Artists

With an itinerant childhood as part of an Air Force family, Armand Van Helden found a strong through line growing up via his love of music. Buying his first drum machine at age 13, he first began DJing two years later, with a focus mostly on hip-hop and freestyle. Whilst in Boston studying at college […]

If any band truly captured dance music’s anything-goes experimentation of the mid-to-late-90s it was Sheffield trio The All Seeing I. By throwing everything in the mixer – from techno, house and electro-pop to drum’n’bass, big beat and even OTT Vegas-styled torch songs – The All Seeing I not only came up with a uniquely thrilling

For a couple of glorious years as the fast-living 90s morphed into the 00s, UK garage/2-Step duo Artful Dodger didn’t so much frequent the British pop charts as take up permanent residency. Producers Mark Hill and Pete Devereux concocted a suitably UK take on US house and R’n’B that was equal parts both but derivative

Asian Dub Foundation have long been one of the UK’s most loved and innovative bands, fusing a thrilling combination of punk, rap, breakbeat, dub, dancehall and the South Asian sounds – both traditional and the underground diaspora such as Bhangra – of their roots. Their story began in 1993 when rapper Deeder Zaman attended an

When Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward took to the stage in Glastonbury’s Field of Avalon tent in 2019, the crowd stretched as far as the eye could see. Bananarama had just released their 11th album, In Stereo, to ecstatic reviews and charting in the Top 30. That Bananarama are now a worldwide festival headline act

Blancmange’s story is one of two distinct chapters. In the early ‘80s they infused the emergent synth-pop scene with oblique lyrics, wry British humour and occasionally tabla-tinged sonics, an unlikely mix which saw them soar into the Top 10 with singles such as Living On The Ceiling, Blind Vision and Don’t Tell Me. And since

Formed in the 1980s, The Brand New Heavies are one of the UK’s best-loved and most-enduring acid jazz and funk bands. Although a rolling cast of musicians have come and gone, the group’s central members have always been songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Simon Bartholomew and Andrew Levy, who continue to record and tour to this day.

Bronski Beat were unquestionably one of the most important and most distinctive British pop acts of the mid-1980s. Mixing infectious electronic pop with laser-focussed political militancy – particularly around gay activism (all three members were gay) – the trio of Smalltown Boys (Somerville and Bronski moved to London from Glasgow, Steinbachek hailed from Essex) achieved

Formed in the wake of Jimmy Somerville’s departure from Bronski Beat, while The Communards mined a similar sound to Somerville’s previous band, they pushed the electronic pop envelope even further towards expressive hi-NRG disco, coupled with a sense of righteous defiance against what seemed like impossible odds. Somerville formed The Communards (the name a nod

Very few experience the success and longevity in the entertainment industry enjoyed by Dannii Minogue. Dannii first rose to prominence in the early 80’s in two iconic Australian television drama series; Skyways and The Sullivans. She later became a household name for her role in the weekly Saturday night prime-time variety show Young Talent Time,