Bob Marley and The Wailers – Stir it up

Bob Marley and The Wailers – Stir it up

Bob Marley and The Wailers - Stir it up

As a poet, prophet and purveyor of Jamaican culture, he shattered musical boundaries around the world.

Bob Marley was born in a small village called Nine Miles in Jamaica. The son of British Naval Officer and Jamaican woman called Cedella, Marley rarely saw his father due to his mother’s family and their disapproval of his parents relationship.

By the time he had turned 16, Marley had recorded his first single ‘Judge Not’, and in 1963, he formed The Wailers with Peter Tosh, Bunny Livingstone, Junior Braithwaite, and Beverly Kelso. The band then scored their first number one in Jamaica with ‘Simmer Down’ on the Coxsone label.

When Braithwaite and Kelso left the group around 1965, the Wailers continued as a trio, Marley, Tosh, and Livingstone trading leads. In spite of the popularity of singles like ‘Rude Boy’, the artists received few or no royalties, and in 1966 they disbanded.

After marrying his girlfriend Rita Anderson, Marley spent most of the following year working in a factory in Newark in the United States, where his mother had moved in 1963. Upon his return to Jamaica, the Wailers reunited and recorded for Coxsone with little success. During this period, the Wailers devoted themselves to the religious sect of Rastafari.

In 1969, they began a three-year association with Lee “Scratch” Perry, who directed them to play their own instruments and expanded their line-up to include Aston and Carlton Barrett, formerly the rhythm section of Perry’s studio band, the Upsetters. Some of the records they made with Perry – like ‘Trenchtown Rock’ – were locally very popular, but so precarious was the Jamaican record industry that the group seemed no closer than before to establishing steady careers. It formed an independent record company, Tuff Gong, in 1971, but the venture foundered when Livingstone was jailed and Marley got caught in a contract commitment to American pop singer Johnny Nash, who took him to Sweden to write a film score.

Their breakthrough came in 1972 when Chris Blackwell – who had released ‘Judge Not’ in England in 1963 – signed the Wailers to Island Records and advanced them the money to record themselves in Jamaica. The first result of this new contract was 1973’s ‘Catch A Fire’, the breakthrough album that saw the band reach an international audience for the first time. It was followed a year later by Burnin’, which included the songs “Get Up, Stand Up” and “I Shot The Sheriff”.

The band toured heavily during this period, and Marley expanded the instrumental section of the group and bringing in a female vocal trio, the I-Threes, which included his wife, Rita. Now called Bob Marley and the Wailers, they toured Europe, Africa, and the Americas, building especially strong followings in the U.K., Scandinavia, and Africa. They had U.K. Top 40 hits with ‘No Woman No Cry’ (1975), ‘Exodus’ (1977), ‘Waiting in Vain’ (1977), and ‘Satisfy My Soul’ (1978).

In 1976, Marley was shot by gunmen during the Jamaican election campaign, but survived and continued to soar in popularity until his 1981 death due to brain, lung and stomach cancer. In 1987, both Peter Tosh and longtime Marley drummer Carlton Barrett were murdered in Jamaica during separate incidents. Rita Marley continues to tour, record, and run the Tuff Gong studios and record company.

Picture source…..foreverb.rxmedicalweb.netdna-cdn.com

Bio source……www.thebiographychannel.co.uk

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Aretha Franklin – Think – The Blues Brothers

Aretha Franklin – Think – The Blues Brothers

Aretha Franklin - Think The Blues Brothers

Aretha Franklin is not only one of the giants of soul music; she is one of the giants of American pop. In a career spanning more than forty years, she continues to find ways to inspire and amaze.

Aretha Louise Franklin was born to parents Reverend C.L. Franklin, a Baptist preacher, and Barbara Siggers Franklin, a gospel singer. The third of four children, Franklin’s early life was characterised by trouble and loss.

