Nick Lowe probably has the greatest ear for melody in the modern world. But this is not just a pop melody-composing genius – this is…
Browsing: New Wave
Nicolas David Kershaw was born in Bristol, England, in 1958. Son of a flautist father and opera-singing mother, Kershaw’s first foray into the arts was…
This Detroit punk-pop outfit – formed in 1977 – was led by the candy-voiced rocker Nikki Corvette (born Dominique Lorenz) and Romantics guitarist Peter James. They…
Formed in San Francisco in 1977, The Nuns were one of the city’s leading punk/new wave groups. Their insubstantial progress was made even worse by…
Oingo Boingo originally formed in 1972 as The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo – a musical troupe in the tradition of Frank Zappa, performing an…
In 1978, Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys – two strait-laced kids from the Wirral – hosted an evening they considered to be a self-indulgent experiment…
Patti Smith, a rock critic and aspiring Bob Dylan-fixated poet from South Jersey (born in Chicago in 1946) only truly found herself when she began to…
Following the sad demise of The Q Tips in September 1982, vocalist Paul Young signed a solo record deal with CBC/Columbia and released Iron Out The Rough Spots…
Pearl Gates was born in 1958 of a Filipino mother and American father and grew up in Germany, where her father was stationed by the…
Plastic Bertrand was the alias of new wave prankster Roger Allen François Jouret, a native of Belgium who appropriated the sound and style of the new…
The Pointed Sticks formed in Vancouver, Canada, in 1977 when singer Nick Jones returned from England where he had witnessed the excitement of the British…
The Police was formed by American drummer Stewart Copeland (who had previously been in Curved Air) in January 1977. Copeland remembered Gordon Sumner – aka “Sting”…
Feeling Duran Duran was becoming “a machine”, the group agreed to take a year’s break in 1985. Members John (bass) and Andy (guitar) Taylor decided to…
Forever the bridesmaid of the London punk scene, by the end of the 70’s Akron, Ohio-born ex-NME scribe Chrissie Hynde felt as if rock & roll had passed…
The birth of the Psychedelic Furs came in 1977 when London art college student Richard Butler grew tired of silk-screening, persuaded his younger brother, Tim, to…
This psychedelia-tinged, late-60s-influenced new wave band hailed from Los Angeles. After a promising debut single, What She’s Done To Your Mind on their own Llama label, the…
The Ramones were nasty, ugly and played music so fast and simple it was borderline inane, but this band of terminally unhappy creeps from Forest…
Guitarist/vocalist Dave Sterry and synthesizer player/violinist Richard Zatorski had been members of the final line-up of 70’s Australian band Kush. They began writing songs together…
The Reels were the first Australian band of any note to emerge from a New South Wales country town. Dave Mason (son of the then-leader…
The 1980s gave rise to five outstanding American alternative bands: R.E.M., The Pixies, Sonic Youth, Hüsker Dü and The Replacements. Like Hüsker Dü, The Replacements hailed from Minneapolis and…