Blue Grey Matter

Patrick Wayne Swayze (/ˈsweɪzi/ SWAY-zee; August 18, 1952 – September 14, 2009) was an American actor, dancer, and singer-songwriter known for playing distinctive lead roles, particularly romantic, tough, and comedic characters. He was also known for his media image and looks: People magazine named Swayze the "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991.

Swayze received three nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Lead Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical, for his roles in the romantic drama dance film Dirty Dancing (1987), supernatural romance film Ghost (1990), and the road comedy film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995). He also acted in action films, such as Road House (1989) and Point Break (1991). He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1997.

Swayze co-wrote and recorded the popular song "She's Like the Wind" and was posthumously awarded the Rolex Dance Award in 2012. In 2009, Swayze died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 57.

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Blue Grey Matter

Frank Sinatra: The "Voice"
American singer and actor, with a long and successful career in the world of entertainment and listening, with sales exceeding 150 million records.
American singer and actor, with a long and successful career in the world of entertainment and listening, with sales exceeding 150 million records. He has been described as the most important American singer of the 20th century. For his fans, he still remains "The Voice". His great hits are the songs: "Strangers in the Night", "My Way", "That's Life", "Fly Me to the Moon" and "Theme From New York New York".

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey. Perhaps the most “significant” event in his life was his birth itself: as he was emerging from his mother’s womb, not only was his left earlobe severed, but his neck was also dangerously injured by the doctor’s forceps. Everyone thought the baby was stillborn – fortunately, his grandmother intervened in time: she put him under cold water and life returned immediately.

He was the only son of Sicilian boxer and firefighter Antonino Martino Sinatra, and Italian nurse Natalina Garavenda, who immigrated to the United States at the end of the 19th century. The whole family spoiled little Frank with expensive gifts and clothes. However, he was a “tramp” and even acted as the leader of a gang of petty thieves for a while.

Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey and his band in 1942
Frank Sinatra with Tommy Dorsey and his band in 1942
He decided to become a singer when he first heard Big Crosby perform live in 1933. After winning a radio talent show, the young man with the pouty cheeks and high cheekbones got a job at a small New Jersey club, where he attracted the attention of trumpeter and bandleader Harry James. Shortly after, in 1940, he joined Tommy Dorsey's band and his career soon began to take off.
The careful lyrics of his songs, erotic but less naive than usual, and the way he emphasized or "drowned" the words, were different from anything American youth had heard before. The places where he appeared were filled with girls on the verge of fainting, and a hysteria was created around his face that can only be compared to the later phenomena of Elvis Presley and the Beatles. His appearance on the big screen, performing his ballads in musicals, also contributed to this. He had made his film debut in 1941 in the film "Las Vegas Nights".

His fans gave him the nickname that every listener would envy: The Voice. However, one night in 1952 at the fashionable Copacabana club in New York, his famous voice fell silent, as his vocal cords had bled. His record company pretended not to know him and everyone wrote him off.

In 1953, he begged Columbia to give him a role in the film “From Here to Eternity,” with an insultingly low salary. He redeemed his decision with an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and came back even tougher. His voice was now more mature, his songs exuded the experience of a man who had been through a lot and had overcome adversity.

“Frankie” became the superstar of the music and film industry, one of the richest singers of the century. He loved working with his friends, making movies together, and then going to the best parties until the morning. Thus, in the early 1960s, the famous "Rat Pack" was formed, the historic male group of Sinatra and Dean Martin, Sammy-Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop.

In 1971, he announced his retirement, but he was unable to stay away from the microphone for more than two years. In the 1990s, he collaborated with various stars of the modern music scene, such as Bono of U2, and continued to sing until February 1995, when he began to face serious health problems. The "voice" was silenced forever on May 14, 1998, in Los Angeles.