At the age of six, the young Aretha’s parents separated and her mother left the family. Four years later her mother would die of a heart attack. The family moved to Buffalo, New York, and then to Detroit, Michigan, with the Reverend’s preaching assignments. He eventually settled at Detroit’s New Bethel Baptist Church and his renown as a preacher grew to national prominence.

Aretha was recognised as a talented musician at an early age. She was largely self-taught, despite her father offering to arrange piano lessons for her, and by her early teens she was seen as something of a child prodigy. A gifted pianist and with a voice that already contained the power that would become her trademark, Aretha travelled and performed with her father’s gospel show and sang before his congregation in Detroit.

Her major influence early-on was her aunt Clara Ward who was a famous devotional singer. Aretha’s first album, ‘The Gospel Soul of Aretha Franklin’, was recorded in 1956 when she was just 14.

At 15, Aretha gave birth to her first son Clarence and her second Edward followed two years later. She has never revealed the identity of either child’s father by name and the two were brought up by Franklin’s grandmother Rachel so she could pursue her music career.

When she returned to singing several years later she changed direction and pursued heroes like Dinah Washington into pop territory. She travelled to New York in 1960, found herself a manager, and began recording demo tapes. After approaches from several labels including Motown and RCA, Aretha signed to Columbia records releasing her first album for the company in late 1960.

Franklin did not find success with Columbia, however. In 1961, her single ‘Rock-A-Bye Your Baby’ made it to number 37 on the pop charts and she had a few top tens on the R&B charts but the jazz-influenced style she used failed to showcase the talent so evident in her gospel music.

She and manager Ted White, who she had married in 1961, decided a move was in order and she left Columbia in 1966 and was immediately signed by Atlantic.

Producer Jerry Wexler recognised where Franklin’s power lay and took her to record at the Florence Alabama Musical Emporium with musicians adept in soul, blues and gospel, including a guest spot for a young guitarist by the name of Eric Clapton. Aretha recorded the single ‘I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)’ which became a massive hit. The song spent seven weeks at number one on the R&B charts and reached the top ten on the Hot 100.

The public was ready for an album but the only thing missing was Aretha. After recording ‘I Never Loved A Man’, husband White had had a drunken row with one of the session musicians and he and Aretha had disappeared. Franklin popped up in New York some weeks later and she was soon back to work.

1967 and 1968 were the years that established and cemented Franklin’s greatness with a string of hit singles that would become enduring classics. In 1967, the album ‘I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)’ was released. The first song on the album, ‘Respect’, a remake of an Otis Redding song, reached number one on both the R&B and pop charts and won Aretha her first two Grammy awards.

She had top tens with ‘Baby I love You’, ‘Chain of Fools’, and ‘(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman’. Rolling Stone’s Album Guide has said I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You would be remembered as “the greatest single soul album of all time.”

In 1968, Franklin was enlisted to perform at the funeral of assassinated civil rights leader Martin Luther King, who was a good friend of her father’s. Her rendition of ‘Precious Lord’ was later described by her producer at Atlantic Records, Jerry Wexler, as “a holy blend of truth and unspeakable tragedy”. She also sang at the troubled 1968 Democratic Convention and at the 1972 funeral of gospel great Mahalia Jackson. In 1969 she divorced White. Their son, Ted, born in 1964, is the singer’s musical director and guitarist in her touring band.

Between 1969 and 1976, Franklin had a relationship with her road manager Ken Cunningham. She gave birth to their son Kecalf on 28 March 1970.

Franklin’s 1972 album ‘Amazing Grace’ became the best selling gospel album with over two million sales. Franklin’s success continued into the mid 1970s winning eight consecutive Grammy awards for Best R&B Female Vocal Performance.

Massive-selling classics like ‘Think’, ‘I Say A Little Prayer’, and ‘Spanish Harlem’ earned her the title ‘The Queen of Soul’ and her dominance of the genre was unquestioned.

By 1975, Franklin’s sound was beginning to become eclipsed by disco and an emerging set of young black singers such as Chaka Khan and Donna Summer. Her sales slumped and though there was a brief respite with 1976’s ‘Sparkle’, a string of failures in the late 1970s saw her contract with Atlantic lapse in 1979.

