1. Roddy Frame was born on 29 January 1964 and is a Scottish singer-songwriter and musician.
44 Facts About Roddy Frame
1. 2.
Roddy Frame was the founder of the 1980s new wave band Aztec Camera and has undertaken a solo career since the group's dissolution.
3.
Since the end of the Aztec Camera project, Roddy Frame has released four solo albums, the last of which is 2014's Seven Dials.
4.
Roddy Frame grew up in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, Scotland and went to Canberra Primary School and Duncanrig Secondary School.
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Roddy Frame was surrounded by music from a very young age, as his older sisters were music fans and listened to a great number of artists, such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.
6.
Roddy Frame started to learn guitar playing at a very early age.
7.
On tracks such as "Walk Out to Winter" and "Back on Board", Roddy Frame sang poetic lyrics about love, both lost and found, themes that he would revisit on subsequent Aztec Camera albums.
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Roddy Frame then signed the band to the WEA record label and managed to hire Knopfler to produce Aztec Camera's second album, Knife, which was released in 1984.
9.
One of the radio singles from Love, "Somewhere in My Heart", was Aztec Camera's first "top 10" chart hit and Roddy Frame later explained that his inspiration at the time of writing the song was Bruce Springsteen.
10.
Roddy Frame then recorded the next Aztec Camera album, Dreamland, with Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto.
11.
Roddy Frame performed a series of live shows in the UK, at which High Land, Hard Rain was played in its entirety with the support of a backing band.
12.
Roddy Frame appeared on Jools Holland's Later television show in 1998 to play "Bigger, Brighter, Better", from North Star.
13.
In 1999 Roddy Frame appeared alongside Neil Finn and Graham Gouldman as part of the BBC Four's "Songwriters' Circle" series, and played both Aztec Camera and solo songs.
14.
Roddy Frame's second solo album Surf, recorded when he was 38 years old, is a collection of acoustic songs that attracted critical acclaim and was generally regarded as a return to songwriting form.
15.
Not since Paul Simon's Hearts and Bones nor Bruce Springsteen's Tunnel of Love has there been an album by a singer-songwriter that has explored themes of love, heartbreak and identity as skilfully and masterfully as Roddy Frame has on Surf.
16.
Roddy Frame explained at a 2012 live performance in the UK that "Crossing Newbury Street" is about the time that he spent with Jonzun in Boston, Massachusetts, US, while writing and recording "Somewhere in My Heart".
17.
Roddy Frame performed his first ever show at the Glastonbury Festival in 2003 and his next solo album Western Skies was released three years later in May 2006.
18.
Video footage of Roddy Frame performing live solo concerts in the UK in both 2005 and 2008 was published on the YouTube online video-sharing platform.
19.
Roddy Frame thought the touring band sounded so good that he decided to create a "band record again" and proceeded to write songs specifically with the touring band in mind.
20.
Roddy Frame participated in a series of radio interviews for the promotion of the album and appeared on Billy Sloan's Clyde 2 radio programme, which broadcasts throughout Glasgow and West Scotland; Tom Robinson's BBC Radio 6 show; the radio show of Terry Wogan, The Weekend Wogan, on BBC Radio 2; the Monocle 24 radio programme "Culture with Robert Bound"; and BBC Radio 6 with Liz Kershaw.
21.
Roddy Frame completed an interview with the French website Le Gorille in July 2014 and stated that his manager had informed him of a live performance in France at the end of 2014.
22.
Roddy Frame appeared on the "Soho Social" programme of the Soho Radio online media outlet on 19 August 2014, presented by Dan Gray.
23.
Roddy Frame has maintained a long-term friendship with Edwyn Collins, who was signed to Postcard Records in the 1980s with his band Orange Juice.
24.
Collins and Roddy Frame collaborated on the Aztec Camera album Stray, including a live performance of the song "Consolation Prize".
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Roddy Frame performed with Collins in November 2007 during Collins's first concert after his recovery from a serious illness, and the pair played again at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2008, on the Park Stage, and at the Purcell Rooms in London, UK, in September 2008.
26.
At a 2011 Glasgow performance, Roddy Frame explained that he had been listening to reggae-influenced music at the time of writing the lyrics and recorded the song at Da Bank's personal home.
27.
In regard to the Van Halen cover version, Roddy Frame explained in a 1990 interview that he had seen the band in concert in the US for his birthday and started experimenting with the song afterwards.
28.
Roddy Frame found that the lyrical content of the song conveyed sadness, in contrast to the upbeat music of "Jump", and ended up with a version that sounded like "Sweet Jane", by The Velvet Underground.
29.
Roddy Frame explained that during his time as a WEA artist, he was asked about Rae, who was conveyed as a Scottish musician who always wore a kilt and helmet.
30.
Roddy Frame expressed "love" for the song and explained that he enjoyed playing the song while at home.
31.
Roddy Frame played "Inside Out" during a live performance on BBC 6 Radio in early September 2014.
32.
Roddy Frame explained that, like "Jump", when "Inside Out" is slowed down, additional meanings become apparent, such as the notion of infidelity in the case of the latter.
33.
Roddy Frame has performed a total of 58 live shows under his own name, including a UK tour throughout October 2011 with a small backing band.
34.
Roddy Frame was scheduled to play in cities such as Munich, Germany; Paris, France; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and Vienna, Austria, in addition to Aberdeen, Glasgow and London.
35.
Roddy Frame stated during an August 2014 interview that he was interested in completing most of the tour by train.
36.
Roddy Frame spoke of subsequently discovering Alternative TV, which led to an exploration of earlier music influences, as ATV's co-founder Mark Perry was himself influenced by Frank Zappa and Arthur Lee's band Love.
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Roddy Frame mentioned Billy Bragg and explained that while Bragg "toils" away politically, he believed that people really want to listen to personal songs:.
38.
Roddy Frame's playlist included songs by Joe Strummer, Calle Sanlucar, The Clash, Grace Jones, Louis Armstrong and the Cocteau Twins.
39.
In 1993, Roddy Frame had been residing in London for 11 years, but still considered Scotland his "spiritual" home.
40.
However, Roddy Frame explained that he was not a "patriot" and considered himself a "global citizen".
41.
Roddy Frame's opinion was that Scotland was more meaningful than square slice and plain bread, and described such stereotypical notions as "nonsense".
42.
Roddy Frame was not musically productive during this period, "lying around" smoking cannabis:.
43.
Roddy Frame stated in March 2014 that, while he doesn't play the guitar every day, his songwriting activity has increased since the recording of Seven Dials.
44.
Roddy Frame owns a collection of guitars, including a 1974 Fender Telecaster and a series of "nice, big, fat" semi-acoustic guitars.