group only played one gig together, before decided that rock n roll was a more attractive prospect. He made his own instrument at home, and soon attracted the attention of Roger Daltrey, who had been the year above Entwistle at Acton County, Daltrey was aware of Entwistle from school, and asked him to join as a bass guitarist for his band, the Detours. After joining the Detours, Entwistle played a role in encouraging Pete Townshends budding talent on the guitar. Eventually, Roger Daltrey fired all the members of his band with the exception of Entwistle, Townshend and the drummer, Doug Sandom, Roger Daltrey relinquished the role of guitarist to Pete Townshend in 1963, instead becoming frontman and lead singer. The band considered several changes of name, and finally settling on the name the Who while Entwistle was still working as a tax clerk. When the band decided that the blond Roger Daltrey needed to stand out more from the others, Entwistle dyed his naturally brown hair black. Around 1963, Entwistle played in a London band called the Initials for a short while and it also housed one of the largest guitar collections belonging to any rock musician. Entwistle picked up two nicknames during his career as a musician and he was nicknamed The Ox because of his strong constitution and seeming ability to Eat, drink or do more than the rest of them. He was also later nicknamed Thunderfingers, bill Wyman, bass guitarist for the Rolling Stones, described him as the quietest man in private but the loudest man on stage
10.
Fender Precision Bass
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The Precision Bass is a bass guitar manufactured by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. The Standard P-Bass is sanded, painted and assembled in Ensenada, Baja California, Fender also produces Precision and Precision/Jazz basses in its Squier line of products. The double bass is physically cumbersome and difficult to transport and it was also becoming hard to hear in large bands or those that used amplified instruments and it requires skill to play such that it can not be readily picked up by any guitarist. The Precision Bass overcame these problems, the name Precision came from the use of frets to play in tune more easily than upon the fretless fingerboard of the double bass. The electric bass lacks the distinctive qualities of the double bass, offering a more solid. The bass guitar became more dominant and transformed the beat and rhythm of pop music from blues and swing to rhythm and blues, rock, soul. Acceptance of the bass was helped by the endorsement of Elvis Presleys bass-player Bill Black. Black was beginning to use a Precision Bass during the filming of Jailhouse Rock, Fender also delivered an early Precision to LA session bassist and arranger Shifty Henry. Monk Montgomery became the first jazz player to popularize the Fender Bass while playing with his brother, the original Precision Bass of 1951 shared several of its design features with the six-string Telecaster guitar, the main difference being its double cutaway body. In 1954 the Precision Bass received contoured edges for comfort while otherwise retaining the existing Telecaster-like styling, in 1957 the headstock and pickguard were redesigned to resemble Fenders recently introduced Stratocaster guitar, a rounder neck heel replacing the original square shape. A redesigned pickguard was made of a layer of gold-anodized aluminum with 10 screwholes. Rosewood fingerboards were then made of a veneered, round-laminated piece of wood, in 1960 the aluminum pickguard was replaced with a 13-screw celluloid design having 3 or 4 layers of black, white, mint green, aged white pearloid or brown tortoise-shell). In that same year the newly designed Fender Jazz Bass was released, the original Telecaster-derived design, with a few updates, was reintroduced in 1968 as the Telecaster Bass. Within a few years, however, it had evolved into a distinctly different from the contemporary Precision Bass. Since 1969 the 1-piece maple neck option has been fitted to many Fender basses, some Precision Basses made in the 1970s were also available with an unlined fretless rosewood, ebony or maple fingerboard, popularized by endorsees Sting and Tony Franklin. Fender briefly offered a fretless P Bass in the mid-1990s as a part of the first-generation American Standard line, from 1980 to 1984 the Precision Bass was given new active pickups and a high-mass brass bridge. The Special featured a pickup with white covers, gold hardware, a 2-band EQ. The Elite had one or two humbucking pickups, TBX tone circuit and a Schaller fine-tune bridge later used on the Plus Series models of the early 1990s
