Bryan Adams
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Bryan Adams | ||
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cover Adams' 2004 album Room Service
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Background information | ||
Born | November 5, 1959 | |
Origin | Kingston, Ontario, Canada | |
Genre(s) | Rock & Roll Arena Rock Soft Rock Pop Rock |
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Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, Guitarist, Photographer | |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, Guitar, Bass guitar, Piano, Harmonica | |
Years active | 1977 – Present | |
Label(s) | A&M, Badman/Polydor, Universal Music (1980–present) | |
Website | BryanAdams.com |
Bryan Adams OC, OBC, (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian rock singer, guitarist, songwriter and photographer. Some of his best-known albums are Reckless, 18 til I Die, and Waking Up the Neighbours.
Adams was awarded the Order of Canada[1] and the Order of British Columbia[2] for his contribution to popular music and his philanthropic work. He was also inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998,[3] and more recently inducted into the Music Hall of Fame at Canada's Juno Awards in April 2006.[4] He has been nominated for three Academy Awards for songwriting,[5] and was recently nominated for his fifth Golden Globe (2007) for his songwriting in the film Bobby".[6]
Contents[hide] |
[edit] Early life
Adams was born in Kingston, Ontario[7] to English parents, and lived in England, Israel, Portugal and Austria with his diplomat parents (Conrad and Jane) and younger brother Bruce, through most of the 1960s. They periodically returned to Ottawa, Canada [1] until settling in Vancouver, Canada in 1973. Adams started his musical career after dropping out of Argyle Secondary School at the age of 15.
[edit] Musical career
[edit] 1970s
As an adolescent, he pursued his rock goals with single-minded fervor. He explained to Steve Pond from Rolling Stone Magazine[citation needed]: "In high school, I was too far into my music to even pay attention to girls." At the age of fifteen Adams quit school and used the money his parents had saved for his higher education to buy a grand piano. He played in nightclubs in bands like Shock and Sweeney Todd, which released an album called If Wishes Were Horses with Adams as lead singer.[8][9] He supplemented his income by washing dishes, selling pet food, and working in record stores. A serendipitous meeting with drummer Jim Vallance in a Vancouver music store led to a song-writing partnership that continues to this day. As O'Hara from Macleans magazine phrased it, "Vallance was looking for a singer, Adams was looking for a route to musical respectability, and the two hit it off immediately." The pair began writing songs together and recording demonstration tapes.
In 1978, at the age of 18, Adams sent a few demo recordings to A&M Records in Toronto, and was signed to them not long afterwards for the sum of one dollar.[10] He has written and released fourteen albums since then. Some of the first demos written in 1978 have surfaced over the years, most notably "I'm Ready" (recorded for both the album Cuts Like a Knife and later his release for MTV Unplugged) and "Remember", which went on his first album. Both songs were covered by other artists before his first album was even released.]
[edit] 1980s
The self-titled debut album was released in February of 1980, and marked the beginning of what was to become a long songwriting partnership between Adams and co-writer Jim Vallance. With the exception of "Remember" and "Wastin' Time" most of the album was recorded from October 29 - November 29 1979 at Manta Studios in Toronto and co-produced by Adams and Vallance. The album was certified gold in Canada much later in 1986.
During the early 1980s Adams and Vallance also co-wrote a number of songs for Vallance's band Prism. Among these was "Don't Let Him Know", which turned out to be Prism's only Billboard Top 40 hit (#39 in 1982), but the first of many for Adams as a songwriter.
Adams' second album, You Want It You Got It was recorded in New York City in two weeks and it marked Adams' first album co-produced by Bob Clearmountain. It was released in 1981 and contained the FM radio hit "Lonely Nights", but it was not until his third album, Cuts Like A Knife February 1983, that he broke through with four hits in 1983, most notably with the title track. The album achieved much commercial success, rising to #8 on the Billboard Album Chart. Several of the songs on the album, including the title track, remain concert favourites with Adams to this day.
Reckless was released on Adams' 25th birthday, 5 November 1984. It reached #1 on the Billboard Album Chart and gave rise to no fewer than six hit singles, including Run to You, Summer of '69 and Adams' first #1 single, Heaven. Reckless has since been certified five times platinum in the US.
Adams' next album, Into the Fire in 1987, which was also certified platinum. This was the last album completely written by Adams and Vallance, but many of the fragments of their other songs ended up on the forthcoming block buster Waking up the Neighbours.
Live! Live! Live! is the complete recording of a concert in Werchter, Belgium on 3 July 1988, which was broadcast by the CBC in Canada and on MTV around the world.