In 1978, Franklin married actor Glynn Turman though they would divorce six years later. At the same time as her decline in the music world, Aretha was saddled with a massive tax bill and then in 1979, her father was shot during a burglary at his home in Detroit. C.L. Franklin went into a coma from which he never emerged, dying in 1984.

Aretha’s career was revived in 1980 with her cameo in the film ‘The Blues Brothers’, acting and singing ‘Think’ alongside comedians James Belushi and Dan Akroyd, and her signing to Arista Records. At Arista, Franklin enjoyed success with the single and album of the same name, ‘Jump To It’. The album enjoyed a long run at number one on the R&B charts and was nominated for a Grammy.

In 1985, Aretha released another smash-hit album with the slick pop-sounding ‘Who’s Zoomin’ Who?’ featuring the single ‘Freeway of Love’ and a collaboration with rock band Eurythmics on ‘Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves’. The album became Aretha’s biggest-selling album ever.

Her 1986 album ‘Aretha’ also charted well with the George Michael duet ‘I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)’ hitting number one on the pop charts. Two years later, Franklin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and was awarded an honorary doctorate in musicology by the University of Detroit.

A number of gospel albums in the late 1980s and early 1990s failed to make any real impact, although ‘A Deeper Love’, a track she provided for the 1993 film ‘Sister Act 2’, was a hit. 1998 was something of a renaissance year with Franklin reprising her role in The Blues Brothers sequel ‘Blues Brothers 2000’. The same year she released ‘A Rose Is Still A Rose’, an album which blended Hip Hop and Soul and which was very well received on both the pop and R&B charts.

In 2003, Franklin released her last album on Arista, ‘So Damn Happy’, and left the label to start her own company, Aretha Records. In 2005, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and also became the second woman inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame.

The first album to be released since forming her Aretha’s Records label was a duets compilation entitled ‘Jewels in the Crown: All-Star Duets with the Queen’, in 2007.

Then, in 2008, the singing legend released her first ever holiday-themed album entitled ‘This Christmas, Aretha’.

At the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in 2008, Aretha was awarded her 18th Grammy.

She has continued to be recognised for her contribution to the music industry, and on 23 May 2010, she was given an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Yale University. Read more…..www.thebiographychannel.co.uk

Picture source…..www.brooklynvegan.com

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Jennifer Lopez – On The Floor ft Pitbull

Jennifer Lopez – On The Floor ft Pitbull

Jennifer Lopez - On The Floor ft Pitbull

Lopez’s musical career also began to take off, as she released her debut Latin pop album, On the 6 in June 1999. The album, fueled by the success of her hit single, “If You Had My Love,” went platinum within two weeks, making Lopez—along with Ricky Martin—one of the most influential examples of the growing Latin cultural influence in pop music.

Early in 2000, Lopez was nominated for Best Dance Performance for her second hit single “Waiting for Tonight,” but lost the award to veteran diva Cher. In the summer of 2000, she starred in the science fiction-thriller The Cell, in which she plays a child psychologist helping to track a terrifying serial killer. The same year, she starred in Enough, a portrayal of spousal abuse.

The popularity of the multi-talented Lopez reached new heights in early 2001, when her album, J. Lo debuted at No. 1 on the pop charts, while her film, the romantic comedy The Wedding Planner, shot to the top spot at the box office in its first week of release. In December 2002, she performed another one-two punch with the release of the record This Is Me … Then and a starring role in the comedy Maid in Manhattan, which was a box office hit, if not a critical one. In 2003, she co-starred with Ben Affleck in the box office bomb, Gigli. Other projects included Jersey Girl (also with Affleck) and An Unfinished Life, in which she played a single mom taken in by her father-in-law played by Robert Redford. She also starred opposite Richard Gere inShall We Dance?, a remake of the top-grossing Japanese flick.