Frank Sinatra lived an intense life. He had any woman he wanted and was married four times: Nancy Barbato (1939–1951), Ava Gardner (1951–1957), Mia Farrow (1966–1968), and Barbara Marx (1976–1998), the former wife of Zeppo Marx. With his first wife, he had all three of his children, the famous singer Nancy Sinatra (b. 1940), the songwriter and conductor Frank Sinatra Jr. (b. 1944), and the theater and film producer Tina Sinatra (b. 1948).

He was a close friend and supporter of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Many accused him of having connections with the Italian Mafia, and several of his associates' names were included in "suspicious" FBI files. This was the reason he lost his casino license in Las Vegas. However, the city recognized his contribution, naming a central avenue after him in 2001.

The "blue-eyed" singer was excellent as a singer of the love ballad, thanks to his peculiar pauses and the delicate emotional tones of his baritone voice. His interpretation reached its heights when he sang about loneliness, unfulfilled loves and broken dreams. He handled the microphone with ease and stood on stage relaxed and not as if he had swallowed a stick, like many singers of his time.

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Blue Grey Matter

Donna Summer Biography
Donna Summer rocketed to international superstardom in the mid-1970s when her groundbreaking merger of R&B, soul, pop, funk, rock, disco and avant-garde electronica catapulted underground dance music out of the clubs of Europe to the pinnacles of sales and radio charts around the world.

Born Donna Gaines on New Year's Eve to a large family in Boston, she developed an early interest in music. From the age of eight, Donna Summer sang in church choirs and city-wide choruses, and by her early twenties, was performing in musical theatre in Germany, winning parts in such highly-acclaimed shows as "Hair," "Showboat," "Godspell," and "Porgy and Bess" as well as performing with the Viennese Folk Opera.

In 1975, Moroder and Bellotte produced the international hit, "Love to Love You Baby," which rose to #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and triggered Summer's triumphant return to the United States as a key figure of the then-emerging disco genre. "Love To Love You Baby" paved the way for such international hits as "MacArthur Park," "Bad Girls," "Hot Stuff," "Dim All The Lights," "On The Radio," and "Enough Is Enough," as well as the Grammy and Academy award winning theme song "Last Dance," from the film "Thank God It's Friday," which remains a milestone in Donna's career.

A 2008 Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame nominee, it is estimated that Donna Summer has sold more than 130 million records worldwide. With a total of 31 #1 hits (singles and albums) on the Billboard Pop/R&B,Disco/Dance, Album charts combined, over a period of 35 years, Donna Summer is ranked at #24 on Billboard Magazines 50th Anniversary issue featuring the Hot 100 Artists of All Time.

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Blue Grey Matter

Genesis were an English rock band formed at Charterhouse School, Godalming, Surrey, in 1967. The band's longest-existing and most commercially successful line-up consisted of keyboardist Tony Banks, bassist/guitarist Mike Rutherford and drummer/singer Phil Collins. In the 1970s, during which the band also included singer Peter Gabriel and guitarist Steve Hackett, Genesis were among the pioneers of progressive rock.

The group were formed by five Charterhouse pupils, including Banks, Rutherford, Gabriel and guitarist Anthony Phillips, and named by former Charterhouse pupil and pop impresario Jonathan King, who arranged for them to record several singles and their debut album From Genesis to Revelation in 1969. After splitting from King, the band began touring, signed with Charisma Records and became a progressive rock band on Trespass (1970). Phillips departed after the album's recording, with Banks, Rutherford and Gabriel recruiting Collins and Hackett before recording Nursery Cryme (1971). Their live shows began to feature Gabriel's theatrical costumes and performances. Foxtrot (1972) was their first charting album in the UK and Selling England by the Pound (1973) reached number three, featuring their first UK hit "I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)". The concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974) was promoted with a transatlantic tour and an elaborate stage show, before Gabriel left the group.

