Music Industry Pop Trivia: Stones Facts

Music Industry Pop Trivia: Stones Facts

Stones Facts

The Rolling Stones

This amazing, now, world famous band of musicians formed back in 1962, making their debut on July 12^th at the Marquee Jazz Club in London, as the group called the Rolling Stones.

At that time, the band consisted of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Brian Jones, augmented by Dick Taylor and Ian Stewart.

In December of that year, a new bassist named Bill Wyman would replace Dick Taylor. Within a month, the band would gain a new addition, Charlie Watts, who would become the bands’ permanent drummer.

Prior to the bands formation:

Charlie Watts, reluctant to join the band at first, was originally in a day job in advertising.

Bill Wyman was a former Royal Air Force ACI Air Craftsman First Class and an ex-member, of the band The Clifton’s.

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards first met at Maypole County Primary School, in Wilmington, Kent in 1951, and then lost contact with each other.

In October 1960, Jagger, then a student at the London School of Economics and Richards – who was attending Sidcup Art School, renewed their acquaintance, quite by accident; travelling on a train.

THE BAND

With these band members now in place, they made their first television appearance as the ‘Rolling Stones’ on a weekly pop show called ‘Thank Your Lucky Stars’, on July 7, 1963, singing ‘Come On’; a cover version of a Chuck Berry song.

The Rolling Stones made 12 other appearances on the series over the next three years.

The following month, the group made their first of 19 appearances on ‘Ready Steady Go’! The bottom of the bill included: Jerry and the Pacemakers, Freddie and the Dreamers, Kath Kirby and Kenny Lynch.

The bands first five UK singles were all cover versions:

Chuck Berry’s, ‘Come On’, the Beatles, ‘I wana Be Your man’, Buddy Holly’s, ‘Not fade  Away’, Bobby Womack’s, ‘It’s all over Now’ and Willie Nixon’s “Little Red Rooster’.

The members of the band, being greatly influenced by these other musical greats.

The band’s first US tour would be June 1964, taking America by storm, with their rebellious, and ‘Look out here we come’ attitude.

The sixth was their own composition, ‘The Last Time’, and it topped the charts in March 1965.

In 1969, the Stones gave a free concert in London’s Hyde Park, two days after the death of former guitarist Brian Jones.

They performed 14 songs that evening, with support bands:  The third Ear Band, The Battered Ornaments, King Crimson, Screw, Alexis Komer’s New Church and Family.

Jagger and Richards are among some of the worlds most accomplished of song writing teams.

KEITHS GENEROUS ACT OF KINDNESS

It is a credit to Keith Richards, for his generous saving of the village hall in West Wittering in Sussex, England, in October 1998, when he donated £30.000 for renovations and a new roof.

The hall was built in honour of the First World War locals that died. It was being used by the West Wittering Players, and as the Welcome Club for the over 60’s and others.

FIRST INTERNET GIG

On November 18 1994, the Rolling Stones became the first major band to broadcast live on the internet, direct form the Cotton Bowl, Fair Park in Dallas with the URL of http/www.stones.com, and made available by multimedia company Thinking Pictures.

Today, the worlds’ still working, oldest group, they have the highest gold/platinum ratio of any act. Being awarded 41 gold discs, of which 28 have gone on to reach platinum status, 11 going multi-platinum ‘Hot Rocks’, 1964-1971 remains the bands best seller; with sales of over 12 million.

Clfiff Richard

CLIFF RICHARD is an interesting artist that paved his way into the music industry in the late fifties.

Born Harry Webb, he was the eldest and only son in a family of four children. His school years, saw he his friends forming a harmonizing group of young singers, called ‘The Qintones.

With his interest and love of music, he purchased his first guitar, intermingling and jamming with various groups in the years that followed.

By July 1958 Cliff made his first record, called ‘Move It’, at which time, he was not performing on any professional basis.

With his new persona as ‘Cliff Richard ‘, and working with musicians such as ‘The Drifters’, as backing singers, who would later become ‘The Shadows’, success appeared  definite.

It marked the start of his incredibly successful career within the music industry, which would eventually lead to his now status as Sir Cliff Richard, by receiving an OBE.

For avid Cliff admirers, an incredibly sensational collection of his singles was released by ‘World Records, ‘and  boasts  eight exclusively compiled albums  of hits, by both  Cliff and the ‘Shadows’, and includes a story booklet and pictures of Cliff through  his years.

Apart from his work in music, which includes performing and recording, Cliff has always held a strong link with Christian work.

 He has an active interest, and works with the Christian Arts Centre. He also contributes to charitable organisations which relieve famine and difficulties with troubled countries.

With a career in the entertainment industry, spanning over fifty years, and selling over 260 million records to this point in time, the much loved entertainer and musician,  Cliff Richard,  will always be remembered for his astonishing contribution to music industry.