Bio source…..www.biography.com

Picture source…..4.bp.blogspot.com

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Bob Marley and The Wailers – Is This Love

Bob Marley and The Wailers – Is This Love

Bob Marley and The Wailers - Three little birds

As a poet, prophet and purveyor of Jamaican culture, he shattered musical boundaries around the world.

Bob Marley was born in a small village called Nine Miles in Jamaica. The son of British Naval Officer and Jamaican woman called Cedella, Marley rarely saw his father due to his mother’s family and their disapproval of his parents relationship.

By the time he had turned 16, Marley had recorded his first single ‘Judge Not’, and in 1963, he formed The Wailers with Peter Tosh, Bunny Livingstone, Junior Braithwaite, and Beverly Kelso. The band then scored their first number one in Jamaica with ‘Simmer Down’ on the Coxsone label.

When Braithwaite and Kelso left the group around 1965, the Wailers continued as a trio, Marley, Tosh, and Livingstone trading leads. In spite of the popularity of singles like ‘Rude Boy’, the artists received few or no royalties, and in 1966 they disbanded.

After marrying his girlfriend Rita Anderson, Marley spent most of the following year working in a factory in Newark in the United States, where his mother had moved in 1963. Upon his return to Jamaica, the Wailers reunited and recorded for Coxsone with little success. During this period, the Wailers devoted themselves to the religious sect of Rastafari.

In 1969, they began a three-year association with Lee “Scratch” Perry, who directed them to play their own instruments and expanded their line-up to include Aston and Carlton Barrett, formerly the rhythm section of Perry’s studio band, the Upsetters. Some of the records they made with Perry – like ‘Trenchtown Rock’ – were locally very popular, but so precarious was the Jamaican record industry that the group seemed no closer than before to establishing steady careers. It formed an independent record company, Tuff Gong, in 1971, but the venture foundered when Livingstone was jailed and Marley got caught in a contract commitment to American pop singer Johnny Nash, who took him to Sweden to write a film score.

Their breakthrough came in 1972 when Chris Blackwell – who had released ‘Judge Not’ in England in 1963 – signed the Wailers to Island Records and advanced them the money to record themselves in Jamaica. The first result of this new contract was 1973’s ‘Catch A Fire’, the breakthrough album that saw the band reach an international audience for the first time. It was followed a year later by Burnin’, which included the songs “Get Up, Stand Up” and “I Shot The Sheriff”.

The band toured heavily during this period, and Marley expanded the instrumental section of the group and bringing in a female vocal trio, the I-Threes, which included his wife, Rita. Now called Bob Marley and the Wailers, they toured Europe, Africa, and the Americas, building especially strong followings in the U.K., Scandinavia, and Africa. They had U.K. Top 40 hits with ‘No Woman No Cry’ (1975), ‘Exodus’ (1977), ‘Waiting in Vain’ (1977), and ‘Satisfy My Soul’ (1978).

In 1976, Marley was shot by gunmen during the Jamaican election campaign, but survived and continued to soar in popularity until his 1981 death due to brain, lung and stomach cancer. In 1987, both Peter Tosh and longtime Marley drummer Carlton Barrett were murdered in Jamaica during separate incidents. Rita Marley continues to tour, record, and run the Tuff Gong studios and record company.

Picture source…..foreverb.rxmedicalweb.netdna-cdn.com

Bio source……www.thebiographychannel.co.uk

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Condoms keep your organ safe

Condoms keep your organ safe

Condoms keep your organ safe - Our Awesome Blog

Miss Beatrice, the church organist, was in her eighties and had never been married. She was admired for sweetness and kindness to all.

One afternoon the pastor came to call on her and she showed him into her quaint sitting room. She invited him to have a seat while she prepared tea.

As he sat facing her old pump organ, the young minister noticed a cut-glass bowl sitting on top of it. The bowl was filled with water. In the water floated, of all things, a condom! When she returned with tea and scones, they began to chat.

The pastor tried to stifle his curiosity about the bowl of water and its strange floater, but soon it got the better of him and he could no longer resist. “Miss Beatrice”, he said, “I wonder if you would tell me about this?” pointing to the bowl. “Oh, yes” she replied, “isn’t it wonderful?

