Brit Awards
AMY WINEHOUSE
Discography:
Frank, Island, 2003.
Much can be said about Amy Winehouse, one of the U.K.'s flagship vocalists during the 2000s.
The British press and tabloids seemed to focus on her rowdy behaviour and heavy consumption of alcohol, but fans and critics alike embraced her rugged charm, brash sense of humour, and distinctively soulful and jazzy vocals. Her platinum-selling breakthrough album, Frank (2003), elicited comparisons ranging from Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan to Macy Gray and Lauryn Hill.
Interestingly enough, despite her strong cockney accent and vernacular, one can often hear aspects of each of those singers' vocal repertoire in Winehouse's own voice. Nonetheless, her allure has been her songwriting - almost always deeply personal, but best known for its profanity and brutal candour.
Born to a taxi-driving father and pharmacist mother, Winehouse grew up in the Southgate area of Northern London. Her upbringing was surrounded by jazz. Many of the uncles on her mother's side were professional jazz musicians, and even her paternal grandmother was romantically involved with British jazz legend Ronnie Scott at one time.
While at home, she listened to and absorbed her parents' selection of greats: Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra among others. However, in her teens, she was drawn to the rebellious spirit of TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, and other American R&B and hip-hop acts of the time.
At the age of 16, after she had been expelled from London's Sylvia Young Theatre School, she caught her first break when pop singer Tyler James, a schoolmate and close friend, passed on her demo tape to his A&R, who was searching for a jazz vocalist. That opportunity led to her recording contract with Island Records.
By the end of 2003, when she was 20 years old, Island had released her debut album, Frank. With contributions from hip-hop producer/keyboardist Salaam Remi, Winehouse's amalgam of jazz, pop, soul, and hip-hop received rave reviews. The album was nominated for the 2004 Mercury Music Prize as well as two Brit awards, and its lead single, "Stronger Than Me," won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song.
Following Winehouse's debut, the accolades and inquiring interviews appeared concurrently in the press with her tempestuous public life. Several times she showed up to her club or TV performances too drunk to sing a whole set. In 2006, her management company finally suggested that she enter alcohol detox, but instead, she dumped the company and transcribed the ordeal into the U.K. Top Ten hit "Rehab," the lead single for her second, critically acclaimed album, Back to Black.
Containing evocative productions from Salaam Remi and British DJ/multi-instrumentalist Mark Ronson, the album somewhat abandoned jazz, delving into the sounds of '50s/'60s-era girl group harmonies, rock & roll, and soul.
CHECK OUT GREAT AMY WINEHOUSE VIDEOS
The fanfare over the release was so great that it started to spill over onto U.S. shores; several rappers and DJs made their own remixes of various songs - not to mention covers by Prince and the Arctic Monkeys.
One month after Winehouse won Best Female Artist at the Brit Awards in February 2007, Universal released Back to Black in the U.S. The LP charted higher than any other American debut by a British female recording artist before it, and it remained in the Top Ten for several months, selling a million copies by the end of that summer.
Just as in the U.K., she became the talk of the town, landing on the covers of Rolling Stone and Spin magazines. Not long afterward, though, Winehouse cancelled her North American tour. Early reports revealed that she was entering rehab for alcohol and drug addiction, but her new management denied the claims, stating it was due to severe exhaustion.
Her erratic behaviour kept her and her new husband, Blake Fielder-Civil, constantly in the tabloids and on and off stages on both sides of the Atlantic, but in late 2007 American fans were finally given a chance to hear Winehouse's early work, with a slightly abbreviated (two songs removed and one added) version of Frank. ~Amy died of a drugs overdose in July 2011 Cyril Cordor, All Music Guide
Source: Artistdirect
This information is provided as a brief overview and not as a definitive guide, there are other sources on the net for that. If however you have a story or information that is not generally known we would love to hear from you. Content@rokpool.com
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Cliff Richard
Cliff Richards is one of the longest-running and most famous British artists around today, and still filling major venues with an audience consisting of both his 'older fans' and their children and even grandchildren.
Cliff was born Harry Roger Webb on the 14th October 1940. His father bought Webb a guitar when he was 16, and it took only two years for success to come his way. Before a gig in 1958, Webb and his backing band changed their name to “Cliff Richard and the Drifters”, which would later become – after some legal wrangling with US band The Drifters – “Cliff Richard and the Shadows”. The Shadows, in fact, had a whole independent career of their own. They would frequently perform as the support act for Cliff Richard, and then go on to be his backing band later in the show.
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Richard’s success was almost instant. His debut single release was “Move It” – originally intended to be the B-Side on a cover of Bobby Helm’s “Schoolboy Crush” – which reached number 2 in the UK charts and received glowing references from critics. Richard’s first few records were rock ‘n’ roll, but, in part influenced by his decision to embrace his Christian faith over his previous rocker credentials, much of his later work became fluffy, inoffensive pop. No matter what the genre, Cliff Richard’s releases have usually performed well in Britain, but the same is not true in the US, where he was, and is, largely unknown, despite having three US top ten singles in the latter half of the 1970s and several low-level chart hits throughout his career.
Cliff has had a great deal of success in the UK, with hits including: 'The Young Ones', 'Its All in the Game', 'Summer Holiday', 'Congratulations', and 'Mistletoe and Wine'. and has sold over 260 million records, placing him in the top 10 best selling artists of all time. He has reached the top 20 in the UK charts with over 130 different releases over the course of five decades, winning three Brit awards in the process.
This information is provided as a brief overview and not as a definitive guide, there are other sources on the net for that. If however you have a story or information that is not generally known we would love to hear from you. Content@rokpool.com.
