Harry Redknapp

Henry James "Harry" Redknapp (born 2 March 1947) is a former English footballer who has enjoyed a long career in football management starting in 1983 with Bournemouth. He is the current manager of Tottenham Hotspur.

He previously managed Bournemouth, West Ham United, Portsmouth (twice) and Southampton. While in his second spell at Portsmouth, he managed the side that won the 2008 FA Cup. At the conclusion of the 2009–10 season he guided Tottenham into the UEFA Champions League for the very first time. Redknapp subsequently oversaw Spurs' progress to the last 16 of that tournament when defeating German side Werder Bremen at home. They were the only new club to have qualified for the next stage of the competition and went on to top their group ahead of holders Inter Milan. Redknapp then helped his team beat AC Milan over two legs to reach the quarter-finals.

His son, Jamie Redknapp, played under him at Bournemouth and Southampton. He is also uncle to Chelsea player Frank Lampard, who played under him at West Ham United.

Former Leeds United midfielder and Republic of Ireland manager Johnny Giles said Redknapp had "a very, very good knowledge of the game" and was "a good judge of a footballer and 80-90 per cent of successful management is about getting the right players in the club. You don't see him complicating it with big tactics or formations".

Personal Life

Redknapp was born in Poplar, London, the only child of Henry Joseph William Redknapp (1922–1996) and Violet May Brown (1924–2001).

At the age of 11, while playing for East London Schools football he was spotted by Dickie Walker, a Tottenham Hotspur scout. From there Harry grew up in the Tottenham youth ranks playing at Cheshunt, meeting the likes of Bill Nicholson, Dave Mackay and Danny Blanchflower. At the age of 15 Redknapp moved to West Ham and played alongside Bobby Moore. In a 2008 interview he stated as part of a tribute to Tom Finney: "I was a big Arsenal fan as a kid and I remember seeing him play against Tommy Docherty one night".

He is married to Sandra and they have two sons Jamie Redknapp, a now-retired footballer, and Mark, who is a model. Jamie made his professional debut under his father at AFC Bournemouth in 1990 before moving on to Liverpool and later Tottenham Hotspur and finally Southampton before retiring in 2005. His nephew is Chelsea and England midfielder Frank Lampard Junior whose parents are Sandra's late twin sister, Patricia, and Harry's former teammate and managerial assistant Frank Lampard Senior.

He and his wife Sandra are currently the fundraising presidents for the Southampton based charity Leukaemia Busters, a role that they took over in 2004 previously held by former cricketer David Gower and his wife Thorunn.

Rednapp and his wife also own a property development company (Pierfront Developments); in August 2011, it was announced that a housing development their company are building in Southsea, Hampshire, will go ahead without affordable housing. The £600,000 they offered to the council to build affordable homes elsewhere, was accepted by the council. Opponents of the scheme estimated that this will only be enough to build eight homes, instead of the 28 that council policy says they should be building in this development.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Phil Collins

Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO (born 30 January 1951) is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist.

Collins sang the lead vocals on several chart hits in the United Kingdom and the United States between 1975 and 2010, either as a solo artist or with Genesis. His singles, sometimes dealing with lost love, ranged from the drum-heavy "In the Air Tonight", dance pop of "Sussudio", piano-driven "Against All Odds", to the political statements of "Another Day in Paradise".

Collins's professional music career began as a drummer, first with Flaming Youth and then more famously with Genesis. In Genesis, Collins originally supplied backing vocals for front man Peter Gabriel, singing lead on only two songs: "For Absent Friends" from 1971's Nursery Cryme album and "More Fool Me" from Selling England by the Pound, which was released in 1973. Following Gabriel's departure in 1975, Collins became the group's lead singer.

His solo career, heavily influenced by his personal life, brought both him and Genesis commercial success. According to Atlantic Records, Collins's total worldwide sales as a solo artist, as of 2000, were 150 million. Collins has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including seven Grammy Awards, five Brit Awards—winning Best British Male three times, an Academy Award, and two Golden Globes for his solo work. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis in 2010.

Collins is one of only three recording artists (along with Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson) who have sold over 100 million albums worldwide both as solo artists and (separately) as principal members of a band. When his work with Genesis, his work with other artists, as well as his solo career is totalled, Collins had more top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the 1980s than any other artist. In 2008, Collins was ranked the 22nd most successful artist on the "The Billboard Hot 100 Top All-Time Artists".

Early Life

Collins was born in Chiswick, London, England, the son of June, a theatrical agent, and Greville Philip Austin Collins, an insurance agent, though official records state his mother to be Winifred M. Strange. He was given a toy drum kit for Christmas when he was five. Later, his uncle made him a makeshift one that he used regularly. As Collins grew older these were followed by more complete sets bought by his parents. He practised by playing alongside the television and radio, and never learned to read and write conventional musical notation; instead, he uses a system he devised himself.

