Grace Knight
Encyclopedia
Grace Knight is an English-born, Australian vocalist, saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...

 player and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

. She was a mainstay of Indie pop
Indie pop
Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...

 group Eurogliders
Eurogliders
Eurogliders were an Indie pop band formed in 1981 in Perth, Western Australia, which included mainstays Grace Knight on vocals and Bernie Lynch on guitar and vocals. The band was originally formed by Bernie Lynch and Amanda Vincent under the name Living Single. After almost a year, Grace Knight...

 during the 1980s which formed in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

. Knight later became a solo jazz singer and musician based in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

. In 1984, Eurogliders released an Australian top ten album, This Island
This Island (Eurogliders album)
This Island is the second studio album by Australian Indie pop, rock band Eurogliders, and was released in May 1984 on Columbia Records. It peaked at #4 on the Australian Kent Music Report albums chart, it spawned their #2 hit single, "Heaven ".The album appeared on the United States, Billboard 200...

, which spawned their #2 hit single, "Heaven (Must Be There)
Heaven (Must Be There)
"Heaven " is a song by Eurogliders from their album This Island. The song was released as a 7" vinyl and a 12" in 1984....

". "Heaven" also peaked at #21 on the United States, Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Mainstream Rock
Mainstream Rock Tracks
Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks is a ranking in Billboard magazine of the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations, a category that includes stations that play primarily rock music. Modern rock tracks are counted in the Alternative Songs chart.This chart began with the March 21, 1981, issue...

 charts and appeared on the Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

. The song, written by Euroglider's guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

ist, Bernie Lynch, and vocals by Knight, was their only hit in United States. Knight and Lynch married in 1985 but separated soon after. Another Australian top ten album, Absolutely
Absolutely (Eurogliders album)
-Personnel:Eurogliders members* Crispin Akerman — guitar* John Bennetts — drums, percussion, drum programming* Ron Francois — bass synthesiser, bass guitar* Grace Knight — vocals...

, followed for Eurogliders in 1985, which provided three further local top ten singles, "We Will Together", "The City of Soul" and "Can't Wait to See You".

Since Eurogliders disbanded in 1989, Knight has had a successful career as a jazz singer. Knight made a cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

 in the 1990 TV series Come In Spinner
Come In Spinner
Come In Spinner is an Australian novel by Dymphna Cusack and Florence James, originally published in 1951, and set in Sydney, Australia at the end of the second World War.The title refers to a phrase used in the Australian gambling game of two-up....

and sang on its soundtrack
Soundtrack album
A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television program. In some cases, not all the tracks from the movie are included in the album; however there are rare cases of songs in the trailers that do not appear in...

, Come in Spinner, recorded with jazz artist Vince Jones
Vince Jones
Vince Jones is an Australian jazz artist. He is a singer, songwriter, and trumpet/flugelhorn player. His music includes both original music and new contemporary versions of jazz standards. His themes are often love, inequity, injustice, peace and anti-greed.He attributes his love of jazz to...

, which peaked at #4 on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA)
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...

 albums charts
ARIA Charts
The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...

. This launched a new career for Knight, with her first solo album, Stormy Weather, which peaked at #16 in 1991. Other solo albums followed, Gracious in 1993, Live in 1996 and Zeitgeist in 2000. Eurogliders briefly reformed with Lynch and Knight in 2005 to release two additional albums by 2007, Knight returned to her solo career and released Willow in 2008.

Biography

Grace Knight was born in 1955 in the UK, and performed as a cabaret singer in folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 clubs from 1976. She competed in a semi-final of a national talent quest as a duo and consequently travelled to Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...

 to perform, where she met Martha Reeves
Martha Reeves
Martha Rose Reeves is an American R&B and Pop singer and former politician, and was the lead singer of the Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas. During her tenure with The Vandellas, they scored over a dozen hit singles, including "Jimmy Mack", "Dancing in the Street" and "Nowhere to Run"...

 and the Vandellas. In 1977, she obtained a gig on a cruise ship to Perth, Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

, her set included covering Harry Nilsson
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...

's A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night
A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night
A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night is an album of classic 20th-century standards sung by Harry Nilsson. The album was arranged by Sinatra arranger Gordon Jenkins, and produced by Derek Taylor....

and performed twice a night for six weeks.

