Diamond albums are few and far between: The Eagles Greatest Hits, Michael Jackson's Thriller, Fleetwood Mac's Rumours, the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever - you get the idea: monster hits by monster groups. (The RIAA typically measures success in albums as being either Gold (500,000 units sold), or Platinum (1,000,000 sold), but there's also another category: Diamond, designating 10,000,000 copies sold.
Six years and two anemic records later (Nirvana's Nevermind derailed their second album), the group was growing increasingly desperate when lightning struck: the band's third album, Tragic Kingdom, became a major hit. The bass player was also replaced by Indian American Tony Kanal, giving the band a completely new look and sound. Frustrated, the guitar player and then the drummer quit (to be replaced by Tom Dumont and Adrian Young). Which made playing the club scene at night very difficult the band could play an opening set from 9:30 to 10:30 in LA, and then race Gwen home immediately after that, but they couldn't tour or play feature sets. But there were still problems to overcome: the Stefani's were strict Catholics and insisted on setting a curfew for their young daughter - eleven p.m. They played the set at The Roxy and went on from there. But then a new Gwen emerged: she became more aggressive, more in charge, something everyone needed at the time. With a gig at The Roxy in a week, they had to make up their minds very fast about what to do next. And then in December of 1987, tragedy struck: lead singer John Spence committed suicide, and the band was left stunned and reeling. But no one in the group took her seriously because she was so shy, basically a wallflower. Founded in late 1986, Eric Stefani brought his young sister, Gwen, in as a backup singer (she graduated from high school in May of 1987). Founders Eric Stefani, an aspiring artist/songwriter, and African American John Spence, the original lead singer, were great fans of ska as it related to current pop/rock. Which brings us to Anaheim band No Doubt. Decades later, ska finally made its way to Los Angeles and the Southern California music scene. With the labor shortage in England after World War II, Jamaican and West Indian immigrants brought ska to the UK, where it became quite popular. The precursor to reggae, ska combined elements of mento (Jamaican folk songs) and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues, characterized by a "walking" bass and accented with rhythms on the off beat. Decades later, ska finally made its way to Los Angele Fans of the group will find this a fascinating read.
It's true, it will remind us that we are, after all, not God.Fans of the group will find this a fascinating read. And your father's name will shine again like a beacon in the galaxy. Then, having reached the heights, this all-but-divine race perished in a single night, and nothing was preserved above ground.Īlta, about a million years from now the human race will have crawled up to where the Krell stood in their great moment of triumph and tragedy. Ethically and technologically they were a million years ahead of humankind, for in unlocking the mysteries of nature they had conquered even their baser selves, and when in the course of eons they had abolished sickness and insanity, crime and all injustice, they turned, still in high benevolence, upwards towards space. In times long past, this planet was the home of a mighty, noble race of beings who called themselves the Krell.
United Planets Cruiser C57D, now more than a year out from Earth Base on a special mission to the planetary system of the great main-sequence star Altair. And so, at last, mankind began the conquest and colonization of deep space. Almost at once there followed the discovery of hyperdrive through which the speed of light was first obtained and later greatly surpassed. By 2200 A.D., they had reached the other planets of our solar system. In the final decade of the 21st Century, men and women in rocket ships landed on the moon.