John Turnbull | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | John George Turnbull |
Born | Newcastle upon Tyne, England | 27 August 1950
Origin | London, England |
Genres | Pop, rock |
Years active | 1966–present |
John George Turnbull (born 27 August 1950 [1] ) is an English pop and rock guitarist and singer. He is currently a member of The Blockheads.
Turnbull was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, England, on 27 August 1950. [1]
He has played in various bands, including Skip Bifferty, The Chosen Few, Arc, Loving Awareness, Glencoe, Nick Lowe, Dave Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboys, Eurythmics, Talk Talk, Londonbeat, Paul Young, Bob Geldof, World Party, Kaos Band and Ian Dury and the Blockheads.
He has played and sung on a number of film soundtracks, including Get Carter (1971), starring Michael Caine. [1]
He was one of the few artists to have performed at both Live Aid (with Paul Young, 1985) and Live 8 (with Bob Geldof, 2005).[ citation needed ]
Ian Robins Dury was an English singer, songwriter and actor who rose to fame in the late 1970s, during the punk and new wave era of rock music. He was the lead singer and lyricist of Kilburn and the High Roads, the Kilburns, Ian Dury and the Blockheads and Ian Dury and the Music Students.
Band Aid is the oldest collective name of a charity supergroup featuring mainly British and Irish musicians and recording artists. It was founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for anti-famine efforts in Ethiopia by releasing the song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for the Christmas market that year. On 25 November 1984, the song was recorded at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, and was released in the UK on Monday 3 December. The single surpassed the hopes of the producers to become the Christmas number one on that release. Three re-recordings of the song to raise further money for charity also topped the charts, first the Band Aid II version in 1989, the Band Aid 20 version in 2004 and finally the Band Aid 30 version in 2014. Band Aid II and Band Aid 20 were also Christmas number one. The original was produced by Ure. The 12" version was mixed by Trevor Horn.
Live Aid was a two-venue benefit concert and music-based fundraising initiative held on Saturday, 13 July 1985. The event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, a movement that started with the release of the successful charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in December 1984. Billed as the "global jukebox", Live Aid was held simultaneously at Wembley Stadium in London, and John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia.
Robert Frederick Zenon Geldof is an Irish singer-songwriter and political activist. He rose to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead singer of the Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, who achieved popularity as part of the punk rock movement. The band had UK number one hits with his co-compositions "Rat Trap" and "I Don't Like Mondays". Geldof starred as Pink in Pink Floyd's 1982 film Pink Floyd – The Wall. As a fundraiser, Geldof organised the charity supergroup Band Aid and the concerts Live Aid and Live 8, and co-wrote "Do They Know It's Christmas?", one of the best-selling singles to date.
The Boomtown Rats are an Irish rock/new wave band originally formed in Dublin in 1975. Between 1977 and 1985, they had a series of Irish and UK hits including "Like Clockwork", "Rat Trap", "I Don't Like Mondays" and "Banana Republic". The original line-up comprised six musicians; five from Dún Laoghaire in County Dublin; Gerry Cott, Simon Crowe (drums), Johnnie Fingers (keyboards), Bob Geldof (vocals) and Garry Roberts, plus Fingers' cousin Pete Briquette (bass). The Boomtown Rats broke up in 1986, but reformed in 2013, without Fingers or Cott. Garry Roberts died in 2022. The band's fame and notability have been overshadowed by the charity work of frontman Bob Geldof, a former journalist with the New Musical Express.
Paul Antony Young is an English musician, singer and songwriter. Formerly the frontman of the short-lived bands Kat Kool & the Kool Cats, Streetband and Q-Tips, he became a teen idol with his solo success in the 1980s. His hit singles include "Love of the Common People", "Wherever I Lay My Hat", "Come Back and Stay", "Every Time You Go Away" and "Everything Must Change", all reaching the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart. Released in 1983, his debut album, No Parlez, was the first of three UK number-one albums.
