Women sing on stage bare-chested. It seems that this idea is so simple and so ingenious for a mass audience that it is surprising - why is no one producing such bands on an industrial scale? However, history shows that the fate of such girl bands is not always as simple as it seems at first glance.
The Ladybirds (USA, 1968)
The Ladybirds are a 1960s female band from New Jersey. The participants were pretty, frankly they didn’t know how to sing, and they received the main popularity along with incredible condemnation for appearing topless on the stages of nightclubs.
In their hometown, each appearance of the group created a real stir, so when the level of condemnation exceeded the level of male approval, the Ladybugs moved to Las Vegas. There, the young ladies still did not recognize covered breasts and performed at the Aladdin Hotel along with comedian Godfrey Cambridge. The Ladybirds occasionally appeared on stage at the Blue Rabbit Club in Hollywood and at the Tipsy Club in San Francisco.
While the girls were creating their controversial reputation as "the first and only female topless group", they did not hesitate to perform under the soundtrack (after all, it is unlikely that the audience came to listen to their marvelous voices). However, the strip singers still had to learn how to sing for real after several incidents with a jammed tape right during the concert.
After being promoted by Voss Boreta and professional golfer Raymond Floyd, The Ladybirds began playing shows throughout the United States and Canada. In 1968, the girls sang in the Crystal Room in New York, in clubs in Vancouver and Quebec. And of course, every time their performances caused a stir. The police have repeatedly arrested the members of the group for their half-naked performances.
The participants themselves were delighted with their work. The band's guitarist Marcel Mitchell compared topless performances to incredible freedom. The girl worked in a clothing company, "before I found out how great it is to play the guitar with a naked torso." Keyboardist Debbie Diane sincerely believed that when you are in love, the whole world seems to live topless.
The group gained wide popularity in the media - many newspapers interviewed the participants and made news notes about the performances. Of course, the reviews were not always positive, but this did not stop the audience from looking at the "singing female breasts."
Things were going well in Toronto in 1968, but that wasn't always the case. For example, in 1967, "Ladybugs" were denied access to the stages of Las Vegas by order of the head of the city's music community. After a relatively stormy surge of interest in the topless group, he faded away just as quickly. In fact, nothing remained of The Ladybirds except photographs - the girls did not make a single studio recording. The only thing that serves as a reminder of this extravagant girl band is a piece of video footage from their concert at the Blue Rabbit Club in Hollywood, which was later used in the movie Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield.
The Hummingbirds (USA, 60s)
Frankly speaking, another topless female group, The Hummingbirds, performed in the USA in the 60s with the Ladybugs. The band was formed at the same time as The Ladybirds to replace them at the Tipsy Club while on tour. The highlight of the group was Angela Walker, known in San Francisco for her burlesque shows. As a rule, the girl performed under the stage name of Satan's Angel.
Hummingbirds lasted even less than The Ladybirds. Very often they had to put on eight 45-minute shows a night and work seven days a week. Despite this schedule, the girls were paid very little and Angela soon left the group to return to burlesque.
The Ladybirds (Denmark, 70s)
The Danish band was brought together and produced by Pierre Beauvais (founder of The Strangers). Like the first such group, the girls called themselves The Ladybirds, and very often they were announced on stage as "The Ladybirds Music Show". In July 1968, the group visited the Norwegian city of Bergen and on the 29th gave two short concerts in the Star Hall. After their heated performance, the local newspaper Dagbladet broke into a two-page article detailing not so much the concert as the band members themselves.
In September of the same year, the Danish "Ladybugs" performed twice as the opening act for The Yardbirds during their Scandinavian tour. The Yardbirds would later change their name to Led Zeppelin.
Over the next few years, The Ladybirds became wildly popular across the Scandinavian Peninsula and throughout Europe. The girls performed in Copenhagen, Munich, Berlin, Dortmund and several cities in the Netherlands. A couple of times the young ladies honored the inhabitants of stiff England with their presence, causing a huge stir in the media. Mostly Danish beauties performed at stadiums and before sporting events. The group has existed for about 10 years.
A few more obscure girl bands for dessert
Topless- Belarusian female vocal group; which was created by producer Maxim Aleinikov in 2005.
During the existence of the group, its composition changed several times. The most stable lineup from 2009 to 2014 was as follows:
Svetlana Lis (she also became the producer of the Topless group),
Tiana Bankovskaya,
Inessa Kuntsevich.
Thanks to the talent of the composer and arranger Maxim Aleinikov, the Topless group has become a certain standard of the Belarusian stage on the world stage. The soloists of the group act in commercials, successfully participate in international beauty contests, often act as guest stars and co-hosts of Belarusian television programs.
All Topless records are filled with the proud energy of independent personalities, which are the soloists of the “Belarusian Viagra”. Music "Topless" first of all has a club format, designed for a youth audience. The group's performances are always a colorful show with well-choreographed choreography and original costumes.
In October 2014, Victoria Makarevich became a new member of the Topless group. She is 24 years old, she graduated from the Belarusian State University with a degree in economics and management. She has no musical education, but Victoria has long tried to realize herself as a media person. In particular, she actively participated in the casting of the popular television project Dom-2. A vacant place in the group of Victoria Makarevich got after she passed the casting, in which she had to fight with 16 other contenders.
