Ballerina (Prima Donna)
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Ballerina (Prima Donna)
"Ballerina (Prima Donna)" is a song recorded by English singer-songwriter Steve Harley, released by Stiletto Records as a non-album single on 29 July 1983. The song, written and produced by Mike Batt, reached number 51 in the UK Singles Chart. Writing Mike Batt was inspired to write "Ballerina (Prima Donna)" after what he described as a "very short but fabulous fling" with a ballerina from the Royal Ballet. In his 2024 autobiography ''The Closest Thing to Crazy'', he recalled, Recording In 1983, Stiletto Records approached Harley with the opportunity of recording a new version of Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, Cockney Rebel's 1973 single "Sebastian (song), Sebastian", which had been a big hit in continental Europe but not the UK. Although Harley initially turned down the offer, he then reconsidered on the condition that Stiletto assigned a decent budget to the project and brought in a "top-line producer". Harley suggested an acquaintance, Mike Batt, for the role, as he knew Batt ...
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Steve Harley
Stephen Malcolm Ronald Nice (27 February 1951 – 17 March 2024), known by his stage name Steve Harley, was an English singer-songwriter and frontman of the rock music, rock group Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, Cockney Rebel. The band achieved five UK hit albums, including ''The Psychomodo'' (1974) and ''The Best Years of Our Lives (Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel album), The Best Years of Our Lives'' (1975), and six UK hit singles in the mid-1970s, including "Judy Teen", "Mr. Soft", and the number one "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)". Harley later scored a further three UK hit singles as a solo artist, most notably with "The Phantom of the Opera (song), The Phantom of the Opera", a duet with Sarah Brightman, in 1986. Early life Harley was born on 27 February 1951 in Deptford, London, the second of five children. His father Ronnie was a Milk delivery, milkman and semi-professional Association football, footballer; his mother Joyce was a semi-professional Vocal jazz, jazz singer ...
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Old Compton Street
Old Compton Street is a road that runs east–west through Soho in the West End of London, named after Henry Compton (bishop), Henry Compton who raised funds for St Anne's Church, Soho, St Anne's Church in 1686. The area, particularly this street, became home to Huguenots, French Protestant refugees in 1681. Known for its diverse and artistic traditions, the street housed businesses, artists, philosophers, and was frequented by communists and proto-beatniks. The Algerian Coffee Stores, one of the oldest shops on the street, was established in 1887. After World War II, the street became a centre for Bebop, modern and trad jazz. Since the 1970s, Old Compton Street has been a focal point for LGBTQ culture in London, London's gay community, with numerous gay bars, restaurants, and specialty shops. The Admiral Duncan (pub), Admiral Duncan pub, a notable gay venue, was 1999 London nail bombings, bombed in 1999 in a hate crime attack. The street is also home to the Prince Edward Theatr ...
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Ian Hunter (singer)
Ian Hunter Patterson (born 3 June 1939) is an English singer, songwriter and musician. He is best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Mott the Hoople, from its inception in 1969 to its dissolution in 1974, and at the time of its 2009, 2013, and 2019 reunions. Hunter was a musician and songwriter before joining Mott the Hoople, and continued in this vein after he left the band. He embarked on a solo career despite ill health and disillusionment with commercial success, and often worked in collaboration with Mick Ronson, David Bowie's sideman and arranger from '' The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars'' period. Mott the Hoople achieved some commercial success, and attracted a small but devoted fan base. As a solo artist, Hunter charted with lesser-known but more wide-ranging works outside the rock mainstream. His best-known solo songs are " Once Bitten, Twice Shy", later covered by Great White, and "England Rocks", which was modified to " Cleveland ...
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Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year career. With an estimated more than 125 million records sold worldwide, he is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling musicians of all time. Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the folk music of the early 1960s, infusing it "with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry". His lyrics incorporated political, social, and philosophical influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning Counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture. Dylan was born in St. Louis County, Minnesota. He moved to New York City in 1961 to pursue a career in music. Following his 1962 debut album, ''Bob Dylan (album), Bob Dylan'', featuring traditional folk and blues material, he released his ...
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New Musical Express
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a " rock inkie", the ''NME'' would become a magazine that ended up as a free publication as well as a webzine, and the brand has also been used for their NME Awards show, the NME Tours and the former NME Radio station. As a "rock inkie", ''NME'' was the first British newspaper to include a singles chart, adding that feature in the edition of 14 November 1952. In the 1970s, it became the best-selling British music newspaper. From 1972 to 1976, it was particularly associated with gonzo journalism then became closely associated with punk rock through the writings of Julie Burchill, Paul Morley, and Tony Parsons. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s and 1990s, changing from newsprint in 1998. The magazine's website NME.co ...
