Caesar had his legions, Napoleon had his rifles, we have our music.
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Saturday, April 29, 2006
Gary Glitter
AKA Paul Francis Gadd
Born:8-May-1944 Birthplace: Banbury, Oxfordshire, England
Gender: Male Religion:Buddhist Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation:Matter of Dispute Occupation: Musician
Nationality: England Executive summary:Rock and Roll Part 2
Gary Glitter is a British rock and pop performer who first rose to fame in the early 1970s. His unique style blended glam rock with a driving yet upbeat 1950s style rock and roll. Glitter's most popular hits include "I'm the Leader of the Gang (I Am)", "Do You Wanna Touch", and "Rock And Roll (Part 2)". His "Another Rock And Roll Christmas" remains one of the U.K.'s Top 30 Christmas hits of all time. Despite serious up and downs, Glitter's career produced 21 hit singles in the U.K., earning him a spot among the Top 100 most successful British chart artists. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Glitter experienced a significant career revival, but the ride was cut short by his arrest on child pornography charges in 1997. After a lengthy investigation and trial, he was convicted in 1999 and served a short jail term. In November of 2005, Glitter was arrested in Viet Nam for committing obscene acts with two young girls. On 3 March 2006 he was sentenced to three years in prison.
Gary Glitter was born Paul Francis Gadd on 8 May 1944 in Banbury, Oxfordshire. An illegitimate child, he was apparently raised solely by his mother and grandmother, save for some time in foster care. In 1958, the young teen took the stage name Paul Russell -- borrowing the surname from his stepfather -- and formed his first band, Paul Russell and his Rebels. According to Glitter the group's first gig was at the Sutton Granada where they took part in a Saturday morning Skiffle contest. Supplementing their equipment with homemade instruments, the group performed a rendition of Buddy Holly's "Oh Boy". The future Godfather of Glam then launched into the London club scene, scoring gigs at Soho's famed 2 I's, the Safari club, Laconda, and various others.
His discovery by former movie producer Robert Hartford Davis looked like the big break Gadd, now billed as Paul Raven, had been waiting for. But his January 1960 release of the single "Alone in the Night" went nowhere. Similarly a 1961 recording deal with Parlophone, which produced the singles "Walk On By" and "Tower of Strength", fizzled with poor sales. The following year found Gadd was paying the bills doing studio warm-up on the set of British TV show Ready, Steady, Go. It was here that he met composer/producer Mike Leander who, in 1965 invited Gadd to join his Mike Leander Show Band. Although the band folded soon after, it was the beginning of many years of successful collaboration.
By the early 70s Gadd was finally developing his trademark style, a fusion of the glam rock then sweeping Europe and the old school rock-n-roll of childhood idols like Bill Haley and Chuck Berry, both of whom Gadd worked briefly with in different periods. Leaving behind the persona of Paul Raven, and Boston International, the band with which he'd been touring, Gadd rechristened himself Gary Glitter -- choosing the alliterative moniker over alternatives Vicky Vomit, Stanley Sparkle, and Terry Tinsel.
Already signed with MCA records via their new head, good pal Mike Leander, Gadd released his now famous "Rock and Roll (Part 2)" -- a chantlike anthem that was light on vocals and heavy on drum. Although only a small part of a larger project ("Part 1" became big in France), the song went on to become number two on the U.K. music charts, and to make the top ten in the U.S With his "sound" discovered at last, Gadd/Glitter rose to potent but unsteady stardom. He sold out the London Palladium in 1973, and with Leander fueling his compositions, he became a frequent fixture on the U.K. hits charts for the next decade.
But in 1975 Glitter's career slumped, with new releases failing to hit the mark. In March of 1976 he announced his retirement, a move that was later proved a publicity stunt. Its payoff was potent but brief, and after a run of concerts he was again struggling. Glitter moved to New Zealand where he played a slightly pudgy Frankenfurter in a production of Rocky Horror and popped out a couple of minor hits for the U.K. audience ("A Little Boogie Woogie in the Back of My Mind" and "It Takes All Night Long"). Along the way he delved deeper into drugs and alcoholism, and his Glitter Band broke away to form an entity of its own.
