GUNS N'ROSES

INTRODUCTION

Guns n’Roses is an American hard rock band created in the middle of the 80’s in Los Angeles, California. They were on stage a few years, only seven, but they are one of the best-selling bands in the music history, they’ve sold more than 100.000.000 copies worldwide.

MEMBERS OF THE BAND

Slash- Main guitarist

Izzy Stradlin- Second guitarist

Duff McCagan- Bassist

Steven Adler- Drummer

Axl Rose- Voice

HISTORY

In the boom of the hard rock in Los Angeles, called hair metal because the bands wear long hair, there were two bands: the L.A. Guns and the Hollywood Roses. They joined in 1985 and created Guns n’Roses. From the final band there was only Axl and Izzy, but in the third concert of the band the bassist and the drummer couldn’t attend so three guys replaced them, those guys were Duff McCagan, Steven Adler and Slash. They liked the result so Axl and Izzy fired the other bassist and the other drummer and they stayed with Duff, Steven and Slash.

The band was ready but they didn’t realise their first album until two years later, it was Appetite for Destruction, an album with blunt riffs and punk influences.  The album became very popular, and the band too of course, it sold 28.000.000 copies around the world and 18.000.000 only in the USA.

They realised more albums and I have to remark Use your Illusion I. It’s maybe the most mature of all their albums. It has pretty good songs as November Rain, Don’t cry or Live and let die. It was not as hard as appetite for Destruction but it still contains the essence of the hard rock band.

 In their last album, The spaghetti incident?  they’ve done a lot of versions from other musicians, like Knocking on Heaven’s door (Bob Dylan) or Ain’t fun (New York Dolls).

They published more albums until Axl became really egotistical and childish, he wanted to be the main character of the band but he wasn’t. Slash and the rest didn’t want to support the Axl’s tantrums so the band broke up.

Nowadays Axl plays with a try of the original Guns n’Roses but, in my opinion, it’s pathetic to re-awake the original band. They published an album called Chinese Democracy, it hasn’t sold too much and they have spent 14 million dollars to produce it.

FAMOUS ALBUMS

“Appetite for destruction” 1987

“G N R lies” 1988

“Use your illusion I” 1991

“Use your illusion II” 1991

“The spaghetti incident?” 1993

CURIOSITIES

Axl threated with left the band if they didn’t control the drug addiction.

The band entered in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

Appetite for destruction is the best-sold debut album in the USA.

Slash plays now alone and he does collaborations with other musicians like Ozzy Osbourne.

Nowadays Axl is very fat and people laughs of him.

(The man below is Axl in 2014).

AC/DC

INTRODUCTION

AC/DC, is one of the prime movers of the hard rock, together with Led Zeppelin or Alice Cooper. They are rocking for more than forty years and they have published 27 albums.

MEMBERS OF THE BAND 

Angus Young- Guitar

Brian Johnson- Voice

Steve Young- Second guitar

Cliff Williams- Bass

Chris Slade- Drums

(Theese are the members in 2015)

HISTORY

The band was created in 1973 and since then, in my opinion, there are two eras: the Bon Scott’s era and the Brian Johnson’s era.

-       The Bon Scott’s era, 1973-1980

He was not the first singer of the band, but it was the first famous singer. His voice was high-pitched and seductive.

In this era the band published very good albums as Highway to Hell or High Voltage.

The band passed to be a little Australian band to an international recognized band. They became very famous in this era. The era ends when Bon Scott dies because an ethylic attack.

-       The Brian Johnson’s era, 1980-present

When Bon died the band was without singer, the standard was so high so they need a good singer. They did a lot of castings and tests to many people but they weren’t convinced at all.

There was a British band, Geordie, which has a pretty good singer, Brian Johnson. They played before together so they know each other and they had a good friendship.

Both bands negotiate and at last Brian became the AC/DC’s singer. His voice was a little bit deeper that Scott’s but it was similar. Their first album, Back in Black is the second world sold album, only passed by Thriller.

The band has published a lot of albums and they’ve done a lot of world tours.

Some people would kill me because they think I’ve forgotten Angus Young, please my life is valuated…

Angus is one of the best guitarists around the world, he’s the icon of the band walking as a goat and dressing with a school uniform. He’s composed very catchy riffs, as the Back in Black’s or the You shook me all night long’s. He plays a red Gibson sg.

 He is very introverted and bohemian sometimes too. I really like the good feeling that he carries you when you see a live concert or you simply listen to a song.

At the beginnings of 2014, some weeks before recording “Rock or Bust”, Malcom Young suffered a brain collapse and he didn’t remember how to play the guitar. Stevie Young, the Angus’ and Malcom’s cousin is who plays the second guitar in the last album from the band.

FAMOUS ALBUMS

“T.N.T.” 1975

“High voltage” 1976

 “Highway to Hell” 1979

“Back in black” 1980, 45.000.000 sells!!!

 “For those about to rock we salute you” 1981

“Who made who” 1986

“Stiff upper lip” 2000

“Black Ice” 2008

“Rock or Bust” 2014

CURIOSITIES

At the Bon Scott’s era people think that they were bisexual, maybe because of the Bon’s expressivity on the stage.

