Crowded House are a rock band, formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1985. Its founding members were New Zealander Neil Finn and Australians Paul Hester (drums) and Nick Seymour (bass). Later band members included Neil Finn's brother, Tim Finn, and Americans Mark Hart and Matt Sherrod. Neil Finn and Seymour have been the sole constant members of the group since its formation.
Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. Fleetwood Mac were founded by guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer, before bassist John McVie joined the lineup for their self-titled debut album. Danny Kirwan joined as a third guitarist in 1968. Keyboardist Christine Perfect, who contributed as a session musician from the second album, married McVie and joined in 1970.
The Bangles are an American all female pop rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1981. The band recorded several singles that reached the U.S. top 10 during the 1980s, including "Manic Monday" (1986), "Walk Like an Egyptian" (1986), "Hazy Shade of Winter" (1987), "In Your Room" (1988), and "Eternal Flame" (1989).
The All-American Rejects is an American rock band formed in Stillwater, Oklahoma, in 1999. The band consists of lead vocalist and bassist Tyson Ritter, lead guitarist and backing vocalist Nick Wheeler, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist Mike Kennerty, and drummer Chris Gaylor. Wheeler and Ritter are the band's songwriters; Wheeler is the primary composer and Ritter is the primary lyricist. Although Kennerty and Gaylor are not founding members, they have appeared in all of the band's music videos and on all studio releases except for the band's self-titled debut.
Powderfinger is an Australian rock band formed in Brisbane in 1989. From 1992 until their break-up in 2010, the line-up consisted of vocalist Bernard Fanning, guitarists Darren Middleton and Ian Haug, bass guitarist John Collins and drummer Jon Coghill. The group's third studio album Internationalist peaked at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart in September 1998. They followed with four more number-one studio albums in a row: Odyssey Number Five, Vulture Street, Dream Days at the Hotel Existence and Golden Rule. Their Top Ten hit singles are "My Happiness" (2000), "(Baby I've Got You) On My Mind" (2003) and "Lost and Running" (2007). Powderfinger earned a total of eighteen ARIA Awards, making them the second-most awarded band behind Silverchair. Ten Powderfinger albums and DVDs certified multiple-platinum, with Odyssey Number Five – their most successful album – achieving eightfold platinum certification for shipment of over 560,000 units.
David Knopfler is a British singer-songwriter from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. He was born in Scotland and raised in England from the age of two. Together with his older brother Mark Knopfler, John Illsley, and Pick Withers, he founded the rock band Dire Straits in 1977, serving as rhythm guitarist on their first two albums. After quitting the band, Knopfler embarked upon a solo career as a recording artist. Knopfler initially created smaller record labels, publishing companies, and indie labels.
Joe Boyd is an American record producer and writer. He formerly owned the production company Witchseason Productions and Hannibal Records. Boyd has worked on recordings of Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, The Incredible String Band, R.E.M., Vashti Bunyan, John and Beverley Martyn, Maria Muldaur, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Billy Bragg, 10,000 Maniacs, and Muzsikás.
The Dream Academy were a British band consisting of singer/guitarist Nick Laird-Clowes, multi-instrumentalist Kate St John, and keyboardist Gilbert Gabriel. The band is most noted for their 1985 hit single "Life in a Northern Town" and 1985 cover of The Smiths' song "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want," which was featured in the John Hughes film, “Ferris Bueller's Day Off in 1986.
Pink Martini is a band that was formed in 1994 by pianist Thomas Lauderdale in Portland, Oregon. Group members call it a little orchestra that crosses several styles, such as classical, traditional pop, latin and jazz. The co-lead vocalists of Pink Martini are China Forbes and Storm Large.
