Douglas John Parkinson (born 30 October 1946) is an Australian pop and rock singer. He led the band Doug Parkinson in Focus from 1968 to 1971. Their cover version of the Beatles' track "Dear Prudence" (May 1969) peaked at No. 5 on the Go-Set National Top 40. The follow up single, "Without You" / "Hair" (October), also reached No. 5. Between 1966 and 1997 he had six hit singles. Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane has said that Parkinson "conveyed considerable charisma with his imposing presence, 'Lucifer' beard and gruff, raspy voice. He also surrounded himself with mature, seasoned musicians who added to his appeal.
Deee-Lite was an American house and club/dance music group, formed in New York City. The group's best-known single is "Groove Is in the Heart", which was released from their 1990 debut album, World Clique, and was a Top 10 hit in multiple countries. In December 2016, Billboard ranked them as the 55th-most successful dance artists of all time.
The band began in 1986 as a duo in New York City with Lady Miss Kier (born Kierin Magenta Kirby) primarily on vocals and Supa DJ Dmitry (born in Ukraine as Dmitry Brill) as the DJ, but became a trio when Jungle DJ Towa Tei (Japanese-born Dong-hwa Chung) joined the group in 1988.
Initially, Kier and Dmitry performed their songs monthly in numerous downtown NYC nightclubs from 1986 onwards. In 1987, Kier bought the Akai sampler, which influenced their sound tremendously, hence why she named their production company "Sampladelic". From the band's inception, Kier designed the posters and club invites and was also the graphic designer for all three albums and 12" singles. The band played in both hip-hop and house clubs, and both gay and straight clubs, including Wigstock and opening for Native Tongue Movement's De La Soul and Jungle Brothers. As described in Rolling Stone, "they were drawing vivid, multiracial, pan-sexual crowds...". Part of the band's appeal was its inclusiveness, as noted by Mademoiselle magazine "as a group, they're a festival of individuality; as a band, they're a party anyone can attend". In these early years, their live shows garnered a steady following and attracted Towa Tei as a fan.
Thereafter, Towa sent Kier and Dmitry a bedroom DJ tape he'd made and they realised he, like them, also enjoyed a fusion of funk and techno. Towa and Dmitry began jointly programming the band's computer. Although Towa did not play any instruments or play them any songs he'd written, he was an avid record collector and added a slickness to their process by adding in samples. They invited him to join the group in 1988 and together the three produced their first album. Kier wrote all the lyrics and melodies, and also coordinated reaching out to Bootsy Collins to get him involved in sessions. Dmitry played guitar, keyboard and bass, and Towa gathered samples for fill-ins and grooves. Bootsy Collins introduced them to The Horny Horns, Fred Wesley and Maceo Parker, Mudbone Cooper, and Bernie Worrell, as well as, helped put their touring band together. Together the trio produced the first and second Deee-Lite albums under their production company Sampladelic.
The Communards were a British pop duo active from 1985 to 1988. They are most famous for their cover versions of "Don't Leave Me This Way" and "Never Can Say Goodbye". The Communards formed in 1985 after singer Jimmy Somerville left his earlier band Bronski Beat to team up with classically trained musician Richard Coles. Somerville often used a falsetto singing style. Coles, though mainly a pianist, played a number of instruments and had been seen previously performing the clarinet solos on the Bronski Beat hit "It Ain't Necessarily So". They were joined by bass player Dave Renwick who had also played with Bronski Beat.
The name Communards refers to the revolutionaries of the 1871 Paris Commune. The name seems to have been used to express political sympathies while avoiding immediate connections to contemporary activism.
The band had their first UK Top 30 hit in 1985 with the piano-based number 30 single "You Are My World". The following year, they had their biggest hit with an energetic Hi-NRG cover version of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes' soul classic "Don't Leave Me This Way" (in a version inspired by Thelma Houston's cover) which spent four weeks at number one and became the UK's biggest selling single of 1986. It also made the US Top 40. It featured Sarah Jane Morris as co-vocalist, taking advantage of the contrast between Morris' deep and rounded contralto and Somerville's soaring falsetto. Morris performed both backing and co-lead vocals on many of the Communards' other recordings, and appeared in group photos as an unofficial third member.
Later that year, The Communards had another UK Top 10 hit with the single "So Cold the Night", which reached number 8. In 1987, they released an album titled Red, which was partly produced by Stephen Hague. Red featured a cover version of the Jackson 5 hit "Never Can Say Goodbye" (in a version inspired by Gloria Gaynor's cover), which the Communards took to number 4 on the UK chart. Their last released single was "There's More to Love (Than Boy Meets Girl)" in 1988, which reached number 20 and was their final Top 20 hit. Red is also noteworthy for "Victims" and "For a Friend" (also released as a single), which address people living with and having died from HIV/AIDS.
Corinne Jacqueline Bailey Rae (born 26 February 1979) is a British singer and songwriter from Leeds, West Yorkshire. Bailey Rae was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2006 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2006. She released her debut album, Corinne Bailey Rae, in February 2006, and became the fourth female British act in history to have her first album debut at number one. In 2007, Bailey Rae was nominated for three Grammy Awards and three Brit Awards, and won two MOBO Awards. In 2008, she won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year (for her work as a featured artist in Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters).
Bailey Rae released her second album, The Sea, on 26 January 2010, after a hiatus of almost three years. It was produced by Steve Brown and Steve Chrisanthou (who produced her debut album in 2006). She was nominated for the 2010 Mercury Prize for Album of the Year. In 2012, she won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance for "Is This Love" (a cover of the Bob Marley and the Wailers song of the same name). Bailey Rae was married to fellow musician Jason Rae from 2001 until his death in 2008, and as part of the grieving process, she channelled her emotions into her music. Her first two albums have together sold over five million copies worldwide.
On 26 February 2016, Bailey Rae announced her third album, The Heart Speaks in Whispers, which was released on 13 May 2016. The Heart Speaks in Whispers debuted at No. 2 on Billboard's R&B chart.