I was walking through the park a few months ago and I found this little package on the ground. The directions said to place it on the organ, keep it wet and that it would prevent the spread of disease. Do you know I haven’t had the flu all winter!” The pastor fainted.

Joke source…..+Wanda Kelley Google+

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Havana Brown – We Run The Night

Havana Brown – We Run The Night

Warrior - Havana Brown

Havana Brown always planned on being a singer – it’s just becoming a world-famous DJ kind of got in the way.

The Melbourne glamour has just released her sizzling debut single ‘We Run The Night’, but she first started singing at the modest age of six. Admittedly though, her ‘performances’ back then were a little different…

“I’d put together shows at family dinners and drag along my poor cousins, who didn’t know how to dance or sing. I don’t know how entertained everyone was,” Brown recalls with a laugh. “I was really into R&B, like Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation and Bobby Brown.”

After countless years of singing lessons, performing in dance troupes and cheerleading for her hometown Aussie Rules and basketball teams, Brown got serious about making her own music right after leaving high school.

She started working with Panos Liassi, a Melbourne-based London DJ/producer and one half of R&B/reggae partystarters, Supafly Inc. Such was their musical connection, she ended up following him to the UK to form a Fugees-style group called Fishbowl with two other members. They got signed to the Polydor UK label almost instantly, but sadly, in-fighting saw the act split before they even got to release a single.

“When I look back, it was a pretty dark time,” says Brown. “Getting signed is a big deal for a new artist. You think, woah, this is it! But it wasn’t…”

Like anyone suffering a break up, Brown threw herself into the party scene and one night, she had a dancefloor epiphany of her own: the DJ had the best job in the room and she wanted in.

After learning the basics from Panos, she scraped together enough money from her four-quid-an-hour job to buy her first pair of decks and started hitting up bars with her demo.

Her persistence finally paid off when she scored her first residency at London’s exclusive Kabaret nightclub. “I told the promoters I’d play my first gig for free and they could throw me off after the first song. I don’t think they even thought I’d turn up the next night. When I did, they were like ‘oh, you were serious?’ I ended up playing for an hour and they loved it.”

Arriving back in Australia at the end of 2006, Brown – in her own words – “worked her little tush off” to keep her DJ dream alive. After working the club circuit, she became the first female DJ in Australia to sign a major label record deal with Universal Music in 2008, released her first mix CD, Crave, and topped the year off opening for the Pussycat Dolls on their promo tour.

The Dolls’ management were so impressed with her DJ-with-dancers show, they asked her back for their full tour in 2009. And as word spread, Brown found herself supporting the cream of the pop crop, including Rihanna, Chris Brown, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears, with the latter inviting her on her European tour a year later.

Since then, Brown’s star has only gotten brighter. These days, she boasts weekly radio mixup shows in Australia and abroad (on the popular Radio FG France dance network), has sold over 150,000 copies of her Crave series (now up to Volume 5) and played events as dazzling and diverse as the official Grammy’s After Party and the Singapore F1 Grand Prix alongside Beyonce and the Black Eyed Peas. Along the way, she’s also clocked up more than 100,000 loyal Facebook fans.

Now, twenty years since that first giddy singing lesson, she’s ready to retake the mic and launch that long-overdue singing career. And she’s not afraid to say she’s a little bit nervous…

“It’s exciting, nerve-wracking and intimidating all at the same time,” she says. “I’ve been working on this for a while and I didn’t want to release anything until I was completely satisfied with it. I can’t wait for people to hear this song.”

Written and produced by dance duo More Mega, first single ‘We Run The Night’ is the perfect introduction to the talents and tastes of Havana Brown. A certified dancefloor detonator, the song’s as epic as it is euphoric with an insanely infectious breakdown that’s guaranteed to throw the crowd into overdrive.

“It’s created for both the clubs and the radio,” she reveals. “That was really important for me and it was very difficult to pull off. As for the track, it’s about how music makes me feel.”

