Bryan Adams

For other people named Brian Adams, see Brian Adams (disambiguation).

Bryan Adams

Bryan Guy Adams OC, OBC, (born November 5, 1959 at Kingston, Ontario) is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, musician and photographer. Some of his best-known albums are Reckless, 18 til I Die, and Waking Up the Neighbours.

His 16 consecutive weeks spent on top of the UK Singles Charts (for "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You") remains a record.

Musical career

1970s

Bryan passed part of his adolescence in Portugal, he lived in Birre, Cascais, 25 km from Lisbon. His musical goals began during his teenage years, as he explained to Carlo D'Agostino from Rolling Stone magazine, "In high school, I was too far into my music to even pay attention to girls." At the age of 16, Adams quit school and played in nightclubs in bands like Shock and Sweeney Todd, which released an album called If Wishes Were Horses with the very young Adams as lead singer. He supplemented his income by washing dishes, selling pet food and working in record stores. A serendipitous meeting with drummer Jim Vallance in a Vancouver music store led to a song-writing partnership that continues to this day. As O'Hara from Maclean's magazine phrased it, "Vallance was looking for a singer, Adams was looking for a route to musical respectability, and the two hit it off immediately." The pair began writing songs together and recording demonstration tapes.

In 1978, at the age of 18, Adams sent a few demo recordings to A&M Records in Toronto, and was signed to them not long afterwards for the sum of one dollar. He has released 14 albums since then. Some of the first demos written in 1978 have surfaced over the years, most notably "I'm Ready" (recorded for both the album Cuts Like a Knife and later his release for MTV Unplugged) and "Remember", which went on his first album. Both songs were covered by other artists before his first album was even released. Also recorded during this time was a demo of the song "Let Me Take You Dancing". It was remixed and sped up beyond recognition by his record company, and therefore doesn't appear on any of Adams' albums.

1980s

File:Bryanadams1.jpg

Adams in his early years.

The self-titled debut album was released in February of 1980, and marked the beginning of what was to become a long songwriting partnership between Adams and co-writer Jim Vallance. With the exception of "Remember" and "Wastin' Time" most of the album was recorded from October 29 - November 29 1979 at Manta Studios in Toronto, and co-produced by Adams and Vallance. The album was certified gold in Canada in 1986.

During the early 1980s Adams and Vallance also co-wrote a number of songs for Vallance's band Prism. Among these was "Don't Let Him Know", which turned out to be Prism's only Billboard Top 40 hit (#39 in 1982), but the first of many for Adams as a songwriter. (See Songs written for and/or performed by other artists in the Discography).

Adams' second album, You Want It You Got It was recorded in New York City in two weeks and it marked Adams' first album co-produced by Bob Clearmountain. It was released in 1981 and contained the FM radio hit "Lonely Nights", but it was not until his third album, Cuts Like A Knife (January 1983), that he broke through with four hits in 1983, most notably with the title track. The album achieved much commercial success, rising to #8 on the Billboard Album Chart. Several of the songs on the album, including the title track, remain concert favourites with Adams to this day.

Reckless was released on Adams' 25th birthday, 5 November 1984. It reached #1 on the Billboard Album Chart and gave rise to no fewer than six hit singles, including "Run to You", "Summer of '69" and Adams' first #1 single, "Heaven". Although remixed Bryan Adams was the original song writer. All six singles charted in the top 20 in Canada. Reckless has since been certified five times platinum in the US.

In 1984, Tina Turner recorded a duet with Adams entitled "It's Only Love". In addition to being a radio and MTV staple, the song was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. In 1986 a live performance won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Stage Performance.

Adams' 1987 album, Into the Fire was also certified platinum. This was the last album completely written by Adams and Vallance, but many of the fragments of their other songs ended up on the forthcoming blockbuster Waking up the Neighbours.

Live! Live! Live! is the complete recording of a concert in Werchter, Belgium on 3 July 1988, which was broadcast by the CBC in Canada and on MTV around the world.

1990s

One of Adams' most successful albums is Waking up the Neighbours co-produced by Adams and Robert Lange. The album was released in September 1991 and featured the single "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", which was also used in the film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner and Alan Rickman. This album and the single went to number one in many countries in the world in 1991 and 1992, with the single spending record-breaking 16 weeks at number one on UK Singles Chart and 17 weeks on top of US Hot 100 Singles Sales. It also made record-breaking sales of 3 million copies in the US. Canadian content regulations were revised in 1991 to allow radio stations to credit airplay of this album towards their legal requirements to play Canadian music. Adams has won a 1991 Grammy Award in the Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television category for co-writing it.

