Piano Lessons Swindon has researched some of the famous artists to originate from Swindon and we have written about their career highs and lows and sometimes their stories. There's a chance you will find a few surprises!
Although he now lives in San Francisco, Jack Dangers the electronic musician is originally from here in Swindon, Wiltshire. He is most famous for the work he did with Meat Beat Manifesto (also known as MBM) after creating the electronic music group together with Jonny Stephens who had worked with previously in a band called Perennial Divide.
Jack Dangers being an electronic musician rather enjoyed working with other people's music to create remixes as well as compose his own work. He has worked with and remixed for plenty of big-name artist's and bands; David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails and David Byrne just to name a few. In 2006 his remix of "What is Hip?" originally by "Tower of Power" was nominated for a Grammy award and it became one of his best-known pieces of work.
He is a collector of electronic music equipment (like the EMS Synthi 100 which is thought to be the only working module) and an active animal rights supporter. Today he is still composing electronic music and fundamentally operating via YouTube.
Below is one of the songs composed by Jack Dangers called "Zxero"
Among the most famous and notable people to have originated from Swindon, Wiltshire, Andy Partridge is best known for being the founder and main songwriter of the pop band XTC. Most of his success has come from the work he did as part of the band but he has also done solo work, he was a producer for the band Blur on the album Modern Life is Rubbish but was later replaced by another producer due to Blur's then record label pushing the move.
Early in his career, he was a regular on Radio stations, especially BBC Radio 1 and he has also done some TV work and appearances. XTC formed in 1976 and played together till 2005, the band did tours all over the world and where hitting their peak by about 1982 at which point it was revealed Andy Partridge was suffering from mental breakdowns due to stage fright, further shows and tours had to be called off and for the remaining years the band became fundamentally studio-based.
Voted UK's number one male artist of 1972 Gilbert O'Sullivan is no stranger to the music charts. Throughout his music career, he has charted 6 number one songs and another 10 songs have been in the top 40s. From these songs, the most popular ones came in the early 1970s, songs like "Alone Again" and "Clare" made him a popular figure in the pop culture of that era.
He has expressed his love for pop music even late in his career stating all he wanted to do was write pop songs in 2009 and looking back through his career and success you have to say he was pretty good at it too. He has achieved International success too mainly in the Netherlands topping the charts there with "Nothing Rhymed". His first 3 albums achieved some success but the following albums failed to reach the same heights.
He is still making and writing music till this day and his compilation album released in 2012 went to number 12 on UK's album charts. He also had a notable court case against MAM records because of disagreements over the percentage of the money he got for his record sales. He has also helped bring the law that requires you to clear samples in Hip Hop music after he sued rapper Biz Markie.
Below is the video to one of Gilbert's most successful songs "Alone Again"
