The Drifter who wore the White Suit.

Joe DolanThis Irish singer was perhaps the biggest international star to come from the showband era and has had huge appeal both in Ireland and Internationally.  He had 57 UK & Irish hit singles in the 1960’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and brought out 22 albums up to his sudden death in 2007. While he never broke America, he played in Chicago, New York, Boston and Las Vegas as well as many other countries around the world, including Russia.

A boy from nowhere still going strong.  

Tom Jones. 1964 and 2014Pontypridd is not a place that springs to mind for music.  However, one of the world’s most famous singers came from there. In 1963, he joined the band Tommy Scott and the Senators. He is nearly 74 years of age and has an OBE and a Knighthood.  When he was 12, he got TB, which kept him in bed for two years. It was during this time that he began to develop his love of music.  His marriage of 57 years is still as strong today as it was in 1957 and it produced a son, Mark, who is his manager today.  He sang the theme song from Thunderball.  In 1974 he moved to America to escape Britain’s 83% marginal tax rate and bought Dean Martins mansion in Bel Air.

“You can argue with a philosopher,

but you can’t argue with a good song”.

Dr. Yusuf Islam / Cat StevensThis 65 year old English man initially played the piano in his parent’s restaurant.  He is entrenched in the folk scene and released his first album when he was 18.  Living near London’s West End had a large musical influence on him.  Even though he was born as a Greek Orthodox, he was sent to a Roman Catholic school.  This combination of religious influences helped him develop a strong moral conscience, and provided an anti-Muslim slant to his upbringing.  Being influenced by The Beatles, he got his first guitar at 15 and started writing and singing his own music.  One of the first songs he wrote was ‘The First cut is the Deepest’ which he sold for $40.  In 1979, he auctioned all his guitars for charity and left his music career after he converted to Islam in December 1977 and adopted the name Yusuf Islam.  From then, he devoted his time to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community. He has been given several awards for his work in promoting peace in the world, including the 2003 World Award, the 2004 Man for Peace Award and the 2007 Mediterranean Prize for Peace. In 2006, he returned to pop music with his first album of new songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup. He is now known professionally by the single name Yusuf.His most recent album, Roadsinger, was released on 5 May 2009.

Elmore James single coverOne of my favourite Blues artists of all time Mr Elmore James was born on January 27, 1918 and is credited as one of the most influential blues artists of his generation and to this day has a sound that has been emulated and reproduced throughout the history of modern music.

The Little Devil that was brought down and found Waking Up Hard to Do.

Neil Sedaka

This American singer/songwriter is nearly 76 years old and his name means Charity in Hebrew. He has written more than 800 songs in the past 61 years, in fact, he only writes the melodies. Other people write the lyrics. When he was 13, he wrote 500 songs over the next two years. He said that he was born with the gift of music and his mother told him that he wouldn’t eat unless the radio was playing music. When he was in school in Brooklyn, his teacher noticed that he had a musical ability and sent a note home to his parents. As a result, his mother had to take a part time job for the next nine months in order to buy a second-hand upright piano. At the age of eight he was practicing five hours a day. At 17, he started a band called the Tokens and at 19 joined other greats like Neil Diamond, Carole King and Paul Simon in 1650 Broadway. At 24, he sold 25 million records, at which time Beatlemania killed his career stone dead in America.

The Band That Broke Free with Fat Bottomed Girls and created a Kind of Magic.

By Bob Tallent

Queen

In 1970, Tim Staffell left the group 'Smile', which was formed in 1968. A keen follower of the group, Farookh Bulsara, convinced the remaining members that he should be their new lead singer and duly set about moulding the group into his own image, starting by changing the group's name. Before he joined the band, Farookh was a singer in other bands, such as Wreckage and Ibex. He was very eager to share his ideas in which musical direction Smile should develop. Tim Staffell meanwhile decided to join a band called Humpy Bong.

This was the start of the band known as Queen.

Don McLeanI remember sitting in front of my TV screen in ’71 watching BBC’s “Top of the Pops” when all of a sudden this guy started playing a song called American Pie. He looked kinda “too nice to be true”, hippyish but not!  I was just blown away right from the start. To this day I don’t ever recall the effect that this one song had on me for the rest of my life!

Tommy Emmanuel - possibly the world’s best acoustic guitarist.

Tommy Emmanuel in full swing

Bob Tallent
16th December 2011

I’ve been trying to teach myself acoustic guitar for the past couple of years and am finding it very difficult.  Add on to that the fact that I can’t sing – you will clear a room very quickly if I try to sing, even the dogs howl – and you don’t have a recipe for success.  In saying all that, I keep trying and I try to teach myself finger-style guitar.  The internet is a huge resource for people like me.  When I was searching a couple of years ago, I came across a guy called Tommy Emmanuel.  When I saw him on YouTube, I was blown away.  What he could do with an acoustic guitar was physically impossible, yet he did it.

Do you remember when we used to sing,Sha la la la la la la la la la la te da

Van MorrisonThis 68 year old Northern Irish Singer Songwriter has explored soul, jazz, blues, rhythm & blues, rock and roll, Celtic folk, pop balladry and more.  He has referred to his music as “Caledonia soul,” reflecting his deep immersion in American roots music and Irish mysticism and was a member of the 1960’s group ‘Them’.  The man was voted the 42nd Greatest Artist in Rock 'n' Roll by Rolling Stone magazine and is former First Lady, Laura Bush's favourite singer, even though he was invited to sing at President George W. Bush's inauguration, which he declined.  He is intensely private and cantankerous and is not given to making public pronouncements.  At 64, he faced an allegation that he had become a father again to a baby boy by a woman who was not his wife.  He has 500 songs and 41 albums and in 1972 began to develop stage fright.  His second and present wife is a former Miss Ireland.