Brown says her vast experience as a DJ playing other people’s tunes has also had a huge impact on how she approaches her own.

“In the past, I wasn’t quite sure what type of artist I want to be. But now, after DJing and Fishbowl falling apart, which has been a blessing in disguise, now I’m very confident about what I want.”

At the same time, she realises that some people can be just as dismissive of female pop singers as they are of female DJs. But that, she says, only motivates her more.

“It actually drives me more when people say bad things,” she confesses. “It doesn’t make me angry, it’s more ‘I’m just going to annoy you even more by going out there even harder.’”

“I know I’m putting myself out there in a different way,” she adds. “Originally I was behind the console playing other people’s music but now I’m up front performing my own. I’m revealing myself – it’s like being naked.”

So far, Havana’s career as a jet-setting DJ has been nothing short of dazzling, but now she’s ready to shine in a whole new light. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Havana Brown the artist.

Bio and picture source…..www.getmusic.com.au

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Visit the Kiwi’s

Visit the Kiwi’s

Visit the Kiwi's

Go Big or stay home Adventures

At G Adventures, we encourage you to step off the beaten path, embrace the unexpected and immerse yourself in the extraordinary.
Our award-winning trips embrace authentic accommodation and local transportation to bring you face to face with the world’s most fascinating cultures, customs and awe-inspiring wildlife.
We believe an unforgettable travel experience doesn’t have to be expensive; that’s why we continually strive to offer the most competitive prices around.
Because our grassroots approach provides a more affordable way to travel, we’re able to deliver the adventure of a lifetime at a fraction of the cost.
With the largest variety of destinations, departure dates and an unparalleled choice of trip styles and service levels designed to meet all tastes, ages and budgets, we’re certain there’s a G Adventures trip for you.
Unlike other travel companies, we guarantee every departure on our entire roster of once-in-a-lifetime trips.
Once you’ve booked and paid, that’s it.
You’re going. Guaranteed.
Rest easy knowing that your trip won’t be cancelled by us for any reason (beyond weather and safety issues, obviously).
From tuk tuk and rickshaw to public bus, train and even camel, we’re all about variety.
Sometimes local transport is the best and most colourful way to go.
But, depending on your choice of destination, service level and trip style, we provide alternative ways of getting around, too.

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Nelly – Ride Wit Me ft. St. Lunatics

Nelly – Ride Wit Me ft. St. Lunatics

Nelly - Ride Wit Me ft. St. Lunatics
Cornell Haynes, Jr. (born November 2, 1974), better known by his stage name Nelly, is an American rapper and singer.

A member of hip hop group St. Lunatics, Nelly was signed to Universal Records in 2000. Nelly’s debut album, “Country Grammar” was released that year, and explores the genres of Southern rap and Pop rap. “Country Grammar” was certified nine times platinum in the United States, and was a mainstream success, debuting at #3 on the Billboard 200 and went on to peak at #1. He released the single “Country Grammar (Hot Shit)” and it peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart and #1 on the Hot Rap Tracks chart. Nelly also released the single “Ride wit Me,” featuring fellow St. Lunatic City Spud. The song peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became his highest charting single at that time.

The following year, St. Lunatics released their first album as a group, “Free City,” which received a platinum certification in the United States. Nelly released his second studio work, “Nellyville” in 2002. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. It was also nominated for “Album of the Year” at the 2003 Grammys. The album was certified 6× platinum by the RIAA. Its lead single “Hot in Herre” was a #1 hit. Other singles included “Dilemma” featuring Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child, “Work It” featuring Justin Timberlake, “Air Force Ones” featuring Murphy Lee and the St. Lunatics, “Pimp Juice”, and “#1.” The album was certified 6x multi-platinum. “Hot in Herre” won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rap Solo Performance in 2003.

Nelly released a remix album in 2003, titled “Da Derrty Versions: The Reinvention.”

