Brian Peter Gerorge St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno.
Now that's what I call a name. Luckily for us, he has shortened it somewhat to Brian Eno. Although he's actually known as just Eno.
An Art graduate from Winchester School of Art, he joined Roxy Music in 1971 and stayed for 2 years before internal tensions with Bryan Ferry forced him into a decision to leave the band.
After he left Roxy Music, Eno released 3 albums in 1974-75, Here Come The Warm Jets & Taking Tiger Mountain.
The third album, Another Green World, featured minimalist pieces which would point the way for his groundbreaking 'Ambient' series of album.
The first of these would be Discreet Music which was released in 1975. It was also the first to use his christian name.
There would be one more 'rock' album, Before and After Science, before a series of 3 albums, Ambient 1; Music For Airports, Music For Films 7 Ambient 4: On Land between 1978-82.
Eno's Ambient music had always been somewhat ethereal so it was no surprise that he was approached by Al Reinhert to produce the soundtrack for his documentary movie of the Apollo space missions, simply titled Apollo. It was later renamed, For All Mankind.
For All Mankind
Eno enlisted the help of multi-instrumentalist and producer Daniel Lanois and his musician brother Roger. The music is totally gorgeous and fits in with the visuals of the movie perfectly. If there was ever a musician to provide music for a documentary about space, then it had to be Brian Eno.
Much of the music that was used in the movie has since been heard in many other documentaries, movies and advertisements.
It set the template for many instrumental albums to come and has obviously influenced many other musicians such as Sigur Ros.
There was a lot of music that appeared in the movie that did not find it's way on the soundtrack album although three tracks have gone on to be absolute classics of ambient music.
Brian Eno continues to release ambient music to this day, the last being LUX in 2012 as well as his production work with the likes of U2 and Coldplay.
During the mid 70s - I was given a mixtape which contained a track called The Dreamweaver by Gary Wright. It was a HUGE hit in the USA and the album of the same name went on to sell millions.
I did invest in Dreamweaver but Gary's next album, The Light Of Smiles, is my favourite Gary Wright album.
Relatively unknown here in the UK, Gary is a keyboard player who first came to the attention of the masses when in 1967, he joined the British band Spooky Tooth. But since 1971, he has recorded his own albums.
He also features on the classic George Harrison solo album All Things Must Pass.
The Light Of Smiles is a phrase from the Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda. Gary was given his book, 'The Autobiography of a Yogi', by George Harrison on a trip to India which they both took in 1972.
Now and again, a musician comes along that is one of a kind - not derivative in any way. Hendrix was one.
In April 1975, one such musician was born, in Iceland of all places. His name is Jon Por Birgisson - the closestt I can get without Icelandic letters. He also goes by the name of Jonsi.
He is now one third, was one forth, of the Icelandic band Sigur Ros
Sigur Ros have been giving the world some of the most challenging and beautiful music since 1994. Jonsi is the lead vocalist and multi instrumentalist in the band. Over the years, they have gradually built up a very large international following and have hit albums and sell out tours all over the world. And their music can be heard on countless documentaries on TV and Film.
In 2009, Jonsi and his partner Alex Somers - they are both visual artists too - released an album together. They called themselves Riceboy Sleeps
And at the same time, Jonsi was also working on his first solo album away from the safety and confines of Sigur Ros. And in 2010, the magnificent GO was released.
The album was more uplifting than many of the Sigur Ros songs and has various odd percussion and acoustic instrumentation. Jonsi's unique voice is often multi layered in harmonies to brilliant effect.
On Sigur Ros music, Jonsi nearly always sings in his native Icelandic or his own invented language Hopelandic. But on his solo album, the majority of the songs are sung in English.
A lot of the album's lyrics and the imagery of the various videos and the live tour that accompanied the album was based on Jonsi's love of animals and nature. Jonsi has become a vegetarian.
I was lucky enough to catch the live show in the Colston Hall in Bristol, and I have to say it was one of the best gigs I've ever experienced.
GO is an album of widescreen landscapes and small, intimate moments.
Jonsi has also contributed to soundtracks for various movies including How To Train Your Dragon and We Bought A Zoo.
He is now back with Sigur Ros as a threesome. The journey continues and I for one can't wait for his next solo album.
Let me start by saying that this post is a labour of love for me. Ever since I picked up a copy of a Communion Records compilation cd on the front of one of the music magazines I have been enchanted by the voice and music of Benjamin Francis Leftwich.
The debut album, Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm was released in July 2011 and since I bought it in early 2012, it has never been far from the cd player and is a constant companion both on my ipod and iphone.
Ben has stated that his favourite albums are Nebraska by Bruce Springsteen and Heartbreaker by Ryan Adams. You can certainly hear the influences in his debut album.
