As is the case with pretty much all stars, before the beautiful butterfly came the unremarkable caterpillar. Bowie was born in Brixton, South London on 8 January 1947, and named David Robert Jones. His father was a promotions officer for the children’s charity Barnardo’s and his mother a cinema usherette. He had one sibling – half-brother Terry – who had, like much of the extended family, sadly suffered from severe mental problems.
Topics: Rock Icons, David Bowie
This Monday marked what would have been Elvis Presley’s 81st birthday. However, the passing of pop hero David Bowie slightly overshadowed the date this year. But now the dust has settled from that sad news, we thought it timely to give due attention to Presley, one of America’s all-time cultural icons. Starting Young Elvis received his first guitar aged 11. Already a member of several church choirs in his hometown Tupelo, Mississippi, Presley found some of his earliest musical influences via his gospel singeing sister, Rosetta Tharpe. In fact it was Tharpe who originally wrote and performed ‘Hound Dog’. The song performed in the Elvis Presley way (a very different sort of performance altogether), would of course later become one of his biggest hits of all time.
Topics: Rock Icons
After the sad passing of David Bowie yesterday (11.01.16), there was some inevitable Bowie music-playing going on at Flame Tree. However, whilst we stuck on a playlist of his tracks, the question arose, which one was his best? So, I quickly took a survey of our staff’s top picks and whittled it down to a top 5.
Topics: David Bowie
Son to two musical parents – his father, David was a light music pianist and his mother, Evstolia was the daughter of a chorus master – Vladimir Ashkenazy has enjoyed broad influence in the musical world, successfully working as both a pianist and conductor.
Topics: Biography
Topics: Pop Music
Topics: Pop Music
The incredible world phenomenon of Glastonbury Festival was in full swing this past weekend. Words like ‘successful’ and ‘brilliant’ seem to be an understatement to describe the astonishing action-packed weekend, so people are instead describing their experiences with speechless murmurs and smiles. Bands such as The Who exploded the stage as thousands of fans gathered to hear them play. It seems as if every year the festival becomes more and more picturesque and substantial with the huge amounts of people, events and bands performing.
Topics: Rock Icons, The Who
Once again all the biggest news stories do not stand a chance against Taylor Swift. As many of you already know, the latest buzz surrounding Swift is in regard to her Tumblr post, “To Apple, Love Taylor”, where she expressed her extreme disappointment with Apple’s current decision not to pay musicians during Apple Music’s three-month launch period. Tremendous confidence and bravery was behind Taylor Swift’s words, as Apple, being one of the wealthiest companies in corporate history, is no small company to pick a fight against.
Topics: Pop Music
In order to contextualise Western classical music, one must survey the music of ancient civilizations as well as the traditions of the non-Western world. From what is known of this music it was – and is – performed in a vast range of cultural environments and with many functions other than for entertainment in a concert hall.
Topics: Classical Music
The celebrate the release of Muse's new album (8th June here in the UK), we thought the time right for looking back at front man Matthew Bellamy's career.
Topics: Pop Music, Classic Guitars
Download a digital book, this special edition on The Origins of Rock: The Fifties.
We have some amazing books on classic rock bands, including the brand new books on David Bowie, Pink Floyd and Rock, A Life Story:
