'London' Bands // p 1 of 1

Beabadoobee

Beatrice Laus[a] (born 3 June 2000), known professionally as Beabadoobee (/biːbəduːbiːˈ/; stylized in all lowercase), is a Filipino-born British singer-songwriter. Since 2018, she has released four extended plays under the independent label Dirty Hit including Lice (2018), Patched Up (2018), Loveworm (2019) and Space Cadet (2019). Her debut studio album, Fake It Flowers, was released in October 2020.

Beabadoobee served as a supporting act for labelmates The 1975 during several legs of their Music for Cars Tour, as well as American singer Clairo during her Immunity Tour. She was nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 2020 Brit Awards, and was presented with the Radar Award at the 2020 NME Awards. Beabadoobee was also predicted as a breakthrough act for 2020 in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2020.

Early life

Laus was born in Iloilo City, Philippines on 3 June 2000 and moved to London with her parents at the age of 3. She grew up in West London listening to original pinoy music as well as pop and rock music from the 1980s. While she was a teenager, she listened to indie rock including Karen O, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Florist and Alex G. She was expelled from Sacred Heart High School before completing her thirteenth year at Hammersmith Academy. Laus spent seven years learning to play the violin, before getting her first guitar second-hand at the age of 17. She taught herself how to play the instrument using YouTube tutorials. She was inspired by Kimya Dawson and the Juno soundtrack to start making music.

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Charlie Winston

Charlie Winston Gleave (born 14 September 1978), better known as Charlie Winston, is an English singer-songwriter based in London. Winston has so far had his most significant commercial success in France.

Charlie played bass guitar for his brother Tom Baxter, appearing on Baxter's Feather and Stone album. As well as touring with Tom, much of Charlie's early career saw him composing music for, and performing in, London-based contemporary theatre productions.

His first ever unreleased and rarest record was Mischifus, a mix between beatbox, guitar and piano, which appeared as a theater/dance production that he had performed on stage in 2007 recorded under the Real World label.

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Kokoroko

Kokoroko (stylised as KOKOROKO) is a London-based eight-piece musical group led by Sheila Maurice-Grey, playing a fusion of Jazz and Afrobeat. In February 2019 they were named "ones to watch" by the Guardian, after their track "Abusey Junction" garnered 23 million views on YouTube. In February 2020 they won Best Group at the Urban Music Awards. In September 2020 they played BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall.

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Lianne La Havas

Lianne Charlotte Barnes (born 23 August 1989), known professionally as Lianne La Havas, is a British singer and songwriter. Her career began after being introduced to various musicians, including singer Paloma Faith, for whom she sang backing vocals. In 2010, La Havas signed to Warner Bros. Records, spending two years developing her songwriting, before releasing any music. La Havas' debut studio album, Is Your Love Big Enough? (2012), was released to positive reviews from critics and earned her a nomination for the BBC's Sound of 2012 poll and awards for the iTunes Album of The Year 2012.

La Havas was born and raised in London, England, to a Greek father and Jamaican mother. She was raised in Tooting and Streatham, spending the majority of her time with her grandparents after her parents separated. La Havas began singing at seven, and cites her parents' diverse musical tastes as having the biggest influence on her music. Her father, an accomplished multi-instrumentalist, taught her the basics of guitar and piano. Lianne wrote her first song at the age of 11, but did not learn to play the guitar until she was 18 years old. Lianne sang in her school choir. She attended Norbury Manor Business and Enterprise College for Girls in Thornton Heath where she studied art A-level, and had planned to take an art foundation course before she decided to leave college to pursue a career in music full-time. Her birth name is Lianne Barnes, and her stage name is an adaptation of her Greek father Henry Vlahavas's surname. She lives in London.

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Peter Green

Peter Green (born Peter Allen Greenbaum; 29 October 1946 – 25 July 2020) was an English blues rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. As the founder of Fleetwood Mac, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. Green's songs, such as "Albatross", "Black Magic Woman", "Oh Well", "The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)" and "Man of the World", appeared on singles charts, and several have been adapted by a variety of musicians.

Green was a major figure in the "second great epoch" of the British blues movement. B.B. King commented, "He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats." Eric Clapton praised his guitar playing; he was interested in expressing emotion in his songs, rather than showing off how fast he could play and used string bending, vibrato, and economy of style.

Rolling Stone ranked Green at number 58 in its list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". His tone on the instrumental "The Super-Natural" was rated as one of the 50 greatest of all time by Guitar Player. In June 1996, Green was voted the third-best guitarist of all time in Mojo magazine.

Early years

Peter Allen Greenbaum was born in Bethnal Green, London, on 29 October 1946, into a Jewish family, the youngest of Joe and Ann Greenbaum's four children. His brother, Michael, taught him his first guitar chords and by the age of 11 Green was teaching himself. He began playing professionally by the age of 15, while working for a number of East London shipping companies. He first played bass guitar in a band called Bobby Dennis and the Dominoes, which performed pop chart covers and rock 'n' roll standards, including Shadows covers. He later stated that Hank Marvin was his guitar hero and he played The Shadows' song "Midnight" on the 1996 tribute album Twang. He went on to join a rhythm and blues outfit, the Muskrats, then a band called The Tridents in which he played bass. By Christmas 1965 Green was playing lead guitar in Peter Bardens' band "Peter B's Looners", where he met drummer Mick Fleetwood. It was with Peter B's Looners that he made his recording début with the single "If You Wanna Be Happy" with "Jodrell Blues" as a B-side. His recording of "If You Wanna Be Happy" was an instrumental cover of a song by Jimmy Soul.

John Mayall's Bluesbreakers

In October 1965, before joining Bardens' group, Green had the opportunity to fill in for Eric Clapton in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers for four gigs. Soon afterwards, when Clapton left the Bluesbreakers, Green became a full-time member of Mayall's band from July 1966.

Mike Vernon, a producer at Decca Records recalls Green's début with the Bluesbreakers:

As the band walked in the studio I noticed an amplifier which I never saw before, so I said to John Mayall, "Where's Eric Clapton?" Mayall answered, "He's not with us anymore, he left us a few weeks ago." I was in a shock of state [sic] but Mayall said, "Don't worry, we got someone better." I said, "Wait a minute, hang on a second, this is ridiculous. You've got someone better? Than Eric Clapton?" John said, "He might not be better now, but you wait, in a couple of years he's going to be the best." Then he introduced me to Peter Green.

Green made his recording debut with the Bluesbreakers in 1966 on the album A Hard Road (1967), which featured two of his own compositions, "The Same Way" and "The Supernatural". The latter was one of Green's first instrumentals, which would soon become a trademark. So proficient was he that his musician friends bestowed upon him the nickname "The Green God". In 1967, Green decided to form his own blues band and left the Bluesbreakers.

Fleetwood Mac

Green's new band, with former Bluesbreaker Mick Fleetwood on drums and Jeremy Spencer on guitar, was initially called "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac featuring Jeremy Spencer". Bob Brunning was temporarily employed on bass guitar (Green's first choice, Bluesbreakers' bassist John McVie, was not yet ready to join the band). Within a month they played at the Windsor National Jazz and Blues Festival in August 1967 and were quickly signed to Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon label. Their repertoire consisted mainly of blues covers and originals, mostly written by Green, but some were written by slide guitarist Jeremy Spencer. The band's first single, Spencer's "I Believe My Time Ain't Long" with Green's "Rambling Pony" as a B-side, did not chart but their eponymous debut album made a significant impression, remaining in the British charts for over a year. By September 1967, John McVie had replaced Brunning.

Although classic blues covers and blues-styled originals remained prominent in the band's repertoire through this period, Green rapidly blossomed as a songwriter and contributed many successful original compositions from 1968 onwards. The songs chosen for single release showed Green's style gradually moving away from the group's blues roots into new musical territory. Their second studio album Mr. Wonderful was released in 1968 and continued the formula of the first album. In the same year they scored a hit with Green's "Black Magic Woman" (later covered by Santana), followed by the guitar instrumental "Albatross" (1969), which reached number one in the British singles charts. More hits written by Green followed, including "Oh Well", "Man of the World" (both 1969) and the ominous "The Green Manalishi" (1970). The double album Blues Jam in Chicago (1969) was recorded at the Chess Records Ter-Mar Studio in Chicago. There, under the joint supervision of Vernon and Marshall Chess, they recorded with some of their American blues heroes including Otis Spann, Big Walter Horton, Willie Dixon, J. T. Brown and Buddy Guy.

