LIMP BIZKIT-PICTURES

LIMP BIZKIT-BIOGRAPHY

The rap-metal outfit Limp Bizkit was formed in Florida in 1994 by vocalist Fred Durst and his friend, bassist Sam Rivers. Rivers' cousin John Otto soon joined on drums, and guitarist Wes Borland completed the original foursome (later supplemented by DJ Lethal). After Korn played the Jacksonville area in 1995, bassist Fieldy got several tattoos from Durst (a tattoo artist) and the two became friends. The next time Korn were in the area, they picked up Limp Bizkit's demo tape and were so impressed that they passed it on to their producer, Ross Robinson. Thanks mostly to word-of-mouth publicity, the band was chosen to tour with House of Pain and the Deftones. The label contracts came pouring in, and after signing with Flip/Interscope, Limp Bizkit released their debut album, Three Dollar Bill Y'All. By mid-1998, Limp Bizkit had become one of the more hyped bands in the burgeoning rap-metal scene, helped as well by more touring action -- this time with Faith No More and later, Primus -- as well as an appearance on MTV's Spring Break '98 fashion show. The biggest break, however, was a spot on that summer's Family Values Tour, which greatly raised the group's profile.

Limp Bizkit's much-anticipated second album, Significant Other, was released in June 1999, and it and the accompanying video for "Nookie" made the group superstars. Significant Other debuted at number one and had sold over four million copies by year's end, also helping push Three Dollar Bill Y'All past the platinum mark. Durst, meanwhile, was tapped for a position as a senior vice president at Interscope Records in early July. However, in the midst of this massive success, controversy dogged the band following that summer's performance at Woodstock '99. In the wake of the riots and sexual assaults that proved to be the festival's unfortunate legacy, Durst was heavily criticized for egging on the already rowdy crowd and inciting them to "break stuff." Not only was at least one mosh-pit rape reported during the group's set (in addition to numerous other injuries), but the ensuing chaos forced festival organizers to pull the plug in the middle of their show. Even though Limp Bizkit's performance took place the day before the infamous festival-closing riots, the band was raked over the coals in the media, who blamed them for touching off the spark that inflamed a potentially volatile atmosphere. Undaunted, Limp Bizkit headlined that year's Family Values Tour, with the newly controversial Durst grabbing headlines for periodic clashes with Bizkit's tourmates. During the Napster flap of 2000, Durst became one of the most outspoken advocates of online music trading; that summer, Limp Bizkit embarked on a free, Napster-sponsored tour. All of this set the stage for the October release of the band's third album, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. Wes Borland left the band soon after, necessitating a long search for a replacement guitarist of comparable value; finally, after going almost three years without a new album, the band released a disappointing record, Results May Vary. Borland returned after its release, and the band issued The Unquestionable Truth, Pt. 1 in 2005, and album that was roundly ignored even if it was marginally better than its predecessor. The Bizkit then released Greatest Hitz, a 17-track career survey that included all the hits from their heyday.

Backstreet Boys-Biography

They are recognised as the biggest pop group in the world of music today having dominated the charts throughout the world since 1996. In just four years BACKSTREET BOYS (Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, Brian Littrell, A.J. McLean and Kevin Richardson) have accomplished this global domination by achieving Gold and Platinum awards in 45 countries, including 11-times platinum in the USA for their debut album "Backstreet Back" and have sold over 51 million albums world-wide. The group have recently been hailed as one of the fastest selling acts in South East Asia where the album "Millennium" sold in excess of three million copies.

BACKSTREET BOYS have been honoured with numerous awards and in the last twelve months alone this has included four Billboard Music Awards, five Grammy nominations, three World Music Awards, an MTV Europe Award as well as two American MTV Award nominations.

BACKSTREET BOYS' success is set to continue with the release of their fourth album "Black & Blue" in November of this year. The group members have taken a lead role in the writing and producing of the 14-track album which covers a broad spectrum of musical styles. Brian Littrell explains: "It's probably the most diverse album we have ever made and we hope everyone really likes it. This album is a little more real, it talks about life and loss, love and cheating, all aspects of life. It's a very diverse album".

