Secret Life (band)
Secret Life was a British R&B/house and pop band active from 1991 to 1996, particularly popular in the UK and Europe.
History
The first release by Secret Life was a white label recording called "Spanish Lullaby", written and produced by Andy Throup and Jim Di Salvo. This was their first release from their "No Fixed Abode" recording studio, set up in South London. The band then increased in size with the addition of Charlton Antenbring and Paul Bryant. Antenbring was a fashion student, disc jockey and reporter for The Big Issue. Jim Di Salvo contributed on guitars, cubase programming, sampling and music production. Throup was a classically trained pianist and contributed to cubase programming and music production. Bryant was the vocalist. Bryant and Throup co-wrote most of Secret Life's material.
Contemporaneous to the development of Secret Life, Throup was also working with others involved with techno and house music, such as noted techno and house DJ Lenny Dee.
The band toured extensively, particularly in the United Kingdom, and performed on three popular UK TV music shows: The Beat, Dance Energy and The Hitman and Her. They also released several music videos. Di Salvo left the band in 1993 to set up "Bass Boom" recording studios. Di Salvo then released numerous singles and albums under his own name, and the alias act names of "The Juggler", "Bong Brothers" and "Salvo Jets", during the 1990s.
Secret Life
Secret Life, The Secret Life or The Secret Life of... may refer to:
Music
Television
Literature
Material (band)
Material is a musical group formed in 1979 and led by bass guitarist Bill Laswell.
History
1978–82: The band
In 1978, having received a substantial royalty payment for his work with The Yardbirds, Russian music entrepreneur Giorgio Gomelsky relocated to New York in an attempt to open up the American market to the European progressive jazz-rock bands he was working with, such as Gong, Henry Cow and Magma. He established the Zu Club in Manhattan and after meeting 24-year-old bass player Bill Laswell, encouraged him to form a band. Three young friends, Michael Beinhorn (17, synthesizer), Martin Bisi (17, engineering) and Fred Maher (14, drums), responded to Laswell's advert in The Village Voice and the band began rehearsing in the club's basement.
The band became known as the "Zu Band" until Gomelsky hooked them up with former Gong frontman Daevid Allen for a performance at his Zu Manifestival at the Zu Club on October 8, 1978, for which they became "New York Gong". Guitarist Cliff Cultreri, who was replaced by guitarist Michael Lawrence for the Manifestival before returning, and second drummer Bill Bacon joined them for a Spring 1979 tour of the USA in an old school bus playing most of Gong's Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy.[Don Davis on saxophone.] In autumn, they recorded the album About Time. Allen and the band amicably parted company when they "discovered they couldn't stand the European way of life" during a tour of France.
Podcasts:
