Thomas Dolby
Thomas Dolby (actually: Thomas Morgan Robertson ; born October 14, 1958 in Hammersmith ) is a British musician . Although he had only a few hits, he is still considered one of the most famous representatives of the synthesizer and new wave music of the 1980s. The reasons for this include his skilful self-portrayal as a “Funky Mad Scientist” of electropop, but also his music videos, which were groundbreaking for the time.
biography
Contrary to what some biographies say, Dolby was not born in Cairo , but in Hammersmith, a district of London . Rumor has it the error of EMI - PR agent, see back in his biography that survived remarkably long. Thomas Dolby himself clears up this misunderstanding on his website.
His father Martin was a classical archaeologist , so that he spent the first fifteen years of his life in different places in Europe. During this time he taught himself to play the piano and the guitar. His original career aspiration was to study meteorology . He made his first experiences as a musician in front of an audience at the age of 16 as a street musician in the underground stations of Paris and London, later also as a restaurant and bar pianist .
His passion for electronic music started listening to records from Kraftwerk , Brian Eno and Van der Graaf Generator . At 18, he began to build his first synthesizer - at that time he received from schoolmates because of his experiments with synthesizers and tape decks his nickname "Dolby", which extends from the noise reduction process of Dolby Laboratories derived and which he maintained as a stage name eventually.
In the late 1970s, Dolby worked as a sound engineer for various bands, including The Fall , The Passions and The Members, using self-constructed PA technology. In 1979 he founded the band Camera Club with Bruce Woolley , Trevor Horn , Geoff Downes and Matthew Seligman , but after a year he left the group and joined Lene Lovich's backing band .
1980 his first single Urges appeared on the British independent label Armageddon. A year later he signed his record deal with Parlophone and released the autobiographical single Europa and the Pirate Twins, which narrowly missed the UK Top 40.
From 1982 Dolby worked as a session musician and appeared on a number of albums by his musician colleagues (see below), in the same year his first solo album The Golden Age of Wireless was released, which reached number 13 in the English LP charts , but was not noticed in America . The first single from the album, Windpower, became his first Top 40 hit in the UK .
In 1983 Dolby released the EP Blinded by Science, which contained the catchy tune She Blinded Me with Science , whose voice samples came from the eccentric British scientist Magnus Pyke. Not a huge hit in England, the single and EP became Thomas Dolby's first major hit in the United States , not least because of the video that was frequently seen on MTV at the time. The song made it to number 5 on the US singles chart, and the remixed album The Golden Age of Wireless , which was supplemented by the single , reached number 13 on the LP charts.
In 1984 his best album, The Flat Earth, was released. The single, Hyperactive , which was released from it, was his greatest success at home at number 17 in the British charts. In America it reached number 35 on the LP charts, but none of the singles from the album were spotted in the top 40. In addition to his solo activity, Dolby continued to work as a session keyboardist (see below).
On July 13, 1985 Thomas Dolby played at the Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium in London as keyboard player in David Bowie's band.
Dolby released two more solo albums: Aliens Ate My Buick in 1988 , which sold only moderately and received equally poor reviews, and Astronauts and Heretics in 1992 , which was released on its own Giant label and flopped completely. In 1988 he married the actress Kathleen Beller , with whom he now has three children: Lillian (born 1991), Talia Claire (born 1993) and Graham (born 1995).
His best-of album Retrospectacle was released in 1994, and the live album Forty in 2003 , which contained material from two gigs he played for friends on the occasion of his fortieth birthday in 1998.
At the end of the 80s, Thomas Dolby shifted his interests: he composed film music, worked as a producer and began to develop hardware and software. In 1993 he founded the software company Headspace , based in San Mateo, California , whose first product was the Virtual String Quartet . In 1996, Headspace was renamed Beatnik Inc. , the main business area is the development of audio formats and composition software for mobile phone ring tones .
In July 1998, Thomas Dolby received the Lifetime Achievement in Internet Music Award from Yahoo! magazine. Internet life. She Blinded Me with Science is still the signature piece of the Los Angeles Giants, Thomas Dolby's favorite baseball team.
In spring 2006, Thomas Dolby returned to the stage: as part of the Sole Inhabitant Tour 2006 , he played 40 club concerts in North America and released a live CD and DVD of the same name. In December 2006 he went on a joint dual headlining tour with Brian Transeau .
In 2010 the EP Americana was released, which can be purchased exclusively for the members of the Flat Earth Society as a download from Thomas Dolby's homepage . In 2011 the EP Oceanea was released, initially also as an exclusive download from the homepage. Since March 28, the EP can also be purchased on Amazon. Both EPs contain songs from the new album A Map of the Floating City , which has been available since October 2011.
