'A' - short name but not short on rock! Their new album "Hi Fi Serious" is full of catchy, melodic poppy indie-rock with humour and hooks.
AC/DC - Australia's top hard rockers, AC/DC formed in the 70s and got stardom, especially in 1980 when they released "Back in Black", one of their best and most famous albums, and also one of the best and most famous albums ever. Their name, by the way, came from their electricity, not sexuality.
Adams, Bryan - famous for "that song", "Everything I Do (I Do it For You)", the power ballad from the "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" film soundtrack which became the wedding song of the 90s and the hated song of people who'd preffered his harder stuff he had been doing before he got famous.
Adams, Ryan - not to be confused with the other Mr Adams above, he's the biggest alt.country star in the world.
Black Sabbath - although more people now know Ozzy Osbourne for his wacky docu-soap The Osbournes, all rock fans know the self-styled Prince of Darkness really started out in Black Sabbath and invented heavy rock tricks still copied now. Also famous for "that bat", which my sister says was all a stunt and wasn't real.
Bon Jovi - my sister's favourite band. Click the banner below to visit her site about them:
Cheap Trick - early prototype pop-metallers in the '70s, started what Bon Jovi, Def Leppard and Aerosmith would later take on and develop. Also did a good live album called 'Live At Budokan', which was recorded at, surprise, Budokan, in Japan.
Cooper, Alice - the name (intentionally) suggests a little teenybopping teenage girl or a quiet country singer. Instead you get a bloke in his 50s with black make-up around his eyes screaming "School's Out!" while chopping up dolls or pretending to hang himself on a stage covered with guillotines and fake blood. He "killed" Britney Spears at a recent show at The Brighton Centre, so us anti-teenyboppers love him.
Deep Purple - early heavy metal band from Britain who started out playing schools in Holland, and invented some of the best riffs ever. Still very influential and listened to now. Our Chemistry teacher is a huge fan!
Def Leppard - Sheffield's finest sons (sorry Pulp) are still going strong after 24 years and have released their latest album "X" a few months ago. Despite some very un-Leppardish, boyband-flavoured moments, there are still some songs that still have the good ol' classic DL hard rock/pop metal sound, including the layered backing vocals and guitar solos.
Guns N' Roses - the most self-destructive band ever (maybe excluding Aerosmith and Motley Crue), now containing only Axl Rose (whose stage name comes from a band he liked when he was a teenager and his father's surname. His real name is Bill Bailey - Bailey is his stepfather's surname. Coincidentially, his stage name is also an anagram of something a little rude. Work it out for yourself.) and a bunch of strange imitators (e.g. Buckethead the guitarist, so called 'cos, er, he wears a KFC bucket on his head. Weirdo. Bring back Slash & co!)
Kiss - the most extravagant band ever, their merchandise did not stop at the ordinary things like keyrings and T-shirts: it included condoms, coffins, lunchboxes, toilet paper, comic books, christmas tree decorations, action figures, toy guitars, etc. and it is expanding all the time! They did some great records and live shows too.
Led Zeppelin - another of the leading and most influential bands, and one of my favourite bands, they combined blues and rock'n'roll and formed the basis of modern rock and metal music. They also provided the theme tune for the pop program 'Top of the Pops', derived from the famous riff from 'Whole Lotta Love'.
Lynyrd Skynyrd - their name is that of their least favourite PE teacher Leonard Skinner, only made Welsh-sounding. They invented a style that became known as Southern Rock. In 1975 Aerosmith were going to take a plane flight but they changed their mind at the last minute, and Lynyrd Skynyrd took that flight instead. The plane crashed and killed 3 of them. The whole history of rock could have turned out differently if it hadn't crashed or if Aerosmith hadn't cancelled.
Skid Row - New Jersey glam rockers/punks, managed by Bon Jovi and fronted by loudmouthed Sebastian Bach, who often got them into trouble. He's now been replaced by Johnny Solinger. They've just released a new album, while a few months ago Sebastian has released a solo album of new songs by himself and reworkings of old SR songs.
