Born on this day ...

[Ruby]

^Yes - such an inspired pairing with Sakomoto - they are perfect foils - sublime.  

I have The Beckoning Silence, and have read and watched Touching the Void - not White Spider though - haven't read that yet. Another revelation for me was Jamling Tenzing Norgay’s book about the disastrous ’96 Everest expedition – Touching My Father’s Soul - a different perspective. 

Haven't read any Messner either - need to remedy that! I agree with his sentiments/philosophy about mountaineering, and he is an admirer of Mallory, as am I. They were cut from the same cloth, IMHO.

[Ruby]

Dean Ford was born on this day in 1946, in North Lanarkshire, Scotland – his birth name is Thomas McAleese. One of the founding members of The Marmalade, along with Junior Campbell, he and Junior wrote Marmalade’s biggest hit, “Reflections of my Life” – they were the first Scottish band to score a number one hit song on the UK pop singles chart. 

After the disbandment of Marmalade, Ford made an eponymously titled solo album, produced by none other than the venerable Alan Parsons, and he later sang for AP on a track from Pyramid. He moved to the USA and disappeared from the music scene for some time whilst battling various demons, making a resurgence in the early 2000’s,never having totally lost touch with his musical connections. I believe there are two other albums, but have not looked them up.
 
This is from the aforementioned solo album … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzBPyeEgllM
 
…and this is a revamped version of “Reflections of my Life” with erstwhile, post Pete Ham Badfinger member, Joe Tansin … 

[Ruby]

Benjamin Montmorency "Benmont" Tench III was born on this day in 1953, in Gainesville, Florida. What a simply fabulous name!  He is a keyboardist extraordinaire, plays piano, organ (including a lot of Hammond B3), and synthesizers. He also sings, writes and occasionally arranges for other artists. Aside from having known Tom Petty since the age of eleven, and being a founding member of the Heartbreakers, he is very much in demand as a session musician and has credits on many and varied releases, not confined to any one particular genre.
 
He released a solo album in 2014 – You Should Be So Lucky – this is from that … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb-Bem99uFQ
 
He wrote one of Feargal Sharkey’s bigger hits, “You Little Thief” and I’ve just realised that Mr Sharkey is the closest thing I’ve heard to David Surkamp of Pavlov’s Dog - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T07ZH9Lbdqo
 
The obligatory Tom Petty number, and it simply has to be this one, from Damn the Torpedoes – “Refugee”, of course! …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7_1R_b4x7Y
 
With Joan Armatrading, from What’s Inside – “Merchant of Love” … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJJdmbpy6Yw
 
From Timothy B Schmit’s Expando – “Parachute” … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da1aWjxNxzo
 
He contributes to Jonathan Wilson’s fabulous Fanfare – “Lovestrong” – great track … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl-MZsHq1fk
 
And finally – both he and Petty on Bella Donna by Stevie Nicks. Played this album to death at one point … “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” … 

[Ruby]

Robert Adrian “Bob” Catley was born on this day in 1947, in Aldershot, England. Lead singer of Magnum for many, many moons now, as well as a solo artist and involved in a few other projects, not least of which include Ayreon and Avantasia.

I did a BOTD post on fellow Magnum bandmate Tony Clarkin, in 2015, and said this – “They have a formula, I'd say, and they stick to it, which seems to work well for them; and then there's Bob Catley whose vocals have been going at nothing less than full throttle for the past 40 years with no obvious signs of cracking up any time soon.” Nothing appears to have changed! At the age of seventy he’s still rocking hard with the best of ‘em.
 
Magnum never attained the same commercial popularity as some of their contemporaries, and listening to them, it’s kind of difficult to understand why, although I'm sure they have a loyal following. They created unadulterated rock of the heavy inclination, intelligent lyrics and good music – strange, sometimes, how the chips fall! I'll give them this though - from what I can gather, they did exactly as they wanted and did not bow to peer or any other pressure - that takes some doing.
 
This is a live version of a track that appears on Magnum’s On a Storyteller’s Night …. "Les Morts Dansant" ... 

[Ruby]

Idan Raichel was born on this day in 1977, in Kfar Saba, Israel. He started off playing the accordion at age nine, moved on to taking jazz piano as a high school subject, and began his career in performance, production and composition whilst serving in the Israel Defense Forces.
 
He had already developed a penchant for fusion, having had an early interest in tango and gypsy music, and this was further expanded upon when he worked as a counsellor at a boarding school for immigrants where he was introduced to Ethiopian folk music. He’s interested in the diversity created as a result of the Jewish diaspora and has worked with a similarly diverse number of artists, from Arabs, Ethiopian Jews and Yemenite vocalists, to India Arie, Malian musician Vieux Farke Touré, German counter tenor Andreas Scholl, Portuguese fado singer Ana Moura and Colombia's Marta Gómez.  He’s released a number of Idan Raichel Project and collective albums – lovely stuff, IMHO. Mostly sung in Hebrew, (with plentiful contributions from some of the above-named, and others) but thanks to his passion for cross-cultural bridge building you’ll find a mix of languages on most of his releases (with the exception of English, and that seems to matter not one little bit! At least, not to me.)
 
Raichel is of the belief that real peace is achievable if people will learn about one another’s cultures, and try to understand them. He’s the recipient of a few awards for his ambassadorial efforts using the medium of music, including being the first non-US citizen to receive the 2016 "Unsung Hero Award" from the Drum Major Institute. From B'nai B'rith International, he has a special citation for “…. representing a world full of hope in which musical collaborations remove boundaries between people coming from different backgrounds and cultures” – (quote uplifted from Wiki.)  Go Idan!
 
