The Alternative Rock Factfile. It's Back for a Christmas Edition!

[yorks5stringer]

Sophie Ellis-Bextor's "Murder on the Dance Floor" inspired two further hits, Queens "Flash" and Betty Wright's "Clean up Woman"

[Phil Adams]

Steely Dan's Donald Fagan took so long considering a name to give his band that when he finally settled on it he was enraged to find that Maddie Prior he pipped him to the post and he had to make a subtle change to it.

[Japhet]

Maddie Prior thought of the name for her band while she was working as a riveter on the Humber bridge.

[Phil Adams]

Assumed by many to be of Scottish origin, Deacon Blue were actually originally the Australian duo, Deek & Blue. Their A & R man, Billy Smithers, (a Steeleye Span fan), misheard the name, and it stuck.

[ras52]

The now-fashionable guitar-and-drums duo format was pioneered in the early 80s by the Thompson Twins (Richard and Chester).

[yorks5stringer]

Following the split of "Driver's Seat" Sniff and the Tears, the latter half of the Band joined Tears For Fears and the former half linked up with Morrissey and Johnny Marr.

[yorks5stringer]

After the breakup of Sisters of Mercy, Soeur Sourire enjoyed a lengthy career as The Singing Nun.

[pfretrock]

A little known fact is Joe Walsh invented Walsh Functions. These are a set of orthonomal functions which can only take a value of +1 or -1 being the digital counterpart of trigonometric functions and somewhat analogous to Fourier series can be used to sythesize almost any waveform by additive synthesis. He does not like to tell this as he's just an ordinary average guy. A strange invention, for an analog man.

[Bikenbass]

Yeah? Well f*** you too Mr C L Green!

[Dandelion]

Ironically, the only member of ZZ Top not to sport facial hair is called Frank Mustache.

[Dandelion]

Since his discovery of beta blockers, Shaking Stevens has been required to change his name to Steven Still.

[sprocketflup]

[quote name='sprocketflup' timestamp='1416137121' post='2607168']
Cliff Richard is the only known person to have ever had a hit record whose surname is also a common Christian name.

Apart from Elton John.

And George Michael.
[/quote]

and Buddy Holly

[yorks5stringer]

Frankie Valli was cleaning cars before he got discovered and became famous.

[yorks5stringer]

After the Brothers Johnson split, Boris continued to play away whilst he dabbled in politics.

[yorks5stringer]

Bette Midler was a fairly successful professional gambler before she took up a singing career

[yorks5stringer]

Nicole Sheringer's album "Big Fat Lie" is a musical expose of Muller's low calorie desserts.

[Phil Adams]

Frankie Valli has a sister called Rhondda.

[Fozza]

Chas N' Dave toe-tapper "Rabbit" was commissioned for the film adaptation of "Watership Down."

The film's producers rejected it on the grounds that the band had misread the brief.

[pfretrock]

The Thompson Twins are the illegitimate offspring of Captain Haddock. So they may be related to Louis XIV of France.

[Phil Adams]

Claims that Elvis has been sighted filling shelves in Tesco's in Brighton are of course complete tosh.
It's Sainsbury's.

[Phil Adams]

Elvis Costello is actually an assumed stagename. He was christened Declan McManus, son of Mick McManus the 1970's all in wrestler.

[pfretrock]

Devo Max is actually a Scottish rock band.

[Phil Adams]

Dolly Parton has a fear of falling on her face, hence she had airbags installed permanently about her person.

[ras52]

[quote name='Phil Adams' timestamp='1417087824' post='2616905']
Dolly Parton has a fear of falling on her face, hence she had airbags installed permanently about her person.
[/quote]

She's also a big fan of the Stone Roses, and used to get style tips from their bass player, as described in her autobiographical song Coat of Mani Colours.

[yorks5stringer]

Pop-Jazzers Steely Dan copyrighted the term "Black Friday" so every November 28th, they receive massive royalties which far exceed their album sales. Other sources of their income include the words "Divorce", "Years", "FM" and "Peg".