[edit] 1990s
One of Adams' most successful albums is Waking up the Neighbours co-produced by Adams and Robert John "Mutt" Lange. The album was released in September of 1991 and featured the single "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", which was also used in the film "Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves", starring Kevin Costner and Alan Rickman. This album and the song went to number one everywhere in the world in 1991 and 1992, with the song spending a record-breaking sixteen weeks at number one on UK Singles Chart and 17 weeks on top of US Hot 100 Singles Sales and selling a record 3 million copies in the US. Canadian content regulations were revised in 1991 to allow radio stations to credit airplay of this album towards their legal requirements to play Canadian music.
The next album was the hits collection So Far So Good lead by a new song Please Forgive Me, a slow rock ballad, both released from 1993. So Far So Good has since been certified five times platinum in the US
Later the same year Adams recorded the single All for Love together with Sting and Rod Stewart, for the film "The Three Musketeers", starring Kiefer Sutherland and Charlie Sheen.
In the period 1996-1999 Adams released an album each year. 18 til I Die summer 1996, which featured the flamenco flavoured hit Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman? with Spanish guitarist Paco De Lucia from the film "Don Juan De Marco" starring Johhny Depp and Marlon Brando. This song earned Adams his second Oscar nomination. The album sold more than 1 million copies in the US. Bryan Adams MTV Unplugged was released in the winter of 1997, On a Day Like Today autumn 1998, and The Best of Me worldwide in 1999 and in the U.S. in early 2002. In this period Adams made 3 duets; Rock Steady (with Bonnie Raitt), I Finally Found Someone (with Barbra Streisand) earning him his third Oscar nomination and When You're Gone (with Melanie C). When You're Gone was a #3 hit in the UK back in 1999
In 1995 "Bryan Adams", a book with pictures by Andrew Catlin and text by Bryan Adams, was published by Firefly Books.
[edit] 2000s
In 2001, Adams released the live videos Live at the Budokan recorded at the Nippon Budokan arena in Tokyo, and Live at Slane Castle, the recording of the Slane Concert which Bryan headlined in 2000
In May 2002, he released the Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron DreamWorks soundtrack, which went gold in the US.
In 2004, Adams released his first studio album for six years, Room Service. The album went to #4 in the UK and #1 in Europe.
To celebrate his 25th anniversary, in 2005, Adams released Anthology, a two disc set, released in 2005 as a retrospective collection of hits and some more obscure tracks from the 25 years of recording. He also released the DVD, Live in Lisbon.
[edit] Recent/Future Events
Adams continues his work in film soundtracks, in the hit movie, "The Guardian" starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher, Adams wrote and performed the song "Never Let Go" which was featured in the closing credits. It has become known as the theme to the movie. Adams also co-wrote the song Never Gonna Break My Faith for the film Bobby which was sung by Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige. This work earned him a Golden Globe Nomination in 2007.
Adams has talked of recording a new album since 2005 and summer of 2007 seems possible.
Adams also continues to tour regularly.
[edit] Backing Band
Unlike many solo artists, Adams does not use a rotation of session musicians in his Backup band; he has a group of musicians with whom he tours regularly, the lineup of which seldom changes. In this respect, Bryan Adams is more like a band than a solo artist, with the same group of musicians appearing on all albums and live performances.
The current lineup is as follows:
- Keith Scott - Lead/Rhythm Guitar
- Mickey Curry - Drums
- Gary Breit - Keyboards
- Norm Fisher - Bass Guitar
Scott and Curry have been working with Adams consistently since the early 1980s, while Fisher and Breit have only been part of the band since the early 2000s. Before them, Tommy Mandel regularly played keyboards in the band and Dave Taylor played bass guitar (80's-1997)
[edit] Social activist
- 1985: Adams co-wrote the Canadian benefit record for Ethiopia called Tears Are Not Enough.
- Took part in the U.S. side of the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia.
- June 1986: Along with Sting, U2 and Peter Gabriel, Adams participates in the two-week Amnesty International "A Conspiracy of Hope" tour.
- Feb 1987: Adams appears on Rock For Amnesty with Paul McCartney, Sting and Dire Straits, among others
- June 1987: Adams participates in the 5th Annual Prince's Trust Rock Gala at London's Wembley Stadium, along with Elton John, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and others.
- 1988: Played at the Nelson Mandela birthday party concert in London at Wembley Stadium.
