Wix Wickens | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Paul Wickens |
Born | Brentwood, Essex, England | 27 March 1956
Occupation(s) | Musician, producer |
Instrument | Keyboards |
Years active | 1973–present |
Paul "Wix" Wickens is an English musician best known as keyboardist and musical director of Paul McCartney's touring band since 1989. [1] [2] In a career that started in 1973, Wickens has also worked with artists including Nik Kershaw, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Bon Jovi, Edie Brickell, Kevin Coyne and many others.
Wickens attended Brentwood School, Essex where he became a friend of fellow student Douglas Adams. Wickens composed the music for the sequel radio productions of Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Tertiary to Quintessential Phases and performed at his memorial service in 2001.[ citation needed ]
This section needs additional citations for verification .(March 2024) |
In the early 1980s Wickens was a member of Woodhead Monroe, a band that issued two singles distributed by Stiff, "Mumbo Jumbo" and "Identify".[ citation needed ]
Wickens began touring with Paul McCartney in 1989. Since then, Wickens has served as the musical director for many of McCartney's tours. He continues to tour with McCartney (as his keyboardist, occasional guitarist and backing vocalist), and is the longest serving of the four musicians in McCartney's touring band.[ citation needed ]
Wickens played on albums by Tommy Shaw of the American rock band Styx, the Damned, Tim Finn, Paul Carrack, Nik Kershaw, Jim Diamond, Boy George, and David Gilmour, and was the co-producer of the first Savage Progress album. He also was the keyboardist and programmer for Edie Brickell & New Bohemians album, Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars – which was where he first met Chris Whitten. Wickens was also involved in making the 2008 album Bandaged in aid of BBC Children in Need .[ citation needed ]
Wickens played accordion on the The's minor UK hit "This Is the Day", from their album Soul Mining . [3] He also recorded a version of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit".[ citation needed ]
Year | Album | Artist |
---|---|---|
1986 | Desire for Freedom | Jim Diamond |
1988 | Creeping Up on Jesus | The Big Dish |
1992 | Sleeping Satellite | Tasmin Archer |
1992 | Great Expectations | Tasmin Archer |
1993 | In Your Care | Tasmin Archer |
1996 | Big White Room | Melanie Garside |
1996 | She Knows | Melanie Garside |
Edie Brickell & New Bohemians is an alternative rock jam band that originated in Dallas, Texas, in the mid-1980s. The band is widely known for their 1988 hit "What I Am" from the album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars. Their music contains elements of rock, folk, blues, and jazz. Following the 1990 release of their second album Ghost of a Dog, lead singer Edie Brickell left the band and married singer-songwriter Paul Simon. In 2006, she and the band launched a new web site and released a new album, Stranger Things.
Edie Arlisa Brickell is an American singer-songwriter widely known for 1988's Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, the debut album by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, which went to No. 4 on the Billboard albums chart. She is married to singer-songwriter Paul Simon.
Ghost of a Dog is the second album by American alternative rock band Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, released in 1990.
Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, released on August 9, 1988, by Geffen Records. The album went 2× platinum in the United States.
Back in the World is a live album by Paul McCartney composed of highlights from his spring 2002 "Driving USA" tour in the United States in support of McCartney's 2001 release Driving Rain. It was released internationally in 2003, save for North America – where Back in the U.S. saw issue four months earlier in 2002 – to commemorate his first set of concerts in almost ten years.
Nickolas Glennie-Smith is an English film score composer, conductor, and musician who is a frequent collaborator with Hans Zimmer, contributing to scores including The Rock, the 2006 historical film Children of Glory and the 1993 spy thriller Point of No Return. Glennie-Smith has also composed the scores for the films Home Alone 3, The Man in the Iron Mask, We Were Soldiers, Secretariat, the score for the Disney direct-to-video animated film The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, Lauras Stern, Der kleine Eisbär 2 - Die geheimnisvolle Insel and A Sound of Thunder.
The Works is the fourth studio album by the English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Nik Kershaw. It was released in 1989 and was the last album he created for MCA Records. Kershaw chose the album's title as he felt the album represented "the collected works of Nik Kershaw". He did not release any new solo material until 15 Minutes, 10 years later.
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Tripping the Live Fantastic is Paul McCartney's first official solo live album and his first release of concert material since Wings' 1976 Wings over America live package. It was released in early November 1990 as triple LP, double cassette and double CD. Tripping the Live Fantastic reached number 17 in the UK and number 26 in the US. An abridged version of the album, entitled Tripping the Live Fantastic: Highlights!, was released in the end of November.
Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) is a live album of unplugged performance by Paul McCartney, recorded and released in 1991.
Brian Thomas Ray is an American musician best known as a guitarist, bassist, backing vocalist with Paul McCartney's touring band since 2002 and formerly as a musical director and guitarist for Etta James. Ray has performed with numerous other artists and leads his own band, The Bayonets.
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Robbie McIntosh is an English guitarist. McIntosh is best known as a session guitarist and member of The Pretenders from 1982 until 1987. In 1988 he began doing session guitar work for Paul McCartney joining his band full-time until early 1994. He continues to play sessions and has performed both with his own band and as a sideman with John Mayer.
The Paul McCartney World Tour was a worldwide concert tour by Paul McCartney, notable for being McCartney's first tour under his own name, and for the monumental painted stage sets by artist Brian Clarke. The 103-gig tour, which ran from 1989 through 1990, included a concert played to what was then the largest stadium crowd in the history of rock and roll.
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Steve Spiro is a British musician. He started his musical career as a record producer and remixer, working with artists including the Pet Shop Boys, Talk Talk, The Farm and Imagination. Spiro then went on to work with Paul McCartney's keyboard player Paul Wickens, together they created the BBC theme tune for the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, which was picked up by EMI and went on to be a UK hit. They also scored the music for the clay-motion feature Hamilton Mattress, produced by the makers of Wallace and Gromit.
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The Catch were an English new wave duo active in the 1980s whose members were Don Snow and Chris Whitten. They released two albums and several singles on the Metronome label and had chart success in Europe, most notably with the single "25 Years".
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