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Raised by his grandmother in Hackney, North East London, Manderson’s rap excursions began more by chance than choice. At a friend’s house party where everybody was freestyling he was put on the spot and something clicked. After seeing an advert for a freestyle event call LyricPad, Manderson decided to attend and ended up winning the freestyle contest seven times consecutively. As a result a scout from JumpOff spotted the rapper through which Mike Skinner of The Streets came across Manderson and signed him to his label The Beats.
After getting stabbed in the neck by a broken bottle in 2009, the rapper released his debut single “I Need You Tonight” in April 2010. The single peaked at No. 3 on the UK’s Singles Chart and was followed by the No. 5 hit single featuring Lily Allen “Just Be Good to Green”. The singles supported his debut album “Alive Till I’m Dead” (2010) which peaked at No. 2 in the albums chart, released through Virgin Records after The Beats label dissolved.
2010 saw the rapper win MTV Europe Music Awards’ ‘Best Push Act’ award, a MOBO award for Best Hip Hop/Grime Act and BT Digital Music Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year. Manderson also received a string of nominations including MOBO’s Best Newcomer and Best Song and three at the Urban Music Awards for Best Newcomer, Best Hip-Hop Act and Best Song (I Need You Tonight).
Manderson’s second album “At Your Inconvenience” released in October 2011 was led by the single of the same name, first premiered on Zane Lowe’s BBC Radio 1 show. The subsequent single “Read All About It” with guest vocals from Emeli Sandé, reached the No. 1 spot in the UK Singles Chart and brought Manderson’s signature hip-hop/grime mix to the popular mainstream.
On September 22, 2013 Professor Green released his long-awaited third studio album “Growing Up in Public” again through Virgin Records. The album features collaborations with artists Tori Kelly, Example, Mr Probz and Rizzle Kicks and the singles “Lullaby” and “Little Secrets”.
East 17 began when singer and songwriter Tony Mortimer absolutely aced a record label showcase with London Records. The label weren't looking for a solo artist but knew talent when they saw it, so they signed Mortimer up and decided to form a band around him, deciding on Terry Coldwell and John Hendy to join him. All three of the band members hailed from Walthamstow, a north-eastern district of London, and so the band was named after their post-code, East 17. The final piece of the puzzle came during the recording session for the band's first single, when Brian Harvey, who had been employed as a back-up singer and dancer originally, was overheard singing away from the mic. Astonished by his singing voice and very aware of his charisma, Harvey was promoted to lead vocalist, and the classic line up of East 17 had been formed.
Mortimer was trusted to write the band's songs, and while Harvey sung the lead vocals, Mortimer was the band's rapper. They soon built up a reputation for themselves as the harder, cooler, more street-wise alternative to the other boy-band on top of the world of British pop music, Take That, and right off the bat, they were an absolutely huge deal. Their debut single, 1992's “House Of Love”, was a top ten hit in the U.K that also charted solidly all over Europe, even hitting number one in Sweden, and their debut album, 1993's “Walthamstow”, rocketed to number one as well. For the rest of the 1990's very few bands came close to matching the success of East 17, who scored twelve Top 10 hit singles on the UK charts in 6 years. However spectacular this run was, it was nothing compared to the band's breakup.
In January 1997, Harvey claimed in an interview that “It's cool to take drugs”, and that “Ecstasy can make you a better person”. While East 17 were seen as the cool boy-band, this was still a step too far, and the media were soon baying for his blood, even tying his statement into the tragic case of Leah Betts, a school girl who had died after taking MDMA two years earlier. Harvey, understandably, was sacked and Mortimer left a couple of months afterwards. East 17 were dead, but in 1998, Coldwell and Hendy invited Harvey back into the fold to start the band up again, renaming themselves E-17 in the process. The band had some initial success, with their first single “Each Time” hitting number 2 in the charts, but they couldn't last after public interest in the new project waned, and they split up in 1999.
Over the 2000's, the band were constantly trying to reform and failing due to the existing friction between Harvey and Mortimer, both of whom were trying to start solo careers due to varying degrees of success. In the end, Coldwell and Hendy found that the best way of bringing East 17 into the 21st century is by not having Mortimer or Harvey in the band at all. In 2014, they added Robbie Craig as their new lead vocalist, and have seen more success as a live act around the U.K and Europe than they've done in over a decade. While it might be an exercise in nostalgia for most, that doesn't mean that a night with East 17 isn't a hell of a lot of fun, and that's what this pop music lark is all about in the end. For that, they come highly recommended.
Professor Green is a UK rapper and hip hop and grime performer with a witty lyrical talent and an impressive freestyle reputation.
Back in 2010 I saw Professor Green at the Staffordshire V Festival. The gig occurred shortly after the release of ‘Alive Until I’m Dead,’ at the peak of the hype around ‘I Need to You Tonight’ and ‘Just be Good to Green.’ The onus was on Green to prove to the mainstream crowd that he was capable of producing more than a couple of hit singles. Indeed, I’d been especially keen to see the rapper perform, and had had work hard to persuade some of my more indie friends to join me by the stage. Delightfully, the Green-sceptics were soon proved wrong.
Pro delivered one of the festival’s most impressive performances. Green and co were obviously having a great time on stage, and their attitude was infectious. Despite the early 12.30pm slot and an unfortunately-timed bout of rain, the audience were jumping. Literally. The whole crowd bounced and waved along in unison to ‘Jungle.’
Green ended the set with an energetic rendition of his debut single ‘I Need You Tonight,’ which that April had peaked in the UK Chart at number three. It was a real crowd-pleaser and the crowd needed little of Professor Green’s encouragement to sing and dance along.
Han93
Brian Harvey - the man who, for all intents and purposes, has served, on and off, as the frontman of East 17 for the past couple of decades - is a man who can reel off a great many achievements over the course of his life, chief amongst them running himself over with his own car after he leant out of the driver’s door to be sick, having consumed a frankly gluttonous lunch of three jacket potatoes with tuna and mayonnaise. When it comes to the band themselves, though, you have to credit them with being far more than just the guys who wrote the Christmas hit ‘Stay Another Day’, a track notable for sounding festive, and yet not actually having any lyrical content that pertains directly to the event itself. Sure, that track - which was a Christmas number one for the group in 1994 - represents their commercial peak to date, but it’s also true that they’ve sold in excess of 1.8 million records worldwide, and have continued to live on in the public consciousness well past their commercial heyday. Today, they remain a going concern after reuniting in 2006, and released their fifth studio album, the considerably rockier Dark Light, back in 2012.
Joeg_67
Southampton garage royalty Artful Dodger are probably most lauded for their 1999 and 2000 hits 'Re-rewind' and 'Movin' Too Fast' with Craig David and Romina Johnson respectively. 'Re-rewind' was a major component of David's rise and both songs are firmly cemented classic exemplars of the garage sound. Their back catalogue is a showreel of classic Garage and no compilation or Garage night worth it's salt would fail to feature them. Currently focusing more on their work as Dj's they can be regularly found spinning theirs and other Garage godfathers' tracks around the world, and most recently (July 2014) featured at Dalston's The Old Queen's Head. Their fans are devoted, most having been brought up on the Artful sound, their tracks having soundtracked an entire generation's teenage years. In turn, their live shows go off. A mix of classic garage anthems and newer musical genres they manage to keep things fresh, while maintaining that unmistakable garage sound and mentality that they helped dance into existence. They've stayed true to their sound, managing to balance on that knife edge of dance masterpiece and mass appeal music that's come to dominate the dance scene. They've been rewarded with a solid core of fans that make for positive vibes all round.
matthookuk
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