The victory of the football club Leicester City in the English Premier League in 2016 for a long time will remain in the memory of the fans. Such a deafening sensation could not be foreseen before the beginning of the championship. This is a real football miracle.

In an interview during the season (in February 2016), the head coach of Leicester, Italian Claudio Ranieri, called his charges a “rock and roll team.” We will support the initiative of a mentor-triumphant and as our modest tribute we will note the most famous musicians who were presented to the world by the city of Leicester and the county of Leicestershire. Those of them who in 2016 year were in good health, probably with all their heart were glad of the success of the team.

Of course, the list of performers of the hit Fire, which has already become an inalienable soundtrack of the English Premier League, opens the list. And the author of this famous song, Sergio Pizzorno, himself was not born in Leicester himself (his mother preferred a hospital in another city), but in his youth he was eager to become the center forward of the “foxes”. True, Chris Edwards is a fan of Leeds United, so, perhaps, I am glad of Leicester City’s success in less than its colleagues.

• The collective, whose style is defined as instrumental mathematical rock, is based in Leicester. In recent years, these guys have repeatedly come with performances in Russia and managed to get a lot of fans from us. Unfortunately, the group members announced that in 2016 they are stopping joint activities. How long? Wait and see.

• The only one, in addition to Mark Knopfler, is a permanent participant Dire Straits, bass player John Illsley was born and spent his childhood in Leicester and its environs. In July 1999, the musician was diagnosed with chronic leukemia (a form of blood cancer), doctors gave him no more than 10 years of life, but John, having transferred chemotherapy courses and surgery, managed to defeat the disease and return to music. In 2016, he presents to the public a new solo album – Long Shadows.

  The native of Leicester is also the original partner of Illsley on the rhythm section Dire Straits David “Peak” Withers, who participated in recording the first four studio albums of the legendary band.

• One of the most outstanding keyboardists in the history of rock was born in the midst of the Second World War in Leicester. There, John lived until he was 19, after which he moved to London.

• Richard Roman Grechko was born in 1946 in Bordeaux in the family of Ukrainian immigrants. But when he was 5 years old, the family moved to Leicester. The musician, who became famous under the “truncated” name of Rick Grech, became a multi-instrumentalist, although in the priority he always had a violin and a bass guitar. Grech was a member of the group Family, Then he merged into the supergroup formed by Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker Blind Faith. Clapton’s departure led to the creation of a collective Ginger Baker’s Air Force (with Grech in the composition), after the collapse of which, along with Steve Winwood, Rick left in Traffic and participated in the creation of two albums of this team.

  In 1977, after retiring from music, Grech returned to Leicester. There he died in 1990 at the age of 43 years.

• The quietest and silent participant of the great group Queen also comes from the city of Leicester.

• Fun Lovin ‘Criminals – an American band, but her current drummer and backing vocalist Frank Benbini (real name – Mark Francis Reed), officially included in the band in May 2003, was born in Leicester.

• “One of the greatest in the world of minimalist drummers,” as it is sometimes called, a drummer of an influential group Wire Robert Goutubed was born in the tiny community of Marfield, east of Leicester. In 1990, Robert left the team because of the excessive enthusiasm of colleagues with computers, sequencers and drum machines. After reunification with Wire in 2000, abandoned the pseudonym and acts under his own name Robert Gray.

• Key of the British band Yes in 1968-71 and 1983-95, as well as member of David Bowie’s tour team on the Station to Station tour, Tony Kay (real name – Anthony John Selvage) was born in Leicester.

• A native of Leicester is drummer Brian Davison – member of the band The Nice, famous for the name of Keith Emerson. Davison died on April 15, 2008.

• Another drummer comes from Leicester on our list. Barry became famous in the group The Nashville Teens, who recorded the hit single Tobacco Road. Further, Jenkins was invited to the The Animals to replace the original drummer of the collective John Steele. Barry had time to participate in the creation of albums Animalization and Animalism.

  After disintegration The Animals Jenkins, the only musician in the band, continued to work with vocalist Eric Burdon. He helped the singer to record a solo album Eric Is Here, and then joined the Eric Burdon & The (New) Animals. Burden disbanded the band in 1969, Barry took part in a couple of recordings later, after which his active career ended.

• One of the most famous violinists in the history of British rock, Jeffrey Richardson was born in the town of Hinckley, Leicestershire (geographically Geoffrey’s hometown is located south-west of Leicester). Richardson was a member of such groups as Caravan, Murray Head and Penguin Cafe Orchestra.

• The name of this collective, which performed a rather original version of progressive rock, was mentioned in passing in this article – its participant was Rick Grech for a while. Nevertheless, the staff itself deserves a separate mention. He was based in Leicester, one of the musicians (vocalist Roger Chapman) was a native of this city, someone (the founder and guitarist John “Charlie” Whitney) was a visiting student of the local art college.

• Artist and songwriter, Kevin Hewick was born in 1957 in Leicester. He was friends with many famous or cult musicians – Adrian Borland from The Sound, musicians Joy Division/New Order (in June 1980, a month after the death of Ian Curtis, Kevin even made a couple of demo entries with the three remaining members). Hewik performed on the same stage with Durutti Column, The Fall and PJ Harvey, but outside his native England and remained little known.

• Davey Graham is a British guitarist. He is often called one of the most influential figures of the British folk revival of the 1960s. Graham never had wide commercial success, although his work was inspired by Paul Simon and Nick Drake, Richie Blackmore and Jimmy Page. And this man was born in the city of Hinckley, like Jeffrey Richardson.

• Finishes the selection of a great friend of those who opened it – Sergio Pizzorno and Tom Meigan – Jersey Budd, the author and songwriter from Leicester. He already recorded songs earlier on the occasion of the team’s success, and the 2016 championship certainly will not leave without attention (as well as its more eminent friends).

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