Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after attending a Sex Pistols concert. While Joy Division’s first recordings were heavily influenced by […]
Talented musician and actress, Hazel O’Connor’s career has been a rollercoaster one. Her breakthrough came in the film Breaking Glass (1980), in which she played a singer struggling to cope within the music industry. Sadly, this was to be the case in her music career as she battled over copyrights […]
Even when Wham! were in their pomp and George was contributing to his friend and sparring partner Elton John’s ‘Nikita’ and ‘Wrap Her Up’, it was plain that George’s destiny was solo. His new, more mature songs were too worldly, too adult to fit into the format of a good-time […]
In 1981 Jackson recorded Jumpin’ Jive, a ‘musical vacation’ paying tribute to Swing and Jump Blues artists such as Louis Jordan and Cab Calloway. Returning to songwriting, Joe spent a large chunk of 1982 in New York. The result was Night and Day, a more sophisticated and melodic record built around keyboards and […]
Michael Jackson wasn’t merely the biggest pop star of his era, shaping the sound and style of the ’70s and ’80s; he was one of the defining stars of the 20th century, a musician who changed the contours of American culture. A preternaturally gifted singer and dancer, Jackson first rose […]
Janet Jackson, the youngest sibling in the musical Jackson family, is one of the best-selling artists in contemporary history. Her roster of albums includes ‘Control,’ ‘Rhythm Nation 1814,’ ‘The Velvet Rope’ and ‘Unbreakable.’ Born on May 16, 1966, in Gary, Indiana, Janet Jackson is an award-winning recording artist and actress who’s […]
In May 1977, a three-piece rock group from Woking appeared on Top Of The Pops. You can see what happened on YouTube: the presenter announcing an ‘effervescent new 45 called ‘In The City’, and the 140 seconds of wonderment that followed. The song fizzed with the energy and sense of […]
Japan was an English new wave music group formed in 1974 in Catford, South London. The band achieved success in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when they were often associated with the burgeoning New Romantic stylistic movement, though the band themselves denied any such connection. Japan achieved nine UK Top 40 hits in the early 1980s, […]
The J. Geils Band were one of the most popular touring rock & roll bands in America during the ’70s. Where their contemporaries were influenced by the heavy boogie of British blues-rock and the ear-splitting sonic adventures of psychedelia, the J. Geils Band were a bar band pure and simple, […]