So how did five boys from America rise to the top so fast? BACKSTREET BOYS' story began in Orlando, Florida. It was there that high school students A.J. McLean, Howie Dorough and junior high student Nick Carter began to run into each other at local acting auditions. The three became friends and formed a singing group. The trio then decided to expand. Kevin Richardson was the next to join the group, and soon Kevin箂 cousin Brian Littrell completed the fivesome. They quickly became one of Florida箂 hottest live acts and were signed immediately.

In 1995, BACKSTREET BOYS released their first single, "We箆e Got It Goin' On", an urban pop song by writer/producer Denniz PoP. The song took off in Europe, UK and across the world - BSB's brand of R&B/pop was gaining a foothold. In Europe, BACKSTREET BOYS entered a market which was familiar with 'boy bands', but unlike a lot of those other groups, BACKSTREET BOYSwere more than just a bunch of pretty guys - they could sing. Their live shows proved it with sweet acapella harmonies driving audiences wild. Meanwhile, their second single, "I'll Never Break Your Heart" climbed the charts.

BACKSTREET BOYS kicked off 1996 by being voted No.1 International Group by TV viewers in Germany - "I'll Never Break Your Heart" went gold there and hit No.1 in Austria. By February, they had hit similar heights in Canada and BSB sold out show after show - some within 20 minutes of tickets going on sale. Hordes of screaming fans soon became the stuff of legend across Europe and Canada. If BSB could accomplish that with only two singles, imagine the reaction when the debut album saw the light of day!

That summer, BSB embarked on a sold-out 57 date headlining European Tour. By autumn, BSB fever had swept Asia and Australia. Still on the road, the band wrapped up a second European Tour before the end of the year - including 13 dates in Britain.

If 1996 was the year of International success, then 1997 was homecoming year as BSB turned their attention to the one place which had eluded them - America. They released "Quit Playin' Games" in America in the summer and it rocketed to the Top 2 of the Billboard Hot 100. Their first album release in America was "Backstreet's Back" in August and BSB have now shown America what the rest of the world already knows - BACKSTREET BOYS is a success story in motion. Summer 1998 saw the group undertake their first major U.S. Tour - sold out venues across the country from July through September.

BSB filmed three big-budget videos for their new album, all of which show the band at the height of its powers and having fun. The video for "Everybody (Backstreet箂 Back)", a UK No.3 hit single, was an epic drama, a special-effects laden classic horror spoof featuring BSB made up as monsters from the silver screen's vintage best. The video for second single "As Long As You Love Me" was a fun, personality piece with the Boys as you've never seen them before. "All I Have To Give" was the third single from the album. All the video's where huge hits on MTV and music video channels throughout the world.

In August 1997, BSB performed a new stadium tour of Germany and Austria. The sold-out shows, which took the BSB live experience to around 350,000 people in two weeks, featured pyrotechnics, new routines and a few surprises.

BACKSTREET BOYS mania meanwhile took off in the U.S. - their first album "Backstreet's Back" went gold soon after release and the group spent some time in September consolidating their home fanbase with a series of concerts across the USA, culminating in a memorable New York show on 30 September. In the meantime, the new album "Backstreet's Back" sold well over 1 million copies worldwide in the first week of release!

BSB spent the summer of 1998 on their first mammoth tour of their native USA which kicked off on 8th July in Charlotte, North Carolina and took the group back and forth across America for two months. After the end of the tour in September, they went into the studio to complete their third album, "Millennium". On 10 September, BSB won Best-Group Video Award at the annual MTV Music Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

"Millennium" was released in May 1999 and included the hit single "I Want It That Way". This album confirmed the group箂 status as one of the worlds biggest pop acts ever. This album alone has sold over 20 million copies in 43 countries across the world and achieved multi-platinum status in 28 different countries.