In 1969, after signing to Immediate Records for one single ("Man of the World", prior to that label's collapse) the group signed with Warner Bros. Records' Reprise Records label and recorded their third studio album Then Play On, prominently featuring the group's new third guitarist, 18-year-old Danny Kirwan. Green had first seen Kirwan in 1967 playing with his blues trio Boilerhouse, with Trevor Stevens on bass and Dave Terrey on drums. Green was impressed with Kirwan's playing and used the band as a support act for Fleetwood Mac before recruiting Kirwan to his own band in 1968 at the suggestion of Mick Fleetwood. Spencer, however, made virtually no contribution to Then Play On, owing to his reported refusal to play on any of Green's original material.

Beginning with "Man of the World"'s melancholy lyric, Green's bandmates began to notice changes in his state of mind. He was taking large doses of LSD, grew a beard and began to wear robes and a crucifix. Mick Fleetwood recalls Green becoming concerned about accumulating wealth: "I had conversations with Peter Green around that time and he was obsessive about us not making money, wanting us to give it all away. And I'd say, 'Well you can do it, I don't wanna do that, and that doesn't make me a bad person.'"

While touring Europe in late March 1970, Green took LSD at a party at a commune in Munich, an incident cited by Fleetwood Mac manager Clifford Davis as the crucial point in his mental decline. Communard Rainer Langhans mentions in his autobiography that he and Uschi Obermaier met Green in Munich, where they invited him to their Highfisch-Kommune. Fleetwood Mac roadie Dinky Dawson remembers that Green went to the party with another roadie, Dennis Keane, and that when Keane returned to the band's hotel to explain that Green would not leave the commune, Keane, Dawson and Mick Fleetwood travelled there to fetch him. By contrast, Green stated that he had fond memories of jamming at the commune when speaking in 2009: "I had a good play there, it was great, someone recorded it, they gave me a tape. There were people playing along, a few of us just fooling around and it was... yeah it was great." He told Jeremy Spencer at the time "That's the most spiritual music I've ever recorded in my life." After a final performance on 20 May 1970, Green left Fleetwood Mac.

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Portishead

Portishead is an English band formed in 1991 in Bristol. They are often considered one of the pioneers of trip hop music. The band is named after the nearby town of the same name, eight miles west of Bristol, along the coast. Portishead consists of Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley, while sometimes citing a fourth member, Dave McDonald, an engineer on their first records.

Their debut album, Dummy, was met with critical acclaim in 1994, quickly becoming a landmark album in the trip hop genre. Two other studio albums have been issued: Portishead in 1997 and Third in 2008, both of which received similar acclaim. In 1998, the band released a concert album, Roseland NYC Live.

Style and influences

Portishead's music was influenced by a wide range of singers and composers. Gibbons's voice has been compared to singer Billie Holiday. Utley mentioned the spaghetti western guitar composed by Ennio Morricone; he said that "[Morricone's] The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the sort of soundtracks that I love".

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Supertramp

Supertramp were an English rock band formed in London in 1970. Marked by the individual songwriting of founders Roger Hodgson (vocals, keyboards, guitar) and Rick Davies (vocals, keyboards), they are distinguished for blending progressive rock and pop styles, and for a sound that relied heavily on Wurlitzer electric piano. The group's line-up changed numerous times throughout their career, with Davies the only consistent member. Other longtime members included bassist Dougie Thomson, drummer Bob Siebenberg and saxophonist John Helliwell.

The band were initially a full-fledged prog-rock group, but starting with their third album Crime of the Century (1974), they began moving towards a more pop-oriented sound. They reached their commercial peak with 1979's Breakfast in America, which yielded the international top 10 singles "The Logical Song", "Breakfast in America", "Goodbye Stranger" and "Take the Long Way Home". Their other top 40 hits included "Dreamer" (1974), "Give a Little Bit" (1977) and "It's Raining Again" (1982). In 1983, Hodgson left the group to pursue a solo career. Davies took over as the band's sole leader until 1988, after which they disbanded and periodically reformed in various configurations.

As of 2007, Supertramp album sales exceeded 60 million. They attained significant popularity in North America, Europe, South Africa and Australia. Their highest sales levels were in Canada, where they had two diamond-certified (ten-times platinum) albums (Crime of the Century and Breakfast in America), and their only number 1 singles anywhere ("The Logical Song" and "Dreamer").

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The Heliocentrics

The Heliocentrics are an English, London-based musical collective that combines funk, jazz, psych, and library influences. The group is based around drummer and producer Malcolm Catto, bassist Jake Ferguson, guitarist Adrian Owusu, and multi-instrumentalist Jack Yglesias.