Discography
Studio albums
year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |
---|---|---|---|---|
UK | US | |||
1982 | The Golden Age of Wireless |
UK65 (10 weeks) UK |
US13 (28 weeks) US |
|
1984 | The Flat Earth |
UK14th
silver
(14 weeks)UK |
US35 (18 weeks) US |
|
1988 | Aliens Ate My Buick |
UK30 (3 weeks) UK |
US70 (19 weeks) US |
|
1992 | Astronauts & Heretics |
UK35 (2 weeks) UK |
- |
More studio albums
- 2011: A Map of the Floating City
Compilations
- 1994: Retrospectacle (best of compilation)
- 1997: Premium Gold Collection
- 1999: 12x12 (remix compilation)
- 2003: Forty (live concert recording from October 20, 1998)
- 2003: One of Our Submarines (collection of remixed versions of the original 1981 song)
- 2006: The Sole Inhabitant (live recording, recorded May 16-17, 2006 in Chicago )
EPs
year | title |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | |
---|---|---|---|---|
UK | US | |||
1982 | Blinded by Science | - |
US20 (31 weeks) US |
More EPs
- 2010: Amerikana
- 2011: Oceanea
Singles
year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
DE | UK | US | |||
as Thomas Dolby | |||||
1981 | Europa and the Pirate Twins The Golden Age of Wireless |
- |
UK48 (3 weeks) UK |
US67 (5 weeks) US |
Chart entry in US only in 1983
|
1982 | Windpower The Golden Age of Wireless |
- |
UK31 (8 weeks) UK |
- | |
She Blinded Me with Science |
DE52 (6 weeks) DE |
UK49 (4 weeks) UK |
US5 (22 weeks) US |
||
1984 | Hyperactive! The Flat Earth |
- |
UK17 (10 weeks) UK |
US62 (7 weeks) US |
|
I Scare Myself The Flat Earth |
- |
UK46 (5 weeks) UK |
- | ||
Dissidents The Flat Earth |
- |
UK90 (3 weeks) UK |
- | ||
1988 | Airhead Aliens Ate My Buick |
- |
UK53 (4 weeks) UK |
- | |
1989 | Hot Sauce Aliens Ate My Buick |
- |
UK80 (3 weeks) UK |
- | |
1992 | Close but No Cigar Astronauts & Heretics |
DE88 (5 weeks) DE |
UK22 (5 weeks) UK |
- | |
I Love You Goodbye Astronauts & Heretics |
- |
UK36 (4 weeks) UK |
- | ||
Silk Pajamas Astronauts & Heretics |
- |
UK62 (2 weeks) UK |
- | ||
1994 | Hyperactive! Retrospectacle |
- |
UK23 (4 weeks) UK |
- |
Re-release
|
as Dolby's Cube | |||||
1982 | Get Out of My Mix |
- |
UK80 (2 weeks) UK |
- | |
1985 | May the Cube Be with You |
- |
UK82 (3 weeks) UK |
- |
More singles
- 1981: Urges / Leipzig
- 1982: Airwaves
- 1982: One of our Submarines
- 1986: Howard the Duck (Dolby's Cube feat. Cherry Bomb)
- 1989: My Brain Is Like a Sieve
- 2011: Oceanea
- 2011: Spice Train
Guest Posts
year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
DE | UK | US | |||
1986 | Field Work Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia |
- |
UK98 (3 weeks) UK |
- |
with Ryūichi Sakamoto
|
Soundtracks
- 1985: Fever Pitch
- 1987: Music from the Film Gothic
- 1988: The Bronx Zoo (US TV series)
- 1992: Toys (Track The Mirror Song )
- 1992: FernGully - Christa and Zak's adventure in the rainforest
- 1994: The Gate to the Mind's Eye (soundtrack to the computer animation film Mind's Eye )
Video albums
- 1994: The Gate to the Mind's Eye (US:platinum)
- 2006: The Sole Inhabitant (live recording, recorded on September 28, 2006 at the Berklee Performance Center in Boston )
Collaboration with other musicians
- Akiko Yano
- Andy Partridge : Partridge produces the singles Urges and Leipzig for Dolby
- Belinda Carlisle
- Bob Weir : Contributes to Astronauts And Heretics
- Brian Transeau : toured together in 2006
- David Bowie : Dolby is guest musician in the Bowie band for the Live Aid performance (1985)
- Def Leppard : Album Pyromania - Guest Musician (1982)
- Eddie Van Halen : contributes to Astronauts and Heretics
- Fiorella Terenzi : guest vocalist on The Gate to the Mind's Eye
- Foreigner : Album 4 - Guest Musician (1981)
- George Clinton : Some of My Best Jokes Are Friends - producer (1985); Clinton, in turn, is a co-producer on Aliens Ate My Buick
- Herbie Hancock
- Howard Jones
- Jerry García : contributes to Astronauts And Heretics
- Joan Armatrading : Album Walk Under Ladders - Guest Musician (1982)
- Joni Mitchell : album Dog Eat Dog - co-producer and guest musician (1985)
- Lene Lovich : Dolby writes the UK hit New Toy (1981) for her
- Little Richard
- Malcolm McLaren
- Mark Knopfler
- Ofra Haza : contributes to Astronauts And Heretics
- Peter Gabriel
- Prefab Sprout : Albums Steve McQueen, From Langley Park To Memphis and Jordan: The Comeback producer
- Roger Waters : Dolby plays the keyboards at the live performance of The Wall in Berlin in 1990
- Röyksopp : Album '"Midnight Tales" (2013)
- Tim Curry
- Tim Friese-Greene , producer and songwriter for Talk Talk : Co-producer on The Golden Age of Wireless
- Stevie Wonder
- Whodini : wrote and produced the single Magic's Wand in 1982 , one of the first rap singles that sold millions of copies
Web links
- The Flat Earth Society - official homepage of Thomas Dolby on thomasdolby.com
- Thomas Dolby's blog at blog.thomasdolby.com (English)
- The Unofficial Thomas Dolby on tmdrfan.com
- Beatnik Enhanced Audio Solutions on beatnik.com
Individual evidence
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Dolby, Thomas |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Robertson, Thomas Morgan (real name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British musician-keyboardist |
DATE OF BIRTH | October 14, 1958 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Hammersmith |