Collins took over as lead singer, and as a four-piece the group released A Trick of the Tail and Wind & Wuthering (both 1976) with continued success. Hackett left Genesis in 1977, reducing the band to a three-piece of Banks, Rutherford and Collins. Their ninth studio album, ...And Then There Were Three... (1978), contained the band's first major hit "Follow You Follow Me". Their next five studio albums – Duke (1980), Abacab (1981), Genesis (1983), Invisible Touch (1986) and We Can't Dance (1991) – were also successful. Collins left Genesis in 1996, and Banks and Rutherford replaced him with singer Ray Wilson, who appeared on their final studio album Calling All Stations (1997). The disappointing commercial and critical reaction to the album led the group to disband. Banks, Rutherford and Collins reunited for the Turn It On Again Tour in 2007 and again in 2021 for The Last Domino? Tour.

With between 100 million and 150 million albums sold worldwide, Genesis are one of the world's best-selling music artists. Their discography includes 15 studio and 6 live albums. They have won numerous awards (including a Grammy Award for Best Concept Music Video with "Land of Confusion") and have inspired a number of tribute bands recreating Genesis shows from various stages of the band's career. In 2010, Genesis were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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Foreigner
Built around the songwriting skills and fiery guitar riffing of Mick Jones and the arena-filling vocals of Lou Gramm, Foreigner's hooky style of AOR caught on in a big way in the late '70s. Their first two albums -- 1977's Foreigner and 1978's Double Vision -- were a double shot of exceedingly catchy songs and slick production that topped the charts and spawned a number of huge singles. As musical trends changed, so did the band: they added new wave elements to their sound, worked with Mutt Lange on 1981's 4, and moved into an adult style on ballads like "Waiting for a Girl Like You" and their biggest hit, 1984's "I Want to Know What Love Is." Though the band's recording career stalled when Gramm left the band in the late '80s, different incarnations of the band continued touring and their presence can still be heard daily on rock radio, while their blend of hard rock and soft ballads proved influential to bands ranging from Soul Asylum to One Direction.

The band's leader from the beginning was British guitarist Mick Jones, who first broke into the music biz as a hired gun of sorts, appearing on recordings by George Harrison and Peter Frampton, and as part of a latter-day version of hard rockers Spooky Tooth. By the mid-'70s, Jones relocated to New York City, where he was briefly a member of the Leslie West Band and served as an A&R man for a record company. It wasn't long before Jones felt the urge to be part of another rock outfit as he sought to put together a band that would be able to combine elements of rock, progressive, R&B, and pop into a single, cohesive style.

Jones soon assembled a group consisting of ex-King Crimson sax player Ian McDonald and ex-Ian Hunter drummer Dennis Elliot (both of whom were British), along with New York musicians Al Greenwood (keyboards), Ed Gagliardi (bass), and Lou Gramm (vocals), the latter of whom was previously a member of an obscure '70s outfit called Black Sheep. Jones found immediate songwriting chemistry with Gramm (one of the first songs they wrote together was the eventual hit "Cold as Ice"), resulting in the newly formed band taking the name Foreigner and signing a recording contract with Atlantic Records. Foreigner's self-titled debut was issued in 1977 and became an immediate hit on the strength of the hit singles "Feels Like the First Time," "Long, Long Way from Home," and the aforementioned "Cold as Ice," as the album would eventually go platinum five times over.

Head Games
Foreigner avoided the dreaded sophomore slump with an even stronger follow-up release, 1978's Double Vision, which spawned such further hit singles as "Hot Blooded" and its title track, and the album stayed in the Top Ten for a solid six months. As a result, the album's success established the sextet as an arena headliner and would go on to become Foreigner's best-selling album of their career (selling seven million copies in the U.S. alone by 2001). The group's third release overall, Head Games, followed in 1979 and marked the first of many subsequent lineup changes for the group, as Gagliardi was replaced by ex-Peter Frampton and Roxy Music bassist Rick Wills. While the album was another big seller and turned out to be their most straight-ahead musically, both Gramm and Jones felt that the album failed to break any new ground, something that they sought to correct on their next album.

