Commonwealth of Nations

Commonwealth flag

The Commonwealth of Nations are the successor to the British Empire which includes the flagship UK, as well as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa (since 1994) to name a few.  While a tonne of my favourite artists are from Britain, some are from the ex-colonies too (full-time solo in parentheses).

UK:

Asia (John Wetton, Geoffrey Downes, Steve Howe, John Payne)
The Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison)
Bandit (Jim Diamond)
Black Sabbath (Ozzy Osbourne)
Kate Bush
Cockney Rebel
Culture Club (Boy George)
Def Leppard
Depeche Mode (Martin Gore, Dave Gahan)
Duran Duran (Arcadia)
Emerson, Lake and Palmer (Greg Lake)
Eurythmics (Annie Lennox)
Fleetwood Mac (Christine McVie)
Genesis (Peter Gabriel, Tony Banks, Anthony Phillips, Steve Hackett, Phil Collins, Mike Rutherford)
Gentle Giant
Geordie (Brian Johnsons band before AC/DC)
GTR (Hackett/Howe supergroup)
IQ (Martin Orford)
Elton John
Kajagoogoo (Limahl)
King Crimson (Greg Lake, John Wetton)
Marillion (Fish, h)
Marilyn (born in Jamaica)
Mike & the Mechanics (Mike Rutherford)
Modern English
The Moody Blues (Justin Hayward, Denny Laine, John Lodge, Ray Thomas, Mike Pinder)
Naked Eyes (Pete Byrne)
oasis (Beady Eye, Noel Gallaghers High Flying Birds)
Pallas (Alan Reed)
PhD (Jim Diamond)
Pink Floyd (David Gilmour, Richard Wright, Roger Waters, Syd Barrett)
Queen (Freddie Mercury [born in what is now Tanzania], Roger Taylor [including The Cross], Brian May)
Renaissance (Annie Haslam)
Supertramp (Roger Hodgson)
Tears for Fears (Curt Smith*)
Wham! (George Michael)
Wings (Paul McCartney, Denny Laine)
Yes (Jon Anderson*, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Trevor Rabin*, Rick Wakeman)

Canada:

Rush (Cancon kings)
Lawrence Gowan (born in Glasgow, raised in Toronto area)
Alanis Morissette* (favourite Cancon solo)
Mystery (Benoît David was also in Yes)

Australia:

AC/DC (with UK natives)
INXS (have had frontmen from the UK, Canada and New Zealand as well as the US)

South Africa:

Rabbitt (Trevor Rabin*)

*now naturalised US citizens

WogBlog: USA albums in January?

WogBlog: USA albums in January?

PINK FLOYD: BOOTLEG: Pink Floyd - 1970 - Bytes Of The Talisman - Live at Paris-

PINK FLOYD: BOOTLEG: Pink Floyd - 1970 - Bytes Of The Talisman - Live at Paris-

Life after EMI

Divvied up

Over the past year, the properties of EMI was doled out among four companies as one could not have it all under EU regulations.  Universal received the lions share getting Capitol, Harvest (brought back from dormancy), the EMI label and Virgin; while Warners would get Parlophone which includes Regal, IRS and Chrysalis.  The Beatles, who put Parlophone on the map, will now be with Capitol worldwide, as will solo Robbie Williams (hardly heard of in the States which is the case with his group Take That), who already moved to Universal prior to the merger.  Ironically many pre-2012 EMI refugees now find themselves under UMG distribution, such as The Rolling Stones, Queen, solo Paul McCartney and Mike Oldfield (who moved his catalogue to Mercury only to find it now managed by original label Virgin).  Parlophone artists such as Coldplay, Jethro Tull (on Chrysalis), and Conor Maynard (a newer one) were signed to Capitol in the US but I wonder if Warners' catalogue label Rhino will now be reissuing that material worldwide in future.  Chrysalis US artists such as Pat Benetar and Blondie will now be Capitol ones.  There is some catching up to do.  Some titles may be bought back by the artists and released by indie labels which is possibly the case with some of my prog heroes like Rick Wakeman and Tony Banks.  More as I get it.