- March 1989: Rainbow Warriors, an album supporting Greenpeace and featuring Bryan Adams with other artists, is released in the Soviet Union on the Melodiya label.
- 1990: Joined many other guests (including Michael Kamen) for Roger Waters' massive performance of The Wall in Berlin, Germany.
- 1992: Protested against Canadian Content regulations, which were changed as a result.
- mid-1990s: Successfully campaigned for the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary with Greenpeace Chairman David McTaggert (the two distributed over 500,000 postcards at concerts around the world encouraging politicians to vote yes for the creation of the sanctuary).
- 1998: His album, On a Day Like Today, supported the Elephant Sanctuary, Hohenwald in Tennessee and Elefriends in England.
- February 2004: Performed in Amman, Jordan where he enjoys a broad base of fans. His Arab fans were happy to meet him live, and were even happier when they heard (during an interview with a local TV channel) that he was not a supporter of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
- 29 January 2005: Joined the CBC benefit concert in Toronto for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
- 2 July 2005: Performed at Live 8's Canadian performance in Barrie, Ontario.
- 25 May 2005: Raised £1.3M with cousin Johnny Armitage, from a concert and auction entitled Rock by the River for the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.
- 15 November 2005: Played in Qatar and raised an astonishing £1.5M ($2,617,000) through a performance and the auction of a guitar he purposely had signed by many of the worlds most prominent guitarists. The money went to Qatar's "Reach Out to Asia" campaign to help the underprivileged across the continent. Money raised also went to some of his own projects like rebuilding a school in Thailand and building a new sports center in Sri Lanka, both of which had been devastated by the tsunami.
- 29 January 2006: Was the first western artist to perform in Karachi, Pakistan, in conjunction with a benefit concert to raise money for underprivileged children to go to school; some of the proceeds of that concert also went to victims of the 2005 earthquake.
- 15 May 2006: Attended the Hope Foundation's London event (hosted by designer Bella Freud) helping to raise a portion of the £250,000 to support the Palestinian Refugee Children.
- 15 May 2006: Was made an ambassador to the Prince's Trust, an honorary appointment made by Prince Charles Charity in London to raise awareness for young people looking for work.
- June 2006: Offered individuals from the public the chance to bid to sing with him live in concert at three different charity auctions in London, England. Over £50,000.00 was raised with money going to the NSPCC (The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children), Children in Need (an annual British charity appeal organized by the BBC) and the UCLH (University College London Hospitals).
[edit] As a photographer
Adams has had his photographs published in British Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Jane and i-D, among others. His other photographic efforts include publishing 'Zoo Magazine', the fashion/art magazine based in Berlin, Germany. On 1 June 2005, he published his first book of photos in the United States with Calvin Klein called American Women; proceeds from this book go to breast cancer research for programs at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He released a similar book of photos called Made in Canada in December 1999. A year later he published a second book, Haven (2000), in the U.K which featured photos of British women. All 3 of his books have been dedicated to his friend Donna, who died of breast cancer.
As a photographer, Adams has done shoots for some of his musical peers, including Robert Plant, Moby, Joss Stone and Plácido Domingo.[11]
In 2004, Adams was invited, along with other photographers from the Commonwealth, to photograph Queen Elizabeth II during her Golden Jubilee; one of the photographs from this session was used as a Canadian postage stamp in 2004[12] and again in 2005 (see Queen Elizabeth II definitive stamp (Canada)), another portrait of both Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip is now in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
On the 15 March 2006, Adams was presented with the Gold Award for his photo editorial on actor Mickey Rourke at the German Lead Awards in Hamburg, Germany.
In September 2006, a retrospective portfolio of Adams's work was released by Stern Magazine in Germany with a topless photograph of the singer Pink on the cover.
Photographic Exhibitions include:
- Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto 1999
- The McCord Museum, Montreal 2000
- Saatchi Gallery, London 2000
- Photokina, Köln (Cologne), Germany 2001
- ICA, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London 2004
- Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto 2004
- Calvin Klein, NYC, Dallas, Paris 2005
- Canada House, Trafalgar Square, London 2005/2006
- Il Tempio Di Adriano, Rome, Italy, July, 2006
- Photokina, Köln (Cologne), Germany, September, 2006
- Leica Gallery, Vienna, Austria, November, 2006
- Galerija Fotografija, Ljubljana, Slovenia, November, 2006
[edit] Personal life
- Adams speaks French and has lived in France.
- He currently lives in England and supports Chelsea F.C.
- Adams is a vegan and takes his cook with him when he travels for concerts all over the world.