The next album was the hits collection So Far So Good lead by the new song "Please Forgive Me", a slow rock ballad, both released in 1993. The single reached #1 in Canada, Australia and other countries and the album has since been certified five times platinum in the US.

Later the same year Adams recorded his next #1-single "All for Love" together with Sting and Rod Stewart, for the film The Three Musketeers, starring Kiefer Sutherland and Charlie Sheen.

In 1995, Bryan Adams, a book written by Adams, was published by Firefly Books.

In the period 1996-1999, Adams released an album each year. 18 til I Die in summer 1996, which featured the flamenco flavoured hit "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" with Spanish guitarist Paco De Lucia from the film Don Juan DeMarco starring Johnny Depp and Marlon Brando. The song became Adams third #1-single in a row in both Australia and Canada. This song also earned Adams his second Oscar nomination. The album sold more than 1 million copies in the US. Bryan Adams MTV Unplugged was released in the winter of 1997, On a Day Like Today autumn 1998, and The Best of Me worldwide in 1999 and in the U.S. in early 2002. In this period Adams made 3 duets;

• "Rock Steady" (with Bonnie Raitt)
• "I Finally Found Someone" (with Barbra Streisand), peaking #1 in Ireland and later earning Adams his third Oscar nomination
• "When You're Gone" (with Melanie C). "When You're Gone" was a #3 hit in the UK in 1999 (UK sales 635.000).

2000s

In 2000, Adams provided vocals for "Don't Give Up" by Chicane, alias for English producer Nick Bracegirdle. This song went to #1 in the UK singles chart.

In 2001, Adams released the live videos Live at the Budokan recorded at the Nippon Budokan arena in Tokyo, and Live at Slane Castle, the recording of the Slane Concert which he headlined in 2000

In May 2002, he released together with Hans Zimmer the Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron DreamWorks soundtrack, which went gold in the US.

In 2004, Adams released his first studio album in six years, Room Service. The album went to #4 in the UK and #1 in all of Europe, selling 440,000 copies in its first week there.

In 2005, Adams issued Anthology, a two disc set, released as a retrospective collection of hits and some more obscure tracks from 25 years of recording. He also released the DVD, Live in Lisbon.

In July 2005, Bryan Adams was one of the many Canadian acts at the Live 8 concerts at Park Place (formerly Molson Park) in Barrie, Ontario.

Also in 2005, Adams sang the theme song for the Fox TV series Stacked (starring Pamela Anderson), which ran for a season and a half.

File:Bryan Adams 27 Oct 06.jpg

Adams in concert in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Adams continues his work in film soundtracks, in the hit movie, The Guardian starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher, Adams wrote and performed the song "Never Let Go" which was featured in the closing credits. It has become known as the theme to the movie. Adams also co-wrote the song "Never Gonna Break My Faith" for the film Bobby which was sung by Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige. This work earned him a Golden Globe Nomination in 2007.It also won a Grammy in 2008. Adams's music has either been written for or been used on the soundtrack of 42 movies..

Adams released his new album 11 internationally on March 17 2008. The album will also be released in the U.S. exclusively at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club retail stores on May 13 2008. The first song released from the album is called "I Thought I'd Seen Everything". Adams also is planning a 11 days in 11 cities tour to promote this album. The album debuted at #1 in Canada (making it his first album to reach that position since 18 Til I Die in 1996), India & Switzerland. #2 in Germany, Austria and Denmark and #4 in Portugal, and #6 in Japan and the UK #35 in Australia, and #30 in Sweden. Many critics consider "11" his best and most successful album since the groundbreaking Waking Up the Neighbours, released in 1991.

Awards and recognition

Adams was awarded the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for his contribution to popular music and his philanthropic work. He was also inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998, and more recently inducted into the Music Hall of Fame at Canada's Juno Awards in April 2006. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards for songwriting, and was recently nominated for his fifth Golden Globe (2007) for his songwriting in the film Bobby.

Personal life

Adams is a vegan and currently lives in England. He has also lived in France and speaks French. He supports Chelsea F.C. and the song "We're Gonna Win" from his album 18 Til I Die is dedicated to the football club. The song was used as an opening piece by NBC Sports for the Women's Basketball Gold Medal game at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Later it was used by the Canadian sports network TSN as its theme song for its "Wednesday Night Hockey" NHL broadcasts in the 2003-04 season.

Adams built his own recording studio in Vancouver, British Columbia called The Warehouse Studio out of an abandoned warehouse in the Gastown district in downtown Vancouver.

