Vintage Photographs of Jazz Bassist Vivien Garry in the 1940s

Vivien Garry (1920–2008) was a jazz bassist. She led the Vivien Garry Quintet (which, on at least one date, included Edna Williams of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm on trumpet and Ginger Smock on violin) and the Vivien Garry Trio (which included her husband, Arv Garrison, on guitar and Wini Beatty on piano).

In her book, New York City Jazz, Elizabeth Dodd Brinkofski writes that Vivien’s groups “played all over Manhattan’s top jazz nightclubs in the 1940s.” She goes on to write that “this was the beginning of women gaining attention as musicians in the genre of jazz.”

Though that may be difficult to believe given there is little information readily available on Vivien Garry and the musicians with whom she recorded, like Ginger Smock, Edna Williams, Dody Jeshke, and Winnie Beatty. Brinkofski also writes that “Viven Garry was the only female bass player that performed on Fifty-Second Street.”

Take a look at these rare vintage photos to see portrait of a young Vivien Garry in the 1940s.

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A Gallery of All 77 Covers of The Beatles Monthly Book in the 1960s

The Beatles Book (also known as Beatles Monthly) was a fanzine dedicated to the English rock band the Beatles, founded in 1963. It was first published in August 1963 and continued for 77 editions until it stopped publication after the December 1969 edition. It was revived in 1976, and ceased publication in 2003.

In early 1963 a music writer and publisher, Sean O’Mahony, (who already published a magazine about the music scene called Beat Instrumental) heard Please Please Me and asked Brian Epstein if he could publish a magazine devoted to the Beatles. Epstein and the group agreed and the title launched in August 1963 with a print run of 80,000. By the end of the year circulation had grown to 330,000 copies per month. O’Mahony edited the magazine under the name of Johnny Dean.

The magazine’s photographer, Leslie Bryce, had unrivaled access to the group throughout the 1960s, traveling the world and taking thousands of photographs. In addition, Beatles roadies Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans wrote many of the articles, and artist Bob Gibson created numerous cartoons and caricatures of the fab four on a regular basis. (He eventually did the cartoons for the Beatles’ 1967 Magical Mystery Tour EP-set/US-album booklet.)

In May 1976 O’Mahony revived the publication and republished all 77 original issues surrounded by eight (later sixteen) pages of new Beatles news and articles. The reissue program was completed in September 1982, coincidentally at a time when interest in the band was high due to the impending twentieth anniversary of “Love Me Do.” Consequently, the decision was taken to continue the magazine with all new content. Publication continued until January 2003 (issue 321) when it once again ceased.

Sean O’Mahony retired from publishing in 2002 and died in 2020.

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30 Vintage Album Covers With Dogs on Them

Album covers were an important part of music retail sales back before downloads changed the dynamic, and this was especially true of oversized vinyl LP’s.

Plenty of artists have, and featured dogs on the covers of their albums. Here are 30 awesome vintage albums that feature dogs on their covers.

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Los Prisioneros: The Most Influent Rock Band of Chile in the 1980s

Los Prisioneros was a Chilean rock band between 1979 and 1992, considered by many as the most influent rock band of Chile and in general of Latin America in the 1980s, being the parallel of Soda Stereo in Argentina during the same time. The band was formed by Jorge González (bass and lead vocals), Claudio Narea (guitar and backing vocals) and Miguel Tapia (drums and backing vocals), the three met during High School and they wanted to make a band and to be famous as The Beatles.

After various possible formations and names, in College they finally formed “Los Prisioneros” and started with their first album La Voz De Los 80s, which got a mild success, but wasn’t until their second album Pateando Piedras where they got real success. During the 1980s, Los Prisioneros released 3 albums, which got Double (and even Triple) Platinum Level in selling discs, having high sells not just in Chile, but in other countries as Peru, where the band still has a lot of fans. Also, the song “We Are Sudamerican Rockers” was the first music video ever transmitted by the Latin America version of MTV.

At the end of the 1980s, after various internal problems and rivalries between the members, mostly González with Narea, the latter abandoned the group and the rest of Los Prisioneros recruited 2 new members: Robert Rodriguez (guitar) and Claudia Aguayo (keyboard) and released Corazones album in 1990, but the group didn’t last too much and disbanded in 1992. After this breakup, every member made solo careers and projects, being Jorge González's solo career the most famous of them.

In 1996, Los Prisioneros reunited again for the release of Ni Por La Razón Ni Por La Fuerza, which was a huge success of selling discs and revived the fame they already gained in the 1980s. Later in 2001, they reunited for real for a couple of revival concerts and for the 2003 version of Festival Internacional de la Canción de Viña del Marnote. After these concerts and other appearances, the group recorded Los Prisioneros in 2003 and Manzana in 2004. But the old rivalries and differences between the members continued and finally Los Prisioners disbanded for real in 2006.

