80s

Hailing from Milan, the five-piece Vanadium were one of Italy's first successful heavy metal bands, releasing a string of quite popular LPs throughout the early '80s before being outpaced by a quickly evolving national scene as the decade wore on. In fact, the second half of their career saw a creatively weakened Vanadium rudely subjected to both ridicule and scorn by the next generation of Italian heavy metal bands, most of whom failed to realize the older band's hokey stage banter and...

Two Time Polka formed in Cork in 1994 and have developed a distinctive sound that has its roots in Cajun, Zydeco, and Bluegrass music. They have built up an enviable reputation for turning out excellent live shows, including numerous performances at Irish festivals such as The Kilkenny Country Roots, The Dun Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures, The Cork Jazz Festival, The Galway Arts Festival, The Waterford Spraoi, The Cork Folk Festival to name but a few.

1) HellsBelles was a British heavy metal band formed in England in 1984 at the latter stages of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM). The band, now reformed by original member Paul Quigley as HellsBelles, originally released one LP in 1986 on the Raw Power label of Castle Communications "Hell's Belles", one 12" single 'Barricades' also in 1986 on the Raw Power label and various tracks released throughout the 1990s on various rock compilation albums, tracks such as "Long Legs", "If It Don't Make Your Ears Bleed...

Frente! was an Australian alternative pop/rock group, formed in 1991. The lineup featured singer Angie Hart, founder and guitarist Simon Austin, bassist Tim O'Connor (later replaced by Bill McDonald), and drummer Mark Picton (later replaced by Alastair Barden). Frente! burst onto the Australian music charts with the singles "Ordinary Angels" and "Accidently Kelly Street" in 1992. Frente!'s debut album, Marvin the Album was also a success, going platinum in Australia.