The Donnas formed in Palo Alto, California (USA) in May 1993, while the founding members were in eighth grade. Brett Anderson (vocals), Alison Robertson (guitar, vocals), Maya Ford (bass guitar, vocals) and Torry Casteliano (drums, percussion, vocals) originally called themselves Ragady Anne and The Electrocutes. In 1997, they recorded the debut album The Donnas. While in their senior year of highschool, they took a week off to promote the album in Japan. After graduation, they signed with the indie record company Lookout and released their second album ‘American Teenage Rock ‘n’ Roll Machine’ in 1998. Their third album ‘Get Skintight’ was released a year after that. It was their first album composed without outside assistance. A fourth album ‘Donnas Turn 21’ (2001) caught the attention of major labels, which led to them signing with Atlantic.

Their label debut for Atlantic ‘Spend the night’ was released in 2002. It was their first album to break into the top 100 of the pop charts. After a tour and a sabbatical, they returned in 2004 with ‘Gold Medal’. With the help of producer Jay Ruston (the Polyphonic Spree, Meat Loaf), they released the album ‘Bitchin” on their own independent label, Purple Feather, in September 2007. Their cover version of Kids in America was a contribution to the soundtrack of the movie ‘Nancy Drew’ in 2010. The band were reported to be working on a new album in 2012, but no news has been released since then.

Kim’s intended middle name. She was named Kim after Kim Novak, and her parents were probably going to name her Donna. It never happened, as Kim explains…

Kim about Donna

Actually, I quite like the idea of being called Donna. I like that name. I was gonna have that as my middle name, but then my parents forgot to put it on the form. (1)

Interview source

(1) Going Live, BBC (UK), 7 April 1990

Dollar was one of the most successful pop duos in the UK. They sold over 10 million record in a career that spanned 10 years. David Van Day and Thereza Bazar met in the group Guys ‘n’ Dolls during the 1970’s and fell in love. They left the group after a few years and formed Dollar in 1978. They almost immediately scored a hit with ‘Shooting star’, peaking at no. 14 in the UK charts. Their first album of the same name was released in 1979. After scoring another hits with the Beatles track ‘I wanna hold your hand’, Bazar and Van Day got engaged and recorded the second album, ‘The Paris Collection’. Their love affair ended in june 1981, but they still worked together as Dollar. Hiring Trevor Horn for their third album, ‘The Dollar Album’, they were more successful than before with hits like ‘Hand held in black and white’, ‘Mirror mirro’ and ‘Give me back my heart’. After unsuccessful solo efforts in 1985, they recorded together once more. In 1987 Dollar obtained a top ten hit with a cover the song ‘Oh l’Amour’, only two years after the release of the original version by Erasure. Their last single ‘It’s nature’s way’ (1988) failed to make much of an impact, and they split up. Van Day tried to replace Bazar with other female vocalists, but finally called it a day. He worked his way into an incarnation of the Eurovision Song Contest winners Bucks Fizz and subsequently hijacked the name of this group, leading to countless court cases between him and original band members of this group.

In December 2002, Dollar reformed for the Here & Now Christmas Party tour, to mixed reviews. In this tour, they were one of the acts to support headliners Human League and Kim Wilde. In 2003, they participated in ITV1’s music TV show ‘Reborn in the USA’ for a short time. After being voted off by the audience in the first week they responded with bitter comments about fellow contesting artists.

In July 2008, Dollar reformed again to take part in a UK reality television programme entitled ‘Pop Goes the Band’, in which a number of former pop stars were remodelled and restyled to try to recapture their former glory. The programme aired on Living TV on 23 February 2009.

On 15 February 2010, Cherry Pop re-issued remastered and expanded editions of ‘The Dollar Album’ and ‘The Paris Collection’ for the first time on CD. This was followed in November 2019 by a comprehensive box set featuring all their recorded output plus new remixes.

DJ Bobo (real name: Peter René Baumann) was born in Kölliken, Switzerland, to Italian father Luigi Cipiriano and Swiss mother Ruth Baumann. Initially, Baumann wanted to work in the area of confectionery and bakery. This, however, did not last long as his desire for dancing clicked with the development of breakdancing after his high-school graduation. Having been involved in numerous dance-contests, René managed to reach the top-10 of the German dance-contest “Disco Kings” with his acrobatic dance style.

Baumann began his DJ career in 1985, a year after which he was a runner-up in the Swiss DJ Championships. He continued to work as a DJ at numerous night-clubs such as Don Paco and the Hazyland, both in Switzerland, through which he gathered enough experience and later decided to produce his own record. His first single “I love you” came out in late 1989 during which time he would still spin records as a DJ but focused on future releases of his own production. In 1991, DJ BoBo released two other singles, “Ladies in the House” and “Let’s Groove On”.

His first big success came with the single “Somebody Dance with Me”, which borrows its melody from Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me”. Between 1992 through 2007, he had 27 single chart-hits in Switzerland and Germany, and has won 10 World Music Awards for being Switzerland’s best selling artist. René has received numerous Gold and Platinum certifications for his singles and albums and has found success in Europe (primarily in Germany and Switzerland), Asia and South America.

In 2013, he re-recorded his 2003 hit I Believe with Kim Wilde for his album Reloaded.

In August 1977 Mike Wilkinson (also known as Captain Mike) presented his idea to start a professional service for DJ’s, providing exclusive material out of the massive amount of releases every month. Members of the service would receive extended remixes and exclusive tracks.
The first release followed in October 1977. The Disconet staff consisted of, amongst others, Tom Savarese, Bobby DJ Guttadaro and Kevin Guilmet, all of which had received the title of ‘DJ of the year’ from the magazine Billboard.

Other employees of Disconet were Bobby Viteritti, John “Jellybean” Benitez and Patrick Cowley. Cowley remixed Donna Summer’s famous song ‘I Feel Love’, which was released commercially when he died in November 1982.
The last Disconet release was volume 11, program 13 in January 1990.

They released two mixes of Kim Wilde tracks: Sparks and Never Trust a Stranger.

The DJ remix service Direct Hit started in 1993 in Sacramento, USA, as the successor of Rhythm Stick and Master Beat. The first 17 volumes were called Upbeat-HiNRG and Mainstream dance music. In 1996 the releases were renamed into Sectors and the musical direction became more progressive and party-oriented. There were 24 releases of these ‘Sectors’.

Direct Hit was very popular among NRG DJ’s, because the quality of the remixes and the selected titles were very good. Because of problems around licensing the service was eventually closed in April 1999.

In 1996 there was one Direct Hit remix of Kim Wilde’s Shame by Steve Bourasa.