Search results for ""Author Mick O'Shea""

Guns N' Roses, or GNR as they're known, is one of the biggest-selling rock bands of the past 30 years. Formed in 1985 their first album, Appetite for Destruction, followed two years later. With many star performers including Slash, Axl Rose, Izzy Stradlin and later drummer Matt Sorum, the band has always been high-profile. Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, recorded simultaneously and released in 1991, debuted at number two and number one on the Billboard 200 respectively and have sold a combined 35 million copies worldwide. The band is currently on a massive world tour and, with talk of a new album, have never been more popular.

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Critics have called The Smiths one of the most important bands to emerge from the British independent music scene of the 80s. Based on the songwriting partnership of vocalist Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr, the group released four hugely influential albums via Rough Trade Records between 1984 and 1987. This easy to read guide covers everything Smiths, from their formation in 1982, through their breakup, solo careers, and on to the present day.

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The punk movement created a revolution in the music industry with its anarchic approach and DIY = ethos. It was the antidote to a bloated record business that had become moribund and prog bands which had become hugely self-indulgent. Punk grew out of the politics of the Seventies in the UK and from bands like Dr Feelgood. With the Sex Pistols as torch bearers the movement provoked strong reactions amongst music fans and industry alike.

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Ska originated in Jamaica in the late Fifties and combined Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and r 'n' b. Ska developed in the Sixties with artists such as Prince Buster, Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd, and Duke Reid who formed sound systems to play American rhythm and blues and then began recording their own songs. Ska was popular with British mods and was later adopted by many skinheads. As music changed in the US, so did ska. In 1965 and 1966, when American soul music became slower and smoother, ska changed its sound accordingly and developed into rocksteady before evolving again from 1968 into reggae.

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