Fiction Factory
Fiction Factory were a British band from Perth, Scotland, formed in the mid 1980s. Before they started their project Fiction Factory, Patterson (vocals), Jordan (keyboard), Taylor (trumpet) and Medley (guitar) were playing in a band called The Rude Boys later shortened to The RB's, a skinhead ska band based in Perth.
After they left that band, they wanted to keep writing songs but were fed-up with live performances (the RB's were one of the most prolific live performers in Scotland at that time). With no name for this project, the first song Patterson and Jordan wrote for it was "(Feels Like) Heaven" the eventual 1984 UK Top 10 hit. From a list of names that Medley had drawn up, Fiction Factory was chosen. The members were requested by CBS Records to create a concert playing band, and they enlisted McGregor (bass) and Ogletree (drums and percussion) a former drummer of the band Simple Minds to play live. However, "(Feels Like) Heaven" was recorded by the drummer Iain Garrie. After their second album, Fiction Factory disbanded. Patterson eventually left the music industry and currently works in the IT department at the University of Dundee in Scotland. He has a wife and two children. Patterson and Jordan reunited to perform "(Feels Like) Heaven" with a backing band at Jordan's wedding in August 2007, in Perth. "(Feels Like) Heaven", was used in a 2008 television advertisement for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
Fergal Sharkey
Feargal Sharkey (born Sean Feargal Sharkey, 13 August 1958 in Derry, Northern Ireland) is a singer, who first found fame as the lead vocalist of pop punk band The Undertones, famous for the hit single "Teenage Kicks", discovered by John Peel. Since the end of his recording career he has worked in the business side of music and held several leadership roles in the industry.
Albums
* Feargal Sharkey (1985)
* Wish (1988)
* Songs From The Mardi Gras (1991)
Singles
* 1984 "Listen to Your Father" UK #23 (collaboration with Madness and written by Cathal Smyth of Madness)
* 1985 "Loving You" UK #26, Switzerland #23
* 1985 "A Good Heart" UK #1 (2 weeks), US #74, Australia #1 (1 week), Austria #13, Norway #6, #3 Switzerland
* 1986 "You Little Thief" UK #5, Australia #4, Switzerland #27
* 1986 "Someone to Somebody" UK #62
* 1988 "More Love" UK #44
* 1991 "I've Got News for You" UK #12
Fennesz
Christian Fennesz (born December 25, 1962) is an Austrian electronic musician, often credited on albums simply as Fennesz. A key figure in the ascent of IDM and electronica in the 1990s, Fennesz uses guitar and notebook computers to make multilayered compositions that blend melody and conventional musical instruments with harsh, irregular glitch-influenced sounds and washes of white noise. He lives and works in Vienna, Austria and Paris, France.
Fennesz was born and raised in Austria and studied music formally in art school. He started playing guitar around the ages 8 or 9. In the late 1980s, he formed a band called Maische, with a 'noise meets pop' approach similar to bands such as Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. Maische found some local popularity, but Fennesz was uncomfortable with the band setup and left. Afterwards, he became involved in the Viennese techno scene of the early 1990s. From there on, he began to collect his own equipment and produce music based loosely around guitar and synthesizer sounds.
Felix Da Housecat
Felix da Housecat (born Felix Stallings Jr. on August 27, 1971 in Chicago, Illinois) is a DJ and record producer. He was born in Highland Park Hospital. Felix is a producer and DJ mostly known for house music and electroclash.
Felix is regarded as a member of the second wave of Chicago house. He entered the dance music elite not only via his recordings (under a number of aliases, including Thee Maddkatt Courtship, Aphrohead and Sharkimaxx), but also for his ownership of Radikal Fear Records, one of the premiere Chicago labels of the 1990s.
Albums
* Metropolis Present Day? Thee Album! (1995)
* Clashbackk Compilation Mix (1997)
* Transmissions, Vol. 2 (1997)
* Kittenz and Thee Glitz (2001)
* Excursions (2002)
* Rocketmann! (2002)
* A Bugged Out Mix (2003)
* Devin Dazzle & the Neon Fever (2004)
* Playboy: The Mansion Soundtrack (2005)
* Virgo Blaktro and the Movie Disco (2007)
* GU034: Felix Da Housecat, Milan (2008) Release Date: 12/05/2008
Feist
Leslie Feist (born 13 February 1976 in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She performs as a solo artist under the name Feist and as a member of the indie rock group Broken Social Scene. At the 2008 Juno Awards on 6 April 2008 in Calgary, Alberta, she was the top winner with five awards, including Songwriter of the Year, Artist of the Year, Pop Album of the Year, Album of the Year and Single of the Year.