The influence of Los Prisioneros in Chile is huge and is considered as the inspiration of many groups since the 1980s when they were a Fountain of Expies, even today. And not just by Rock groups, also various artists from genres like Hip-Hop, Pop, Reggae, Punk and Electronic Music admit that Los Prisioneros were their influence, was which already seen in Tributo a Los Prisioneros in 2000. Even the group got various Documentaries and Biopics not just made in Chile.

Take a look at these photos to see styles of Los Prisioneros during the 1980s.

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Behind the Scenes Photos of The Beatles on Bicycles During the Filming of ‘Help!’ in the Bahamas, 1965

Though the Caribbean scenes come at the end of the film, they were the first to be shot. They arrived on February 23rd. The bike-riding scene was shot on the first full day of the 14-day Caribbean shoot. It was filmed on on the Interfield Road, near to Nassau International Airport on New Providence Island. Much of the film’s beach scenes were shot on Cabbage Beach, on the northern side of Paradise Island.

“The problem was that we went to the Bahamas to film all the hot scenes, and it was freezing. We had to ride around and run around in shirts and trousers, and it was absolutely bloody cold.” – Ringo.

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Brilliant Vintage Photos of The Rolling Stones’ Free Concert at Hyde Park in 1969

On July 5, 1969, The Rolling Stones played at a free concert in London’s Hyde Park. They decided to go ahead with the show as a tribute to Brian Jones, as two days ago he was found drowned in the swimming pool at his home. Jagger began by reading an excerpt from Shelley's poem “Adonaïs”, an elegy written on the death of his friend John Keats. They released thousands of butterflies in memory of Jones before opening their set with “I'm Yours and I'm Hers”, a Johnny Winter number. The concert, their first with new guitarist Mick Taylor, was performed in front of an estimated 250,000 fans.

“Most fantastic of all was that this was a free concert, an event that seemed to be taking place in a Socialist society in the distant future.” Richard Gott of the Guardian described the audience. “The participants, almost all born since the Second World War, had a classless air, and they were less disciplined, less puritanical than the middle-class protesters of earlier days.

“Today there is no protest, but merely a feeling—perhaps a false one—that a kind of freedom has been achieved in spite of, rather than. Because of, the activities of Wilson, Heath, and company. Anyone who wants to understand the present political malaise in Britain, or who wants to have an inkling of what Britain will be like in 10 years time, should have been in the park on Saturday.”

Take a look at the band and the audience through these 29 brilliant vintage photographs below:

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How Many?? 20 Vintage Album Covers Prove That Gospel Groups Unable to Count Their Members

There must be something we don’t know about the way these gospel groups count their members.

The term Gospel quartet refers to several different traditions of harmony singing. Its origins are varied, including 4-part hymn singing, shape note singing, barbershop quartets, jubilee songs, spirituals, and other Gospel songs.

Gospel quartets sing in four-part harmony, with parts given to a tenor, or highest part; lead, which usually takes the melody; baritone, which blends the sounds and adds richness; and the bass, or lowest part. It is not uncommon for some quartets to switch parts between members for given songs.

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Italian Street Musicians in London, ca. 1870s

Italians, sons of peasants, agricultural laborers, and others who might lead respectable lives in their own country, prefer to come over to England where they are sometimes treated as mere beggars.

(Photo by John Thomson)

They find that a beggar in England is richer than a laborer in Italy; and if he be not equally prosperous it is because he is not equally abstemious and economical.

The Italian, therefore, migrates with the knowledge that he may rely on the generosity of the English, and that, if he only receives as much as many of the English poor, he may hope to save enough to buy himself a farm in his own country.

26 Amazing Behind the Scenes Photos From the Set of ‘Pink Floyd — The Wall’ (1982)

Pink Floyd – The Wall is a 1982 British musical psychological drama film directed by Alan Parker, based on the 1979 Pink Floyd album The Wall. The screenplay was written by Pink Floyd vocalist and bassist Roger Waters. Boomtown Rats vocalist Bob Geldof plays rock star Pink, who, driven into insanity by the death of his father, constructs a physical and emotional wall to protect himself.

Like the album, the film is highly metaphorical, and symbolic imagery and sound are present most commonly. The film is mostly driven by music and features little dialogue from the characters. The film is best known for its imagery of mental isolation, drug use, war, fascism, dark or disturbing animated sequences, sexual situations, violence and gore. Despite its turbulent production and the creators voicing their discontent about the final product, the film received generally positive reviews and has an established cult following.

