Classic Rock

Richard Clapton (1951?-) is an Australian singer/songwriter. His date of birth is somewhat elusive, but in an interview with the Melbourne Age in 2002, he described himself as 50 something. In an article in "Who" magazine his birthdate was given as 1951.

His albums include: "Prussian Blue" (1973)"Girls on the Avenue" (1975) "Main Street Jive" 1976 "Goodbye Tiger" 1977, "Past Hits and Previews" 1978 "Hearts on the Nightline" 1979 "Dark Spaces" 1980 "The Great Escape" 1982 "Solidarity" 1984 "Glory Road" 1987 "The Best Years of Our Lives" 1989 "Distant Thunder" 1993 "Angeltown" 1995, "Diamond Mine" 2004 and "Rewired" 2006.

Although not well-known outside Australia, a number of his songs such as "Girls On The Avenue", "Capricorn Dancer", "Deep Water", "Lucky Country", "The Best Years of Our Lives", and "I Am an Island" are staples of FM radio playlists in Australia.

The early 1970s are often regarded as a stagnant time for Australian rock music. In this context, the emergence of Richard Clapton as a talented and ambitious songwriter in the "troubadour" tradition of, for instance, Neil Young and Jackson Browne (both of whom later expressed their admiration for Clapton) was refreshing. Although no hit singles were on his first album, "Prussian Blue", by the time of his second album, "Girls on the Avenue," Clapton enjoyed a reasonable amount of mainstream success, with the title song from the album reaching #2 spot on the Australian top 40 charts. Clapton's first five albums were produced by Richard Batchens.

At the times of its release, "Goodbye Tiger" was one of the most critically acclaimed albums an Australian artist had produced. It was produced by Richard Batchens, who was one of the most prominent and successful producers of the era.(See articles collected on the fan site linked below for confirmation of this). Many Clapton fans continue to regard this notably melancholic record as Clapton's masterpiece.

Thereafter, Clapton played less of a central role in the music industry; although "The Great Escape" (featuring contributions from members of Cold Chisel and INXS) sold strongly and contained memorable singles in "I Am an Island" and "The Best Years of Our Life." During the early 1980s he was acknowledged as a mentor to several bands emerging from the then vigorous pub-rock scene, in particular INXS whose second LP, Underneath the Colours he produced.

On a 2006 album, Rewired, recorded at his home studio, Clapton produced "unplugged" acoustic versions of his early songs. This album contains many early Clapton Gems that have been reworked to fit in with the acoustic vibe of the album.

(From the Wikipedia entry for Richard Clapton) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Todd Rundgren is an American singer, songwriter, and producer who started in the 60s with the psychedelic band Nazz in Philadelphia. His solo career started out successfully with such hits as I Saw The Light and Hello It's Me (which was a reworked Nazz tune). He formed a band called Utopia (or Todd Rundgren's Utopia) which concentrated on eccentric progressive epics, while also continuing to release solo albums. His production work started early, with work for Sparks, The New York Dolls, and continued with Meat Loaf, XTC and The Psychedelic Furs, and many others.

There are at least six artists with this name:
1. A popular hard rock band from the United Kingdom
2. A death metal band from Germany
3. An alternative rock band from Poland
4. A Eurodance group
5. A thrash metal band from the Czech Republic

1. The Darkness are a hard rock band which formed in Lowestoft, England in 2000. The band consists of Justin Hawkins (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Dan Hawkins (guitar, vocals), Frankie Poullain (bass) and Ed Graham (drums). According to the Nothin's Gonna Stop Us Songfacts, Ed Graham inspired the band’s name as his youthful bleak moods were known as The Darkness.

They are widely regarded as a glam rock band, but the members disputed this and saw themselves as a classic hard-rock band. Their highly retro style of music was influenced by rock bands like Queen, AC/DC, Guns N' Roses, Aerosmith, Sparks, Led Zeppelin, Van Halen, T. Rex, Def Leppard, Whitesnake and Thin Lizzy. They are best known for the soaring falsetto of their lead singer Justin Hawkins, whose departure in 2006 resulted in the dissolution of the band. In 2011, the band announced their return, with a third album, "Hot Cakes," to be released on Wind-up Records.

