Released in March 1980, Duke was the band’s biggest commercial success at the time of release, spending two weeks at No. 1 in the UK and peaking at No. 11 in the US. The album spawned three singles; ” Turn It On Again ” went to No. 8 in the…
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In August 1979, U2 recorded demos at Windmill Lane Studios with CBS talent scout Chas de Whalley as producer, marking the first of the band’s many recordings at the studio during their career. The following month, three songs from the session were released by CBS in Ireland as the EP…
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“If You Think You Know How to Love Me” was the first single to be released on September 14, 1979. However, it was unsuccessful. Her second single ” Heartbreaker ” was released on October 26, 1979, and became a sleeper hit , eventually climbing to number 23 in the US,…
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The band’s first live performance of “Message in a Bottle” was on the BBC’s television show Rock Goes to College filmed at Hatfield Polytechnic College in Hertfordshire. The instrumental title track ” Reggatta de Blanc ” won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. In February 1980, the single…
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by mid-1980 had achieved gold status.
Prior to forming Everclear, frontman Art Alexakis struggled through a number of hardships that would later shape the course of the band and its music. As a child, Alexakis recounted that he suffered child abuse and child abandonment from his father at the age of five, struggled with drug addiction…
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Blues Traveler originated as a high school garage band in Princeton, New Jersey in the mid-1980s. Harmonicist, singer and guitarist John Popper and drummer Brendan Hill formed a group called The Establishment (later renamed Blues Band) with Hill’s brother on bass and a rotating roster of guitarists. The band produced…
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Taylor said in 1980:
In January 1980, Peter Buck met Michael Stipe in Wuxtry Records , the Athens record store where Buck worked. The pair discovered that they shared similar tastes in music, particularly in punk rock and proto-punk artists like Patti Smith , Television , and the Velvet Underground . Stipe said, “It…
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The Ian Moss-penned “Never Before” was chosen as the first song to air on the ABC’s youth radio station, Triple J , when it switched to the FM band that year.