"Do They Know It's Christmas?" is a charity song written in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise money for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. It was first recorded by Band Aid, a supergroup assembled by Geldof and Ure consisting of popular British and Irish musical acts. It was recorded in a single day at Sarm West Studios in Notting Hill, London, in November 1984.
Pink Floyd The Wall is a 1982 British live action/adult animated surrealist musical drama film directed by Alan Parker, based on Pink Floyd's 1979 album The Wall. The screenplay was written by Pink Floyd vocalist and bassist Roger Waters. The Boomtown Rats vocalist Bob Geldof made his film debut as rock star Pink, who, driven to neurosis by the pressures of stardom and traumatic events in his life, constructs an emotional and mental wall to protect himself. However, this coping mechanism eventually backfires, and Pink demands to be set free.
Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland, from 6–8 July 2005. Both events also coincided with the 20th anniversary of Live Aid. Run in support of the aims of the UK's Make Poverty History campaign and the Global Call to Action Against Poverty, ten simultaneous concerts were held on 2 July and one on 6 July. On 7 July, the G8 leaders pledged to double 2004 levels of aid to poor nations from US$25 billion to US$50 billion by 2010. Half of the money was to go to Africa. More than 1,000 musicians performed at the concerts, which were broadcast on 182 television networks and 2,000 radio networks. Live 8 was seen by 3 million viewers in the United States according to Nielsen, with a estimated 30 million viewers worldwide.
Dylan Lee Howe is an English drummer, bandleader, session musician and composer. The son of guitarist Steve Howe with whom he has sometimes collaborated, Dylan is also noted for his work with rock band the Blockheads, in addition to his own work as a jazz bandleader and prolific session work with a variety of musicians. He was also the brother of musician Virgil Howe.
Skip Bifferty were an English psychedelic rock band formed in early 1966. The band featured future members of Ian Dury and The Blockheads.
Michael William Gallagher is an English Hammond organ player best known as a member of Ian Dury and the Blockheads and for his contributions to albums by the Clash. He has also written music for films such as Extremes (1971) and After Midnight (1990), and the Broadway play Serious Money (1987).
"Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick" is a song by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, first released as a single on Stiff Records in the UK on 1 December 1978 and credited to "Ian & the Blockheads". Written by Dury and the Blockheads' multi-instrumentalist Chaz Jankel, it is the group's most successful single, reaching number one on the UK Singles Chart in January 1979 as well as reaching the top three in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, and it was also a top 20 hit in several European countries.
"Rat Trap" is a song by the Boomtown Rats, released in October 1978 as the third and final single from the band's second album A Tonic for the Troops. It reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in November 1978, the first single by a punk or new wave act to do so. The song was written by Bob Geldof, and produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. It replaced "Summer Nights", a hit single for John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John from the soundtrack of Grease, at number one on the UK chart after the latter's seven-week reign.
Jamie Moses is an English rock and pop singer and guitarist. He was formerly a member of The Brian May Band, Queen + Paul Rodgers, Mike & the Mechanics and Broken English.
Mr. Love Pants is a 1998 album by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, released on East Central One under Dury's own label Ronnie Harris Records.
"What a Waste" is a song and single by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, originally released in 1978 on the Stiff Records single BUY 27 "What a Waste" / "Wake Up and Make Love with Me". The song has remained in The Blockheads' set following Dury's death.
The Blockheads are an English rock band formed in London in 1977. Originally fronted by lead singer Ian Dury as Ian Dury and the Blockheads or Ian and the Blockheads, the band has continued to perform since Dury's death in 2000. As of March 2023 members included Chaz Jankel, Nathan King (bass), Mick Gallagher, John Turnbull, John Roberts (drums), and Mike Bennett. There is a rolling line-up of saxophonists that includes Gilad Atzmon, Terry Edwards, Dave Lewis, and from time to time, the original sax player, Davey Payne. Between 2000 and 2022, the band's lead vocalist and main lyricist was Derek Hussey.
Simon Crowe is an Irish musician, best known as the drummer and backing vocalist of the Irish new wave band The Boomtown Rats.
Norman Joseph Watt-Roy is an English musician, arranger and composer.