(Pre) Friday Flash(back)

Gwen Renée Stefani Shelton or simply Gwen Stefani is simply iconic. What a great way to get closer to the holidays with a somewhat festive, fun and timeless Friday Flash(back)!

No only is Stefani a great singer-songwriter, she is also a rad fashion designer, while co-founding/lead vocalist, of the band No Doubt.

Famous for Just a Girl, Spiderwebs, & Don't Speak, their 1995 breakthrough studio album Tragic Kingdom, was a worldwide smash hit.

Later No Doubt went on to release hits like Hey Baby & It's My Life.

No Doubt went on hiatus, so Stefani embarked on a solo pop career in 2004 by releasing her debut studio album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. 

Inspired by pop music from the 1980s, the album was a critical and commercial success. It spawned six singles, including What You Waiting For?, Rich Girl, Hollaback Girl,  &nCool. Hollaback Girl reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart while also becoming the first US download to sell one million copies.

In 2006, Stefani released her second studio album, The Sweet Escape. Among the singles were Wind It Up & The Sweet Escape, the latter of which was number three on the Billboard Hot 100 year-end chart of 2007.

Her third solo album, This Is What the Truth Feels Like in 2016, was her first solo album to reach number one on the Billboard 200 chart. Her fourth solo album and first full-length Christmas album, You Make It Feel Like Christmas, was released in 2017 and charted 19 tracks on Billboard's Holiday Digital Song Sales component chart in the United States. 

Stefani has released several singles with husband Blake Shelton, including Nobody but You in 2020, which reached number 18 in the US. Last Friday, she will released her fifth studio album Bouquet.

Stefani has won three Grammy Awards. As a solo artist, she has received an American Music Award, a Brit Award, a World Music Award, and two Billboard Music Awards. 

She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2023. In 2003, she debuted her clothing line L.A.M.B. and expanded her collection with the 2005 Harajuku Lovers line inspired by Japanese culture and fashion. 

Billboard magazine ranked Stefani the 54th most successful artist and 37th most successful Hot 100 artist of the 2000–2009 decade. VH1 ranked her 13th on their 100 Greatest Women in Music list in 2012. Including her work with No Doubt, Stefani has sold more than 60 million records worldwide.

So before I turn the spotlight onto Bouquet tomorrow, relive some hits and memories below.

Seeya tomorrow!

Album of the Week - Offical Music Videos

Album of the Week - SOUTH SUMMIT - {The Bliss}

Friday Flash(back) - Paul Kelly - Fever Longing Still

(Pre) Friday Flash(back)

This week the Friday Flash(back) is HUGE!

Paul Maurice Kelly AO, born 13 January 1955) has performed solo, and has led numerous groups, including the Dots, the Coloured Girls, and the Messengers. 

He has worked with other artists and groups, including associated projects Professor Ratbaggy and Stardust Five. Kelly's music style has ranged from bluegrass to studio-oriented dub reggae, but his core output straddles folk, rock and country. 

His lyrics capture the vastness of the culture and landscape of Australia by chronicling life about him for over 30 years. 

After growing up in Adelaide, Kelly travelled around Australia before settling in Melbourne in 1976. He became involved in the pub rock scene and drug culture and recorded two albums with the Dots. 

Kelly moved to Sydney by 1985, where he formed Paul Kelly and the Coloured Girls. The band was renamed Paul Kelly and the Messengers, initially only for international releases, to avoid possible racial interpretations of the word "coloured". At the end of the 1980s, Kelly returned to Melbourne, and in 1991 he disbanded the Messengers.

Kelly's Top 40 singles include Billy Baxter, Before Too Long, Darling It Hurts, To Her Door (his highest-charting local hit in 1987), Dumb Things (appeared on United States charts in 1988) & Roll on Summer.

Top-20 albums include Gossip, Under the Sun, Comedy, Songs from the South (1997 compilation), ...Nothing but a Dream, Stolen Apples, Spring and Fall, The Merri Soul Sessions, Seven Sonnets and a Song, Death's Dateless Night (with Charlie Owen), Life Is Fine (his first number-one album) and Nature.

Kelly has won 14 Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Music Awards, including his induction into their hall of fame in 1997. Dan Kelly, his nephew, is a singer and guitarist in his own right. Dan performed with Kelly on Ways and Means and Stolen Apples. Both were members of Stardust Five, which released a self-titled album in 2006. 

On 22 September 2010, Kelly released his memoir, How to Make Gravy. His biographical film Paul Kelly: Stories of Me, directed by Ian Darling, was released to cinemas in October 2012.

In 2001, the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) listed the Top 30 Australian songs of all time, which included Kelly's To Her Door, and Treaty, written by Kelly and members of Yothu Yindi. Aside from Treaty, Kelly wrote or co-wrote several songs on Indigenous Australian social issues and historical events. He provided songs for many other artists, tailoring them to their particular vocal range. The album Women at the Well from 2002 had 14 female artists record his songs in tribute.

Kelly was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2017 for distinguished service to the performing arts and to the promotion of the national identity through contributions as a singer, songwriter and musician.

Kelly was married and divorced twice; he has three children and resides in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne.

Earlier this month, Kelly released his twenty-ninth studio album, Fever Longing Still. The album debuted at number three last week!

The album's title is lifted from by William Shakespeare's Sonnet 147.

Stream it here tomorrow, but before here is a look at Kelly's huge history, an Australian icon. So much so the track How to Make Gravy will turn into a streaming film, on Bineg based on the 1996 song.

Written by Megan Washington and Nick Waterman, with Waterman also directing the film. This will also be the first original film to be released on Binge.

The film expands on the characters and stories detailed within the song's lyrics, which take the form of a letter from Joe writing from prison, four days before Christmas.

Album of the Week - Offical Music Videos

Album of the Week - KING STINGRAY - {For the Dreams}