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Charles Shaar Murray
Charles Shaar Murray (born Charles Maximillian Murray; 27 June 1951) is an English Music journalism, music journalist and broadcaster. He has worked on the ''NME, New Musical Express'' (''NME'') and many other magazines and newspapers, and has been interviewed for a number of television documentaries and reports on music. Early life Murray grew up in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Berkshire, England, where he attended Reading School and learnt to play the harmonica and guitar. His first experience in journalism came in 1970, when he was one of a number of schoolchildren who responded to an invitation to edit the April issue of the satirical magazine ''Oz (magazine), Oz''. He thus contributed to the notorious Schoolkids OZ issue and was involved in the consequent obscenity trial. Career Murray wrote for ''International Times'', before moving, in 1972, to the ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'')'','' for which he wrote until around 1986. He subsequently worked for a number of public ...
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Terry Wogan
Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in Britain for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekday breakfast programme '' Wake Up to Wogan'' regularly drew an estimated eight million listeners. He was believed to be the most listened-to radio broadcaster in Europe. Wogan was a leading media personality in Ireland and Britain from the late 1960s and was often referred to as a " national treasure". In addition to his weekday radio show, he was known for his work on television, including the BBC1 chat show '' Wogan'', presenting ''Children in Need'', the game show '' Blankety Blank'' and '' Come Dancing''. He was the BBC's commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest from 1971 to 2008 (radio: 1971, 1974–1977; television: 1973, 1978, 1980–2008) and the Contest's co-host in . He also presented the BBC's blooper show, '' Auntie's Bloomers'', b ...
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Metal Mickey
Metal Mickey is a fictional five-foot-tall robot, as well as the name of a Spin-off (media), spin-off television show starring the same character. The robot character was created, controlled and voiced (using a Vocoder) by Johnny Edward. The character of Metal Mickey first appeared on British television in the ITV (TV network), ITV children's magazine show ''The Saturday Banana'', produced by Southern Television in 1978. Humphrey Barclay saw Mickey on Jimmy Savile's ''Jim'll Fix It'' television show. Seeing the children chatting in the marketplace with the friendly robot led to the creation of the ''Metal Mickey'' television show. Within a month the pilot had been video-taped, and shortly after this the series went live with its first six episodes. 41 episodes were made in total, broadcast over three separate series between September 1980 and January 1983. The show attracted viewing figures of around 12 million at its peak. Micky Dolenz, formerly of The Monkees pop group, was b ...
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Eagles (band)
The Eagles are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1971. With five number-one singles, six number-one albums, six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards, the Eagles were one of the most successful musical acts of the 1970s in North America and are one of the world's best-selling music artists, having sold more than 200million records worldwide, including 100million sold in the US alone. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and were ranked number 75 on ''Rolling Stone''s 2010 list of the " 100 Greatest Artists of All Time". Founding members Glenn Frey (guitar, vocals), Don Henley (drums, vocals), Bernie Leadon (guitar, vocals), and Randy Meisner (bass guitar, vocals) had all been recruited by Linda Ronstadt as band members, some touring with her, and all playing on her self-titled third solo studio album (1972), before venturing out on their own as the Eagles on David Geffen's new Asylum Records label. Their debut studio album, ...
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Record Mirror
''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper published between 1954 and 1991, aimed at pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after ''New Musical Express'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK Albums Chart, UK album chart was published in ''Record Mirror'' in 1956, and during the 1980s it was the only consumer music paper to carry the official UK Singles Chart, UK singles and UK albums charts used by the BBC for BBC Radio 1, Radio 1 and ''Top of the Pops'', as well as the USA's ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' charts. The title ceased to be a stand-alone publication in April 1991 when UBM plc, United Newspapers closed or sold most of their consumer magazines, including ''Record Mirror'' and its sister music magazine ''Sounds (magazine), Sounds'', to concentrate on trade papers like ''Music Week''. In 2010, Giovanni Di Stefano (fraudster), Giovanni di Stefano bought the name ''Record Mirror'' and relaunched it as an online music go ...
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Reading Post
The ''Reading Post'' (formerly the ''Reading Evening Post'') was an English local newspaper covering Reading, Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ... and surrounding areas. The Nameplate (publishing), title page of the paper featured the Maiwand Lion, a local landmark at Forbury Gardens. The paper was most recently published by Surrey & Berkshire Media Ltd., a division of Trinity Mirror plc. After it ceased print publication in 2015, the ''Reading Post'' became online-only and was renamed ''Get Reading''. It was relaunched as ''BerkshireLive'' in 2019, before closing in November 2023. Editions In 2009, the paper changed from daily publication to publishing weekly on a Wednesday as a paid-for paper with a free edition on a Friday titled ''Get Reading''. The pap ...
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Michael Crawford
Michael Patrick Smith (born 19 January 1942), known professionally as Michael Crawford, is an English actor, comedian and singer. Crawford is best known for playing the hapless Frank Spencer in the sitcom '' Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em'', Cornelius Hackl in the musical film '' Hello, Dolly!'', and the titular character in the stage musical '' The Phantom of the Opera''. His acclaimed performance in the latter earned him both the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical and Tony Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical. He has received international critical acclaim and won numerous awards during his acting career, which has included many film and television performances as well as stage work on both London's West End and on New York's Broadway. Crawford has also published the autobiography ''Parcel Arrived Safely: Tied With String''. Since 1987, he has served as the leader and public face for the British social cause organisation the ...
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