- In his acceptance speech for his induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the 2006 Juno Awards, he named his long-time guitarist Keith Scott as his best friend. The two have been playing together for over 25 years.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Filmography
- Pink Cadillac (1989) film by Clint Eastwood: Adams played a gas station attendant.
- House of Fools [2] (2002), film in Russian by Andrei Konchalovsky: Adams plays a hallucination of himself.
[edit] Trivia
- There is a brief mention of Adams in the film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, saying he is one of the many troublesome things to come out of Canada.
- Although many sources give Adams' middle name as "Guy", he does not use a middle name.[13][14]
- Created his own recording studio in Vancouver, British Columbia called The Warehouse Studio out of a historical Gastown building.
[edit] See also
[edit] Books
- Sorelle Saidman Bryan Adams Everything He Does, Random House, Toronto, 1993 ISBN 0-394-22300-X
- Bryan Adams, Bryan Adams (pictorial collection), Firefly Books, Willowdale Canada, 1995, ISBN 1-895565-83-9
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.gg.ca/media/doc.asp?lang=e&DocID=4093
- ^ http://www.protocol.gov.bc.ca/protocol/prgs/obc/1990/1990_BAdams.htm
- ^ http://www.canadaswalkoffame.com/newSite/inductees/98_bryan_adams.xml.htm
- ^ http://www.junoawards.ca/vhof/index.php
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001898/0
- ^ http://www.thegoldenglobes.com
- ^ http://www.cityofkingston.ca/cityhall/press/release.asp?mode=show&id=161
- ^ Doug Stone. All Music Guide. "Sweeney Todd." Retrieved 2007 03 07
- ^ Sorelle Saidman Bryan Adams Everything He Does, Random House, Toronto, 1993 ISBN 0-394-22300-X Chapter 3: Sweeney Todd: In the Nick of Time p. 23 and ff
- ^ Saidman, page 47
- ^ Richard Melville Hall (March 20, 2007). you want to hear a funny story?. Moby's journal. moby.com. Retrieved on March 20, 2007.
- ^ http://www.canadapost.ca/business/corporate/about/newsroom/pr/archive-e.asp?prid=971
- ^ The Canadian Encyclopedia 2000 edition article "Adams, Bryan Guy"
- ^ Sorelle Saidman Bryan Adams Everything He Does, Random House, Toronto, 1993 ISBN 0-394-22300-X Chapter 3: Sweeney Todd: In the Nick of Time p. 23 and ff
[edit] External links
- Bryan Adams official web site
- Bryan Adams' career on A&M Records
- The official website of Zoo Magazine (published by Adams)
- The Warehouse Studio, music recording facility (owned by Adams)
Preceded by Shania Twain |
Grey Cup Halftime Show 2003 |
Succeeded by The Tragically Hip |
-Discography-
Studio albums
Bryan Adams • You Want It You Got It • Cuts Like a Knife • Reckless • Into the Fire
Waking Up the Neighbours • 18 til I Die • On a Day Like Today • Room Service
Compilation albums
So Far So Good • The Best of Me • Anthology
Live albums
Live! Live! Live! • MTV Unplugged
Top 10 Singles
Straight from the Heart • Run to You • Heaven • Summer of '69 • Heat of the Night
(Everything I Do) I Do It for You • Can't Stop This Thing We Started • Thought I'd Died and Gone to Heaven
Do I Have to Say the Words? • Please Forgive Me • All for Love • Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?
The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me Is You • Let's Make a Night to Remember • I Finally Found Someone
When You're Gone • Cloud Number Nine • Don't Give Up • Here I Am • Open Road
-Related people-
Composers: Jim Vallance • Robert Lange • Michael Kamen • Eliot Kennedy • Gretchen Peters
Guitarists: Keith Scott • Jamie Glaser
Keyboards: : Gary Breit • Tommy Mandel • Bill Payne
Drummers: Mickey Curry • Pat Steward • Steve Smith
Bassists: Norm Fisher • Dave Taylor • Brian Stanley
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | 1959 births | A&M Records artists | Breast cancer activists | British Columbia musicians | Bryan Adams | Canada's Walk of Fame | Canadian expatriates in the United Kingdom | Canadian male singers | Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees | Canadian photographers | Canadian rock guitarists | Canadian rock singers | Canadian singer-songwriters | Canadian songwriters | Canadian vegans | Canadians of English descent | Juno Award winners | Living people | Members of the Order of British Columbia | Officers of the Order of Canada | People from Kingston, Ontario | People from North Vancouver