Music is in an incredibly passionate thing; an artist can inspire unconditional love, an artist can inspire unmitigated loathing. But to any of us music aficionados, there will always be one virtuoso who transcends the bounds of a mere musician, and becomes god-like in our eyes. Years of infatuation and obsession have given us the ability to spout endless droves of obscure, purposeless facts (or factoids) – and here are some of our favourites…
Kurt Cobain by Issy Marcantonio
1) Kurt’s first band was called ‘Fecal Matter’. They recorded one demo tape by the name of ‘Illiteracy Will Prevail’.
2) Prior to the 1991 Nevermind Tour, Kurt was easily the least archetypal rock ‘n’ roll member of Nirvana; he didn’t drink, smoke or take drugs.
3) Kurt owned a rabbit with a protruding uterus that he would put back in by poking it gently with the rubber end of a pencil.
4) He recorded a track titled ‘The Priest They Called Him’ with Beat writer, William S Burroughs in 1993.
5) One of Kurt’s various anatomical obsessions was ‘flipper babies’ (children born with no limbs).
Frank Turner by Amie Bailey
1) Despite his proud English heritage, Frank was actually born in Bahrain, a small island country in the Middle East.
2) Frank not only attended Eton College during his teenage years, he was in the same year as Prince William. That said, he “hated every second of being there with every fibre of [his] being.”
3) Frank prides himself on being a prolific live performer. His first solo gig took place at 93 Feet East in 2005, and less than six years later he performed his 1000th gig at Strummerville Festival in Shoreditch.
4) Frank doesn’t believe in guilty pleasures – in a recent interview, he told the Metro that “the idea of feeling guilty about listening to a record in laughable to me.”
5) This year, Frank will play Reading and Leeds for the ninth consecutive year – a record number for the festival.
1) Before settling on the signature quiff, Morrissey sported some unconventional hairstyles, most notably a Russell Brand-esque barnet.
2) At the funeral of notorious East-End gangster Reggie Kray, a large, R-shaped wreath was on show – sent by none other than Moz himself.
3) He once made a 5 second cameo appearance in British soap Brookside.
4) Morrissey is said to have sent his near-neighbour Noel Gallagher a postcard saying “Let’s go shoplifting”. However, when Noel turned up, Morrissey refused to answer the door.
5) The release of 1988’s ‘Margaret on the Guillotine’ saw Moz questioned at his local police station due to the somewhat venomous lyrics against then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Marina and the Diamonds by Casey McGourty
1) Her real name is Marina Diamandis, which is where the “diamonds” come from. The diamonds are not her band, but her fans.
2) She has synesthesia, which allows her to see colour in “musical notes or days of the week”, as she described it to Rookie Magazine.
3) She often shops at Topshop and says that is where she is most often recognized.
4) She once removed a group of men from her show for yelling during her set.
5) Her taste in men include businessmen, but not blondes.
David Bowie by Tamara Somasundaram
1) It seems since the day Bowie was born he was destined for fame and stardom. Born on the 8th of January, he shares the same birthday as performers, Elvis Presley and Shirley Bassey, and genius, Stephen Hawking.
2) His left pupil is permanently dilated after being punched in the eye by his friend, George Underwood (they were fighting over a girl.)
3) Bowie’s 1969 “Space Oddity” was used by the BBC in the UK coverage of the moon landing.
4) In 2003, he was offered knighthood from the Queen but turned it down.
5) During his 2004 American tour, Bowie was followed around by someone in a pink bunny suit. They were present in the front row of all his shows.
St. Vincent by James Dudley
1) Her uncle is famous jazz guitarist, Tuck Andress.
2) ‘Rattlesnake’ was inspired by a walk through the Texan desert, where she decided to take her clothes off in order to feel free, and because there was nobody else around for miles and miles. She soon put them back on and ran when she saw a deadly rattlesnake 5 feet from her.
3) The lyrics for one of the highlights from her new album, “Huey Newton,” came to her during an Ambien-induced hallucination in Helsinki.
4) Her latest album is supposedly a “party record you could play at a funeral.”
5) She is often referred to as ‘this generations David Bowie.’
Eddie Vedder by Joshua Jones
1) One of his earliest techniques for writing lyrics would be to listen to a mix just before surfing whereby inspiration would flood to him.
2) He’s got the Earth First logo tattooed on his right leg.
3) Eddie wrote a lot of the soundtrack to Into The Wild, a movie directed by actor Sean Penn.
4) He’s done some of the most breath taking stage dives I’ve ever seen – go watch them now. Seriously stop reading and go watch them.
5) Fairly recently Vedder kept a 22 year old promise to a fan that was not able to get a picture with the frontman all those years ago. Vedder promised to take one next time they meet and true to his word and 22 years down the line they took a picture together.
KT Tunstall by Zia Larty-Healy
1) Tunstall was adopted at 18 days old. In 2010, she publicly disowned her birth mother’s husband, David Orr, because of his connection to the BNP. You go, KT.
2) Tunstall chose the initialism ‘KT’ as she said her first name, Kate, makes her think of ‘a buxom lass baking bread for her man working in the fields.’
3) Industry officials deemed her ‘too old’ to ‘make it’ – at 25…
4) Her first notable appearance was in 2004, on Later… with Jools Holland, having only 24 hours to prepare, after the rapper Nas cancelled.