To coincide with the eagerly awaited release of their fourth album, "Black & Blue", BSB will undertake a gruelling four day tour, taking in six continents from Stockholm to Tokyo, Sydney, Rio, Cape Town and New York where they will experience six simultaneous release days. On each continent they will perform an acappella of the first single from the album "Shape of My Heart" for their fans.

The new single "Shape Of My Heart" has charted so far top 5 in the following countries: #1 Sweden and Norway, #1 Thailand, #1 Hong Kong, #1 Indonesia, #2 Germany, Denmark, Italy and Spain, #3 Canada, #4 Switzerland, #5 Holland, Australia and Austria

BACKSTREET BOYS' fourth album "Black & Blue" will be released on Zomba Records in November 2000.

Enrique Iglesias-Biography

At the dawn of the new millennium, Enrique Iglesias was the best-selling Latin recording artist in the world. The son of multi-million-selling singer Julio Iglesias, Enrique was born in Madrid, Spain, where he lived with his mother, his brother Julio, and his sister Chabeli. In 1982, his mother sent them to live in Miami with their father. While there, Enrique was exposed to three different cultures and musical influences: Hispanic, European, and American.

Iglesias' own career started when he was still attending Gulliver Private School, a very prestigious school in Miami. He made his singing debut in a production of Hello, Dolly, after which he began practicing his singing without his parents knowing. After a year studying business at the University of Miami, he decided to follow his passion for music. In 1995, he sang in person for his soon-to-be manager, who at Iglesias' insistence of not wanting to use his family name, first shopped his demos as an unknown Central American singer named Enrique Martinez. It wasn't until he earned a record deal with Fonovisa that Enrique told his father and mother of his aspirations. Then he flew to Toronto, where no one knew him and he could concentrate just on music, to record for five months.

That first album, Enrique Iglesias (1995), sold more than a million copies in three months (it earned him his first gold record in Portugal in a mere seven days) and to date has sold more than six million worldwide. The second album, Vivir (1997), enjoyed global sales of more than five million discs and launched his first world tour, backed by sidemen for Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, and Billy Joel. In a mere three years, Iglesias had sold more than 17 million Spanish-language albums, more than anyone else during that period. (The U.S. was his biggest market.) He also won the 1996 Grammy for Best Latin Performer, 1996's Billboard Artist of the Year, Billboard's Album of the Year for Vivir, two American Music Awards, a World Music Award, eight Premio Lo Nuestro awards, two ACE Performer of the Year awards, and ASCAP prizes for Best Composer of 1996 and 1997, in addition to countless accolades around the world.

With 1998's Cosas del Amor, Iglesias moved to more mature content; his earlier material had been written when he was 17 years old. Then came Enrique, his first Interscope album and first in English. It achieved gold or platinum status in 32 countries and brought his global album sales to a total of more than 23 million. In 2001 he released the follow-up, Escape. Iglesias alternated Spanish- and English-language albums during the next two years, first offering the ballad collection Quizás in 2002, then the mainstream English record 7 in 2003. Four years later the single "Do You Know (The Ping Pong Song)" announced the coming of his 2007 album Insomniac. ~ Ed Nimmervoll, All Music Guide

LINKIN PARK-BIOGRAPHY

They're at it again! Chester, Mike and the rest of Linkin Park released another phenomenal album titled Meteora. Sophomore albums are famously tricky affairs. Musicians have their entire lives to pen their debut album, the theory goes, and a relatively short time to follow it up. But what if the debut in question is the biggest selling album in recent memory? And what if the music industry has Hollywood-like expectations for another instant blockbuster? That was the scenario Linkin Park faced when they entered the studio to record Meteora, the follow-up to their multi-platinum debut Hybrid Theory.