Ben toured the whole of the UK to support the release of Last Smoke. He even played Swansea but I was ill on the day of the gig and I was gutted that I couldn't attend - so he's still on my 'Must See' list. This tour culminated in a brilliant set at the Cambridge Folk Festival.
The whole album is just totally gorgeous and full of gentle, melodic songs.
But this is my favourite track from the album, Butterfly Culture
In October 2012, Ben released an EP called In The Open which contained four new songs, which apparently won't be on the next album. They show a slightly never direction that I hope Ben will follow for album 2.
Ben has also been known to record various cover versions from artists such as Arcade Fire, Tom Petty and others.
Sadly, last year, Ben's father passed away, which put a hold on his plans for the rest of the year. He has been pretty quiet over the last year or so and I await the release of any new material with bated breath.
Ben also co-wrote this song by Cascada
Ben working on album 2 -May 2013
(Pics Courtesy of Ben's Facebook page)
So here's hoping Ben has a great 2014 and I for one will welcome him back with open arms.
Being Welsh, back in the 80s, we didn't have much Welsh music talent to be proud of. OK, Tom Jones is a given but Mary Hopkin and Shakin Stevens?
Then in 1983, an obviously punk influenced band hit the charts and Top of the Pops with a song called 68 Guns.
They were The Alarm and hailed from Rhyl in North Wales.
And they were led by the exotically coiffured vocalist and band songwriter, Mike Peters
They released their debut album, Declaration in 1984 (where has 30 years gone) and produced several hit singles
With a mixture of stirring anthems and some quieter moments it reached number 6 in the album charts and set the band on a course of hit albums and singles for the rest of the 1980s.
With 20 UK chart singles and 11 USA chart singles the band had great success on both sides of the Atlantic and ended up touring all over the world in their own right and also supporting major acts such as U2 and Bob Dylan
They had their second biggest UK hit with Rain In The Summertime in 1987
And 2 years later in 1989 they released a record that still resonates in South Wales even to this day. And it's a song that Mike still has to play whenever he plays a gig in Wales.
Included on their last album, Raw, the band even recorded a great version of a Neil Young classic.
Mike famously announced he was leaving the band at their last UK concert in The Brixton Academy in 1991 with the song Moments in Time.
Mike began his comeback in 1992 when he formed the Poets of Justice, which included his wife Jules Jones and a young up and coming guitar player called Ethan Johns :)
I managed to catch and film a couple of the first gigs he played after he left The Alarm.
They were gigs of intensity and passion and the crowd got their first chance to hear the songs that would go on to be included on his debut solo album, Breathe.
Then after this series of gigs, Mike reappeared again in 1994 with his comeback single Back Into The System.
Followed by the next single
He also released a Welsh language version of the album, called Aer.
The breadth of the new songs was just stunning. There was a new depth and confidence to Mike's music and the scope of his debut album left the songs of The Alarm firmly in the past.
Indeed some of the best songs didn't even make the album
Ethan Johns gave an added dimension to the songs when they were performed live
Ethan only stayed with The Poets for a year ( he is now a world famous award winning producer) and by the time the album was released Mike had recruited some new Welsh musicians into the band
Some of the songs were intensely personal. This one being about his father.
And this one speaks for itself.
Mike continued to make excellent solo albums right throughout the 90s. But in 1996, Mike recovered from lymph cancer. A condition which was to rear it's ugly head later.
In 1999, Mike joined forces with The Cult's Billy Duff to form Coloursound and release an album.
In the year 2000, Mike resurrected the name, The Alarm but without any of the original members.
In 2004, they released a single under the pseudonym, The Poppy Fields, to highlight the problems faced by older bands trying to get songs into the charts.
This story became the basis for the movie Vinyl, released in 2012
In 2005, Mike discovered he was suffering from Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia,
In 2011, Mike joined Big Country and recorded a new album with the band called The Journey and set out on several tours.
Since 1993, Mike has held a special fan event every Year, normally in January, in North Wales, called The Gathering.
This song is about his friend Stuart Adamson and was performed at the 2013 Gathering.
To this day, Mike still performs solo and with The Alarm and continues to perform the classic Alarm songs as well as his solo material
He often holds special charity concerts and events for The Love Hope Strength Foundation
Mike is playing the Light Of Day concerts in New Jersey
He is also celebrating the 30th anniversary of the release of the Alarm debut album Declaration with a tour where he is playing the whole album live. And he played my tiny home town in Wales.
And - All Cards are Marked
and I will be going out in a Blaze Of Glory
And Mike is back in 2015 celebrating 30 years of Strength with a worldwide tour - but in Wales, it is special.