Kate St John is a composer, arranger, producer and instrumentalist. She was born in London in 1957 and was classically trained on oboe. She gained a music degree at City University London. Her first band was The Ravishing Beauties with Virginia Astley and Nicky Holland. The trio joined The Teardrop Explodes in Liverpool during the winter of 1981 for a series of dates at a small clubs and a UK tour in early 1982. During the 1980s and early 1990s she was a member of The Dream Academy with Nick Laird-Clowes and Gilbert Gabriel. In 1985 they had a worldwide hit with "Life In A Northern Town" and produced three albums: The Dream Academy (1985), Remembrance Days (1987) and A Different Kind Of Weather (1990). In the 1990s St. John was a member of Van Morrison's live band playing oboe and saxophone. She played on 5 Van Morrison albums. In 1994 she co-wrote and sang on 4 tracks with Roger Eno on the album The Familiar on the All Saints Label. This led to the formation of Channel Light Vessel, a band with Kate, Roger Eno, Bill Nelson, Laraaji and Mayumi Tachibana. St John has released two solo albums: Indescribable Night (1995) and Second Sight (1997).
Nick Laird-Clowes is a musician and composer, best-known as the lead singer and one of the principal songwriters for the band The Dream Academy. He co-wrote songs including "Life in a Northern Town", "The Love Parade", "The Edge of Forever", "This World", "Indian Summer", "Power to Believe" and "12/8 Angel".
The Dream Academy is the debut studio album by English band the Dream Academy, released in November 1985. It was produced by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour and Nick Laird-Clowes. "Life in a Northern Town", written as a tribute to the musician Nick Drake, became the Dream Academy's only major chart success, reaching number 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 15 in the UK.
Remembrance Days is the second album by the British band The Dream Academy. Not as successful as the band's 1985 self-titled debut, the album peaked at number 181 in the United States.
Somewhere in the Sun... Best of the Dream Academy is a compilation album released by The Dream Academy in Japan in 2000. The compilation album contains the extended version of "Life In A Northern Town" and an acoustic version of "The Party" rather than the more common versions. At the time of its release, Nick Laird-Clowes revealed that the band actually had no involvement with the album, and he went on further to say that they weren't even informed by Warners that a compilation album was being made. His former label boss, Alan McGee, then of Creation Records, was the one who actually brought him home a copy when he was visiting Japan on business. According to Kate St John, around the same time that this album was being made, Warner Brothers were considering a US compilation album, but they and the band decided to re-issue their first album, The Dream Academy.
Terrence "Terry" Williams is a Welsh rock drummer, whose résumé includes work for Dire Straits, Dave Edmunds/Rockpile and Man.
"The Love Parade" is the fourth single released by The Dream Academy. It was a more "edgy" song than their previous singles, made so by the inclusion of implied themes of adultery and erotic temptation in the lyrics., and was arranged to a brisk bossa nova-esque beat which was in stark contrast to the style of the group's first single Life In A Northern Town . There were two additional singles released in the UK by Blanco y Negro, a 7" shaped picture disc and a second limited edition release.
"Northern Sky" is a song from the English singer-songwriter Nick Drake's 1971 album Bryter Layter, produced by Joe Boyd. During the recording sessions for the album, the chronically shy and withdrawn songwriter formed a friendship and a mentorship of sorts with producer Joe Boyd, an early supporter of Drake. Boyd saw commercial potential in the acoustic and unaccompanied demo version of the song, and recruited former Velvet Underground member John Cale as producer. Cale added piano, organ and celesta arrangements, initially against Drake's wishes.
The Mommyheads are an American indie pop band who played from around 1987 through 1998, disbanded for a decade, and then reformed in 2008. Starting in New York City as the brainchild of singer Adam Cohen, the band produced a string of quirky and highly inventive releases on various independent labels, most notably Simple Machines. Their music has been compared to XTC. They relocated to San Francisco in 1990. The band signed to Geffen Records in 1997, producing a single album for the label before breaking up in 1998. They reunited to record a new CD in 2008.
"Life in a Northern Town" is a song by British group the Dream Academy. The song was released as a single from the band's debut studio album The Dream Academy, released in 1985. The song was written as an elegy to British folk musician Nick Drake. Written by band members Nick Laird-Clowes and Gilbert Gabriel, the song was produced by Laird-Clowes with help from Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour. The single reached No. 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1986. It is the band’s highest-peaking chart single in the United States, the UK, and Ireland.
"Only a Dream" is a song released and performed by the British rock band The Kinks, written by the main songwriter of the band, Ray Davies. The song appeared on their 1993 album Phobia, the band's final LP.
link 