On 20 October 2008, she told the Canadian press that, following the success of her last album, The Reminder, she felt she needed to step away from the pressures of the music industry to consider her next career move and "rest for a minute".
Feeder
Feeder are a platinum-selling Welsh rock band, formed in Newport, South Wales during 1992 by singer-songwriter-guitarist Grant Nicholas, and drummer Jon Lee.
Bassist Taka Hirose later joined, while they have also been accompanied by touring members Matt Sime (keyboards; 2000–2002), Dean Tidey (guitar, backing vocals; 1998–present) and Dean Devall (keyboards, backing vocals; 2008-present). Feeder have charted 24 UK top 75 singles and eight UK top 75 albums, with six of those making the top 10 between 1999 and 2008, alongside 20 of their singles making the top 40 over a span of 11 years. Their music has been inspired by a wide variety of artists and styles, including the Pixies and The Smashing Pumpkins. For most of their recording career, the band have worked with Gil Norton on production duties. Feeder garnered media attention for their third album, Echo Park (2001), and its first single "Buck Rogers", which became their highest charting single at the time. The following year, in January 2002, Jon Lee comitted suicide in his Miami home, leading the band to keep a low profile for the rest of the year, before recording their fourth studio album Comfort in Sound, in which former Skunk Anansie and Little Angels member Mark Richardson helped out on drum duties. Comfort in Sound is Feeder's most successful release to date, selling over 436,000 copies in the United Kingdom. They have won two Kerrang! Awards in 2001 and 2003 for "Best British Live Act" and "Best British Band" respectively, while their first four studio efforts were voted amongst the top 100 best British rock albums of all-time by Kerrang! magazine readers in February 2005.
Fatboy Slim
Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), better known by his stage name Fatboy Slim is a British DJ, big beat musician and producer. Cook has achieved considerable success in UK single and album charts, first as a member of the Housemartins and then most notably as Beats International, Freak Power, Fatboy Slim and The BPA.
Quentin Leo Cook was raised in Reigate, Surrey, England, and was educated at Reigate Grammar School. He started a punk fanzine titled Peroxide with his neighbour Andrew Thomas and art student Ian McKay (formerly Laidlaw). Contemporary with his publishing activities, he played drums in Disque Attack (a British new-wave-influenced rock band) for which he later performed lead vocals. At Reigate College he also met Paul Heaton and, at 18, he went to the Brighton Polytechnic to study a BA in English, Politics and Sociology. Although he had begun DJing some years before, it was at this time that he began to develop his skills on the thriving Brighton club scene. Known as DJ Quentox (The OX that Rocks) Cook and DJ Baptiste started putting on Youth Club Hip Hop jams in Brighton, sowing the seeds of the City's flourishing Hip Hop scene today. These primitive 80's block parties are recalled in the music documentary 'South Coast' which documents Brighton's cult Hip Hop scene from its grass roots to the present day.
Studio albums
* Better Living Through Chemistry (1996) #63 UK
* You've Come a Long Way, Baby (1998) #1 UK (3x Platinum), #34 US (Platinum)
* Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars (2000) #8 UK
* Palookaville (2004) #14 UK
* Here Lies Love (with David Byrne) (2009)
Live albums
* On the Floor at the Boutique (1998)
* Live on Brighton Beach (2002)
* Big Beach Boutique II (2002)
* Bondi Beach: New Years Eve 06 (2006)
Fastball
Fastball is an American rock band that formed in Austin, Texas in the 1990s. The band originally called themselves "Magneto U.S.A." but changed their name after signing with Hollywood Records.
In 1998, their album All The Pain Money Can Buy reached platinum sales within six months of its release, and stayed on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart for a year. In addition, the group has been nominated for two Grammy Awards - Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "The Way", and Best Long Form Music Video for their promotional video "They Wanted The Highway". They also received five The Austin Chronicle awards: 1998's Album of the Year, Best Video, Best Single/EP, Band of the Year, and 1995's Best Pop Band.
Members
* Tony Scalzo (b. May 6, 1964, Honolulu, Hawaii) - vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, guitar
* Miles Zuniga (b. September 10, 1966, Laredo, Texas) - vocals, guitar
* Joey Shuffield (b. December 28, 1961) - drums, percussion
Farah
Like her labelmates the Chromatics, Farah's debut 12" for the Italians Do It Better label is music built for night drives. Dark, slow, and disturbing, it's primed for you to be alone with your thoughts while listening. A record that begins with a woman intoning in Farsi, "My heart broke - It walks on water - The sun burns my eyes - My life left with you" deserves no other venue.