In 2004, Nelly released two albums, “Sweat” and “Suit.” “Suit,” an R&B-oriented album, debuted at #1 on the Billboard albums chart, and “Sweat,” a rap-oriented album, debuted at #2. From “Suit,” the slow ballad “Over and Over,” an unlikely duet with country music star Tim McGraw, became a crossover hit. 

In the winter of 2005 “Sweatsuit,” a compilation of tracks from “Sweat” and “Suit” with three new tracks was released. “Grillz,” produced by Jermaine Dupri, was a #1 hit. To date, both albums have sold over 5 million copies in the U.S.

“Brass Knuckles,” Nelly’s fifth studio album, was issued in 2008 and reached #3 on the Billboard 200 Albums chart. “Party People,” which features Fergie, was released as the first single from the album and peaked at #40 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. “Stepped on My J’z” which features Ciara and Jermaine Dupri, was released as the second single peaking at #90 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. “Body on Me” which features Akon and Ashanti, was released as the third single and peaked at #42 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 

In 2010, Nelly released the album “5.0.” The lead single, “Just a Dream,” went to #3 on the Hot 100 chart and was certified platinum in the U.S. The second single, “Move That Body” featuring T-Pain and Akon. The third single “Gone” is the sequel to Nelly’s 2002 worldwide #1 hit “Dilemma,” and also featured Rowland.

Bio source…..starpulse.com

Picture source…..static2

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Dragon – This Time In The Right Direction

Dragon – This Time In The Right Direction

Dragon - Are You Old Enough

Dragon formed in Auckland, New Zealand, in 1972, with a line-up that featured Todd Hunter, guitarist Ray Goodwin, drummer Neil Reynolds and singer Graeme Collins; by 1974 several personnel changes had occurred including the introduction of Todd’s brother Marc Hunter on vocals and Neil Storey on drums.

The band recorded two progressive rock albums in New Zealand, Universal Radio and Scented Gardens for the Blind, the second with an added guitar element from Robert Taylor. Paul Hewson also joined the band on keyboards and from this point Dragon’s music took on a pop-flavoured AOR feel.

Dragon eventually landed a contract in Australia with CBS Records and relocated to Sydney in 1975.

Always a lightning rod for controversy, the band was rocked by the heroin overdose death of drummer Neil Storey only weeks after arriving in Australia and their original manager was also deported back to New Zealand on drugs charges. By then, founding member Ray Goodwin had left the group.

Storey was replaced by Kerry Jacobson and, between 1975 and 1979, Dragon scored a string of major hits on the Australasian pop charts with songs including “April Sun in Cuba,” “Are You Old Enough” and “Still in Love With You” and with the albums Sunshine and O Zambezi, making them one of the region’s most popular rock acts.

Marc Hunter left Dragon in 1979 due to health problems which were, by then, seriously affecting his performances. New singer Richard Lee was recruited and the group recorded the Powerplay LP before breaking up in 1979.

Dragon was forced to reform in 1982 to pay off outstanding debts, but they stayed together and decided to have another shot at success. The band’s second comeback single “Rain” proved to be a massive hit, but Kerry Jacobson left the band for health reasons and was replaced by British drummer Terry Chambers, formerly from the band XTC. American keyboard player and producer Alan Mansfield also joined the band at this point.

The group’s 1984 album Body and the Beat became one of the biggest-selling albums in Australia and New Zealand and the band was restored to something close to its late 70s glory. Their public profile was further raised at this time by the Marc Hunter solo album Communication. Its title track became a moderate hit in Australia.

Paul Hewson left Dragon and tragically died of a drug overdose in New Zealand in January 1985, with Terry Chambers and Robert Taylor leaving Dragon some time after. American drummer Doanne Perry replaced Chambers, and Taylor was eventually succeeded by local Sydney guitar ace Tommy Emmanuel.

This line-up recorded the Todd Rundgren-produced Dreams of Ordinary Men album and toured Europe under the name Hunter in 1987, where they were somewhat misrepresented as a heavy metal band in some markets.