The name of the band comes from a button in a sewing machine whose property is the Angus’s and Malcom’s sister. That means Altern Current / Direct Current.

Some conspiracy people think that the name means After Christ Devil Comes, more paranoia… 

LED ZEPPELIN

INTRODUCTION

Led Zeppelin is the creator of the first kind of Hard Rock. Their guitar was strong and they had sharp melodies. Some people say that they did many satanic rituals in a house that Jimmy Page, the guitarist, bought in the beginnings of the seventies, but we’ll talk about this profoundly in a few minutes… Now let’s talk about Led Zeppelin:

MEMBERS OF THE BAND
Jimmy Page: Guitar

Robert Plant: Voice

John Bonham: Drums

John Paul Jones: Bass

HISTORY

The band started in 1968, when Jimmy Page broke with his ex-band, “The Yardbirds”, and he wanted to start a new band called “The New Yardbirds”, but this name has some legal problems so they called “Lead Zeppelin”, for avoid pronunciation problems between the UK and USA they got out the “a”, the result was “Led Zeppelin” (the name comes from a joke which says that something will fall as a lead zeppelin, they’ve seen it funny I suppose…).

Jimmy Page was searching for a voice and a friend recommended a guy called Robert Plant who plays in a hippie band called “The band of Joy”. Jimmy went to a Robert’s band concert and he liked Robert so he asked him to sing with him. Robert agreed and he told Jimmy that he knows about a drummer and a bassist who maybe could be of the band too. Those men where John Bonham (drummer) and John Paul Jones (bassist).

Atlantic Records gave them 200.000 dollars to produce their first album. The record company wanted to contract the maximum number of hard rock bands. The band was complete and they have money, so, they realised their first album, called “Led Zeppelin”, in only one week.

The other discs sold very well, they have sold more than 300 million albums around the world, and only 111 million in the USA.

They became very famous and they published more albums, until 1980, when John Bonham died accidentally. The rest of the band tried to do some collaborations with other musicians but that was not the same…

FAMOUS ALBUMS

-         “Led Zeppelin” 1969,

-         “Led Zeppelin II” 1969

-         “Led Zeppelin III” 1970

-         “Led Zeppelin IV” 1971

-         “House of the Holy” 1973

-         “Physical graffiti” 1975

-         “Presence” 1976

-         “In Through the Out Door” 1979

CURIOSITIES

As I said before, now we’ll talk about the “satanic mansion”:

Jimmy Page was obsessed with the famous occultist Aleister Crowley, who had a house near the Loch Ness. There was the rumour that Aleister made rituals related with black magic and Satanism in this house, Jimmy had money so he bought the mansion in 1971.

The zone where the house was, the Loch Ness; the Jimmy’s obsession for the black magic and the “satanic messages” that were on the songs (paranoia of the people) supplied that the people thought that the band done satanic rituals there.

No one will never know what did they do in this house…

ELVIS PRESLEY

INTRODUCTION

Elvis Aaron Presley, better known as Elvis Presley was the first Rock and Roll famous singer. His voice was powerful and seductive and he became an idol as a bat out of hell, he has fans until nowadays.

HISTORY

He started playing music at the age of 11, when his mum gifted him a guitar for his birthday. In 1953 he graduated and he started working in many different jobs, he worked at the same time as he was trying to get famous with music.

He recorded his first single, “That’s all right”, in 1954, it was the first of a big list of hits. He was everywhere, on the radio, on the television even he appeared on many films as the main character! But soon he had to stop singing and acting because his nation needed him, he went to Germany with an operation of the USA army for a year and a half.

He returned to the USA in 1960 and he get back the fame he has lost while he was in the army. He made new films, those weren’t very good but the soundtrack was genial because was Presley who composed it.

Since then he has launched new hits, albums and soundtracks for films until he died in 1977, at the age of 43 because of the drug addiction he has.

FAMOUS ALBUMS

-          “Elvis Presley” 1956

-          “Elvis” 1956

-          “King Coreole” 1958

-          “Elvis is back” 1960

-          “G.I. Blues” 1960

-          “Something for everybody” 1961

-          “How great thou art” 1967

-          “From Elvis in Memphis” 1969

-          “Elvis in person at the international hotel” 1969

-          “Elvis country” 1971

CURIOSITIES

When Elvis died his weight was 118 kilos!!! (206 lbs)

He fought karate.

He collected a lot of weapons, in his collection there were more than 40 weapons between rifles, guns, automatic pistols and Thomson submachine guns.

Welcome viewers

Hi, 
My name is Jaume and I’m a 3rd of ESO Student at Lestonnac Lleida, a school in Catalonia. 
 This blog is my English project and I’m going to write about the big idols through the history of rock, or “Kings” as you can see in the title of this webpage. 
I’m going to write since the beginnings of rock with Elvis Presley and his hip movements until nowadays with Dragonforce or AC/DC. 
I hope you enjoy it! ; )