Happy Birthday NEIL FINN (video)

#neilfinn #splitenz #crowdedhouse #rockfile

Neil Mullane Finn OBE (born 27 May 1958) is a New Zealand recording artist. Along with his brother Tim Finn, he was the co-frontman for Split Enz, a project that he joined after it was initially founded by Tim Finn and others, and is now frontman for Crowded House. He has also recorded several successful solo albums and assembled diverse musicians for the 7 Worlds Collide project; contributor Ed O'Brien, also guitarist for Radiohead, has hailed Finn as popular music's "most prolific writer of great songs".

Finn rose to prominence in the late 1970s with Split Enz and wrote the successful songs "One Step Ahead", "History Never Repeats", "I Got You" and "Message to My Girl", among others. Finn rose from prominence to international fame after Split Enz broke up in 1984. While his brother Tim Finn left for England, Neil was the founder of Crowded House with Split Enz's final drummer Paul Hester in 1985. The group achieved international success in 1987 when they released the single "Don't Dream It's Over", written by Neil Finn.

He ended Crowded House in 1996 to embark upon what was to become a moderately successful solo career, and has released two albums with his brother Tim under the title the Finn Brothers. In 2006, following the death of Hester, Finn reformed Crowded House (adding Beck's former drummer Matt Sherrod) and released their first studio album in over 13 years, Time on Earth, and the band began a world tour. In 2010, Finn commenced another world tour with Crowded House in support of their 2010 release, Intriguer. In February 2014 Finn released his third solo album "Dizzy Heights."

source: wikipedia

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Happy Birthday IVA DAVIES (video)

#ivadavies #icehouse #rockfile
Iva Davies AM, (born Ivor Arthur Davies, 22 May 1955, Wauchope, New South Wales, Australia), is the frontman for Australian synthpop/new wave/rock band Icehouse.

Davies has worked with such notable musicians as David Bowie, Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel, Bryan Ferry and Roxy Music, Yukihiro Takahashi, John Oates, Elvis Costello, Simple Minds, Peter Tosh, Robert Palmer, XTC, The Psychedelic Furs, Nik Kershaw, and many more.

source: wikipedia

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Happy Birthday MORRISSEY (video)

#morrissey #thesmiths #rockfile

Steven Patrick Morrissey (born 22 May 1959), commonly known by his last name, Morrissey, or Moz, is a British singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the rock band The Smiths. The band were highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career, making the top ten of the UK Singles Chart on ten occasions. His first solo album, 1988's Viva Hate, entered the UK Albums Chart at number one.

Morrissey is widely regarded as an important innovator in the indie music scene; music magazine NME considers Morrissey to be "one of the most influential artists ever", while The Independent says, "Most pop stars have to be dead before they reach the iconic status he has reached in his lifetime." In 2004, Pitchfork Media called him "one of the most singular figures in Western popular culture from the last 20 years."

Morrissey's lyrics have been described as "dramatic, bleak, funny vignettes about doomed relationships, lonely nightclubs, the burden of the past and the prison of the home". He is also noted for his unusual baritone vocal style (though he sometimes uses falsetto), his quiff haircut and his dynamic live performances. In the media, controversies have been caused by his forthright and often contrarian opinions, and he has also attracted media attention for his advocacy of vegetarianism and animal rights. He describes himself in his autobiography as an animal protectionist.

source: wikipedia

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Happy Birthday BERNIE TAUPIN (video)

#bernietaupin #rockfile

Bernard John "Bernie" Taupin (born 22 May 1950) is an English lyricist, poet, and singer, best known for his long-term collaboration with Elton John, writing the lyrics for the majority of the star's songs, making his lyrics some of the best known in pop-rock's history.

In 1967, Taupin answered an advertisement in the UK's music paper New Musical Express that was seeking new songwriters. Around the same time Elton John submitted samples of his work to the paper, and the pair were brought together, collaborating on many projects since.

In 1971, journalist Penny Valentine wrote that "Bernie Taupin's lyrics were to become as important as Elton [John] himself, proved to have a mercurial brilliance. Not just in their atmospheric qualities and descriptive powers, but in the way he handled words to form them into straightforward poems that were easy to relate to."

source: wikipedia

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Happy Birthday KEVIN SHIELDS (video)

#kevinshields #bulletformyvalentine #rockfileradio

Kevin Patrick Shields (born 21 May 1963) is an Irish musician, singer-songwriter, composer and producer, best known as the vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine. As a teenager, Shields performed in a number of small unsuccessful bands in Dublin, Ireland before forming My Bloody Valentine with drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig in 1983. The band, which initially experienced little success, became influential on the progression of alternative rock with their two original studio albums, Isn't Anything (1988) and Loveless (1991)—both of which pioneered a subgenre known as shoegazing. Shields' texturised guitar sound, and his experimentation with his guitars' tremolo systems, resulted in the creation of the "glide guitar" technique, which became a recognisable aspect of My Bloody Valentine's sound along with his meticulous production techniques.

Following My Bloody Valentine's dissolution in the late 1990s, Shields was a frequent guest musician, producer, engineer and remixer with various bands and artists, including Experimental Audio Research, Yo La Tengo, Dinosaur Jr and Mogwai. He became a touring member of Primal Scream in 1998 and contributed original compositions to the soundtrack of Sofia Coppola‍ '​s 2003 film Lost in Translation, which earned him nominations for British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and Irish Film and Television Academy (IFTA) awards. In 2008, Shields released The Coral Sea, a collaborative live album with Patti Smith.

My Bloody Valentine reunited in 2007 and released their third studio album, m b v, in February 2013. The album, composed entirely by Shields, was in production since the late 1990s when Shields was rumoured to have been suffering from writer's block and mental illness; which led to comparisons in the press between him and other musicians such as Syd Barrett and Brian Wilson. Shields has since been featured on several publications best-of-lists, including Rolling Stone‍‍ '​‍s 100 Greatest Guitarist and Spin‍ '​s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Multiple musicians, including Billy Corgan and J Mascis, have also cited him as an influence.

source: wikipedia

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