English rock band
Free were an English rock band formed in London in 1968, best known for their hit songs "All Right Now” and "Wishing Well".[1] They disbanded in 1973; lead singer Paul Rodgers went on to become the frontman of the more successful rock band Bad Company, which also featured his Free bandmate Simon Kirke on drums.[2] Lead guitarist Paul Kossoff formed Back Street Crawler in 1973, but died from a pulmonary embolism at the age of 25 in 1976.[3] Bassist Andy Fraser formed Sharks.[4]
Free became renowned for their live shows and non-stop touring. However, their studio albums did not sell very well until their third, Fire and Water, featured the massive hit "All Right Now". The song helped secure them a place at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970, where they played to 600,000 people.[5] In the early 1970s Free became one of the biggest-selling British blues rock[6][7][8] groups; by the time they disbanded, they had sold more than 20 million albums around the world and had played more than 700 arena and festival concerts. "All Right Now" remains a R&B staple, and has been entered in ASCAP's "One Million" airplay singles club.[9][10]
Rolling Stone has referred to the band as "British hard rock pioneers".[11] The magazine ranked Rodgers No. 55 in its list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time",[12] and Paul Kossoff at Number 51 in its "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".[11] Free were signed to Island Records in the UK and A&M Records in North America.
English rock band
English rock band
Elbow are an English rock band formed in Bury, Greater Manchester, in 1997. The band consists of Guy Garvey (lead vocals, guitar), Craig Potter (keyboard, piano, backing vocals), Mark Potter (guitar, backing vocals) and Pete Turner (bass guitar, backing vocals). They have played together since 1990, adopting the name Elbow in 1997. Drummer Alex Reeves replaced Richard Jupp in 2016.[1]
The band have released nine studio albums: Asleep in the Back (2001), Cast of Thousands (2003), Leaders of the Free World (2005), The Seldom Seen Kid (2008), Build a Rocket Boys! (2011), The Take Off and Landing of Everything (2014), Little Fictions (2017), Giants of All Sizes (2019) and Flying Dream 1 (2021). Their studio albums, as well as their B-sides compilation Dead in the Boot (2012), all reached the top 15 of the British album chart.[2][3] Seven of their singles placed in the top 40 of the British singles chart.[4] Their most recent album, Flying Dream 1, was released on 19 November 2021.
In 2008, Elbow won the Mercury Music Prize for their album The Seldom Seen Kid, and in 2009 they won the Brit Award for Best British Group.[5] In 2012, they released "First Steps", the BBC theme for the 2012 London Olympics.[6]
English rock band
American alternative metal band
10 Years is an American alternative metal band formed in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1999. The band consists of lead vocalist Jesse Hasek, lead guitarist Brian Vodinh, rhythm guitarist Matt Wantland, bassist Chad Grennor, and drummer Luke Narey. The group has gone through multiple line-up changes since their inception, with Vodinh and Wantland being the only remaining founding members. To date, they have released nine studio albums, their most recent being Violent Allies, released on September 18, 2020.
The Pillows (Japanese: ザ・ピロウズ, Hepburn: Za Pirōzu, stylized as the pillows) are a Japanese alternative rock band formed in 1989. The group has released 22 studio albums, several EPs and compilations, and over 40 singles. Outside Japan, they are best known as the group responsible for the soundtrack to the FLCL anime series.[3]
Adam Mitchel Lambert (born January 29, 1982) is an American singer and songwriter. Since 2009, he has sold over 3 million albums and 5 million singles worldwide.[4][5] Lambert is known for his dynamic vocal performances that fuse his theatrical training with modern and classic genres.[6]
Lambert rose to fame in 2009 after finishing as runner-up on the eighth season of American Idol.[7] Later that year, he released his debut album For Your Entertainment, which debuted at number three on the U.S. Billboard 200.[8] The album spawned several singles, including "Whataya Want from Me", for which he received a Grammy nomination for "Best Male Pop Vocal Performance".[9]
In 2012, Lambert released his second studio album Trespassing. The album premiered at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, making him the first openly gay artist to top the album charts. In 2015, Lambert released his third album The Original High, which debuted at number three on the U.S. Billboard 200 and produced the single "Ghost Town".[10]
Alongside his solo career, Lambert has collaborated with rock band Queen as lead vocalist for Queen + Adam Lambert since 2011, including several worldwide tours from 2014 to 2020. Their first album, Live Around the World, released in October 2020, and debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart.[11]
In late 2019, Lambert founded the non-profit Feel Something Foundation, anchoring his ongoing philanthropy, LGBTQ+ and human rights activism. Its particular focus is support for organizations and projects that directly and disproportionately impact the LGBTQ+ community, including education and the arts, mental health, suicide prevention and homelessness.[12]
Canadian rock band
Metric is a Canadian rock band founded in 1998 in Toronto, Ontario.[2] The band consists of Emily Haines (lead vocals, synthesizers, guitar, tambourine, harmonica, piano), James Shaw (guitar, synthesizers, theremin, backing vocals), Joshua Winstead (bass, synthesizers, backing vocals) and Joules Scott-Key (drums, percussion). The band started in 1998 as a duo formed by Haines and Shaw with the name "Mainstream".[2][3] After releasing an EP titled Mainstream EP, they changed the band's name to Metric.
The band's first studio album, Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?, was released in 2003. Live It Out, released in 2005, was nominated for the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the "Canadian Album of the Year" and for the 2006 Juno Awards for "Best Alternative Album". Their third studio album, Grow Up and Blow Away, was recorded in 2001; it was initially planned as their debut album, but was delayed for many years and finally released, with some changes, in 2007.
Metric's fourth album Fantasies was released in 2009.[4] It was shortlisted for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize for "Canadian Album of the Year", and won the "Alternative Album of the Year" at the 2010 Juno Awards. Metric also won the 2010 "Group of the Year". The fifth Metric studio album, Synthetica, was released in 2012. The band won two awards at 2013 Juno Awards: "Alternative Album of the Year" for Synthetica and "Producer of the Year" for Shaw. The art director/designer/photographer Justin Broadbent also won an award for "Recording Package of the Year" for Synthetica. Metric's sixth album, Pagans in Vegas, was released in 2015.
Their seventh full-length record, the Justin Meldal-Johnson produced Art of Doubt, was released on September 21, 2018.[5]
Canadian rock band
Andrew Fetterly Wilkes-Krier (born May 9, 1979), known professionally as Andrew W.K., is an American conceptual performance artist, rock singer, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and actor. Raised in Michigan, Wilkes-Krier began his musical career in the mid-1990s. He performed in a number of local bands before eventually moving to New York, where he produced his first recordings under the Andrew W.K. moniker.
After gaining initial attention with the 2000 EP Girls Own Juice, Wilkes-Krier rose to prominence with the release of his debut studio album I Get Wet in November 2001. In the years following its release, Wilkes-Krier has undertaken a number of other musical and non-musical ventures including television and radio work, motivational speaking, and writing.