In his acceptance speech for his induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the 2006 Juno Awards, he named his long-time guitarist Keith Scott as his best friend. The two have been playing together for over 25 years.

Backing band

Unlike many solo artists, Adams does not use a rotation of session musicians in his backup band; he has a group of musicians with whom he tours regularly, the lineup of which seldom changes.

The current lineup is as follows:

• Keith Scott - Lead/Rhythm Guitar
• Mickey Curry - Drums
• Gary Breit - Keyboards
• Norm Fisher - Bass guitar

Scott and Curry have been working with Adams consistently since the early 1980s, while Fisher and Breit have only been part of the band since the early 2000s. Before them, Tommy Mandel regularly played keyboards in the band and Dave Taylor played bass guitar (1980s-1997) while Pat Steward of the Odds played drums in the early 80's, and is heard in the original "Summer of 69".

Social activist

Since the 1980s, Bryan Adams has been a noted social activist, to this day participating in concerts and other activities to help raise money and/or awareness for a variety of different causes. His first high profile charity appearance came in 1985 when he opened the US transmission of Live Aid from Philadelphia. In June of the next year, Adams participated in the two-week Amnesty International "A Conspiracy of Hope" tour alongside Sting, U2 and Peter Gabriel. His next appearance for amnesty was in February 1987 on Rock For Amnesty with Paul McCartney, Sting and Dire Straits, among others.

Playing in the U.S. section of Live Aid, Adams did not get the chance to play at Wembley Stadium, however another chance came in June 1987 when Adams played there at the 5th Annual Prince's Trust Rock Gala along Elton John, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and others. Adams was to return to Wembley Stadium the following year when he played at the Nelson Mandela birthday party concert.

Adams helped commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall when, in 1990, he joined many other guests (including his songwriting partner Michael Kamen) for Roger Waters' massive performance of The Wall in Berlin, Germany.

On January 29, 2005, Adams joined the CBC benefit concert in Toronto for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. 20 years after performing at Live Aid in the USA, Adams played at Canada's Live 8 show in Barrie, Ontario. Later that year, he played in Qatar and raised an astonishing £1.5M ($2,617,000) from the performance and the auction of a guitar he purposely had signed by many of the world's most prominent guitarists. The money went to Qatar's "Reach Out to Asia" campaign to help the underprivileged across the continent. Money raised also went to some of his own projects like rebuilding a school in Thailand and building a new sports center in Sri Lanka, both of which had been devastated by the aforementioned Indian Ocean tsunami.

"Historic Day." Adams in Karachi.

On January 29, 2006, Adams became the first western artist to perform in Karachi, Pakistan, in conjunction with a benefit concert to raise money for underprivileged children to go to school. Some of the proceeds of that concert also went to victims of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake.

On October 18 2007, Adams was billed to perform in Tel Aviv and Jericho as part of the OneVoice Movement concerts, aiming to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The peace concert for supporters of a two-state solution to the conflict with Israel was called off because of security concerns.

Charity records

Adams has also been involved in the production of records that have raised money for charity. In 1985, Adams and songwriting partner Jim Vallance along with David Foster co-wrote the Canadian benefit record for Ethiopia called Tears Are Not Enough. In March 1989, Rainbow Warriors, an album supporting Greenpeace and featuring Bryan Adams with other artists, is released in the Soviet Union on the Melodiya label. Adams' 1998 album, On a Day Like Today, supported the Elephant Sanctuary, Hohenwald in Tennessee and Elefriends in England.

Campaigns/awareness raising

In 1992, Adams became the centre of a dispute on Canadian Content regulations which were changed as a result.

In the mid 1990s, Adams successfully campaigned for the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary with Greenpeace Chairman David McTaggart (the two distributed over 500,000 postcards at concerts around the world encouraging politicians to vote yes for the creation of the sanctuary).

After a performance in Amman, Jordan Adams pleased his Arab fans when they heard (during an interview with a local TV channel) that he was not a supporter of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Adams wrote a letter on behalf of the animal rights group PETA to protest KFC's treatment of chickens. He wrote to KFC Canadian CEO in November 2007 asking them become leaders to use more modern and more humane methods of killing. Apparently he was also featured as a nominee for Sexiest Vegetarians of the Year.