Eurogliders (1980–1989)

Knight relocated to Perth, Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

 in 1977, where she performed in a number of local bands. She met guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

ist and singer, Bernie Lynch, who fronted a new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...

 band, The Stockings, in the late 1970s. They became domestic partners and together formed the band, Living Single, in 1980 with Crispin Akerman on guitar, Don Meharry on bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....

, Guy Slingerland on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....

 and Amanda Vincent on keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...

. By 1981, drummer John Bennetts replaced Slingerland and the band changed their name to Eurogliders; domestically, Knight and Lynch had separated. Eurogliders' second album, This Island
This Island (Eurogliders album)
This Island is the second studio album by Australian Indie pop, rock band Eurogliders, and was released in May 1984 on Columbia Records. It peaked at #4 on the Australian Kent Music Report albums chart, it spawned their #2 hit single, "Heaven ".The album appeared on the United States, Billboard 200...

, was released in May 1984 and peaked at #4 on the Australian Kent Music Report
Kent Music Report
The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998...

 albums chart. The single, "Heaven (Must Be There)
Heaven (Must Be There)
"Heaven " is a song by Eurogliders from their album This Island. The song was released as a 7" vinyl and a 12" in 1984....

", written by Lynch, also released in May, reached #2 on the Australian singles charts, and #65 on the US Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Hot 100 chart and #21 on its Mainstream Rock Tracks
Mainstream Rock Tracks
Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks is a ranking in Billboard magazine of the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations, a category that includes stations that play primarily rock music. Modern rock tracks are counted in the Alternative Songs chart.This chart began with the March 21, 1981, issue...

 chart. The album peaked at #140 on the Billboard 200 chart
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...

.

At the height of the band's success, Knight and Lynch reconciled their relationship and were married in 1985 but the union was short-lived. Despite their marital separation, they stayed together in the band for another four years. In Australia, "Heaven" was followed by three more top 10 hits. Between 1984 and 1986, Eurogliders toured Australia, the USA, Canada, Puerto Rico, Japan and New Zealand. Further albums followed, but late in 1989, the Eurogliders disbanded.

Solo career (1990–current)

After Eurogliders disbanded in 1989, Knight initially sang backing vocals in the Tania Bowra Band. She made a cameo appearance
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

 as Lola, a 1940s night club singer, in the 1990 TV series Come In Spinner
Come In Spinner
Come In Spinner is an Australian novel by Dymphna Cusack and Florence James, originally published in 1951, and set in Sydney, Australia at the end of the second World War.The title refers to a phrase used in the Australian gambling game of two-up....

and sang on its soundtrack
Soundtrack album
A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television program. In some cases, not all the tracks from the movie are included in the album; however there are rare cases of songs in the trailers that do not appear in...

, Come in Spinner, recorded with jazz artist Vince Jones
Vince Jones
Vince Jones is an Australian jazz artist. He is a singer, songwriter, and trumpet/flugelhorn player. His music includes both original music and new contemporary versions of jazz standards. His themes are often love, inequity, injustice, peace and anti-greed.He attributes his love of jazz to...

, which peaked at #4 on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA)
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...

 albums charts
ARIA Charts
The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...

. The soundtrack featured jazz standards with half the tracks having lead vocals by Jones, including a single, "I've Got You Under My Skin"; two singles with lead vocals by Knight were also released, "The Man I Love" and "Sophisticated Lady". This launched a new career for Knight as a jazz singer, her first solo album, Stormy Weather, produced by Larry Muhoberac was released in October 1991, which peaked at #16. Her debut solo single, "Fever", was released in September, which did not peak into the top 50 singles charts. At the 1992
ARIA Music Awards of 1992
The Sixth Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards was held on 6 March 1992 at the World Congress Centre in Melbourne. Hosts were international guest, Julian Lennon and local Richard Wilkins, they were assisted by presenters, Spinal Tap, Rod Stewart and Mick Jones to distribute 24...

 ARIA Music Awards
ARIA Music Awards
The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Australian Recording Industry Association...

, Stormy Weather was nominated for "Best Adult Contemporary Album" and Peter Cobbin was nominated for "Engineer of the Year" for his work on four of its tracks.

Knight's second solo album, Gracious appeared in November 1993. It contained "big, brassy and busy arrangements of standards" and included work by 43 session musicians. The album did not peak into the ARIA top 50, but was nominated for "Best Adult Contemporary Album" in 1994
ARIA Music Awards of 1994
The Eighth Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards was held on 30 March 1994 at the State Theatre in Sydney...