Records
The band's lineup was cut back to just a quartet consisting of Jones, Gramm, Elliot, and Wills as super-producer Mutt Lange (fresh off late-'70s success with AC/DC) was enlisted to oversee the proceedings. The ploy worked and the resulting 1981 release, 4, was another massive seller, spawning such further hit singles as "Urgent" (which featured a blazing sax solo from Motown vet Junior Walker), "Jukebox Hero," and the power ballad "Waiting for a Girl Like You." Although the latter tune was a massive hit, it confused some of the band's following as to whether Foreigner was a hard rock band or balladeers. In 1982, a stopgap best-of set, Records, was released and featured ten of band's biggest hit singles, remaining a steady seller to this day (becoming Foreigner's second album to achieve sales of seven million by 2001).

Agent Provocateur
It took Foreigner three years to complete a follow-up to 4 with Agent Provocateur being issued in 1984. The band made the transition to the MTV video age without a hitch, with the over the top, gospel-inflected ballad "I Want to Know What Love Is" (which featured the New Jersey Mass Choir) becoming one of the biggest MTV and radio hits that year. But despite the single's success, there was a noticeable dip in sales for Agent Provocateur when compared to their earlier albums due to the fact that the album wasn't as focused and strong overall as their previous recordings. After a mammoth nine-month tour wrapped up a year later, both Jones and Gramm focused on non-Foreigner projects during 1986. Jones produced Bad Company's Fame and Fortune and co-produced Van Halen's hit debut recording with Sammy Hagar, 5150, while Gramm worked on a solo debut. The release of both Gramm's solo album, Ready or Not, as well as Foreigner's sixth studio album overall, Inside Information, came in 1987. While both were successful and spawned Top Ten hits (Gramm with "Midnight Blue" and Foreigner with "Say You Will"), tension between Gramm and Jones came to a head regarding the singer's desire to focus on his solo career, which led to Gramm's split from Foreigner in 1989.

Long Hard Look
The same year as his split from Foreigner, Gramm issued his second solo album, Long Hard Look, which proved to be not as successful as its predecessor, while Jones produced Billy Joel's Storm Front and issued a star-studded self-titled solo debut. Jones, Elliot, and Wills tried to keep Foreigner afloat with a new singer, Johnny Edwards, issuing a largely ignored album in 1991, Unusual Heat, while Gramm fared no better with a new outfit, Shadow King, issuing a forgotten self-titled debut the same year. Seeing the error in their split, both Jones and Gramm listened to the advice of Atlantic Records and reunited for the recording of three all-new tracks to be included on a more extensive "hits" collection. Issued in 1992, the 17-track The Very Best...And Beyond was Foreigner's most commercially successful release in several years along with the band's first live release, Classic Hits Live, issued a year later.

Mr. Moonlight
The Gramm/Jones reunion soon turned permanent and new members Bruce Turgon (bass) and Jeff Jacobs (keyboards) were welcomed on board. The latest version of Foreigner issued an all-new studio recording in 1995, Mr. Moonlight, which failed to return the group to the top of the charts. Foreigner remained a popular concert attraction, but the band's future was thrust into doubt in 1997 when Gramm was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Luckily, the tumor was non-cancerous and was removed shortly thereafter. Gramm's recovery was slow and painful, but by 1999 the singer was well enough for Foreigner to team up with Journey for a summer tour. The early 21st century saw the release of several archival collections courtesy of the Rhino label: a pair of additional collections, Jukebox Heroes: The Foreigner Anthology and Complete Greatest Hits, as well as reissues of the group's self-titled debut and 4, both of which included extra bonus tracks. Can't Slow Down, a three-disc set that included a new studio album, a disc of remixed versions of the band's biggest hits, and a DVD documentary, arrived in 2009. Foreigner continued to tour throughout the 2010s, releasing the Acoustique album in 2011 and celebrating their 40th anniversary in 2017 with the aptly titled hits compilation 40. 2017 also saw them record a live performance in Switzerland alongside a 58-piece orchestra and 60-piece choir. They put out the recording Foreigner with the 21st Century Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in the spring of 2018. Later that year, the nostalgic career retrospective continued with a series of reunion concerts dubbed Foreigner Then and Now. The next year, Rhino released Live at the Rainbow '78 which was a recording of their sold-out show at London's Rainbow Theatre.