Other charity work

On May 25, 2005, Adams raised £1.3M with cousin Johnny Armitage, from a concert and auction entitled Rock by the River for the Royal Marsden Hospital in London. On May 15 of the next year, Adams returned to London to attend the Hope Foundation's event (hosted by designer Bella Freud), helping to raise a portion of the £250,000 to support the Palestinian refugee children. On the same day, he was made an ambassador to the Prince's Trust, an honorary appointment made by Prince Charles' charity in London to raise awareness for young people looking for work. The following June, he offered individuals from the public the chance to bid to sing with him live in concert at three different charity auctions in London. Over £50,000 was raised with money going to the NSPCC, Children in Need, and the University College Hospital. On February 28, 2008 he appeared in One Night Live at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Canada with Josh Groban, Sarah McLachlan, Jann Arden and Ryan Dan in aid of the Sunnybrook Hospital Women and Babies Program.

As a photographer

Adams accepting a LeadAward for photography in 2006.

Adams has had his photographs published in British Vogue, L'uomo Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Esquire, Interview magazine and i-D, among others. His other photographic efforts include publishing Zoo Magazine, the fashion/art magazine based in Berlin, Germany. On 1 June 2005, he published his first book of photos in the United States with Calvin Klein called American Women, proceeds from this book go to breast cancer research for programs at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He released a similar book of photos called Made in Canada in December 1999, and another one in 2000 called Haven. All of his books have been dedicated to his friend Donna, who died of breast cancer.

As a photographer, Adams has worked with many of his musical peers, including Robert Plant, Joss Stone, Placido Domingo, Celine Dion, Moby, Amy Winehouse and Morrissey.

On 27 November 2000 Bryan played onstage with The Who at the Royal Albert Hall. A DVD of the concert was issued. Bryan photographed the band and his photos appear in the DVD booklet.

In 2002, Adams was invited, along with other photographers from the Commonwealth, to photograph Queen Elizabeth II during her Golden Jubilee; one of the photographs from this session was used as a Canadian postage stamp in 2004 and again in 2005 (see Queen Elizabeth II definitive stamp (Canada)), another portrait of both Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip is now in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

On 15 March 2006, Adams was presented with the Gold Award for his photo editorial on actor Mickey Rourke at the German Lead Awards in Hamburg, Germany.

In September 2006, a retrospective portfolio of Adams's work was released by Stern magazine in Germany with a topless photograph of the singer Pink on the cover.

Bryan Adams supports the Hear the World initiative as official photographer in its aim to raise global awareness for the topic of hearing and hearing loss. Adams recently photographed stars Annie Lennox, Joss Stone, Moby and Lindsay Lohan for their magazine, a quarterly culture and lifestyle publication dedicated to the topic of hearing.

Photographic exhibitions include:

• Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto 1999
• McCord Museum, Montreal 2000
• Saatchi Gallery, London 2000
• Photokina, Köln (Cologne), Germany 2001
• ICA, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London 2004
• Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto 2004
• Calvin Klein, NYC, Dallas, Paris 2005
• Canada House, Trafalgar Square, London 2005/2006
• Il Tempio Di Adriano, Rome, Italy, July, 2006
• Photokina, Köln (Cologne), Germany, September, 2006
• Leica Gallery, Vienna, Austria, November, 2006
• Galerija Fotografija, Ljubljana, Slovenia, November, 2006
• H.Stern exhibition, São Paulo, Brazil, March, 2007
• PhotoEspana, Madrid, Spain, Fotografos Insospechados (Unsuspected Photographers) Mickey Rourke photographs, May to July 2007
• Nunnington Hall, North Yorkshire, England, May to June, 2007
• 401 Projects, NYC, NY September to November, 2007
• The Hospital, Covent Garden, London, England. November 2007 (Modern Muses)

Discography

Main article: Bryan Adams discography

Filmography

• Pink Cadillac (1989) film by Clint Eastwood: Adams played a gas station attendant.
• House of Fools [2] (2002), film in Russian by Andrei Konchalovsky: Adams plays a hallucination of himself.

See also

• Canadian rock
• Best selling music artists
• List of bands from Canada
• Bryan Adams discography at Discogs
• Template:Last.fm

Books

• Sorelle Saidman Bryan Adams Everything He Does, Random House, Toronto, 1993 ISBN 0-394-22300-X
• Bryan Adams, Bryan Adams (pictorial collection), Firefly Books, Willowdale Canada, 1995, ISBN 1-895565-83-9

External links

• Bryan Adams official website
• Interview with Fender guitars, May 2007
• The official website of Zoo Magazine (published by Adams)
• The Warehouse Studio, music recording facility (owned by Adams)
• Complete Sweeney Todd page online via www.bryanadams.nu (articles/pictures)
• Bryan Adams russian website

Multimedia

• CBC Archives Bryan Adams not Canadian? News story from 1992 (CBC Television)
• CBC Archives 1991 CBC Radio discussion about the Bryan Adams Canadian Content controversy