In 1980 Gary Glitter's financial troubles came to a massive head. His expensive pop star tastes, including his hundreds of special-made silver "glitter" suits and scores of shiny platform boots and bouffant wigs, had driven him into such heavy debt that he was forced to declare bankruptcy. The sale of all his worldly goods, including his awards, left a hefty deficit of £180,000 in unpaid taxes. Ever resourceful, Glitter managed to reinvent himself, touring the college circuit, jamming with various punk bands, and playing roughly 80 shows a year. He even started hitting the charts again -- with a dance medley version of his greatest hits, "All That Glitters" and "Dance Me Up" as well as the now classic "Another Rock and Roll Christmas". The new Glitter embraced Buddhism and became a vegetarian.
Despite various set backs, including a third conviction for drunk driving and a ten year ban on his driving privileges, things continued to follow a general upswing for Glitter. Collaborations and appearances with popular artists like Rod Stewart and U.K. psychedelic band Doctor and the Medics were bringing him additional attention, and he was soon much in demand as a live performer. His live performance at Chicago's 1994 World Cup concert, which aired in 46 countries, was extremely well received. His "Rock and Roll (Part Two)" was now ensconced as a classic sports anthem, on two continents, and would later make an appearance in the popular British film The Full Monty. TV stations in the U.S. routinely use the tune as background music for sports segments.
Meanwhile a number of artists were rediscovering and retransmitting Glitter's work, either by incorporating elements into their own style (as with Alice Cooper, Adam Ant, Marco Pirroni, Kiss, Aerosmith, and The New York Dolls) or by cutting covers of Glitter classics. Most notable among the latter, in the U.S. at least, was Joan Jett's cover of with "Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)". In the U.K., Oasis gave Glitter the nod by borrowing lines from his "Hello, Hello, I'm Back Again", providing him with copious royalties. All in all he seemed well on his way to becoming a beloved rock and roll institution, buoyed up by the dual wave of nostalgia and belated respect. Even his ex-girlfriend's tabloid tell-all, revealing how the bald Glitter had made her wash his wigs, couldn't bring him down.
In 1997 he was poised to appear in the new Spice Girls film, singing his classic hit "Leader of the Gang", and he had just earned two million pounds selling the rights to all his songs. Things appeared to be reaching a new high, when Glitter was arrested on child pornography charges. According to police, the employees at the Bristol branch of PC World were repairing Glitter's computer when they stumbled across his large cache of hardcore kiddie porn. When police searched his home they found a hoard of some 4,000 images, most depicting children between the ages of three and six. Some showed children as young as two years old, and many showed graphic molestation. Meanwhile, Glitter's use of porn sites suggested he was swapping files with other pedophiles, increasing the seriousness of his case.
As news hit the papers, stores throughout the U.K. withdrew his records from the shelves. Glitter was promptly edited out of the Spiceworld film, and a scheduled Glitter performance for BBC's Children in Need benefit was cut. Then the next bombshell hit: a young woman came forward alleging that Glitter had engaged in sex with her when she was only 14 years old. If proven the allegation would lead to even heavier jail time for Glitter, and would add the legal stigma of prior convictions when his pornography case came to court. As it turned out, the young woman was none other than Allison Brown, the same ex-girlfriend who'd embarrassed Glitter in the tabloids in 1993. Brown eventually admitted the relationship had taken place with the blessing of her parents. And when it came out that Brown was being paid by the News of the World to come forward, and that she had been promised additional payments if her testimony landed Glitter in prison, her case was dropped.
But the kiddie porn charges stuck, earning Glitter a few months in prison in 1999 and official classification as a sex offender. When his stint was up he dropped out of sight, secretly leaving the U.K. to live in Cuba with girlfriend Yudenia Sosa Martinez. But the tabloids got wind of his location and Glitter again fled. When he resurfaced in Cambodia in April of 2002, government officials pressured him to leave the country, fearing that the presence of a high-profile sex offender would only add to their nation's image as a pedophile spa. But Glitter later returned to Cambodia, only to be jailed for two days by police and formally deported on January 8th. The following day Cambodian officials permanently barred Glitter from the country.
