Queer as Folk is a 1999 British television series that chronicles the lives of three gay men living in Manchester's gay village around Canal Street. Initially running for eight episodes, a two-part follow up was shown in 2000. It was written by Russell T Davies and produced by Red Production Company for Channel 4.
Vince Clarke is an English synth-pop musician and songwriter. Clarke has been the main composer and musician of the band Erasure since its inception in 1985, and was previously the main songwriter of several groups, including Depeche Mode, Yazoo, and the Assembly. In Erasure he is well known for his deadpan and low-key onstage demeanour, often remaining motionless over his keyboard, in sharp contrast to Andy Bell's animated and hyperactive frontman antics. Erasure have recorded over 200 songs and have sold over 25 million albums worldwide. Vince Clarke was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020 as a member of Depeche Mode.
Elysian Fields is an American band based in Brooklyn, New York, founded in 1995 by the co-composers Jennifer Charles and Oren Bloedow (guitar). Their music has sometimes been described as "noir rock", due to its sultry, dark and mysterious inflections, be it sonically or lyrically. The band uses mainly acoustic instruments, predominantly guitar, piano, bass and drums, with the occasional appearance of eastern instruments, classical strings, and subtle electronics, the focal point being the voice of Charles in the forefront.
The Blue Nile are a musical group from Glasgow, Scotland. The group's early music was built heavily on synthesizers and electronic instrumentation and percussion, although later works featured guitar more prominently. Following early championing by established artists such as Rickie Lee Jones and Peter Gabriel, The Blue Nile gained critical acclaim, particularly for their first two albums A Walk Across the Rooftops and Hats, and some commercial success in both the UK and the US, which led to the band working with a wide range of musicians from the late 1980s onwards. The band has earned four top 75 hits on the UK Singles Chart, their highest being "Saturday Night" which reached No. 50 in 1991. In the United States, "The Downtown Lights" became their only charter, peaking at No. 10 on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart.
Adem Ilhan is an English composer, producer and singer-songwriter. He has released many albums: his solo music project released under the name Adem, in the acclaimed post-rock band Fridge, alongside Kieran Hebden, and as part of the electronic duo Silver Columns with Johnny Lynch. He has scored several feature films and television series and numerous documentaries.
Dark Fields is the sixth studio album by English acoustic roots duo Show of Hands, released in 1997 on their own label Hands on Music. The album follows the duo's 1996 performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London, a performance which raised their profile. A live album of the performance was released as Live at the Royal Albert Hall in August, becoming the band's best selling album. The duo followed the success with Dark Fields.
Douglas Farthing Hatlelid, better known as Chip Douglas, is a songwriter, musician, and record producer, whose most famous work was during the 1960s. He was the bassist of the Turtles for a short period of time and the producer of some of the Monkees biggest hits, including "Daydream Believer" and "Pleasant Valley Sunday".
Joan Wasser, known by her stage name Joan As Police Woman, is an American musician, singer-songwriter and producer. She began her career playing violin with the Dambuilders and played with Black Beetle, Antony and the Johnsons, and Those Bastard Souls. Since 2004 she has released her solo material as Joan As Police Woman. She has released five regular studio albums, one EP, a number of singles and a collection of covers. Throughout her career, she has regularly collaborated with other artists as a writer, performer and arranger.
Aidan John Moffat is a Scottish vocalist and musician, and member of the band Arab Strap.
The Twilight Sad are a Scottish post-punk/indie rock band, comprising James Graham (vocals), Andy MacFarlane (guitar), Johnny Docherty (bass), Brendan Smith (keyboards) and Sebastien Schultz (drums). The band are signed to Rock Action Records and have released five albums, as well as several EPs and singles. Their 2007 debut album, Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters, drew widespread acclaim from critics, who noted Graham's thick Scottish accent and MacFarlane's dense sonic walls of shoegazing guitar and wheezing accordion. The Twilight Sad's notoriously loud live performances have been described as "completely ear-splitting", and the band toured for the album across Europe and the United States throughout 2007 and 2008. Sessions inspired by stripped-down and reworked live performances yielded the 2008 mini-album, Here, It Never Snowed. Afterwards It Did.
Lau is a British folk band from both Scotland and England, formed in 2005. Named after an Orcadian word meaning "natural light", the band is composed of Kris Drever, Martin Green and Aidan O'Rourke (fiddle). To date, the band has released five studio albums, several EPs, and two live albums.
Kris Drever is a Scottish contemporary folk musician and songwriter who came to prominence in 2006 with the release of his debut solo album, Black Water. Drever is the vocalist and guitarist of the folk trio Lau with Martin Green and Aidan O'Rourke. He has worked with other British folk contemporaries, including Kate Rusby, John McCusker, Ian Carr, Eddi Reader and Julie Fowlis.
Ben Perowsky is a jazz and rock drummer, composer, and record producer.
Lightweights and Gentlemen is the debut studio album by folk band Lau, released on March 19, 2007.
Arc Light is the second studio album by contemporary folk three-piece Lau, released on March 30, 2009 on Navigator Records.
Chvrches is a band from Glasgow, Scotland, formed in September 2011. The band consists of Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook, Martin Doherty and, unofficially since 2018, Jonny Scott. Mostly deriving from the synth-pop genre, Chvrches also incorporate indietronica, indie pop, and electronic dance into their sound.
Hector Bizerk were an experimental hip-hop group from Glasgow, Scotland, featuring drummer Audrey Tait and rapper Louie. Formed in 2011, they were initially a duo. However later recordings saw them add Jennifer Muir and Fraser Sneddon (Bass). They have released five EPs and three albums, and their 2014 EP The Bird That Never Flew features guest vocals from Scotland's Makar Liz Lochhead.
Aidan O'Rourke is a Scottish contemporary folk music fiddle player and composer. He was named the 2014 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Musician of the Year and the Scots Trad Music Awards 2011 Composer of the Year. In addition to his solo career, O'Rourke also plays in the award-winning folk trio Lau alongside Kris Drever and Martin Green. He was one of 20 musicians commissioned for New Music 20x12 by PRS for Music Foundation to celebrate the 2012 Summer Olympics. O'Rourke has worked with Eddi Reader, Andy Sheppard, Alyth, Roddy Woomble and appears on more than eighty recordings. Previously, he was a member of Blazin' Fiddles, The Unusual Suspects and Tabache.
"This Could Be the Night" is a song recorded by the American band Modern Folk Quartet (MFQ) in late 1965 or early 1966. The lyrics describe a couple on the verge of conquering their inhibitions. Written in tribute to Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson, the song is one of three that are credited jointly to Harry Nilsson and Phil Spector, although Nilsson submitted that he was the sole writer on a 1966 copyright form.
Changes is the second and final studio album by the American folk band the Modern Folk Quartet. It was released in 1964 on the Warner Bros. Records label. The album expands upon the trend set from the group's debut: including interpretations of both traditional and contemporary folk standards, with an increased emphasis on the latter. By the time the Modern Folk Quartet recorded Changes, they were seasoned members of the folk scene, which enabled the group to produce much richer vocal harmonies.