To those outside the band, the pressure to follow up that success might have seemed insurmountable. But within Linkin Park, vocalists Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda, guitarist Brad Delson, turntablist Joseph Hahn, drummer Rob Bourdon, and bassist Phoenix weren't sweating it in ways you might expect. Instead of dwelling on outside expectations, they set to work, meticulously crafting each moment of each song to their own exacting standards. The bigger picture developed accordingly.

"We don't ever want to have the mindset where we need to sell 10 million albums each time out. That's ridiculous," says Bennington. "It's a blessing to sell that many albums; it doesn't happen very often in this business--even once in your career is an achievement. Our obligation is to our fans. We're not going to get too comfortable and say it's a given that people will run out and buy our albums." "And if you know us, you know the biggest pressure came from within the band," says Shinoda.

"We just wanted to make another great album that we're proud of," says Bourdon. "We focused on that, and worked hard to create songs we love. We're our own harshest critics." If you doubt that, consider this: Shinoda and Bennington wrote 40 unique choruses for Meteora's poignant first single, "Somewhere I Belong," before arriving at the best possible version.

The entire band, in fact, sounds more fully realized on Meteora. It's a rare achievement: A full integration of six members that still retains the unique qualities of each individual. The end result is the thumbprint style known as Linkin Park. "We don't really analyze the chemistry," says Bourdon. "We're just lucky and grateful that we found each other and that we work so well together."

"The collaborations are more seamless now," agrees Bennington. "Mike, for instance, knows more about me as a person, and I know more about him, so it's easier to write lyrics together. It's not possible to have secrecy in our relationship. You have to open up, because you want the other person to be on the same page. We're all that way with each other."

BRYAN ADAMS-BIOGRAPHY

Bryan Adams (born November 5, 1959) is a successful Canadian singer and songwriter. He was born in Kingston, Ontario to British parents, and moved with his parents throughout Europe and the Middle East.

Adams was given his first guitar at age ten, bought his first electric guitar at age 11 and at age 14 moved to Vancouver and started auditioning as a guitarist. He left school at 15, joined a band as a singer and went on the road. He met drummer Jim Vallance in 1977 and the two began collaborating as songwriters, and before long their material was being covered by many artists. A&M Records was sent some demos and signed Adams to a recording contract at age 18.

He has released 14 albums since then.

In 1990 he joined many other guests (including Michael Kamen) for Roger Waters' massive performance of The Wall in Berlin. Apart from that he is engaged in many charity projects like Greenpeace's 'Saving the Whales' or Amnesty International. He recently joined Canada's benefit concert for the tsunami victims.

One of his most popular success was the album Waking Up the Neighbours in 1991 (see 1991 in music), produced by Mutt Lange and featuring the ballad '(Everything I Do) I Do It for You'. This song was a huge #1 hit around the world. Other soundtrack songs were 'Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?' from Don Juan de Marco; and 'All For Love' from The Three Musketeers, performed with Rod Stewart and Sting. Adams has been nominated for three Academy Awards.

His musical career also includes several collaborations and duets, e.g. with Tina Turner in 'It's Only Love', Sarah McLachlan in 'Don't Let Go', Mel C. in 'When you're Gone', Chicane in 'Don't Give Up', and the aforementioned collaboration on 'All For Love'.

He has been inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. In 1990 he was made a Member of the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia. In 1998 he was promoted to an Officer of the Order of Canada.

His latest album, Room Service was released on September 28, 2004 with 'Open Road' being its first single. The second single 'Flying' is a typical Bryan Adams ballad. Adams is currently working on an acoustic album while touring.

Discography

• Bryan Adams (1980)
• You Want It You Got It (1981)
• Cuts Like a Knife (1983)
• Reckless (1984)
• Into the Fire (1987)
• Live!Live!Live! (1989)
• Waking Up the Neighbours (1991)
• So Far so Good (1993)
• 18 Til I Die (1996)
• Unplugged (1997)
• On a Day Like Today (1998)
• The Best of Me (1999)
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (soundtrack) (2002)
• Room Service: (2004)