Although initially deported to Thailand, by 2005 he was living in Vũng Tàu, Viet Nam, and applying for permanent resident status. Meanwhile a documentary, Remember Me This Way, filmed while Glitter was at his first career peak in 1973, was re-released onto DVD. Glitter released a couple albums -- repackaged material in "The Remixes" and "Live In Concert" as well as totally new material in his 2001 album "On". All in all he seemed to be adjusting reasonably well to the role of tarnished expatriate artist. But on 16 November 2005 both the Vietnamese and British press reported that Glitter was on the run and under investigation for underage sex. Three days later Glitter was arrested in Ho Chi Minh City while trying to board a plane bound for Thailand.
In the police investigation that followed, Glitter was alleged to have been sexually involved with at least half a dozen underage girls. But the case eventually narrowed to sexual misconduct, and allegations of possible child rape, involving two girls, aged 11 and 12. Because of the rape charge, Glitter faced the possibility of death by firing squad if found guilty. But on 26 December, the rape charge was dropped due to insufficient evidence. Reportedly, Glitter paid financial restitution to the girls' families, who in return petitioned the courts for clemency on his behalf.
However, Glitter still faced the possibility of some seven years in prison for his offenses, which allegedly included kissing and fondling both girls, ejaculating on the stomach of one girl, and having the other urinate in his mouth. Locals interviewed about the case reported that Glitter was often seen in the company of young girls, although he has since claimed he is totally innocent of the charges against him and was merely tutoring the girls in English. On the day of his trial he told press that he was "framed by you know who". Meanwhile fellow expatriates in Vũng Tàu, more familiar with Glitter's past, were astounded and amused by his foolishness and naiveté, pointing out that given his fame and past conviction it would have been wise to avoid all underage contact -- innocent or otherwise.
On March 3, 2006 Glitter was convicted of sexually abusing both girls and sentenced to 3 years in prison. Officials acknowledged that the four months Glitter spent in prison during investigations will count toward his three year term and that he may be eligible for early release after serving another six months in jail. However, as Vietnamese local and federal officials wish to send a strong warning to potential pedophiles, Glitter's term may run its full course. In either case, he is slated to be deported immediately upon release -- possibly to the U.K., though that has yet to be determined. Officials in the U.K. state that Glitter may face further prosecution there, though likely not for this particular case.
Wife: Anne Merton (div., 2 children) Son: Paul Daughter: Sarah Girlfriend: Yudenia Sosa Martinez (Cuban) Son: Gary Jr. (b. 2-Feb-2001)
With a name like that, it's gotta be good! In all seriousness, this sound is more of a hype, laid back feel with that gangsta feel of the reality of life. This music invokes Juvenile.
Smokealota was once called Smoke-A-Lot on Averice Ent, formally known as Mobbstatis Ent located in California. Smokealota released a nationwide underground album in 98 called "NOLA Soldier" on Mobbstatis Ent. This cd sold close to six digits just by word of mouth. He also appeared on underground copulations with famous artists like 2pac, Dr.dre, Master P,Lil flip, and many more. Smokealot is currently running his own record label SK.S Records. Be on the look out for his album in 2006, he will shock the world and non supporters. He is the true underground king It's time to let it be known!
Cop from the #1 Underground King, is in stores May 2006. For more information email yafolksmoke@yahoo.com or visit http://WWW.SKSRECORDS.BIZ
Music is my weapon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Music Is My Weapon: Music is my weapon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Colombian musicians turn guns into guitars to make music - as well as a point.
BOGOTA, Colombia - It's not long after you enter the world of Cesar Lopez that you realize he doesn't color inside the lines.
He is a classically-trained musician and composer who studied at Colombia's best conservatory. But instead of concert hall performances he chooses to play his music on the streets of Bogota. He writes all of his songs on air-sickness bags he collects during his travels.
"It's appropriate," he says, "because I feel I'm vomiting up what I have inside me."
But despite the description, the music he composes and plays is haunting and beautiful — hardly repulsive.