Farah's blank-eyed vocal inflection is part of it, of course, but Italian's co-label head Johnny Jewel's exquisite production is just as important. Keeping things simple, there's little more than an arpeggiator and a bass fart to its name, which allows the two to lock into a hypnotic trance, oblivious to everything around them, afraid to die, killing for their survival. Or, at least, that's what Farah says they're doing. The Italians' name implies that what you're going to get is somehow related to Italo disco, yet it's anything but. The tempo hardly reaches into the triple digits. Instead, "Italians," here, means the soundtrack work of Goblin for horror director Dario Argento. This is dread disco, full of portent and prophetic dreams; a track that's perfect for your next Halloween party.
Fantastic Plastic Machine
Tomoyuki Tanaka is a J-pop artist/DJ, better known by his stage name of Fantastic Plastic Machine. He is considered to be part of the Shibuya-kei movement, drawing heavily from bossa nova, lounge music, house music, and '60s movie soundtracks, but he also incorporates many other types of music. Tanaka was born in Kyoto, Japan.
In the late 1980s, Tanaka played as the bassist in a rock band called Margarine Strikes Back. Then in the early 1990s, Tanaka became a regular club DJ in the Kansai area, working as part of a DJ team known as Sound Impossible. While playing with Sound Impossible, fellow artist and friend Towa Tei convinced Tanaka to go back to recording music, and in 1997 Tanaka created his solo project Fantastic Plastic Machine under the Readymade Records label in Japan. His first two albums, The Fantastic Plastic Machine (1997) and Luxury (1998), were critically acclaimed and gained him international recognition. The albums were distributed in the United States under the Emperor Norton label, and in Europe on the Bungalow label. In Japan, he is currently under the cutting edge label. At one point, Tanaka hosted a pop culture show on national radio, and in 2004 he hosted another radio show called "Sound Concierge." He also once served as the editor for the Japanese fashion magazine Brutus.
Albums
* The Fantastic Plastic Machine (1997)
* Summer Review EP (1998)
* Luxury (1998)
* Beautiful. (2001)
* Too (2003)
* Imaginations (2006)
Falco
Johann (Hans) Hölzel (19 February 1957 – 6 February 1998), better known by his stage name Falco, was an Austrian rap, pop and rock musician and had four #1 Hits - "Der Kommissar," "Rock Me Amadeus," "Jeanny," and "Coming Home (Jeanny Part 2)." He is the first and so far only artist to score a #1 Hit in the U.S. with a German language song. His albums and singles have sold about 60 million copies worldwide.
Born in Vienna, studying at the Vienna Music Conservatory in 1977 which he left after one semester to become a real musician, he lived for a short time in West Berlin, singing in a jazz-rock band. When he returned to Vienna he was calling himself "Falco," reportedly in tribute to the East German skier Falko Weißpflog, and playing in the Austrian bands Spinning Wheel and Hallucination Company. En route to becoming an international rock star in his own right, he was bass player in the Austrian hard rock-punk rock band Drahdiwaberl (from 1978 until 1983). With Drahdiwaberl he wrote and performed the song "Ganz Wien," which he would also include on his debut solo album, Einzelhaft.
Faithless
Faithless are a British electronica band. While they are mostly famous for their dance songs ("Insomnia" "God Is A DJ" and "We Come 1"), they have produced albums which offer a blend of styles. The three principal members of Faithless are Maxi Jazz, Sister Bliss and Rollo. Jazz acts as a vocalist in mostly rap format with lyrics that have strong spiritual or socio-political content.
Bliss constructs most of the music herself electronically, but is talented in playing the piano, violin, saxophone and bass. Rollo heads and produces the band. Lead female vocals for many of their songs are performed by Pauline Taylor, who also performed lead vocals for singles Rollo released under his monikers Rollo Goes Mystic and Rollo Goes Spiritual. As well as these three members, Faithless has employed a guest member for each album. Jamie Catto was an original member of the band, but left after their second album, Sunday 8PM. On their third album, Outrospective, Zoë Johnston joined the lineup while their fourth album, No Roots saw LSK as Faithless member number four. The band often has various people do one-off features on their tracks, though one artist has managed to make a regular feature of her appearances. Singer Dido, who is Rollo's sister, recorded her first studio track with Faithless, "Salva Mea", and was reportedly paid with a curry. She has since featured on one track on each album, in order: "Flowerstand Man", "Hem Of His Garment", "One Step Too Far", "No Roots" and finally "Last This Day".
It was reported that Faithless were to split up after their latest tour in mid-2005. Speculation started after Rollo wrote in the liner notes of theNo Roots booklet "We set out thinking it would be our last album, feeling maybe we have had our time in the sun". However, a fresh clutch of live dates meant the tour actually lasted until December 2005. The band then released a greatest hits compilation, called Forever Faithless - The Greatest Hits, which reached number one in the UK.