Parker, Waters and Scarfe frequently clashed during production, and Parker described the filming as “one of the most miserable experiences of my creative life.” Scarfe declared that he would drive to Pinewood Studios carrying a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, because “I had to have a slug before I went in the morning, because I knew what was coming up, and I knew I had to fortify myself in some way.” Waters said that filming was “a very unnerving and unpleasant experience.”

During production, while filming the destruction of a hotel room, Geldof suffered a cut to his hand as he pulled away the Venetian blinds. The footage remains in the film. It was discovered while filming the pool scenes that Geldof did not know how to swim.

The black and white photographs were taken by David Appleby, a photographer commissioned to document the making of the film. Take a look at the photos below:

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“Girls ‘N’ Axe”: 30 Vintage Photos of Victorian and Edwardian Women Posing With Their Guitars

The guitar is probably the instrument with the most slang words, which gives it another layer of ‘cool’ in many people’s eyes. The ‘Axe’ – or ‘Ax’, depending on whom you ask – is possibly the most common slang word for a guitar.

Surprisingly, the term dates back to the mid-1950s when jazz musicians used it as a slang word for saxophone. Over time, it became a go-to term for the electric guitar.

Before the term, here is a set of elegant photos that shows women with their guitars from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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The Man Who Would Be King: Some Vintage Album Covers of Orion, Elvis Presley’s Masked Doppelganger

“If Elvis is alive, he wears a mask and goes by the name Orion.”

Ever heard of Orion? An unknown singer plucked from obscurity and thrust into the spotlight as part of a crazy scheme that had him masquerade as Elvis back from the grave.

Jimmy Ellis was born James Hughes Bell in Pascagoula, Mississippi on February 26, 1945. He began recording rockabilly songs and ballads for the Dradco label in 1964, never attaining much success as record executives and local DJ’s found he sounded too much like a “second-rate” Elvis Presley.

Things changed dramatically for Ellis in 1972 when Shelby Singleton, owner of the Sun Records catalog since buying it from Sam Phillips in 1969, heard one of Ellis’ singles. The likeness between Ellis’ voice and Elvis’ was so uncanny to Singleton that he asked that Jimmy record Presley’s career-launching “That’s Alright Mama” and “Blue Moon of Kentucky” on a single, that was subsequently released without a name credited on the label. When RCA Records, the owners of the rights to Elvis’ songs, heard the recording, they thought Singleton had unearthed lost Presley tapes and had released them without consent, very nearly suing Singleton until convinced the voice didn’t belong to Presley by running voice-print analysis.

In 1977, Ellis was preparing to release the album, Ellis Sings Elvis, when Elvis Presley passed away at his Graceland mansion. Taking advantage of the event, producer Bobby Smith rushed the product onto the market while at the same time asking Singleton if he wanted in on their project. After a meeting with both Bobby and Jimmy, Shelby began formulating the idea that would turn Ellis into “Orion,” partly based on an unpublished book he had heard about written in the early 1970s by Gail Brewer-Giorgio, which imagined the life of a rags-to-riches rock singer who eventually died after succumbing to drugs and ill-health, startlingly similar to the life of Elvis.

Singleton took the fictional character’s name of Orion Eckley Darnell and gave Ellis his new alter ego, and thereafter took steps to trade off on the public’s reluctance to believe that Elvis Presley was really gone. The resemblance between the two singers’ voices paired with Ellis’ thick black hair and Elvis-like wardrobe (the mask was devised by Singleton to hide the fact that, facially, Jimmy bore no resemblance at all to Elvis) helped to give Orion audiences of 1,000+ in his appearances in the American south during the late 1970s and into the 1980s. Orion’s reputation grew, garnering him a devout fan-base; at one point he had 15,000 members in his fan club; some fans would travel across the country to see him perform, and two fans consisting of a mother and daughter would follow Orion on tour for months at a time.

Ellis started to become at odds with his fame, some speculating because he wasn’t being recognized as himself, but merely as an Elvis imitator under a mask. Tension grew between he and Singleton over Ellis wanting to record under his real name, eventually ending up with Jimmy pulling off his mask in mid-performance during a 1981 New Year’s Eve concert; a photographer caught the unmasking and the myth of Orion was exposed, showing the fans that he looked nothing like Presley and thereby shattering the illusion. Singleton parted ways with Ellis immediately afterward.

Ellis continued to record under the Orion name, but to smaller and smaller sales and audiences alike; during the mid-to-late 1990s, he virtually retired from performing and opened several stores near a highway on land that he inherited from his parents, including a gas station and convenience store.

On December 12, 1998, Ellis was murdered during a robbery in his store, Jimmy’s Pawn Shop. Jeffrey Lee was convicted of the murder of Ellis and Ellis’ ex-wife Elaine Thompson, who was working as an employee at the store, and the attempted murder of employee Helen King. Lee was sentenced to death and his appeal against the sentence was refused on October 9, 2009.

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