Beatles Trivia

The BEATLES

The 60’s band the ‘Beatles’ stamped their way into the Music Industry  history pages with their melodious and addictive wave of music and their love of life. Together these four boys from Liverpool found an amazing synchronicity of sound together.

The members of the band: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Richard Starkey and George Harrison when forming their band, could not have foreseen the enormity of the impact that destiny had in store for their lives.

With all four young men following their love of music on the Liverpool Club circuit in the late 50’s, it was not until 1962 that the unique connection was made of all four members was set in place.

 With the vibrations of their first single ‘Love me Do’ released, the band called the ‘Beatles’ was born.

Separately they were all creative geniuses; collectively they took the world by storm.

John Lennon will be remembered for his inspirational and at times cheeky activist approach to upholding peace in the world today. Even after the ‘Beatles went their separate ways in the music industry, followers and fans of his music still deeply respect his concepts.

His first wife Cynthia Lennon captures Johns’ early life beautifully, in a book she had published in 1978: ‘A Twist of Lennon’.

With his tragic death in 1980, John Lennon touched a chord in the hearts of millions, by proclaiming the dire importance of values beyond that of a capitalistic nature.

We love you John.

George Harrison will be remembered for his unique input into the world famous band, his brilliant solo production work, and his joint efforts with other prominent artists and bands; one being the Travelling Willburys.

His beliefs in the world today were strong and poignantly evident in his recording of the song ‘It’s Alright’. It leaves us imbued with a sense of what really matters in a lifetime.

With a strong depth of character and his leaning toward spiritual values, he was often referred to as the ‘Dark Horse’.

His death in 2001 was a tremendous loss in the music industry and his world wide fans. George possessed an inner radiance which touched the minds and souls of millions.

His genuine depth of spiritual value, seen in many of the song recordings, one such being: ‘My Sweet Lord’. His essence and faith in spirituality lives forever in the hearts of those that respected his values.

We love you George.

Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr)

A brilliant drummer and the final selection for the rhythm and tempo which would form one of the world’s greatest bands: The Beatles.

His complex style of drumming was said to be admired by another world famous drummer: Phil Collins from the band Genesis. Apparently Phil was influenced by Ringo’s techniques, and his vast ability to set the tempo.

His stage name says it all. He is a star. With magnetic appeal and a sensational joking character, he never fails to draw fans world wide.

For the ‘Beatles’, Ringo was not just the beat, rhythm and sparkle, he was the one that got the crowds dancing.

His attempts at song writing despite set backs prove astonishing, and, the one no-one will ever forget is “Yellow Submarine’.

Ringo, you put the pizzazz into people. You are the get up and go the world needs.

Paul McCartney

After finding success with the ‘Beatles’, and his astonishing writing an composing ability, Paul has gone on to fill the world with his love through his endeavors with his band ‘Wings’ and with the help of his former wife Linda.

Paul has a true persona which unites others and allows people to feel at one with themselves and their surroundings.  This is noticeably evident in his Tour of Russia.

His sheer determination and talent has carved him a path, not merely through his creative ability and his voice, but through his magnificent ability to express and be received by millions of adoring fans all over the world today.

He is one of presence, and feeling this through watching him perform only serves to re-enforce his gift of expression of love in the world today.

Final thoughts:

Together these four men captured a world-wide audience which would span, to date, five generations.  The ‘Beatles’ timeless musical creations are a hall mark of success, the bands’ achievements will live on forever, for future generations to enjoy.

A lifetime of contributing both individually and as the ‘Beatles’ forms a universal message to the world. It started with a little song called ‘All you need is love’.

Great Artists not forgotten

For everyone who ever became a fan of any musically talented artist, or band, who relished their music, hung the poster pin-ups on the bedroom walls or perhaps any other walls for that matter, I decided to put together some interesting and memorable bits of gossip and some true facts of artists.

I am honestly curious to see if anyone out there has any other bits of trivia to submit to this blog, including the artists themselves.

I wanted to do an A-Z and figured this may become the never ending blog.

So to start off ,I think one most interesting pieces of knowledge may be:

Who were those brilliantly talented souls around the world who not only reached number one in  the charts, but how long and how many number ones did they have.

To my knowledge there are around 6,000 hits recorded around the world that have reached the number ONE spot on the charts, and this is dating from approximately the 1940's. Of course I am speaking of hits that rose to number one, not number two or three or even the top ten on charts around the world.

I am sure most people would agree the hit makers of the forties and fifties laid the foundations for not only pop and rock, but stamped their brilliance in the music industry for all coming generations to cherish.

Of course critics of the pop world would say that there are very few artists who every reach number one and continue to produce number one hits and stay at the top.

But of course I could just start with some time slots and just see how the interest develops from there.

There are two people that come to mind in the fifties straight away-
Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard. Of course I am certain everyone would know that King Elvis reigned supreme and still does today.

Elvis had hits that made number one on the charts from1957 through to 1975, with the exception of the years of 1967 and 1970. But what an extraordinary feat!