His comfortable Bogota apartment is filled with the tools of his trade, a baby-grand piano, guitars, amps — as well as the evidence that his subversively creative mind has few boundaries.
Near the piano, on a black stand that resembles a bipod, sits a Winchester lever action rifle. On its polished barrel are four hash marks, representing, says Lopez, the four people killed by it.
But there's much more to the gun than its history: six metal guitar strings stretch from the mid-point of its wooden stock, across the loading chamber, past the fret board threaded over the weapon's barrel, ending at a guitar neck flaring past the muzzle.
It's part of project in which Lopez transforms weapons of war into instruments of killer sound, using them in a kind of political performance art.
"What we want to create is an invitation to an attitude of change," he says. "It says a lot of different things — but the main idea is that weapons can be changed from an object of destructiveness to an object of constructiveness."
Cesar Lopez
When he says we, he means the other 100 or so members of a group calling themselves the Battalion of Immediate Artistic Reaction — musicians and political activists, tired of Colombia's four-decade old war of attrition, committed not only to making music, but also making a point.
Using Internet meet-ups, the battalion mobilizes every time there is some kind of guerrilla attack in Bogota, heading out into the streets to serenade the victims with soothing music.
It was during the 2003 bombing of the El Nogal nightclub which killed 36 people in the capital's trendy Zona Rosa district that Lopez got the idea for turning guns into guitars.
"We were playing our music on the streets near the club," he says, "when I noticed that a soldier was holding his rifle the same way I was holding my guitar."
The prototype hangs on Lopez's wall, but the design has evolved.
"In the first one," he says, pointing out the strings suspended above the gunstock, "the guitar isn't well integrated with the gun. But it's better now. The gun is in service to the guitar, which is the idea."
Lopez says he gets the guns through an anti-land mine group connected to Colombia's peace commissioner's office. Most of the firing components are removed so it can no longer be fired.
Then a guitar maker adds the fretboard, strings and neck as well as an input for the electric amp.
"Violence fears love because it is stronger," Lopez says, strumming the gun guitar on a hammock strung between two walls of his living room. "Violence fears my voice because it goes beyond death."
Only a few dozen of the guitar guns have been manufactured so far, most being used by members of the Battalion when they respond to attacks.
But I wonder if those who just suffered from violence would really want to be serenaded by musicians playing guns.
"The attitude of most people is very good, except at airports," he laughs. But there are definitely critics.
"It's been very difficult to explain to the military the reason for a campaign like this," he says. "They don't really understand how a gun can be turned into a guitar."
And is there the potential that one of Colombia's many armed groups could use the gun guitar concept as a kind of Trojan horse — pretend they are a member of Lopez's Battalion of Immediate Artistic Reaction — but arrive in public wielding real guns instead of decommissioned ones?
Lopez nods his head. It's a question he's considered many times before.
"This is my nightmare," he says, "that's why we've been very careful to make sure the weapons are decommissioned and who we give them to. But yes, people could be killed."
Regardless, he believes real change requires risk. And this cause, he says — ending Colombia's cycle of gun-related violence — is worth it.
Besides, the transformation isn't just for show. The gun guitars truly have a killer sound, according to Lopez, ranging from ballads to, appropriately enough, heavy metal.
Cesar and Adriana
He and singer Adriana Luce demonstrate by performing in his living room — an untitled, ethereal work which belies the guitar's vestiges of its past.
Lopez says he just received a dozen AK-47 assault rifles, the world's most ubiquitous automatic weapon, from the peace commissioner's office, and is having them made into guitars.
When they're completed he plans to give them to high profiles musicians such as Shakira, Santana, Paul McCartney and Carlos Vivas, as well as some political and religious leaders like the Dali Lama.
However, Lopez says his recently received a letter in an incredulous tone from a member of the Dali Lama's staff, wondering why anyone would want to give the Buddhist leader a gun — regardless of what's attached to it.
Lopez says he'll try to make the explanation clearer.
In the meantime, he's also at work on another project, putting together what he calling the Experimental Reconciliation Group — a band made up of seven musicians from ex-members of Colombia's left wing guerrilla groups, right wing paramilitaries and even city gangs.