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Blue Grey Matter

Depeche Mode is an English band founded in 1980, originally from Basildon, Essex, United Kingdom. They are one of the most enduring and successful bands that emerged during the 80s, particularly from the new wave/new romantic era. The band name is derived from a French fashion magazine, Dépêche mode, which means "fashion dispatch."

The band has been highly influential in the electronic dance music scene, especially synthpop, techno, and trance, partly due to their innovative work, recording techniques, and use of sampling. Their most successful album is arguably 1990's Violator, which reached the #2 position in the UK, #7 in the US, and sold over 8 million copies worldwide. The band has released a long series of high-charting singles over their three-decades long career. Enjoy the Silence is their most recognized song and one of history's most covered songs.

The original line-up was Dave Gahan, Martin L. Gore, Andy Fletcher, and Vince Clarke. In December 1981, Clarke left the band and later formed Yazoo, The Assembly, and Erasure. Alan Wilder joined the group initially in January 1982 as a live keyboardist but became an official member in December 1982. He left in mid-1995 to fully concentrate on his Recoil project, and the band continued as a trio. In 2010 Wilder re-joined Depeche Mode on stage after 16 years for a performance of Somebody during a show at London's Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Depeche Mode's origins date back to 1977, when Vince Clarke and Andrew Fletcher formed a band called No Romance in China, with Clarke on vocals and guitar and Fletcher on bass. In March 1980, Clarke, Gore, and Fletcher formed a band called Composition of Sound, with Clarke on vocals/guitar, Gore on keyboards, and Fletcher on bass. Soon after the formation of Composition of Sound, Clarke, and Fletcher switched to synthesizers. Dave Gahan joined the band in 1980 after Clarke heard him perform at a local scout hut jam session, singing to a rendition of David Bowie's "Heroes" and Depeche Mode was born.

While playing a live gig at the Bridge House in Canning Town, Daniel Miller, the founder of Mute Records, approached the band, who proposed a verbal contract. The result was their first single, Dreaming of Me, recorded in December 1980 and released in February 1981, reaching number 57 in the UK charts and followed soon by a real contract with Mute.

To date, Depeche Mode have released:


15 studio albums: Speak & Spell (1981), A Broken Frame (1982), Construction Time Again (1983), Some Great Reward (1984), Black Celebration (1986), Music For the Masses (1987), Violator (1990), Songs of Faith and Devotion (1993), Ultra (1997), Exciter (2001), Playing the Angel (2005), Sounds of the Universe (2009), Delta Machine (2013), Spirit (2017), and Memento Mori (2023);

8 compilations: People Are People (1984), The Singles 81-85 (1985), Catching Up with Depeche Mode (1985), Greatest Hits (1987), The Singles 86>98 (1998), Remixes 81-04 (2004), The Best Of Depeche Mode Volume 1 (2006), The Complete Depeche Mode (2006);

5 live albums: 101 (1989), Songs of Faith and Devotion Live (1993), Recording the Angel (a series of live recordings; 2006), Tour Of The Universe: Barcelona 20/21:11:09 (2009) and Live In Berlin (Soundtrack) (2014) ;

Over 50 singles: including Just Can't Get Enough, Everything Counts, People Are People, Master and Servant, Shake the Disease, Stripped, A Question of Time, Strangelove, Never Let Me Down Again, Personal Jesus, Enjoy the Silence, World in My Eyes, Policy of Truth, I Feel You, Walking in My Shoes, In Your Room, Barrel of a Gun, It's No Good, Home, Dream On, Freelove, Precious, Wrong and Heaven ;

