David Byrne

David Byrne (born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-born American musician who was the founding member, principal songwriter, and lead singer and guitarist of the American new wave band Talking Heads, active between 1975 and 1991.

Since then, Byrne has released his own solo recordings and worked with various media including film, photography, opera, fiction and non-fiction. He has received an Oscar, Grammy, and Golden Globe awards and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Early life

David Byrne was born in Dumbarton, Scotland, to parents Tom (from Lambhill, Glasgow) and Emma. He is the elder of two children. Two years later, his parents moved to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and then to Arbutus, Maryland, in the United States, when he was 8 or 9 years old. His father worked as an electronics engineer.

Before high school, Byrne already knew how to play the guitar, accordion, and violin. He was rejected from his middle school's choir because they claimed he was "off-key and too withdrawn". From a young age, he had a strong interest in music. His parents say that he would constantly play his phonograph from age three and he learned how to play the harmonica at age five. In his journals he says, "I was a peculiar young man—borderline Asperger's, I would guess". Byrne is left-handed, but plays guitar right-handed.

David Byrne (footballer, born 1960)

David Byrne is an English-born South African soccer coach and former professional player. He was in 1982 and 1984 a top ten scorer in the North American Soccer League.

Player

Professional

The son of former England international and West Ham United star Johnny Byrne, Byrne was born in England, but raised in Cape Town. In 1979, Byrne moved to the United States where he joined the Atlanta Chiefs just in time for the 1979–1980 North American Soccer League indoor season. He continued to play for the Chiefs until 1981 when he moved to the Toronto Blizzard where he played one indoor and three outdoor seasons. He finished the 1982 season ninth on the scoring list with 39 points in 32 games. He led the league in assists as Blizzard teammates (and fellow South Africans) Neill Roberts and Ace Ntsoelengoe finished seventh and eighth respectively in scoring. He finished 1983 sixth with 44 points in 29 games and 1984 seventh with 37 points in 20 games. Bryne was named to the NASL All-League Second Team in both 1983 and 1984. He was the league's 35th all time scorer with 142 points in 135 games. Byrne also played briefly in Portugal. He played 14 times for Estoril in 1983–1984 scoring once, and 19 games and 1 goal for Belenenses in 1984–1985. In 1985, Byrne signed with the Minnesota Strikers of the Major Indoor Soccer League and was the league's 11th leading scorer for the 1987–88 season. In 1989 he played for the Toronto Blizzard of the CSL and spent two summers in the APSL with the Tampa Bay Rowdies. During that same time he played for the Baltimore Blast and Wichita Wings of the MISL, which played during the winter months. He later played in South Africa with Hellenic in 1994 and then joined Santos in 1998–1999.

David Byrne (playwright)

David Byrne is a British playwright and artistic director of the New Diorama Theatre in London.

References

David Byrne (album)

David Byrne's self-titled album was released in 1994. "Angels" and "Back in the Box" were the two main singles released from the album. The first one entered the US Modern Rock Tracks chart, reaching #24.

The album spent six weeks on the Billboard 200 chart.

Part of the song "Lilies of the Valley" can be heard sampled on Talib Kweli 's "Right About Now", the leadoff track from his 2006 Right About Now: The Official Sucka Free Mix CD.

Track listing

All tracks written by David Byrne.

Personnel

David Byrne (Australian politician)

David Edward Byrne (born 20 January 1952) is an Australian activist and politician. A former Augustinian monk and Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland, he later moved to Cape York, became an advocate for Aboriginal land rights and co-founded the Cape York Land Council with Noel Pearson.

Byrne was born in Sydney and was educated at St Martin's Catholic Primary School and Villanova College in Brisbane. He initially entered the Augustinian seminary and became a monk for five years, but later studied teaching at the University of Queensland. A member of the state executive of the Young Liberals, he was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly at the 1974 state election amidst the National-Liberal landslide of that year. At 22, he was at that time the state's youngest ever MLA, and he graduated from university during his term.

He caused particular controversy when, in 1974, he asked in Parliament why earlier recommendations of an investigating police officer to charge then-Labor Senate nominee Mal Colston with arson had not been proceeded with. Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen then sought to appoint Albert Field instead, thus sparking the 1975 constitutional crisis. Rae Wear notes in her biography of Bjelke-Petersen that Byrne received 'very bad publicity' over the incident. His electorate was abolished at the 1977 election; he ran for re-election but was defeated.

David Byrne (footballer, born 1961)

David Stuart Byrne (born 5 March 1961 in Hammersmith, London) is an English former professional footballer.

Byrne was a winger and began his career with Gillingham. He moved to Millwall on 4 August 1986 for a fee of £5,000. He joined Cambridge United on loan on 8 September 1988 and Blackburn Rovers on loan on 23 February 1989. On 16 March 1989 he joined Plymouth Argyle on a free transfer. He later played for Bristol Rovers, Watford and went on loan to Reading and Fulham.

He joined Shamrock Rovers in January 1993 also on loan from Watford but only made four league appearances. After returning to Watford joined Scottish side St Johnstone and Partick Thistle. He joined Walsall on loan in February 1994 and after leaving Partick played for St Mirren, Ayr United and Albion Rovers where he was player-coach in 1996. He also had a brief loan spell at Tottenham in 1995, featuring in their makeshift squad for the Intertoto Cup. He later coached the Plymouth Argyle youth team and was appointed as Director of Football at Plymouth College of Further Education.

David Byrne (Irish politician)

David Byrne (born 6 April 1947) is an Irish senior counsel, former Attorney General of Ireland and former EU Commissioner. In December 2006 Byrne was appointed as Chancellor of Dublin City University.

Byrne was born in Monasterevin, County Kildare. He was educated at Newbridge College, County Kildare, University College Dublin and King's Inns, Dublin. He was called to the Bar in 1970 and practised law in the Irish and European Courts. During his student days in Dublin, he founded the Free Legal Advice Centre, a student-run organisation providing legal aid to citizens in association with the legal profession.

He became a Senior Counsel in 1985. He practised in both the Irish courts and the European Court of Justice and also served as a member of the International Court of Commercial Arbitration from 1990–97.

In 1997 he became Attorney General to the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats coalition government. As one of the negotiators of the Good Friday Agreement in April 1998, he drafted and oversaw the major constitutional amendments required by that agreement, which were approved by Referendum in May 1998. Mr Byrne also advised on the constitutional amendments necessary for Ireland's ratification of the Amsterdam Treaty.