Thomas Dolby

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Thomas Dolby (born Thomas Morgan Robertson, on 14 October, 1958, in London England) is a British musician, best known for his 1982 synth pop hit "She Blinded Me With Science". He is also a successful session musician, music producer, inventor and entrepreneur, whose company Beatnik, Inc. created the polyphonic ringtone software used in over 100 million mobile telephones.

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Life and career

His father was a professor of Greek history and in his youth he lived in various countries of Mediterranean Europe like Greece, Italy and France.

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Stage name

The "Dolby" nickname comes from the name Dolby Laboratories, and was given to him by friends impressed with his studio tinkering. Dolby Laboratories was reportedly very displeased with Robertson using the company name as his own stage name and sued him, trying to stop him from using the name Dolby entirely. Eventually, they succeeded in restricting him from using the word Dolby in any other context other than with the name Thomas.

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Musical background

He is associated with synth pop, a pop music form incorporating electronic instruments. His most recognized song is "She Blinded Me With Science" with sound samples from Magnus Pyke although he describes this track as his least favourite. Most of Dolby's work covers a wide range of musical styles and moods distinct from the high-energy pop sound of his few, better known commercial successes.

Perhaps his most popular side-gig was as keyboard player on Def Leppard's 1983 Pyromania album. Due to contractual problems (i.e. they didn't share the same record label), Dolby appeared on Pyromania using the stage name Booker T. Boffin.

A couple of years later, Dolby performed at the Live Aid concert in London as part of David Bowie's band.

In 1990, he appeared in the huge charity concert "The Wall" in Berlin, organized by Roger Waters: he played keyboards in "Another Brick In The Wall (Part 2)" (sung by Cyndi Lauper), and then played the Teacher's role in the sequence "The Trial".

Dolby returned to his musical career in 2006, with a string of small dates in California to an incredibly receptive crowd. His American tour, the Sole Inhabitant Tour, starts on April 12, 2006.

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Branching Out

In 1993, Dolby established himself as a successful business entrepreneur after founding Beatnik Inc. (formerly Headspace), a technology company specializing in mobile phone audio file formats, such as polyphonic ring tones for mobile phones. [1]

While still remaining on the company board, Dolby stepped down from his position as CEO of Beatnik to pursue other technologically innovative interests, such as founding Retro Ringtones LLC in 2002, which produces the RetroFolio(TM) ring tone asset management software suite for companies involved in the mobile phone ring tone business. At the second annual Mobile Music Awards, Miami, Florida in 2004 RetroFolio won "Best of Show" and "Best New Technology" awards.

Dolby's musical talents have also been put to use recently creating hundreds of digital polyphonic ring tones now found on mobile phones everywhere (including the polyphonic version of the infamous Nokia signature theme). He is often a major speaker at technology conferences such as Comdex, Websphere and Nokia.

He has also worked as a producer and a soundtrack composer for both movies and video games.

In July 1998, Thomas received a Lifetime Achievement in Internet Music award from Yahoo! Internet Life.

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Sampling scandal

On his official website's blog, Dolby blasted Kevin Federline for allegedly sampling his most famous tune without permission. Dolby writes:

"Britney Spears’ husband Kevin Federline, whom I’d never heard of until a few days ago, appears to have illegally sampled one of my compositions. On his MySpace site you can download an MP3 which uses a looped sample from Mobb Deep’s ‘Get It Twisted’, which in turn copped the string line from my own song ‘She Blinded Me With Science.’ Now, Mobb Deep did it the right way and had his label BMG come and ask for a license. They paid me a fee and a royalty on the sales of Mobb Deep’s record. However K-Fed, as his fans affectionately refer to him, did NOT ask permission, he just went ahead and did it. He is therefore blatantly violating the copyright law. And laws aside, he owed it to me as an artist to ask if I minded that he recorded a vitriolic rap over the top of my music. It starts off ‘This is for the HATERS...’ and goes on to blast the media, paparrazzi and all his other critics, sparing no expletives along the way. BMG Records have also had their copyright violated, as they own the master to Mobb Deep’s record. But BMG don’t want to rock the Britney boat so they are turning a blind eye. It’s pathetic! Turns out K-Fed has no management, label or lawyer, so it’s going to be hard getting hold of him. So K-Fed, if you’re reading this, I’m asking you nicely to take the track down ASAP. Or maybe you’d prefer me to come after some of your wife’s ill-gotten gains?" [2]

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Discography

  • Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club (1979)
  • The Golden Age of Wireless (1982)
  • The Flat Earth (1984)
  • Howard The Duck Soundtrack (tracks) (1986)
  • Music From The Film 'Gothic' (1987)
  • Aliens Ate My Buick (1988)
  • "The Mirror Song" (from Toys soundtrack) (1992)
  • Astronauts and Heretics (1992)
  • Retrospectacle (best-of) (1994)
  • The Gate To The Mind's Eye (video soundtrack and album) (1994)
  • 12x12 (remix compilation) (1999)
  • Forty: Live (2001)
  • One Of Our Submarines (collection of remixes of original 1981 song) (2003)
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Collaborations and connections

The following artists have worked with Thomas Dolby:

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Trivia

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External links

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References

simple:Thomas Dolby fi:Thomas Dolby sv:Thomas Dolby

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