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John Hawken
John Christopher Hawken (9 May 1940 – 15 May 2024) was an English keyboard player, best known as a member of The Nashville Teens, Renaissance, and the Strawbs. He also played in Spooky Tooth, Third World War, Vinegar Joe and Illusion, as well as being a session musician. Biography Hawken was born 9 May 1940 in Bournemouth, England. He trained in classical piano from the age of 5 until 18, prompted by his mother Dorothy Constance Hawken, who was formally trained as both a pianist and painter from an early age. He took an interest in rock and roll and, in 1960, joined his first rock band – the Cruisers Rock Combo. The band included future Renaissance guitarist Michael Dunford. Nashville Teens In 1962, The Cruisers Rock Combo were joined by singers Ray Phillips and Arthur Sharp to form The Nashville Teens. John Allen soon joined on lead guitar after Dunford's departure, and Terry Crowe joined as a third singer. This line-up turned professional in 1963 and went to Germ ...
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Bournemouth
Bournemouth ( ) is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. At the 2021 census, the built-up area had a population of 196,455, making it the largest town in Dorset. Previously an uninhabited heathland, visited only by occasional fishermen and smugglers, a health resort was founded in the area by Lewis Tregonwell in 1810. After the Ringwood, Christchurch and Bournemouth Railway opened in 1870, it grew into an important resort town which attracts over five million visitors annually to the town's beaches and nightlife. Financial services provide significant employment. Part of Hampshire since before the Domesday Book, Bournemouth was assigned to Dorset under the Local Government Act 1972 in 1974. Bournemouth Borough Council became a unitary authority in 1997 and was replaced by Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council in 2019; the current unitary authority also covers Poole, Chr ...
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Tobacco Road (song)
"Tobacco Road" is a blues song written and first recorded by John D. Loudermilk in December 1959 and released in 1960. This song became a hit for The Nashville Teens in 1964 and has since become a standard across several musical genres. Loudermilk original version Originally framed as a folk song, "Tobacco Road" was a semi-autobiographical tale of growing up in Durham, North Carolina. Released on Columbia Records, it was not a hit for Loudermilk, achieving only minor chart success in Australia. Other artists, however, immediately began recording and performing the song. Nashville Teens version The English group The Nashville Teens' garage rock/blues rock rendering was a bold effort featuring prominent piano, electric guitar, and bass drum parts and a dual lead vocal. Mickie Most produced it with the same tough-edged-pop feel that he brought to The Animals' hits. "Tobacco Road" was a trans-Atlantic pop hit in 1964, reaching number 6 on the UK singles chart, number 3 in Cana ...
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Keith Relf
William Keith Relf (22 March 194312 May 1976) was an English musician, best known as the lead vocalist and harmonica player for rock band the Yardbirds. He then formed the band Renaissance with his sister Jane Relf, the Yardbirds ex-drummer Jim McCarty and ex- The Nashville Teens keyboardist John Hawken. Early life Relf was born in the Richmond Institution on 22 March 1943 to Mary Elsie Vickers and William Arthur Percy Relf. Keith had a sister Jane. His father was a builder, while his mother was a housewife. Musical career Relf started playing in bands around the summer of 1956 as a singer, guitarist, and harmonica player. Relf co-wrote many of the original Yardbirds songs (" Shapes of Things", "I Ain't Done Wrong", " Over Under Sideways Down", " Happenings Ten Years Time Ago"), later showing a leaning towards acoustic/folk music as the sixties unfolded ("Only the Black Rose"). He also sang an early version of " Dazed and Confused" in live Yardbirds concerts, after hea ...
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Jim McCarty
James Stanley McCarty (born 25 July 1943) is an English musician, best known as the drummer for the Yardbirds and Renaissance. Following Chris Dreja's departure from the Yardbirds in 2013, McCarty became the only founding member to still tour in the band. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 as a member of the Yardbirds. Early life He was born at Walton Hospital in Liverpool, England, but his family moved to London when he was two years old. He attended Hampton School in Hampton where Paul Samwell-Smith was a fellow pupil. When playing with the early Yardbirds, he worked as a clerk for the stockbroking firm Phillips & Drew in the City of London. Career McCarty has performed and recorded with the Yardbirds, Together, Renaissance, Shoot, Illusion An illusion is a distortion of the senses, which can reveal how the mind normally organizes and interprets sensory stimulation. Although illusions distort the human perception of reality, they are gene ...
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Mickie Most
Michael Peter Hayes (20 June 1938 – 30 May 2003), known as Mickie Most, was an English record producer behind acts such as the Animals, Herman's Hermits, the Nashville Teens, Donovan, Lulu, Suzi Quatro, Hot Chocolate, Arrows, Racey and the Jeff Beck Group, often issued on his own RAK Records label. Biography Early career Most was born as Michael Peter Hayes in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. The son of a regimental sergeant-major, he moved with his parents to Harrow, Middlesex in 1951. He was influenced by skiffle and early rock and roll in his youth. Leaving school at 15, he worked as a singing waiter at London's The 2i's Coffee Bar where he made friends with future business partner Peter Grant, and formed a singing duo with Alex Wharton (aka Alex Murray) who billed themselves as the Most Brothers. They recorded the single "Takes A Whole Lotta Loving to Keep My Baby Happy" with Decca Records before disbanding. Wharton later went on to produce the Moody Blues single ...
