Grace Jones (born Grace Mendoza on May 19, 1948, in Spanish Town, Jamaica) is a model, singer and actress. Raised in Syracuse, New York, she found success in the 70s as a model, working in New York and Paris (where she shared an apartment with Jerry Hall and Jessica Lange), before rising to public prominence as a singer and personality. Jones secured a record deal with Island Records, which resulted in a string of club hits.
Culture Club was a popular 1980s pop group, perhaps most noticeable for their gender-bending frontman Boy George. The other members of the band were Roy Hay on guitars and keyboards, Mikey Craig playing bass and Jon Moss (ex Damned, London, Adam and the Ants) on drums. Their first album, 1982's Kissing to Be Clever, became a major international hit, spawning the hit singles "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" (which went 'all the way' in the BBC-Charts in late 1982), "Time (Clock of the Heart)", and "I'll Tumble 4 Ya".
The Beat, known in the United States as The English Beat (and the British Beat in Australia and New Zealand) in order to avoid confusion with Paul Collins' band of the same name, was a popular Two Tone ska and pop music group. Formed in the English city of Birmingham in 1978, The Beat disbanded in 1983, but has reformed in the early 2000s with some of the original line-up.
One of the more popular and enduring groups of a short-lived trend...
Robert Gorham, known by the pseudonym Rob da Bank, is a British disc jockey. He presents a Sunday late-night show, Sunday Best, on BBC Radio 1 from midnight-2am, focused on promoting new leftfield music. Until September 2006, he and Chris Coco were the presenters of the Blue Room on Radio 1. The show had a dedicated following, and was one of the few show-cases for a unique blend of quirky chillout tunes.
Future Islands (formed 2006) is a synthpop band based in Baltimore, Maryland. They are often associated with (and tour with) bands affiliated with Wham City. These include Videohippos, Santa Dads, Blood Baby, OCDJ, Adventure, Dan Deacon, Weekends (band), Double Dagger, as well and others.
History The band met and formed in Greenville, NC while studying art at East Carolina University. At first it was Art Lord & the Self-Portraits, which was composed of J. Gerrit Welmers, Samuel T. Herring, William Cashion, Adam Beeby, and Kymia Nawabi.
Alla Spina is a five piece New Wave band from Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. Forming in late 2010, Alla Spina are already becoming well known in and around Brisbane for their high energy music and performances. Influenced by various forms of music, Alla Spina (which means “pumped up” in Italian), play music inflected by Punk, rock, pop and ska. The band strive to break musical and social boundaries by sticking to a “no boundaries” formula to their hybrid sound and writing songs that speak about breaking stereotypes and following one’s own path.
Roxy Music are an England based art rock group founded in 1971 by art school graduate Bryan Ferry (vocals and keyboards). Other members were Phil Manzanera (guitars), Andy Mackay (saxophone and oboe) and Paul Thompson (drums and percussion). Former members included Brian Eno (synthesizer and "treatments") and Eddie Jobson (synthesizer and violin), who replaced Eno after Roxy Music's second album.
Famously described by john peel as being "always different, always the same", The Fall were formed in Manchester, England in 1976 during the punk era although their style quickly evolved into something more idiosyncratic.
The one permanent fixture amidst the Fall's ever-changing line-up is Mark E. Smith. Smith's lyrics are free, unboxed and unpredictable, touching on an extremely wide range of subjects and places and caring little for being tied down to easily digestible messages.
Phillipa 'Pip' Brown (born in 1982, Masterton, Wairarapa, New Zealand), better known by her stage name Ladyhawke, is a solo singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, playing all the instruments in studio and touring with a band. Her musical style blends new wave, indie rock and electropop. Born with Asperger's Syndrome, Pip was a music-obsessed child with very musical parents (step-father a drummer, mother a singer). She is noted as being influenced by 70s and 80s music. While attending Chanel College, she played in several grunge bands.
Bananarama is a British Pop/Hi-NRG/Dance duo of singer-songwriters, formerly a trio, that formed in London, United Kingdom in 1981. Originally formed by members are Sarah Dallin, Siobhan Fahey and Keren Woodward. Early successful singles were collaborations with Fun Boy Three. Guiness Book of World Records listed Bananarama as the most successful British girl group in history (they have since been eclipsed by Spice Girls).