14 live / video collections (VHS/DVD/Blu-ray): The World We Live In and Live in Hamburg (1985), Some Great Videos (1985), Strange (1988), 101 (1989), Strange Too (1990), Devotional (1993), The Videos 86>98 (1998), One Night in Paris (2002), The Videos 86>98 (2002), Touring the Angel: Live in Milan (2006), The Best of - Volume 1 (2006), Tour of the Universe : Barcelona 20/21.11.09 (2009), Live in Berlin (2014) and Video Singles Collection (2016)

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Blue Grey Matter

Stevie Nicks (born May 26, 1948, Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.) is an American singer-songwriter known for her work with the pop-rock band Fleetwood Mac as well as for her solo efforts. Nicks’s ethereal stage presence, powerful songwriting, and low, rich vocals established her as a leading musical artist.

Early life
Nicks was born to Barbara and Jess Nicks and has a younger brother. As a toddler she couldn’t pronounce her given name of Stephanie, leading to the nickname “Stevie” that would become her hallmark. Nicks was born in Arizona, but the Nicks family moved frequently during her childhood for her father’s work, and when she was a teen they moved to California. Nicks attended Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, along with future Fleetwood Mac guitarist and vocalist Lindsey Buckingham. Nicks recalls singing an impromptu performance of “California Dreamin’” with Buckingham at a church gathering while they were in high school.


While Nicks was in college at nearby San Jose State University, she was invited to join Buckingham’s band, Fritz, which played psychedelic, bluesy rock. Nicks and Buckingham left Fritz in the early 1970s with plans to move to Los Angeles and form a musical duo called Buckingham Nicks; they also solidified their romantic relationship upon leaving the band. Signed by record label Polydor Records, they released a self-titled album in 1973 that was minimally successful, and Nicks worked as a cleaner and waitress to support both of them. Though Polydor dropped the artists, their music caught the attention of Fleetwood Mac drummer and cofounder Mick Fleetwood, who invited Buckingham to join the band. Buckingham stipulated that Nicks receive an invitation as well, and the two joined Fleetwood Mac at the beginning of 1975.



Fleetwood Mac, c. 1976.
Since its inception in 1967, Fleetwood Mac had released numerous albums without attracting much attention and experienced significant turnover. When Nicks and Buckingham joined, the band’s members included Fleetwood on drums, Christine McVie on keyboard and vocals, and John McVie on bass guitar. In 1975 Fleetwood Mac put out a self-titled album. Nicks wrote and sang some of the album’s most famous songs, including “Rhiannon.”

Nicks’s songwriting has received extensive acclaim. She wrote many of Fleetwood Mac’s most iconic tracks, such as “Dreams,” “Landslide,” and “Gypsy.” Her romance with Buckingham fueled many of her compositions. The pair broke up in advance of Fleetwood Mac’s seminal album Rumours (1977), and their acrimonious split inspired much of the record’s content. “Dreams,” a song Nicks composed in ten minutes and that became the band’s lone U.S. chart-topping hit, describes Nicks’s wish to move on from the relationship. “Silver Springs,” released as the B-side of a single, targeted Buckingham directly; Nicks termed it a song of “love and revenge.” Buckingham also penned several songs about Nicks for the album, including “Go Your Own Way.” The pair became notorious for their emotionally charged duets during the 1977–78 Rumours tour. In 1977 Nicks and Fleetwood had an affair, which she would also chronicle in some of her songs, including “Storms” on the band’s 1979 album Tusk.

Nicks’s voice was distinctive for its sonorous, aching quality. By turns husky and plaintive, a constant soulfulness underscored her wide range. Nicks’s captivating stage presence further contributed to her success. Onstage, Nicks presented an ethereal mystique tinged with the occult, rife with feathery shawls and breathy comments. She wandered the stage during performances, particularly during numbers sung by other members of the band.

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Fleetwood Mac released more albums throughout the 1980s, including Mirage (1982), and Tango in the Night (1987), while Nicks also began to issue solo music. In 1990, Nicks left Fleetwood Mac to focus on her solo career. Nicks has admitted to extensive drug use through the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, including multiple attempts at rehabilitation centers. She has said that she is now sober.