The flaming lips - watching the planets ................................... Click "Show more" to read biography and lyrics. The Flaming Lips are an American rock band formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983. Instrumentally, their sound contains lush, multi-layered, psychedelic rock arrangements, but lyrically their compositions show elements of space rock, including unusual song and album titles-such as "What Is the Light? (An Untested Hypothesis Suggesting That the Chemical by Which We Are Able to Experience the Sensation of Being in Love Is the Same Chemical That Caused the "Big Bang" That Was the Birth of the Accelerating Universe)". They are also acclaimed for their elaborate live shows, which feature costumes, balloons, puppets, video projections, complex stage light configurations, giant hands, large amounts of confetti, and frontman Wayne Coyne's signature man-sized plastic bubble, in which he traverses the audience. In 2002, Q magazine named The Flaming Lips one of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die." The band is best known for its associations with 1960s and 1970s psychedelic subculture, with elements of this culture permeating the group" s instrumentation, effects, and composition. Coyne's lyrics, in particular, both reference and embody the fascination with the science fiction and space opera genres of fiction that were popular during the golden age of psychedelic subculture. His lyrical style tends to use the imagery and plot conventions of space opera to frame more abstract themes about the unfolding cycles of romantic love, highlighting its vulnerability while delving into its metaphysical implications.The group recorded several albums and EPs on an indie label, Restless, in the 1980s and early 1990s. scored a hit in 1993 with "She Don't Use Jelly". Although it has been their only hit single in the US, the band has maintained critical respect and, to a lesser extent, commercial viability through albums such as 1999's The Soft Bulletin (which was NME magazine's Album of the Year) and 2002"s Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. They have had more hit singles in the UK and Europe than in the US In February 2007, they were nominated for a 2007 BRIT Award in the "Best International Act" category. By 2007, the group garnered three Grammy Awards, including two for Best Rock Instrumental Performance The Flaming Lips - Watching the Planets (secret video debut): http://youtu.be/oz1BrD6EaTY Lyrics: Oh, oh, oh, watching the planets Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, watching the planets align Oh, oh, oh, what is the reason? Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, I got no reason to lie Yes, yes, yes, killing the ego Yes, yes, yes, alright Yes, yes, yes, killing the ego tonight No, no Oh, no, I got no secrets No, no, no, no, no No, no, no, I got no secrets to hide Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh See, the sun's gonna rise See, the sun's gonna rise And take your fears away Like the soft tit of the motherbrai , ai Oh, oh, oh, finding the answer Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh, oh, watching the planets align Oh, oh, oh, building a fire Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, burning the Bible tonight Oh, oh, oh, watching the eagle Oh, oh, oh , oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, watching the eagle fly Oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh, oh, the sun's gonna rise Oh
There are 2 groups under this name.
1. TopLess has long and firmly proven that young blood in rock boils very quickly, and even managed to perform in Gatchina, at the popular DIVER FEST festival.
TopLess is a group that managed to perform at a huge number of festivals, play with the bands BeZ B, Animal Jazz, post on the Moscow compilation "Russian Underground Rock vol.3", and become a laureate of "Class Square - 2011".
Performed with such bands as: BeZ B, Animal Jazz, The HOBBEATS
November 6, 2011 - Laureates of the first degree at the competition-festival "Class Square" in the nomination "Best Song" and in the nomination "Best Female Vocal"
March 10, 2012 - Yulia Kropotova (gr. TopLess) with the song "Leave .." won first place in the Vocalists' competition "ART NON STOP"
June 23, 2012 - II place at the interregional festival "Free Stage 2012" in the city of Ryazan
2. A young Belarusian producer Maxim Aleinikov assembled a group of glossy girls.
What were the options for the name of the group:
"Prostomol Uno", "Playing football", "It can't be", "Goosebumps", "LEGS", "AntiGRIPpin".
Section "purely in Belarusian":
Spakusa, Lasunak, Pyashchotachki
Section "Cookery":
"Strawberry Dessert", "Sweet Dessert", "Dessert", "Vanilla Girls"
Section "about high":
"Strangers", "Silk", "First Kiss", "Perhaps", "Whisper in the Night", "Touch".
But in the end it was decided to give the name "Topless".
Topless is a Belarusian pop group. Songs for the girls are written by their music producer Maxim Aleinikov (a few years ago, thanks to his hits, Aleksey Khlestov, now one of the most popular singers in Belarus, became famous). Well, the well-known distributor of artists in Germany and other European countries, Sergei Zittel, will promote Topless in Russia.
Topless has been around for six years, says Sergei Tsittel. - In Russia, they are still little known, because it is planned to widely promote Topless only now. But the group is very promising. And the girls are not just “singing cowards”, they really sing great, they have beautiful voices. To what extent do the soloists correspond to the name of their group? They are incendiary, sexy, there is a call in their songs. But, as you know, all this to a certain extent. Girls can already be seen topless - in the magazine "Maxim", for example. Can they be seen topless on stage? Mmm ... But "VIA Gra" does not undress either.
It is interesting to note that the composition of "Topless" has changed more than once during its existence. For example, at one time a soloist with the surname Lukashenka worked in the group. Now she is no longer in the team. Who knows why she left Topless - either her surname is to blame, or the girl, having thoroughly untwisted, successfully arranged her personal life.
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