Dan had initially seen his brother's potential of being a frontman after Justin did an impressive recreation of Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' at a New Year's Eve party in 1999, thrown by Justin and Dan's aunt in her pub The Swan at Gillingham just over the River Waveney in Norfolk, despite the fact that Justin was only miming to the original song. Playing at first only in pubs and bars, their pyrotechnic guitar solos and over the top performances soon brought them to public knowledge.

Achieving major success in the UK in 2003, The Darkness received considerable radio airplay of their singles, including I Believe in a Thing Called Love and the Christmas hit Christmas Time (Don't Let the Bells End). Their debut album, Permission to Land, reached number one in the UK charts and went on to sell one and a half million copies in the UK alone. The success of this album led to heavy touring for the band, which included headlining the Carling Festivals in 2004. The band won three Brit Awards in the same year, including Best Group, Best Rock Group and Best Album. They also won two Kerrang! awards for Best Live Act and Best British Band.

By late 2004 the band's huge success had led to a public backlash, and people claiming that the band were more a joke than a 'real' band became more common. The band responded to this criticism by touring the UK's top arenas on the "Winter-National Tour" tour with the Irish group Ash supporting them. One part of the show included Justin climbing upon a life-sized white tiger during "Love on the Rocks with No Ice" and being elevated around the audience whilst still playing guitar. The majority of the shows on the tour sold out.

On May 23, 2005 original bass player Frankie Poullain left the band during the recording of their second album, apparently due to "musical differences" with Justin Hawkins. Frankie has disputed this version of events, claiming he was "frozen out" and forced to leave the band by Justin and his longterm girlfriend (and the band's manager) Sue Whitehouse. On June 13 2005, The Darkness announced that Richie Edwards, formerly Dan's guitar technician, had replaced Frankie as bass player.

One Way Ticket, the first single from their second album, was released on 14 November 2005, debuting and peaking at number 8 on the UK Singles chart. The Darkness followed this with their second album One Way Ticket to Hell...And Back on November 28, 2005 to mixed reviews despite it having been produced by the well known Roy Thomas Baker whom has worked with bands such as Queen. Although it has been made platinum its sales do not come close to their debut's five-times-platinum rating and its chart peak at number eleven is a weak showing compared to Permission To Land's number one. The second single release from this album was Is It Just Me?, released on 20th February 2006 and charted at number eight. Soon afterwards Justin announced while performing live that the third single to be released from the album would be Girlfriend; and gained a mixed response. Released on 22nd May 2006, it charted at a disappointing number thirty-nine.

After having disappeared for quite some time the band announced that singer Justin Hawkins had left the band on 11th October 2006, after a battle against drugs.

On December 24, 2006, it was reported by Yahoo! News that bass player Richie Edwards would become the group's new frontman, with Toby MacFarlaine to join The Darkness and take over on bass. In blog entries on MySpace, Richie Edwards, Dan Hawkins and Ed Graham said that they had started recording a new album with Toby McFarlaine, and that they had formed a new band together.

On March 2, 2007, The Darkness' official website was changed, showing a photograph of the new, and as yet unnamed band. Links to the members individual Myspace pages were included, confirming the line-up of Richie Edwards, Dan Hawkins, Toby MacFarlaine and Ed Graham. Richie later added a message to the site, categorically confirming that the band would not continue under the name "The Darkness", saying "we are literally days away from announcing our new name".

It was announced on August 25, 2007 that the band had finished recording an album but no release dates or names, of either the band or album, had been decided. Record label and support has yet to be decided.

On November 9, 2007, it was announced on The University of East Anglia's student union website that the new band would be called Stone Gods. This name was confirmed on the official website on November 21, 2007. The line-up has been confirmed as Dan Hawkins (lead guitar), Toby MacFarlaine (bass), Ed Graham (drums) and Richie Edwards (vocals/guitar).

In March 2011, The Darkness announced on their newly updated website that they would be reforming the original line-up to play the Download Festival in Donington, Derbyshire. Songfacts reports that Nothin's Gonna Stop Us, the first new material from the band since they reconvened, was made available several months later as a free download from The Darkness’s official website.

The Darkness will be releasing "Hotcakes," their first album since reuniting, in 2012 on Wind-up Records. This album includes the singles "Every Inch of You" and Everybody Have a Good Time." Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.