HISTORY

The Heliocentrics released their debut album Out There in 2007 on Now-Again Records. This was followed by collaborations with Ethiopian musician Mulatu Astatke on the album Inspiration Information (2009), which was awarded that year's Gilles Peterson Worldwide Winner Album of the Year award, Lloyd Miller & The Heliocentrics (OST) (2010), and Orlando Julius.

The Heliocentrics appeared on the track "Skullfuckery" on the UK release of the DJ Shadow album The Outsider, which was released in 2006.

In 2013, they released their second full album, 13 Degrees of Reality also on Stones Throw. The 2009 album with Astatke was included in a list of 'Five Essential Jazz Albums' chosen by pianist Jamie Cullum in 2013.

In 2017, they released A World of Masks with vocals by Barbora Patkova,[12] as well as The Sunshine Makers OST, the score they wrote for the 2015 British documentary The Sunshine Makers, directed by Cosmo Feilding-Mellen. Both records were released on Soundway Records.

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The High Llamas

he High Llamas are an Anglo-Irish avant-pop band formed in London circa 1991. They were founded by singer-songwriter Sean O'Hagan, formerly of Microdisney, with drummer Rob Allum and ex-Microdisney bassist Jon Fell. O'Hagan has led the group since its formation. Their music is often compared to the Beach Boys, who he acknowledges as an influence, although more prominent influences were drawn from bossa nova and European film soundtracks.

O'Hagan formed the High Llamas after the breakup of his group Microdisney. The band initially played in a more conventional acoustic pop style, but after he joined Stereolab as a keyboardist, he was inspired to revamp the group's music closer to the electronic and orchestral sound he preferred. Their second album, Gideon Gaye (1994), anticipated the mid 1990s easy-listening revivalist movement, and its follow-up Hawaii (1996) nearly led to a collaboration with the Beach Boys. Since then, the High Llamas' albums have been more electronic and stripped-down.

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The Police

The Police were a British rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar), and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Police became globally popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Emerging in the British new wave scene, they played a style of rock influenced by punk, reggae, and jazz. Considered one of the leaders of the Second British Invasion of the U.S., in 1983 Rolling Stone labelled them "the first British New Wave act to break through in America on a grand scale, and possibly the biggest band in the world." The Police disbanded in 1986, but reunited in early 2007 for a one-off world tour that ended in August 2008.

Their 1978 debut album, Outlandos d'Amour, reached No. 6 in the UK Albums Chart. Their second album Reggatta de Blanc (1979), became the first of four consecutive No. 1 studio albums in the UK and Australia with its lead single, "Message in a Bottle", their first UK number one. Their next two albums, Zenyatta Mondatta (1980) and Ghost in the Machine (1981), featuring "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", both UK number one singles, saw further critical and commercial success. Their final studio album, Synchronicity (1983), was No. 1 in both the UK and the US, selling over 9 million copies in the US alone. Its lead single, "Every Breath You Take", became their fifth UK number one, and first in the US. The Police have sold over 75 million records, making them one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. They were the world's highest-earning musicians in 2008, due to their reunion tour.

The Police won a number of music awards, including six Grammy Awards, two Brit Awards—winning Best British Group once, an MTV Video Music Award, and in 2003 were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Four of their five studio albums appeared on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". The Police were included among both Rolling Stone's and VH1's lists of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time".

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The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. The first stable line-up consisted of bandleader Brian Jones (guitar, harmonica, keyboards), Mick Jagger (lead vocals, harmonica), Keith Richards (guitar, vocals), Bill Wyman (bass), Charlie Watts (drums), and Ian Stewart (piano). Stewart was removed from the official line-up in 1963 but continued to work with the band as a contracted musician until his death in 1985. The band's primary songwriters, Jagger and Richards, assumed leadership after Andrew Loog Oldham became the group's manager. Jones left the band less than a month before his death in 1969, having already been replaced by Mick Taylor, who remained until 1974. After Taylor left the band, Ronnie Wood took his place in 1975 and continues on guitar in tandem with Richards. Since Wyman's departure in 1993, Darryl Jones has served as touring bassist. The Stones have not had an official keyboardist since 1963, but have employed several musicians in that role, including Jack Nitzsche (1965–1971), Nicky Hopkins (1967–1982), Billy Preston (1971–1981), Ian McLagan (1978–1981), and Chuck Leavell (1982–present).