. Other solo albums followed with, Live in 1996 and Zeitgeist in 2000.

In November 2002, women of Marin County, California
Marin County, California
Marin County is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2010, the population was 252,409. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is well...

 spelled out the words "No War" with their nude bodies, they were protesting against the proposed invasion of Iraq by a coalition which included Australian troops. This inspired Knight to organise a similar protest in a paddock outside her hometown of Federal near Byron Bay
Byron Bay, New South Wales
Byron Bay is a beachside town located in the far-northeastern corner of the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located north of Sydney and south of Brisbane. Cape Byron, a headland adjacent to the town, is the easternmost point of mainland Australia. At the 2006 Census, the town had a...

 on 8 February 2003. Knight justified the protest:
Knight indicated that she had been writing lyrics for a forthcoming album with Lynch, when her frustration at the Howard Government's plans to invade Iraq interrupted her concentration. Knight rallied female friends via chain e-mails, needing 67 women for the wording of "No War" ultimately 750 showed up.

Eurogliders reformed in October 2005, with Grace Knight and Bernie Lynch using session musicians and they released their fifth studio album, simply called Eurogliders but the album did not peak into the ARIA top 50 charts. Eurogliders started touring again in April 2006 and performed on the Countdown Spectacular
Countdown Spectacular
The Countdown Spectacular is a series of concerts reviving the nostalgia of the Australian music television series Countdown.-Countdown Spectacular:...

 during June to August, which was a nostalgic tour of Australian bands from the 1970s and 1980s, as featured on the pop television show Countdown with its host Ian "Molly" Meldrum
Ian Meldrum
Ian Alexander "Molly" Meldrum AM is an Australian popular music critic, journalist, record producer , and musical entrepreneur...

. The Eurogliders' sixth album Blue Kiss was recorded during the same sessions as the previous and was released in 2007, it also had no top 50 charting.

Knight returned to her solo career and released Willow in April 2008, which was nominated for "Best Jazz Album" at the 2008
ARIA Music Awards of 2008
The 22nd Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards took place on 19 October 2008...

 ARIA Music Awards. On 17 July 2009, Knight performed at the Press Gallery Mid-Winter Ball attended by federal politicians, including Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd
Kevin Rudd
Kevin Michael Rudd is an Australian politician who was the 26th Prime Minister of Australia from 2007 to 2010. He has been Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2010...

, and by Canberra journalists
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...

. Patrons of the function paid up to $20,000 each and raised $250,000 for various charities.

Personal life

Knight's 1977 gig on a cruise ship from London, UK, was to visit her sister, who was living in Perth, Western Australia
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....

. Her sister introduced Knight to future bandmate, domestic partner and husband, Bernie Lynch. Knight separated from Lynch in 1986 and has been married two further times. She has a son, Jackie Knight born in 1987.

Albums

with Vince Jones
  • Come in Spinner — ABC Contemporary Music 838 984-2 (11 December 1989)AUS #4


solo
  • Stormy Weather — Sony BMG 469029 2 (23 September 1991) AUS #16
  • Gracious — Dino Music DIN 286D (November 1993) AUS #90
  • Live — ABC Jazz/EMI
    EMI
    The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

     4835832 Classics (22 February 1996)
  • Zeitgeist — Mirage/MGM Distribution
    MGM Distribution
    MGM Distribution is the largest independent distributor of Australian music and music related merchandise and was established in April 1998 by Sebastian Chase....

     301001 (17 July 2000)
  • Willow — ABC Classics 4766306 (5 April 2008)

Singles

External links

  • Grace Knight's Official website
  • [ Grace Knight discography] @ AllMusic
  • Grace Knight discography @ MusicBrainz
    MusicBrainz
    MusicBrainz is a project that aims to create an open content music database. Similar to the freedb project, it was founded in response to the restrictions placed on the CDDB...

  • Grace Knight discography @ Discogs
    Discogs
    Discogs, short for discographies, is a website and database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. The Discogs servers, currently hosted under the domain name discogs.com, are owned by Zink Media, Inc., and are...

  • Grace Knight discography @ Australian Rock Database
    Australian Rock Database
    Australian Rock Database is a website with a searchable online database that lists details of Australian rock music artists, albums, bands, producers and record labels. It was established in 2000 by Swedish national, Magnus Holmgren, who had developed an interest in Australian music when visiting...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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