"The idea is to show that people of different political beliefs and backgrounds can work together," he says. "But they'll only be allowed to discuss music."
Optimistically, Lopez says the band will be ready to perform by Aug. 5, even though he hasn't even identified all the members yet.
All of this, he says, is about making positive changes for Colombia, reducing the violence, and teaching people to live together — an ambitious program for someone who could be filling concert halls with enchanting music.
"That's my big question right now," he says, "why I went this route. It's a gamble and I wonder if it will actually end up serving other people."
Gnarls Barkley -The next super power of the world !!!!!
Music Is My Weapon: Gnarls Barkley -The next super power of the world !!!!!
"Gnarls Barkley have entered the UK charts straight at number 1, before their single, Crazy, is even released! This is the first song ever to reach the number 1 spot before it’s released. The single sold 31,703 copies, purely from downloads. It is expected to keep the number 1 spot next week, as it is properly released tomorrow :"This is some of the things that the new musical collaboration between Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo. http://www.myspace.com/gnarlsbarkley
In 1998, Brian Burton was a distracted art student at the University of Georgia who spent his idle hours tinkering with a drum machine in his dorm room. So when Burton flipped Goodie Mob rapper Cee-Lo his glitchy demo after a show, he didn't expect much to come of it. Fast-forward to 2003: Burton, now calling himself Danger Mouse (and just months away from blowing up with the Jay-Z/Beatles mash-up The Grey Album), is producing an album by New York MC Jemini. Cee-Lo -- who had recently put out a critically acclaimed solo album of freaked-out soul -- agrees to sing on a track, impressed with Burton's wacky, symphonic production. "It was right down my alley," says Cee-Lo. "I was like, 'Let me get on a couple of your tracks.' And he said, 'I don't do tracks, I do albums.' "
BEAT FREAKS Coming from Cee-Lo, who scored a hit with his 2003 Timbaland-produced "I'll Be Around" and Danger Mouse, who produced Gorillaz' Demon Days, it's no surprise that St. Elsewhere (the pair's first album as Gnarls Barkley) is a genre-defying mix of hip-hop, soul, electro and, uh, college rock (check the funked-up cover of the Violent Femmes' "Gone Daddy Gone").
CROSS-COUNTRY COLLABO "Almost half the album was done via e-mail," says Cee-Lo. "He would send me something, and I would go into the studio and cut it." Adds Danger Mouse, "We were really competing, trying to impress each other. I was just trying to send him the most out-there stuff, and he was trying to outdo it." This year, the two finally got together in the studio to finish St. Elsewhere. Many of the songs -- including the Al Green-at-a-rave single "Crazy" -- were cut in a single take.
CROSSOVER HIT In the U.K., "Crazy" went straight to Number One before it was even available in stores -- based on the volume of downloads alone. But Danger Mouse fears stateside listeners might not be as quick to embrace it: "It's too out there for urban radio, and it's too urban for rock radio." Cee-Lo has a more positive spin, saying, "Were we crazy to try to break down boundaries? Well, was Dr. Frankenstein crazy? Or was he convinced, completely convinced of something?" The duo's much anticipated set at California's Coachella music festival in April kicks off a string of U.S. dates.
AKA Paul Francis Gadd
In 1998, Brian Burton was a distracted art student at the University of Georgia who spent his idle hours tinkering with a drum machine in his dorm room. So when Burton flipped Goodie Mob rapper Cee-Lo his glitchy demo after a show, he didn't expect much to come of it. Fast-forward to 2003: Burton, now calling himself Danger Mouse (and just months away from blowing up with the Jay-Z/Beatles mash-up The Grey Album), is producing an album by New York MC Jemini. Cee-Lo -- who had recently put out a critically acclaimed solo album of freaked-out soul -- agrees to sing on a track, impressed with Burton's wacky, symphonic production. "It was right down my alley," says Cee-Lo. "I was like, 'Let me get on a couple of your tracks.' And he said, 'I don't do tracks, I do albums.' " 