| The
latest celeb' news in the West End
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| Madonna
- Singer, Actress, Record-label
Boss, Producer, Icon |
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Madonna, her director husband Guy Ritchie, Madonna's
daughter Lourdes and the couple's son Rocco live in a recently acquired
multi-million pound mansion in Marylebone, W1. This living legend
also owns a £4 million Spanish-style villa in Beverly Hills, a house
in Miami and a duplex overlooking Central Park in New York. Madonna
and Guy are also rumoured to look for a country house in his native
Britain.
read more
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| Noel
Gallagher |
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Noel Thomas David Gallagher was born May 29th 1967
in Longsight, Manchester, The Gallagher brothers, pre-Oasis, worked
for their father's freelance concreting operation. Noel attended
St Robert's Infant School in Longsight (1971), St Bernard's Primary
in Burnage (1972) and St Mark's Secondary in Didsbury (1978).
read more
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| Malcolm
McLaren - Manager of bands, musician |
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After a childhood spent mostly with his eccentric
grandmother, Malcolm McLaren (b. 22 January 1946, London) spent
the mid to late 1960's at various art colleges. In 1969 he became
romantically involved with fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and
they subsequently married and had a son together, Joseph Corre,
who now runs upmarket lingerie/sex boutique Agent Provocateur.
In 1971 he opened the shop Let It Rock in Chelsea's Kings Road,
which catered for Teddy Boys. Among the shop's many visitors were
several members of the New York Dolls, whose management McLaren
took over in late 1974. It was to prove an ill-fated venture, but
McLaren did spend some time with them in New York and organized
their 'Better Dead Than Red' tour.
After returning to the UK, he decided to find a new young group
whose stage presence and rebelliousness could equal that of the
New York Dolls. The result was the Sex Pistols, whose brief spell
of public notoriety ushered in the era of punk. The creation of
Sid Vicious, the conflict with Johnny Rotten, the involvement with
Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs and, finally, a self-glorifying
film The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, were all part of the
saga.
Following the Sex Pistols' demise, McLaren launched Bow Wow Wow,
heavily promoting the 14-year-old singer Annabella Lu Win. Although
their recordings were original for the period, the dividends proved
unimpressive and the group split.
Eventually, he decided to transform himself into a recording star,
despite the fact that he could not sing. His ability to predict
trends saw him assimilating various styles of music. The arduous
sessions finally came to fruition with Duck Rock, which featured
two UK Top 10 singles, Buffalo Girls and Double Dutch.
The work pre-empted rock's interest in world music, as exemplified
on Graceland by Paul Simon. McLaren next persisted with the
music of urban New York and was particularly interested in the 'scratching'
sounds of street hip-hop disc jockeys.
McLaren moved on to a strange fusion of pop and opera with Fans,
which featured a startling version of Madam Butterfly that
became a UK Top 20 hit. Paris, and the subsequent ambient
remix album, proved more popular in Europe (France in particular)
than the UK.
More recently he managed a Far Eastern Spice
Girls copycat band, Jungk, whose members are kung-fu experts. He
also ran for for mayor of London in 2000. McLaren lives in Soho
with architect Charlotte Skene-Catlin.
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| Sir
Andrew Lloyd-Webber -
Composer and impressario |
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One of Britain's favourite composers, Sir Andrew
Lloyd Webber was born in 1948. He is the composer of Joseph and
The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar,
the film scores of Jeeves, Evita, Variations and Tell
Me On A Sunday, combined as Song and Dance, Cats, Starlight
Express, Requiem, a setting of the Latin Requiem Mass, The
Phantom Of The Opera, Aspects Of Love, Whistle Down the Wind,
Sunset Boulevard and, most recently, The Beautiful Game
(lyrics by Ben Elton).
His awards include Tony Awards, Drama Desk Awards,
Grammy’s, and Laurence Olivier awards. He is the first person to
have three musicals running in New York and three in London, a record
he acheived in 1982, 1988, and again in 1994. He is the first recipient
of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ Triple
play Award.
In January 1996 the London production of Cats
became the longest running musical in West End and Broadway theatre
history. Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, through The Really Useful Theatre
Company, produces not only his own, but other writers’ works
including Shirley Valentine, Lend Me A Tenor and La Bete.
In 1988 he was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal
College Of Music, and in 1992 was awarded a Knighthood for services
to the arts. He was inducted into the American Songwriters’ Hall
Of Fame and given the Praemium Imperiale Award for Music in 1995.
Andrew Lloyd Webber lives in Belgravia.
News 22/08/01: Starlight Express
slows to a halt
News 16/07/01: Andrew
Lloyd Webber calls time on The Beautiful Game
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| Alex
James - Bassist |
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Alex James, Blur bassist and habitué of West End
drinking dens, lives in an apartment in Covent Garden. He is a member
of the prestigious Groucho Club in Soho. James was born on November
21, 1968 in Boscombe Hopital in Bournemouth. His father sold fork
lift trucks and electronic rubbish compactors, and his mother did
voluntary work.
Though James was academically very bright, his knowledge in music
was rather limited. He was even kicked out of recorder classes in
primary school. When he was 11, he got his first piano. As he became
more interested in playing he wanted a keyboard, but by the age
of 16, he could not afford one, so he settled for a Fender Precision
bass copy for £50, which he bought to serve the purpose of fashion
accessory rather than an instrument. His first band was called The
Age of Consent.
He studied French at Goldsmiths College but dropped out after two
years to form a band, initially called Seymour and later Blur, with
Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon and Dave Rowntree. Their first album,
Leisure, reached No 8 in the charts in 1991; they followed
it up with Modern Life Is Rubbish. In 1994, Parklife
was credited with kick-starting the Britpop phenomenon of the mid-Nineties.
The albums The Great Escape, Blur and, most recently,
13 followed.
In 1998, James teamed up with Keith Allen and Damien Hirst to form
Fat Les, which produced the World Cup football anthem Vindaloo.
James has written a few songs for Marianne Faithfull, including
Hang It On Your Heart; he also wrote a song for Stephen Duffy,
Tempus Fugit.
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