The Rolling Stones were at the forefront of the British Invasion of bands that became popular in the United States in 1964 and were identified with the youthful and rebellious counterculture of the 1960s. Rooted in blues and early rock and roll, the band started out playing covers but found more success with their own material; songs such as "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" and "Paint It Black" became international hits. After a short period of experimentation with psychedelic rock in the mid-1960s, the group returned to its "bluesy" roots with Beggars Banquet (1968), which along with its follow-ups Let It Bleed (1969), Sticky Fingers (1971) and Exile on Main St. (1972), is generally considered to be the band's best work and is seen as their "Golden Age." It was during this period they were first introduced on stage as "The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World."

The band continued to release commercially successful albums through the 1970s and early 1980s, including Some Girls (1978) and Tattoo You (1981), the two best-sellers in their discography. During the 1980s, the band infighting curtailed their output and they only released two more underperforming albums and did not tour for the rest of the decade. Their fortunes changed at the end of the decade, when they released Steel Wheels (1989), promoted by a large stadium and arena tour, the Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle Tour. Since the 1990s, new material has been less frequent. Despite this, the Rolling Stones continue to be a huge attraction on the live circuit. By 2007, the band had four of the top five highest-grossing concert tours of all time: Voodoo Lounge Tour (1994–1995), Bridges to Babylon Tour (1997–1998), Licks Tour (2002–2003) and A Bigger Bang (2005–2007). Musicologist Robert Palmer attributes the endurance of the Rolling Stones to their being "rooted in traditional verities, in rhythm-and-blues and soul music", while "more ephemeral pop fashions have come and gone".

The Rolling Stones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004. Rolling Stone magazine ranked them fourth on the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" list and their estimated record sales are above 250 million. They have released 30 studio albums, 23 live albums and numerous compilations. Let It Bleed (1969) marked the first of five consecutive No. 1 studio and live albums in the UK. Sticky Fingers (1971) was the first of eight consecutive No. 1 studio albums in the US. In 2008, the band ranked 10th on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists chart. In 2012, the band celebrated its 50th anniversary. The band still continues to release albums to brisk sales and critical acclaim; their most recent album Blue & Lonesome was released in December 2016 and reached No. 1 on the UK Album Charts and No. 4 in the U.S. and won a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. The band also continues to sell out venues, they have been on their No Filter Tour since September, 2017 and will wrap up the tour with a North American leg over Summer 2019.

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Yes

Yes are an English progressive rock band formed in London in 1968 by singer Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, guitarist Peter Banks, keyboardist Tony Kaye, and drummer Bill Bruford. The band has undergone numerous formations throughout its history; nineteen musicians have been full-time members. Since June 2015, it has consisted of guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White, keyboardist Geoff Downes, singer Jon Davison, and bassist Billy Sherwood, with no remaining founding members. Yes have explored several musical styles over the years, and are most notably regarded as progressive rock pioneers.

Yes began in 1968, performing original songs and rearranged covers of rock, pop, blues and jazz songs, as evident on their first two albums. A change of direction in 1970 led to a series of successful progressive rock albums until their disbanding in 1981, their most successful being The Yes Album (1971), Fragile (1971) and Close to the Edge (1972). Yes toured as a major rock act that earned the band a reputation for their elaborate stage sets, light displays, and album covers designed by Roger Dean. The success of "Roundabout", the single from Fragile, cemented their popularity across the decade and beyond.

In 1983, Yes reformed with a new line-up that included Trevor Rabin and a more commercial and pop-oriented musical direction. The result was 90125 (1983), their highest-selling album, which contained the U.S. number-one single, "Owner of a Lonely Heart". From 1990 to 1992, Yes were an eight-member formation after they merged with Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe for Union (1991) and its tour. Since 1994, Yes have released albums with varied levels of success and completed tours from 1994 to 2004. After a four-year hiatus, they resumed touring in 2009 and continue to release albums; their most recent is Heaven & Earth (2014). In 2016, a new group of former Yes members began touring and named themselves Yes Featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rick Wakeman.

Yes are one of the most successful, influential, and longest-lasting progressive rock bands. They have sold 13.5 million RIAA-certified albums in the US. In 1985, they won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance with "Cinema", and received five Grammy nominations between 1985 and 1992. They were ranked No. 94 on VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock. Yes have headlined annual progressive rock-themed cruises since 2013 named Cruise to the Edge. Their discography spans 21 studio albums. In April 2017, Yes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which chose specifically to bestow the honour upon current and former members Anderson, Squire, Bruford, Kaye, Howe, Rick Wakeman, White and Rabin.

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