I think this is one of the songs that first got him noticed – “Boee” … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnvPULGY4S0
 
From Within My Walls, “Bein Kirot Beiti” … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuMUSd2-uck
 
The beautiful “Mon Amour” from Quarter to Six – with Vieux Farka Touré …. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaCpc7osbek
 
“Sabe Deus” from the same album, with Ana Moura – I really like fado from time to time … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-fF_JUBwRo

And yet another from Quarter to Six - "In Stiller Nacht" with Andreas Scholl ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkMQg6l81mI
 
… and the one that first piqued my interest … the title track from Mi'ma'amakim …

[Ruby]

Laurence Neil 'Lol' Crème was born on this day in 1947, Prestwich, Lancashire, England. The Lol comes from Lolagon which I can only surmise is some sort of colloquialism. He was the keys man and guitar player for 10cc up until How Dare You? after which he teamed up with Kevin Godley (also of 10cc) to form the Godley & Crème duo. I think they may have got more recognition in the 80’s for their video production than for their music! They produced videos for the likes of Ultravox, The Police, Yes, Duran Duran, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Wang Chung. He also went completely AWOL from art rock and joined The Art of Noise at one point.
 
This is the little bit bizarre “Englishman in New York” (not the Sting one) by Godley & Crème which was quite innovative at the time … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQr6FYFEjI8
 
From the last 10cc album Lol was on – this was written by Himself and Godley – “Don’t Hang Up” … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq558m_SjeM
 
Godley and Crème are widely recognised for this ground breaking video which used analogue cross fading for their song “Cry” – there was very little in the way of video experimentation at the time. I’m just sorry I can’t find a clip with better sound …. 

[James Otto Sweet Heart]

I wanted to get this message up on the day before yesterday, but the forum was closed up for maintenance issues and so here it is now. It was on September 17th 65 years ago that my newest favorite singer came into the world. The beautiful precious was eventually sing lead for this group from 1987-1995. This was their first song with him being the lead singer of it. It would go to #1 in 1988.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Mo6UkNZcX0

God bless you and his family always!!!

Holly

P.S. Sadly June 10, of 1998 is the day that his story came to its end. My only question is this one: Who is it that drove him into throwing his pen away himself???

[Ruby]

Mick Rogers was born on this day in 1946, in Essex, England – he’s a singer, songwriter and very able guitarist. Aside from Mann himself, he’s the longest standing member of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band taking on guitar duty and vocals too. He left between 1975 and 1982 to pursue his own interests which included moving to Australia for a time. On his return to the UK, he and drummer Clive Bunker formed the shortlived prog rock band Aviator, releasing two albums, after which he rejoined MMEB and has been with them ever since. He has also released two solo albums, the most recent of which, Sharabang, is an album of covers, or ‘reinterpretations’ of some old and some not so old staples across a range of genres.
 
He wrote this one, from MMEB’s Masque … “Rivers Run Dry” … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dSaX11crxs
 
“Rich Girl” from Sharabang because of the guitar solo – gosh! … (it’s a Hall and Oates original – no such solo on that though) … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNe9do-Yt_Q
 
And I think this is his own, which is an ode to his discovery of and passion for Rock n Roll - from the same album – he has the ability to give voice to an instrument – not everyone can do that ...

[Ruby]

Adelmo Fornaciari OMIR (Order of Merit of the Italian Republic), aka Zucchero Fornaciari, but more commonly just plain Zucchero was born on this day in 1955, in Roncocesi, Reggio Emilia, Italy. Zucchero is from ‘Sugar’, a nickname bestowed upon him by his elementary school teacher. 

His first love was the blues, but he’s covered a host of genres and as well as singing, plays guitar, bass, piano and drums. His popularity continues unabated both at home in Europe, and abroad, by all accounts, and he has rubbed on-stage and collaborative shoulders with some of the who’s who of rock n roll, not to mention a couple of opera stars. In fact, it was he who introduced a young Andrea Bocelli to public ears, I believe. Quite the character, Zucchero is – one of those passionate, irrepressible personalities!
 
This will be familiar, I imagine! … “Senza Una Donna” … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V69vs8JmXYM
 
“Un Soffio Caldo” from Chocabeck … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07SQc8KeTYM
 
“Cuba Libre”, from Fly … 

[Ruby]

Craig Chaquico was born on this day in 1954, in Sacramento, California, USA. He grew up in a musical family and was already well acquainted with the guitar, when at the age of twelve he and his father had a head on collision with a drunk driver. Craig sustained major injuries, breaking both arms, his leg, ankle, foot, wrist and thumb; his father told him the story of Les Paul who had also suffered a life-changing injury as a result of a car accident, and yet had persevered and found a way to continue to play, and promised to buy him a Les Paul guitar on his recovery, which he duly did. Chaquico went on to become the lead guitarist of Jefferson Starship, and then just Starship, the only member to have played on all their albums – he also recorded with Paul Kantner and Grace Slick.
 
Since his 1993 debut album, Acoustic Highway, he has enjoyed an illustrious solo career in more of the contemporary jazz/new age/world music vein. He is a believer in the healing power of music and as such devotes much of his time and energy to various music therapy organisations, working with traumatized and injured people and people with dementia, and taking music into prisons, hospitals and schools.
 
From Acoustic Highway – “Sacred Ground” … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkgMuKJsNzY
 
And from A Thousand Pictures, Navajo Stars …