Dragon again split up in 1988 although a year later Todd and Marc Hunter and Alan Mansfield reconvened once again with guitarist Randall Waller and drummer Barton Price (ex-Models and The Choirboys) for the 1989 Bondi Road album, which actually featured Tommy Emmanuel’s guitar playing.

Dragon continued to record and tour with varying line-ups centered around the Hunter brothers and Mansfield until 1997, although Todd Hunter had largely retired from the band to do soundtrack work.

In 1998, Marc Hunter was diagnosed with severe throat cancer and died later that year. The compilation CD Forever Young, released on Raven Records, captures many of the highlight tracks of his tumultuous career.

Bio source…..www.last.fm

Picture source…..www.thestarfish.com.au

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Bob Marley and The Wailers – Redemption song

Bob Marley and The Wailers – Redemption song

Bob Marley and The Wailers - Redemption song

As a poet, prophet and purveyor of Jamaican culture, he shattered musical boundaries around the world.

Bob Marley was born in a small village called Nine Miles in Jamaica. The son of British Naval Officer and Jamaican woman called Cedella, Marley rarely saw his father due to his mother’s family and their disapproval of his parents relationship.

By the time he had turned 16, Marley had recorded his first single ‘Judge Not’, and in 1963, he formed The Wailers with Peter Tosh, Bunny Livingstone, Junior Braithwaite, and Beverly Kelso. The band then scored their first number one in Jamaica with ‘Simmer Down’ on the Coxsone label.

When Braithwaite and Kelso left the group around 1965, the Wailers continued as a trio, Marley, Tosh, and Livingstone trading leads. In spite of the popularity of singles like ‘Rude Boy’, the artists received few or no royalties, and in 1966 they disbanded.

After marrying his girlfriend Rita Anderson, Marley spent most of the following year working in a factory in Newark in the United States, where his mother had moved in 1963. Upon his return to Jamaica, the Wailers reunited and recorded for Coxsone with little success. During this period, the Wailers devoted themselves to the religious sect of Rastafari.

In 1969, they began a three-year association with Lee “Scratch” Perry, who directed them to play their own instruments and expanded their line-up to include Aston and Carlton Barrett, formerly the rhythm section of Perry’s studio band, the Upsetters. Some of the records they made with Perry – like ‘Trenchtown Rock’ – were locally very popular, but so precarious was the Jamaican record industry that the group seemed no closer than before to establishing steady careers. It formed an independent record company, Tuff Gong, in 1971, but the venture foundered when Livingstone was jailed and Marley got caught in a contract commitment to American pop singer Johnny Nash, who took him to Sweden to write a film score.

Their breakthrough came in 1972 when Chris Blackwell – who had released ‘Judge Not’ in England in 1963 – signed the Wailers to Island Records and advanced them the money to record themselves in Jamaica. The first result of this new contract was 1973’s ‘Catch A Fire’, the breakthrough album that saw the band reach an international audience for the first time. It was followed a year later by Burnin’, which included the songs “Get Up, Stand Up” and “I Shot The Sheriff”.

The band toured heavily during this period, and Marley expanded the instrumental section of the group and bringing in a female vocal trio, the I-Threes, which included his wife, Rita. Now called Bob Marley and the Wailers, they toured Europe, Africa, and the Americas, building especially strong followings in the U.K., Scandinavia, and Africa. They had U.K. Top 40 hits with ‘No Woman No Cry’ (1975), ‘Exodus’ (1977), ‘Waiting in Vain’ (1977), and ‘Satisfy My Soul’ (1978).

In 1976, Marley was shot by gunmen during the Jamaican election campaign, but survived and continued to soar in popularity until his 1981 death due to brain, lung and stomach cancer. In 1987, both Peter Tosh and longtime Marley drummer Carlton Barrett were murdered in Jamaica during separate incidents. Rita Marley continues to tour, record, and run the Tuff Gong studios and record company.

Picture source…..foreverb.rxmedicalweb.netdna-cdn.com

Bio source……www.thebiographychannel.co.uk

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