Profile of Thomas Dolby on Famous Like Me

Thomas Dolby (born Thomas Morgan Robertson October 14, 1958) is a British musician. His father was a professor of history. 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.

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 nom de plume 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".

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 digital audio formats, such as polyphonic ring tones for mobile phones.

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.

Discography

• 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)

Collaborations and connections

The following artists have worked with Thomas Dolby:

• Joan Armatrading
• David Bowie
• Belinda Carlisle
• George Clinton
• Tim Curry
• Foreigner
• Peter Gabriel
• Herbie Hancock
• Ofra Haza
• Robyn Hitchcock
• Def Leppard
• Lene Lovich
• Malcolm McLaren
• Joni Mitchell
• Andy Partridge
• Little Richard
• Ryuichi Sakamoto
• Prefab Sprout
• Fiorella Terenzi
• Roger Waters
• Whodini
• Stevie Wonder
• Akiko Yano
• Eddie Van Halen

Takeoffs

Mobb Deep's song Got it Twisted contains the rhythm from "She Blinded me with Science" at a slower speed.

External Links

• The Flat Earth Society: Thomas Dolby
• The Unofficial Thomas Dolby
• Thomas Dolby on Rhapsody
• Beatnik
• RetroFolio Ring Tone Asset Management Suite
• RetroRingtones.com - Ring tones created by Thomas Dolby's latest business venture.

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Thomas Dolby