Curated playlist
English male songwriters
- Andrew Lloyd WebberAndrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera closed on Broadway in 2023 after 13,981 performances.
- Noël CowardNoël Coward, the English playwright, composer, actor and singer, once answered a magazine writer's apology with a perfect line. Around his seventieth birthday, a Time interviewer said he hoped Coward had not been bored by so many…
- Jimmy PageJimmy Page was thirteen when a television host asked what he planned to do with his life. His answer had nothing to do with music. The year was 1957, and the programme was All Your Own, a talent show on BBC1 hosted by Huw Wheldon. Page had…
- Mick FleetwoodMick Fleetwood is the only member on every Fleetwood Mac studio album. He held the band together as drummer.
- Michael FlandersOxford refused Michael Flanders re-entry after polio left him in a wheelchair. He became a stage comedian instead.
- Liam PayneLiam Payne, the English singer and songwriter who lived from 1993 to 2024, once performed in front of 26,000 people at a Wolverhampton Wanderers football match. He was still a child, and almost nobody beyond his home area knew his name.…
- Damon AlbarnDamon Albarn was due to speak at a rally in Hyde Park in February 2003. A million people had taken to the streets of London to protest the coming war in Iraq. He never gave the speech, because he was too emotional. Afterwards he explained…
- Giles MartinAs a child, Giles Martin helped hide his father's hearing loss. His father was Beatles producer George Martin.
- Lennon–McCartneyJohn Lennon and Paul McCartney met at a church fête in 1957. Paul impressed John by playing "Twenty Flight Rock".
- Jeff BeckJeff Beck once rang his producer to ask for another try at a guitar solo, a couple of months after the album was finished. The producer was George Martin, and the album was Blow by Blow. Martin, bemused, answered: "I'm sorry, Jeff, but the…