Solo career and Fleetwood Mac reunion
During her Fleetwood Mac days, Nicks had released several solo albums, including Bella Donna (1981), which featured the rock and roll staple “Edge of Seventeen” and duets with Tom Petty (“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”) and Don Henley (“Leather and Lace”). In 1983, Nicks married her longtime friend Kim Anderson but divorced him within months. That same year her album The Wild Heart, which featured collaborations with Petty and Prince, debuted to widespread success. Her other solo albums included Rock a Little (1985), The Other Side of the Mirror (1989), and Street Angel (1994).


Fleetwood Mac
Members of Fleetwood Mac (from left to right): John McVie, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, and Lindsey Buckingham.
In 1993 Nicks reunited with Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours-era lineup for a performance in honor of U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton’s inauguration. Four years later the musicians regrouped to create a live album called The Dance (1997) and undertake a world tour. Nicks teamed up with Buckingham, Fleetwood, and John McVie in 2003 to create the album Say You Will, though Christine McVie did not participate. McVie returned to the group in 2014, Fleetwood Mac toured intermittently until 2019. In the years since, Nicks has toured as a solo artist and along with other musicians.

Stevie Nicks was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the other members of Fleetwood Mac in 1998 and as a solo artist in 2019.

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Frank Ocean is a singer-songwriter and member of the hip-hop collective Odd Future. He's known for his debut mixtape, 'nostalgia, ULTRA,' and the subsequent albums 'channel ORANGE' and 'Blonde.'

The 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion - Red CarpetNEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 06: Frank Ocean attends The 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 06, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/MG19/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue )
Mike Coppola/MG19/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue
(1987-)

Who Is Frank Ocean?
Frank Ocean was born in Long Beach, California, on October 28, 1987. He grew up in New Orleans, but moved to Los Angeles in his late teens to pursue a career in music. Ocean started out ghostwriting tracks for such pop stars as Justin Bieber and Beyoncé, but soon achieved fame as an artist when, in 2011, he released a mixtape of his own music, titled nostalgia, ULTRA. His next effort, channel ORANGE, was unveiled in 2012 to both critical and popular acclaim, and he followed with the back-to-back releases of Endless and Blonde in 2016.

Early Life
Famed musician Frank Ocean was born Christopher Edwin Breaux on October 28, 1987, in Long Beach, California. When he was a child, Breaux’s family moved to New Orleans, where he spent the majority of his youth. He was exposed to the jazz scene there, and also listened to his mother’s R&B CDs.

While in high school, Ocean began recording music and worked various odd jobs to pay for the studio time. After graduating from high school in 2005, he enrolled at the University of New Orleans. However, in August of that year, Hurricane Katrina hit and wreaked havoc on the region. Amidst the chaos, the facility where Ocean was recording at the time was badly flooded and looted, prompting him to set aside his academic ambitions and take some time to pursue his musical goals.

Los Angeles
Ocean moved to Los Angeles to continue his recording projects, intending to stay only a short while. However, as he continued to make meaningful contacts within the music industry, he decided to extend his stay. To make money during this time, Ocean took a job processing insurance claims. Eventually, he got a songwriting deal and began collaborating with producers. He contributed to the writing of the Justin Bieber track “Bigger” in 2008, and the following year he co-wrote the track “I Miss You” with Beyoncé Knowles for her album 4.

That same year, Ocean began to work with the Los Angeles-based hip-hop collective Odd Future, most notably with Tyler, the Creator, who encouraged Ocean in his songwriting. Around this time, he also met producer Tricky Stewart, who helped land Ocean a contract with Def Jam as a solo artist. The following year, Ocean officially changed his name to Christopher Francis Ocean, believing that the new name would look better on magazine covers.