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Peter Grant (music Manager)
Peter Grant (5 April 1935 – 21 November 1995) was an English music manager, best known as the manager of Led Zeppelin from their creation in 1968 to their breakup in 1980. With his intimidating size and weight, confrontational manner, knowledge and experience, Grant was able to procure strong and unprecedented deals for Led Zeppelin, and is widely credited with improving pay and conditions for all musicians in dealings with concert promoters. Grant has been described as "one of the shrewdest and most ruthless managers in rock history". Australian Broadcasting Corporation
– Triple J Music Specials – Led Zeppelin (first broadcast 12 July 2000)
Born and largely brought up in the

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Pedal Steel Guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play unlimited glissandi (sliding notes) and deep vibrati—characteristics it shares with the human voice. Pedal steel is most commonly associated with country music and Hawaiian music. Pedals were added to a lap steel guitar in 1940, allowing the performer to play a major scale without moving the bar and also to push the pedals while striking a chord, making passing notes slur or bend up into harmony with existing notes. The latter creates a unique sound that has been popular in country and western music—a sound not previously possible on steel guitars before pedals were added. From its first use in Hawaii in the 19th century, the steel guitar sound became popular in the United States in the first half of the 20th century and spawned a f ...
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Chris Dreja
Christopher Walenty Dreja (born 11 November 1945) is an English retired musician, best known as the rhythm guitarist and bassist for rock band the Yardbirds for which he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. Early life Chris Dreja was born in Surbiton, and raised in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey. His father, Alojzy Dreja (1918–1985), was from Poland; he had been exiled to Britain in 1940, and served as a pilot in the Polish Air Force in Great Britain during World War II. Dreja's brother Stefan happened to meet guitarist Top Topham when they studied at the same pre-college art program, and introduced Topham to his brother. Topham and Dreja were influenced by folk/blues guitarist Gerry Lockran, who influenced them to switch from acoustic to electric guitars according to Greg Russo in his book ''The Yardbirds: The Ultimate Rave-Up''. They made their debut with electric guitars at a concert with Duster Bennett and a young Jimmy Page. The Yardbirds Dreja ...
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The Yardbirds
The Yardbirds are an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1963. The band started the careers of three of rock's most famous guitarists: Eric Clapton (1963–1965), Jeff Beck (1965–1966) and Jimmy Page (1966–1968), all of whom ranked in the top five of ''Rolling Stone'' magazine's 2011 list of 100 greatest guitarists. The band's other members during 1963–1968 were vocalist/harmonica player Keith Relf, drummer Jim McCarty, rhythm guitarist Chris Dreja, and bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, with Dreja switching to bass when Samwell-Smith departed in 1966. The band had a string of hits throughout the mid-1960s, including "For Your Love", "Heart Full of Soul", "Shapes of Things", and "Over Under Sideways Down". Originally a blues-based band noted for their signature "rave-up" instrumental breaks, the Yardbirds broadened their range into pop music, pop, pioneered psychedelic rock and early hard rock, and contributed to many electric guitar innovations of the mid-1960s. S ...
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Cliff Bennett And The Rebel Rousers
Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers were a 1960s British rhythm and blues, soul and beat group who had two top 10 hits with " One Way Love" (No. 9 UK, 1964) and " Got to Get You into My Life" (No. 6 UK, 1966). Members include Bennett himself (vocals, born Clifford Bennett, 4 June 1940, Slough, Berkshire, England) Chas Hodges (keyboards, bass), Mick Burt (drums), Nicky Hopkins (piano) and Moss Groves (tenor saxophone). Rhythm and blues boom Bennett formed the band in 1957. They recorded several singles with record producer Joe Meek that were released by Parlophone. Bennett continued recording for Parlophone, issuing cover versions of " You've Really Got a Hold on Me" and " Got My Mojo Working". Brian Epstein became their manager in September 1964. Their seventh release, " One Way Love" (written by Bert Berns and Jerry Ragovoy under their pseudonyms Bert Russell and Norman Meade) b/w "Slow Down", reached No. 9 on the UK Singles Chart. Their next, "I'll Take You Home" (writ ...
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Dana Gillespie
Richenda Antoinette de Winterstein Gillespie (born 30 March 1949), known professionally as Dana Gillespie, is an English actress, singer and songwriter. Originally performing and recording in her teens, over the years Gillespie has been involved in the recording of over 70 albums, and appeared in stage productions, such as ''Jesus Christ Superstar'', and several films. Her musical output has progressed from teen pop and folk in the early part of her career, to rock in the 1970s and, more recently, the blues. Early life Gillespie was born in Woking, Surrey, the second daughter of Anne Francis Roden (; 1920–2007) and Hans Henry Winterstein Gillespie (1910–1994), a London-based radiologist of Austrian nobility. Her older sister, Nicola Henrietta St. John Gillespie, was born in 1946. Dana Gillespie was the British Junior Water Skiing Champion in 1962. Career Gillespie began a personal and professional relationship with the singer David Bowie in 1964 when he was 17 and she was 1 ...
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The New Vaudeville Band
The New Vaudeville Band was an English group created by songwriter Geoff Stephens in 1966 to record his novelty composition "Winchester Cathedral", a song inspired by the dance bands of the 1920s and a Rudy Vallée megaphone-style vocal. To his surprise, the song became a transatlantic hit that autumn, reaching the Top 10 in the United Kingdom and rising to No. 1 in the United States. The New Vaudeville Band initially was a studio group composed of session players, but Stephens quickly assembled a permanent group to continue recording and to play live shows. The group has been periodically revived since, without Stephens' participation. The New Vaudeville Band placed several singles in the US and UK Top 40 through 1967. The group was nominated for two Grammy Awards, one for Record of the Year and they won in the Contemporary (R&R) Recording category for the 9th Annual Grammy Awards. History Foundation (1966) The original version of the New Vaudeville Band was an assemblage o ...
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