Happy Birthday ALAN WILDER (video)

#alanwilder #depechemode #rockfile

Alan Charles Wilder (born 1 June 1959) is a British musician, formerly of Depeche Mode. His current musical project is called Recoil, started as a side project to Depeche Mode. When he left the latter in 1995, it became Wilder's primary project. Wilder has also provided production and remixing services to the bands Nitzer Ebb and Curve. He is a classically trained musician and renowned contemporary music producer.

Following the departure of Vince Clarke, Depeche Mode placed an advertisement in the music magazine Melody Maker: "Keyboard player needed for established band – no time-wasters." Even though the ad was looking for someone under 21 (Wilder was 22) he lied about his age to get the job, and got away with it. He joined Depeche Mode in January 1982, initially as a tour keyboardist, and soon thereafter as a full member of the recording band.

Wilder wrote a handful of songs for Depeche Mode, including "Two Minute Warning" and "The Landscape Is Changing" (and a B-Side, "Fools") from the album Construction Time Again, and "If You Want" (and a B-Side, "In Your Memory") from the album Some Great Reward. However, Wilder's more notable contributions to Depeche Mode were as a musician, arranger, and producer.

In addition to playing synthesizer throughout his time with Depeche Mode, Wilder also played piano on the band's signature ballad "Somebody," and oboe on the band's hit anthem, "Everything Counts." In the documentary film 101, Wilder demonstrates how different synthesiser parts of a song are split and arranged across a sampling keyboard for playing them live during the concert, just one small example of Wilder's ongoing contributions to Depeche Mode during his time as a member of the group. For the recording of the album Songs of Faith and Devotion and its corresponding Devotional Tour Wilder also played live drums.

For "Enjoy the Silence" from the album Violator, Wilder is credited with taking Martin Gore's melancholy ballad-esque demo and re-envisioning the song as a percolating, melodic dance track. The resulting single went on to become one of the most commercially successful songs in Depeche Mode's history.

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 MICHAEL CRETU (video)

#michaelcretu #enigma #rockfile
Michael Cretu (born 18 May 1957, Bucharest, Romania) is a Romanian–German musician. He is also known as Curly, MC or Curly M.C. because of his fair curled hair (creț means "curly" in Romanian). His peak musical activity is with the Enigma project.

He has collaborated with many musicians along his career, including his ex-wife Sandra Lauer (Sandra Cretu from marriage in 1988), musician Peter Cornelius, guitarists Manfred Thiers and Jens Gad, Frank Peterson, David Fairstein (Fabrice Guitad), D.J. André Tanneberger (from the A.T.B. Music Project), Peter Ries, Bernt Moehrle, singer Ruth-Ann Boyle, and Andru Donalds, who produced the single Mishale in 1995.

In 2002, Crocodile-Music, Cretu's management company, stated that 100 million Cretu-produced records had been sold worldwide. By the year 2008, Michael Cretu's Enigma project had sold over 50 million studio albums according to his official site.

source: wikipedia

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