Breakout Success
In February 2011, Ocean released a mixtape titled nostalgia, ULTRA. He released the recordings as a free download on his Tumblr site, without Def Jam’s knowledge, announcing via Twitter that he had done so because the label had not been supportive of his efforts after signing him. Ocean’s self-released recording featured a mixture of both originally composed music and heavy samples of tracks from the likes of Coldplay, the Eagles and MGMT. The album was widely acclaimed, and received enthusiastic reviews from NPR, Rolling Stone and the BBC, among many others. Also impressed with his efforts were superstars Jay-Z and Kanye West, who, at Beyoncé’s prompting, enlisted Ocean to contribute vocals for two tracks from their August 2011 album, Watch the Throne.

'channel ORANGE'
As Channel Orange was on its way to gold certification, Ocean began work on a follow-up. Various recording details were reported during those three years. Ocean dropped hints that led to much speculation. Meanwhile, he appeared on Beyoncé's self-titled album, Kanye West's The Life of Pablo, and James Blake's The Colour in Anything. In August 2016, a video of him building a staircase, accompanied by instrumentals, was streamed on his website. Later that month, he released Endless, a 45-minute visual album that featured additional construction footage and a stream of full-blown songs written primarily by Ocean alone. Jazmine Sullivan, Jonny Greenwood, and Blake were among the contributors to the new material. The following day, Ocean released the skeletal and sprawling Blonde for streaming. Copies of an Ocean-published magazine, distributed at pop-up locations, included a compact disc version with a shorter track list. A multi-genre festival's worth of "album contributors," ranging from many of his previous associates to the likes of David Bowie and Yung Lean, was listed in the pages of the publication. The album replaced Drake's Views at the top of the Billboard 200.

4:44
Beginning with the platinum "Chanel," Ocean issued a few singles across 2017, during which he also surfaced on Jay-Z's 4:44, Tyler, The Creator's Flower Boy, and Calvin Harris' Funk Wav Bounces, Vol. 1. An update of Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer's "Moon River" followed in 2018. "DHL" and "In My Room" arrived in 2019. "Dear April" and "Cayendo" were offered together in 2020.

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Just A Leo is aural nostalgia.
Kalliope (vocals, keys, producer) and Andie (drums, bass, keys, producer) embody the true spirit of the DIY movement by producing their music within their intimate bedroom studio. Their creative synergy allows them to craft a unique music that resonates deeply with their listeners.
Just A Leo's sound is a captivating fusion of 00's dance, synth-pop, electro-pop, soul, and house. They seamlessly blend these genres into a sonic tapestry with a finesse and authenticity that sets them apart in a crowded musical landscape.

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9 months ago | [YT] | 14

Blue Grey Matter

Avenue One, the electrifying DJ duo, is the brainchild of two extraordinary talents, Matt Cerf and Petr Leško. With roots in Montreal, Canada, and Zlin, Czech Republic, they joined forces in 2012, driven by a shared love for music. Both members have deep-seated connections to the electronic music world.

In July 2022, Avenue One made a triumphant debut on Anjunabeats with the mesmerizing "Upstairs Terrace," a track that resonated with audiences worldwide, thanks to its inclusion in the Anjunabeats Volume 16 compilation mixed by Above & Beyond. Their 2022 album, "Outside My Door," marked a return to the scene after a hiatus, featuring standout tracks like "Rupture" and "Explorer."

Continuing their journey in 2023, they unveiled "Sky Falls" on Anjunabeats and the captivating "Uprising" on Colorize. With their innovative sound and a profound bond with fans, Avenue One is poised for a lasting impact in the electronic music domain, promising a vibrant future filled with fresh beats and musical adventures.
Was an incredible year for Avenue One! So many new friends, so many great events, and so much new music out! It's time for our final 2023 release! Our Night Mix of Tep No's The Last Ones Standing is here! Thank you everyone!
➥ Single bitly.ws/382M5
➥ www.facebook.com/avenueonemusic/

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1 year ago | [YT] | 6