Listen to the Banned

Listen to the Banned is a compilation album that features the music of banned, censored and imprisoned artists from the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The album is the result of a two year collaboration between the Norwegian artist Deeyah Khan and international organisation Freemuse. As well as receiving critical acclaim, Listen to the Banned album has peaked at number 6 on the World Music Charts Europe and spent months on these charts. The album was released worldwide in 2010

Together with Freemuse, Deeyah's' aim with Listen to the Banned is to help give a voice to the voiceless and to promote freedom of creative and musical expression and to promote the work of Freemuse. The album is supported by Amnesty International UK.

Freemuse & Deeyah present Listen to the Banned is the first album release in what is planned to be a long term series of Listen to the Banned compilation albums.

Track listing

References

External links

The Banned

The Banned were an English punk/new wave outfit in the late 1970s.

History

The Banned had a minor UK hit in 1977 with "Little Girl", a cover version of a 1966 U.S. hit song by the Syndicate of Sound. The Banned's original home pressing on Can't Eat Records (Eat Up 1) was taken up by EMI's Harvest label. The Banned originated from Tooting and Camberwell in London.

Originally the Banned were:

Harvey and Davie had previously been members of the progressive rock/folk band, Gryphon. Aitken had been a member of Precious Little. They recorded "Little Girl" in an attempt to take advantage of the popularity of punk rock, or in Aitken's words to "work a scam to do this punk thing". The line-up changed in the first few months with Tommy Steal (real name Jimmy Hughes) replacing Davie on bass and Ben Dover (Ben Grove) replacing Harvey on guitar. This line-up recorded the second single "Him or Me" with "You Dirty Rat" on the B-side. For their Top of the Pops performance of "Little Girl" in December 1977, Sordid, Fresh and Steal were joined by Sugar Kane (real name David Owen Smith) on 12 string guitar.

The Banned (EastEnders)

The Banned are a fictional band in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. The storyline first aired in 1986 and although it was considered to be a failure on-screen, it nevertheless became a successful part of the serial's extensive merchandising industry that year, as it spawned two Hit singles in the UK Music Charts.

Storyline development and impact

In 1986, the creators of EastEnders, scriptwriter Tony Holland and producer Julia Smith, decided to tackle "an important and complicated story about the ups and downs of a pop group." The idea was considered to be an "interesting and major undertaking" in the serial. It featured the majority of teenage characters in the soap at the time. Prominent characters such as Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), Ian Beale (Adam Woodyatt), Simon Wicks (Nick Berry) and Kelvin Carpenter (Paul J. Medford), were joined by several new characters, introduced especially for the storyline, including "lefty-student stereotype" Harry Reynolds (Gareth Potter). Actors such as Paul Medford, Letitia Dean and Nick Berry were musically trained, having attended London stage schools. They were chosen as the group's singers, and renamed themselves "The Banned" after their first gig got them kicked out of The Queen Victoria public house.