Julian Edwin Adderley was born in September 1928, in Tampa, Florida. His elementary school classmates called him “cannonball” (i.e., “cannibal”) after his voracious appetite. He was a jazz alto saxophone of the hard bop era of the 1950s and 1960s. Both Cannonball and brother Nat played with Ray Charles when Charles lived in Tallahassee during […]
Charles Laughton
I few days ago I was re-watching one of my very favourite old movies ‘Hobson’s Choice’ starring Charles Laughton. Laughton originally a Yorshireman born in Scarborough made an impressive career in Hollywood in a number of well regarded movies such as Mutiny on the Bounty and Witness for the Prosecution. He was married to another […]
Sandie Shaw
Sandie Shaw MBE (born Sandra Ann Goodrich) is a retired English pop singer and is one of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s. On leaving school, she worked at the nearby Ford Dagenham factory, and did some part-time modelling before coming second as a singer in a local talent contest. As a […]
Riit
Riit was born Rita Claire Mike-Murphy in 1996 in the hamlet of Panniqtuuq (aka Pangnirtung) in Nunavut, Canada’s northernmost province, to an Irish father and an Inuk mother. She grew up in a musical environment, attending summer camps where she studied throat singing and guitar, and learned accordion while in college. Later she moved to […]
Lloyd Cole
Lloyd Cole is an English singer and songwriter. He was lead vocalist of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions from 1984 to 1989. The Commotions’ 1984 debut studio album, Rattlesnakes, contained literary and pop culture references to such figures as Arthur Lee, Norman Mailer, Grace Kelly, Eva Saint Marie, Simone de Beauvoir, Truman Capote and Joan […]
The Go-Go’s
The Go-Go’s were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. Except for short periods when other musicians joined briefly, the band has had a relatively stable lineup consisting of Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar and keyboards, Belinda Carlisle on lead vocals, Gina Schock on drums, Kathy Valentine on bass, and Jane Wiedlin […]
FourWinds
FourWinds who consist of Tom Delany (Uilleann pipes / whistles), Caroline Keane (Concertina), Alan Murray (Bouzouki / guitar / vocals) and Robbie Walsh (Bodhran) produce an exciting landscape of tunes and lyrics that present Irish Traditional Music in a modern and creative context, while maintaining deep roots in the tradition. With influences including Begley and […]
Catherine Ashcroft
Although born in Halifax in the North West of England Catherine Ashcroft has had a passion for Irish music since childhood and growing up in a musical home she started playing the whistle at an early age before getting her first set of Uilleann pipes in her mid teens. Self taught, Catherine regards her early […]
Mel & Kim
Mel and Kim were an English pop duo, consisting of sisters Melanie and Kim Appleby. Mel & Kim were born to English and Jamaican parents. In 1985, Mel recorded two demos solo, under Alan Whitehead’s management. Soon after, her sister Kim joined her and they performed as a duo, recording some demos. The demos got […]
Sister Sledge
Sister Sledge is an American musical vocal group from Philadelphia. Formed in 1971, the group consisted of sisters Debbie, Joni, Kim, and Kathy Sledge. The sisters were given vocal training by their grandmother Viola Williams, a former lyric soprano opera singer and protégé of civil rights leader Mary McLeod Bethune. Under Viola’s guidance, they regularly […]