5) The hit single ‘Suddenly I See’ was written about Patti Smith.
1) ‘Strangers in the Night’ was the inspiration behind Scooby-Doo. Originally the famous pooch was meant to be a bongo-playing support character. However the heads of CBS weren’t too keen on the idea so when producer Frank Turner, listened to the hit and heard Sinatra’s improvisation near the end, “dooby-dooby-doo”, Turner realised that the name of the dog should be Scooby-Doo and he would be the main character.
2) Despite his constant denials, the ‘sultan of swoon’ was big chums with those of the Mafia underworld, showing up in photos amongst big names such as JFK and Sam Giancana.
3) Consequently, he was the inspiration for Johnny Fontaine in The Godfather.
4) As Frank was best buddies with JFK, he allegedly put in a good word to Giancana to buy a few votes and the gangster came through.
5) He hated his hit ‘My Way’
Bob Dylan by Aiden Kearns
1) Dylan was briefly a contributing editor for folk rock magazine ‘Broadside’
2) He is at least partially responsible for introducing The Beatles to marijuana.
3) Without Dylan, we would never have experienced Hendrix’s reinvented ‘All Along The Watchtower’. Nor, arguably, would we have many modern artists without him.
4) Poetic lyrics are a fundamental part of virtually all of the Dylan classics, making many praise him for making poetry ‘cool’ again.
5)His commitment to never repeating a song in exactly the same way has kept the times a changin’ and members of generation after generation striving to be the next great folk rock poet.
Dave Grohl by Sophie McEvoy
1) Grohl is an avid fan of The X-Files. He cameoed in the Season Three episode ‘Pusher’ (albeit for 3 seconds) and contributed to the shows two soundtracks with Foo Fighters.
2) Much like Mulder, he’s a believer that something is out there. Naming Foo Fighters after a slang term for UFOs and his record label after the alleged 1947 crash site, Roswell.
3) He composed the soundtrack to the 1997 film, Touch.
4) He wrote the Nirvana B-Side ‘Marigold’ and the riff and drum beat to ‘Scentless Apprentice’.
5) He started out in Hardcore Punk, playing drums in bands such as Mission Impossible, Dain Bramage and eventually Scream.
Peter Doherty by George Birch
1) He prefers ‘Peter’ to ‘Pete.’ The shortened nickname was a gift from the NME following The Libertines’ first cover feature in 2003.
2) His first brush with fame came after talking to an MTV reporter about the importance of Oasis as he stood in the queue for their new record – very quotable this one: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SFzqyFZ7qM&w=960&h=720]
3) Doherty played one of the lead roles in 2012 French drama film ‘La confession d’un enfant du siècle.’
4) The tattoo on his neck reads ‘Astile’ – the name of his son. Astile’s half-sister is Molly Gallagher, the daughter of Liam.
5) He is a massive fan of Queens Park Rangers – during The Libertines Hyde Park Show last year, Peter chanted “I’m QPR till I die” to well over 65,000 fans.
Johnny Marr by Alex Graham
1) While in The Smiths, Johnny wrote the band’s 1984 single: ‘William, It Was Really Nothing’ on one of his acoustic guitars, whilst travelling down a motorway in the back of a transit van.
2) Johnny’s most recent single: ‘Dynamo’ is a story of a man’s infatuation with a skyscraper.
3) Johnny is a big fan of the written works of Aldous Huxley. In a recent Q&A he revealed that his favourite book would in fact be: Vol. 6 of Huxley’s collected essays.
4) When he was first learning to play the guitar, Johnny would practice on into the night, using the light from the street lamps outside his window in order to see what he was doing, rather than arouse the suspicion of his parents by turning his bedroom light on.
5) The song that Marr is most proud of, from his time in The Smiths is: ‘Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me.
Shane MacGowan by Joe Gray
1) Best known for writing the Christmas song ‘Fairytale of New York,’ Shane was actually born on Christmas day.
2) He attended the highly prestigious Westminster School until he was expelled for possession of drugs.
3) In 1977 he made the papers when someone bit his earlobe off at a Clash concert.
4) Similar to Ozzy Osborne, he and his wife starred in a reality show on RTE called ‘Victoria and Shane grow their own’ where the two, unsuccessfully, tried to grow their own food.
5) He tried to demonstrate “America’s cultural inferiority” by eating a Beach Boys cd whilst tripping on LSD.
Noel Gallagher by Lisa Campbell
1) As a kid, he went by the nickname of ‘Brezhnev’ after friends noted the resemblance between himself and a bushy eyebrowed Russian president.
2) Noel wasn’t actually included in the original line-up of what would become Oasis. He only joined because he was unimpressed with the performance at one of Liam’s first gigs.
3) Upon a phone call from Simon Cowell, Noel instantly declined a spot as an X factor judge claiming “it’s eight months! – and I can’t have these people round my house crying in the kitchen.”
4) He’s frequently claimed that an Oasis reunion has never been on the cards. “Would I do it for charity? No way. We’re not that kind of people. For Glastonbury? I don’t think Michael Eavis has got enough money.”
5) He’s also pretty convinced that he just got lucky with it. He picked up his guitar, ripped of a few of his favourite tunes and punched his brother’s head in every now and again. “It sells! I’m probably the single most lucky man in the world”.
[Feature compiled by George Birch]