The Very Best is a collaboration between London-based DJ/production duo Radioclit and Esau Mwamwaya, a singer from Lilongwe, Malawi. Their music has been described as an Afro-Western mix of dance, hip-hop, pop, and the traditional music of Malawi.

History

Esau Mwamwaya was born in Mzuzu, Malawi, but grew up in the capital, Lilongwe, where he played drums in various bands. He played with numerous artists, including Masaka Band and Evison Matafale. In 1999 he moved to London and while running a second-hand furniture shop in Clapton, East London, Esau sold a bicycle to the producer from the band Radioclit, Etienne Tron. Radioclit's studio was on the same street as Esau's shop, and eventually, Esau became friends with both Tron and Johan Karlberg aka Radioclit.

In 2008, the three men worked together to create a project known as "The Very Best," releasing a critically lauded free mixtape through the label GREEN OWL. The mixtape features samples and collaborations with other indie artists, including M.I.A., Vampire Weekend, Architecture in Helsinki, BLK JKS, Santigold and The Ruby Suns. The songs are sung in Chichewa, the national language of Malawi.

The Very Best is a greatest hits album released by Australian band INXS in 2011. It initially peaked at #39.

Following the screening of INXS: Never Tear Us Apart, an Australian miniseries about INXS that commenced on 9 February 2014 on the Seven Network, the album re-entered the charts, peaking at #1. When the miniseries screened in New Zealand in August 2014, the album also charted, similarly peaking at #1.

Track listing

The album was released in three formats; a single-disc version, a double-disc version and a double-disc version with a DVD.

Standard edition

The Scaffold were a comedy, poetry and music trio from Liverpool, England, consisting of Mike McGear (real name Peter Michael McCartney, the brother of Paul McCartney), Roger McGough and John Gorman.

Career

The Scaffold performed a mixture of comic songs, comedy sketches and the poetry of McGough, as evidenced on their 1968 live album, and released a number of singles and albums on Parlophone and EMI between 1966 and 1971, with several more on Island, Warner Bros. and Bronze thereafter.

The group also wrote and sang the theme tune to the BBC comedy 'The Liver Birds' which aired from 1969–1978.

The Scaffold achieved Top 10 success in the UK with:

Empty Sky is the début album by British singer-songwriter Elton John, released on 6 June 1969. It was finally released in the US in January 1975, with a different cover photograph, well after John's fame had been established internationally.

Background

Recorded during the winter of 1968 and spring of 1969 in a DJM 8-track studio, Empty Sky is the only album in the early part of his career not produced by Gus Dudgeon, instead helmed by friend and DJM staffer Steve Brown. The album was released in the UK in both stereo and mono with the latter now being a rare collector's item.

John plays harpsichord on several tracks, including "Skyline Pigeon", which John has described as being "the first song Bernie and I ever got excited about that we ever wrote."

John used musicians that were either his or Brown's friends. Guitarist Caleb Quaye and drummer Roger Pope, both members of the band Hookfoot at the time, played on many of the tracks. (Quaye and Pope would rejoin John a few years later as part of his studio and touring band behind Rock of the Westies in 1975 and Blue Moves in 1976.) Tony Murray from The Troggs played bass. Empty Sky is the first appearance with John of then Plastic Penny and Spencer Davis Group member Nigel Olsson, who played drums on "Lady What's Tomorrow?" (Olsson and fellow Spencer Davis bandmate, bassist Dee Murray, would soon join John as his early '70s touring band.) Also listed in the production credits is Clive Franks, who would later produce John's live sound in concert for a tremendous amount of his touring career, as well as occasionally co-produce with John on albums such as A Single Man and 21 at 33. The original sleeve design was done by David Larkham (billed as "Dave"), who would go on to create designs for John and other artists.