It had been an 11-year journey with 9 separate bands. But with ‘Ziggy Stardust’, Bowie had finally made it. ibid.
On the 17th September 1965 David Jones reinvented himself as David Bowie. ibid.
In July 1969 Space Oddity was released. ibid.
I wanted to be the instigator of new ideas. David Bowie – Five Years, BBC 2013, Bowie
I am only the person the greatest number of people believe I am. ibid.
Sometimes ... I don’t feel like a person at all. ibid.
In 1971, David Bowie went to New York to sign a contract with RCA Records. ibid. caption
On 3rd July 1973 Bowie killed off the character of Ziggy Stardust. ibid.
The minute you know you’re on safe ground, you’re dead. ibid. Bowie
You have to accommodate your pasts within your persona ... It helps you reflect on what you are now. ibid.
Over the next 20 years, David Bowie produced 11 more albums. In 2007 he disappeared from the public arena. ibid. caption
The Conrads achieved little success. Discovering: Bowie, Sky Arts 2013
Bowie made drastic changes to his image after his short-lived group known as The Hype ... Bowie played with Mick Ronson. ibid.
The connection between the pair [Bowie and Bolan] remained very much alive. ibid.
Bowie and his friend Iggy Pop chose to relocate to Berlin to overcome their addictions. ibid.
This was our music now. It was like hearing the future. The Sixties: The British Invasion, Yesterday, Tom Hanks
The Stones – we are the bad boys of this British invasion. ibid. Smokey Robinson
Bob Dylan going electric is another one of those big seismic changes. ibid. Patrick Goldstein, entertainment journalist
Pop music is crucial to today’s art. ibid. Pete Townsend
Music still had the power to shock and annoy. The 90s: The Decade That Connected Us s1e4: Shock n Awe, National Geographic 2014
In 1996 Tupac sells 5 million albums in the US in just 2 months. ibid.
For me, making music is about my whole life. The basics, the components, simple things – family, living, just going to the market and getting new fruit and veg. That’s what keeps my blood flowing. Neneh Cherry
The unprecedented rise of pop music in the 1960s was just one of the many collisions between class and culture that have changed this country in the last hundred years. Melvyn Bragg on Class and Culture, BBC 2012
From 1968 to 1975 The Troubadour helped launch the careers of the era’s best singer-songwriters. Troubadours: The Rise of the Singer-Songwriter, BBC 2015
The Dave Clark Five were a big live band. The Dave Clark Five and Beyond: Glad All Over ***** Elton John, BBC 2015
The true product was joy: unparalleled, unstoppable, undeniable joy. ibid. Tom Hanks
They are one of the all-time great singers. ibid. Springsteen
He is an absolute stone-cold genius. ibid. Elton John
He could sing the birds out of the trees. And John wrote some of the best songs I’ve ever heard. California Dreamin’: The Story of the Mamas and Papas, Sky Arts 2015
All of our success came from the records. Only Yesterday: The Carpenters, BBC 2014, Richard
Karen could walk in and just er a lot of these things sing in one take. ibid.
By 1975 the constant touring and studio work had taken their toll on Karen’s health with visible effect. ibid.
Karen Carpenter dead at 32. ibid. newspaper headline 4th February 1983
They’re gonna play Dancing in the Street. From California state of Longbeach – The Dick Carpenter Trio. Here they are. The Carpenters: Close to You ***** (Your All American College Show 1968), Sky Arts 2016
And just over-dub all the vocals ourselves … Made the rounds all over again, and all over again we were rejected. ibid. Richard
Close to an overnight success. ibid.
There was this girl. Sitting behind a drum-kit. Singing like an angel. And I was totally amazed. ibid. Petula Clark
She was only five foot four. ibid. Richard
The best of them all. ibid.
Karen and Ella did a lovely piece: This Masquerade. And it was really quite a special moment. Because you’ve got in a different way two of the greatest female singers who have ever lived. ibid.
‘There was a kind of a shadow that I saw over the smile, that fell across the smile in all the recent pictures. And I suspected something was wrong.’ ibid. Paul Williams, lyracist
Karen, I don’t know what you’re doing, but stop it, you know. ibid. Petula Clark
She is very much alive in our minds and in our hearts. ibid. Richard’s eulogy
My sister happened to be one of the finest female singers who ever lived … The world misses her. ibid. Richard
In the old days the greatest thing in the world to be was a movie star. Today the greatest thing in the world is to be a pop singer. Orson Welles, interview The Parkinson Show 1973
‘The comment that Kraftwerk are more influential, more important, more beautiful than The Beatles could ever be.’ Kraftwerk: Pop Art, BBC 2016, Paul Morley
Few would have predicted that these reclusive Rhineland’ experimentalists would become one of the most influential pop groups of all time. ibid.
‘It’s really a misconception to feel that artists will be able to get back a certain amount of control if this control has somehow been compromised along the way.’ Daft Punk Unchained, BBC 2016
‘The music is the only living thing. Draft only those over forty. It’s their war; let them kill each other.’ Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground
So that’s me and Soul II Soul, June 1989: number one around the world. The 1980s were a wild time. A decade of confrontation, innovation and revolution. And with political upheaval came political transformation. Jazzie B’s 1980s: From Dole to Soul, BBC 2016
We pioneered another scene: our scene … We were partying illegally in amazing spaces. ibid.
Reggae sound systems came here from Jamaica. ibid.
The DJ is the one who controls the pre-amp and puts the records on, and then you have your MC. ibid.
One of the most commercially successful bands of all time. Over 70 million records sold. 30 years of sold-out world tours. Still performing after four decades as two separate bands. Promises & Lies: The Story of UB40, BBC 2016
The music on the streets was reggae. ibid. Ali
Seeing Bob Marley live: he came to Birmingham. ibid.
With their own record label the band release their second album – Present Arms – and the single One in Ten. ibid. caption
We were overdrawn and mortgaged to the hilt … Record royalties: we never got them … I started asking questions … How come we were getting so little? ibid. Ali
The trail of where the money went: we couldn’t find it. ibid. new management
They still toured as if they were an arena band … A lot of it was wasted cost. ibid.
There was a lot of stuff going down … I still don’t know what happened to the money … I ended up having to leave. ibid. Ali
In February 2008, after almost 30 years, Ali Campbell leaves UB40. ibid. caption
Some of them say it’s a racket … Britain’s fastest growing industry – pop groups … The agents, the managers, and all the other promoters see it differently: to them it’s business, and the pop groups are the human merchandise … We investigate the flip side of the whole pop industry. World in Action: The Flip Side, ITV 1964
‘The pop charts are no-way [an] accurate guide to what’s selling actually; they are a joke … It’s who’s giving away more.’ World in Action: The Chart Busters, ITV 1980
Some major British record companies have manipulated the Pop charts … by giving free gifts to record stores. ibid.