From : www.wikipeida.org

James Blunt

James Hillier Blount (born 22 February 1974), better known by his stage name James Blunt, is an English singer-songwriter and musician, and former army officer, whose debut album, Back to Bedlam and single releases, including "You're Beautiful" and "Goodbye My Lover", brought him to fame in 2005. His repertoire can be best described as a mix of acoustic-tinged pop, rock and folk. After recording on the independent American label Custard Records, Blunt won two Brit Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, two Ivor Novello Awards, and by 2006 was nominated for five Grammy Awards. The following year, he released his second album All the Lost Souls (2007). Blunt's third studio album, Some Kind of Trouble, was released in November 2010. Worldwide, Blunt has sold over 18 million albums, and his debut album, Back to Bedlam, is the best-selling album of the 2000s in the UK.

Blunt was an officer in the Life Guards, a cavalry regiment of the British Army, and served under NATO in Kosovo during the conflict there in 1999. While posted to Kosovo, Blunt was introduced to the work of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF or "Doctors Without Borders"). Since then, Blunt has supported MSF by holding meet-and-greet auctions at many of his concerts. As of 4 October 2009 Blunt's primary residence is on the Spanish island of Ibiza.

Early Life

James Blunt was born at an army hospital in Tidworth, Wiltshire, England; the first child born to Jane A.F. (née Amos) and Charles Blount. James spent his early childhood living in England, Cyprus, and Germany, where his father, a Colonel in the British Army Air Corps, and military helicopter pilot, was posted at various times.

James Blunt has two younger siblings. The Blount family has a long history of military service, dating from the 10th century. His father inculcated in him a love of flying, and he earned his pilot's licence at age 16. He has a keen interest in motorcycles after learning to ride when he was 16.

Personal Life

Blunt says that he has become closer to his family since his musical success. His father manages his finances and his mother arranged the purchase of his principal residence in Ibiza, where Blunt has holidayed since he was a teenager. Blunt also owns a châlet in the Swiss town of Verbier, which he purchased in February 2007, and he was named "godfather" of one of the town's new ski lifts.

Blunt was instrumental in introducing his sister to her eventual husband after offering her for "sale" on eBay. She was having difficulty obtaining transport to a funeral in Ireland, and Blunt listed her as a "damsel in distress". A person responded saying his friend had a helicopter his sister could charter, but it turned out he was in Sweden and she did not attend the funeral. However, the respondent suggested she still meet up with the helicopter owner, Guy Harrison, and they began a relationship and eventually married.

The musician's social life has been the subject of significant commentary, particularly in the tabloid press. Blunt himself has found the degree of interest in his personal life to be bizarre, stating that "fame and celebrity is something that other people have constructed that I'm not really party to".

On 8 February 2012, Hugh Tomlinson QC, representing a number of victims of the News International phone hacking affair, informed the High Court that Blunt was one of six alleged victims who had filed for damages in new civil cases.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Chris Martin

Christopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin (2 March 1977) is an English singer-songwriter, who is the lead vocalist, pianist and rhythm guitarist of the band Coldplay. He is married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow.

Early Life

Chris Martin was born in Exeter, Devon, England and is the eldest of five children. His father, Anthony Martin, is a retired accountant, and his mother, Alison Martin, is a music teacher. Martin started his education at the pre-preparatory Hylton School and then went on to preparatory Exeter Cathedral School. It was at the prep school that Martin formed his first band, The Rocking Honkies, with Nick Repton & Iwan Gronow. Their debut performance was met with boos from the crowd. After Exeter Cathedral, Martin boarded at Sherborne School, a boys' independent school in Dorset. He also met future Coldplay manager Phil Harvey at the school. Martin continued his studies at University College London, staying at Ramsay Hall where he read Ancient World Studies and graduated with First Class honours in Greek and Latin. It is here he met future Coldplay bandmates Jonny Buckland, Will Champion and Guy Berryman.

Personal Life

Martin met American actress Gwyneth Paltrow in 2002 backstage at a Coldplay gig after the death of the actress's father, Bruce Paltrow. The couple married a year later on 5 December 2003. Their daughter, Apple Blythe Alison Martin, was born on 14 May 2004 in London. Their second child, Moses Bruce Anthony Martin, was born on 8 April 2006 in New York City. Simon Pegg and Martin's bandmate Jonny Buckland are Apple's godfathers. Martin is a longtime friend of Pegg, having met him in 2001, and appears in Shaun of the Dead, one of Pegg's movies.

Martin does not smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Adele

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (born 5 May 1988), better known mononymously as Adele, is an English recording artist and songwriter. Adele was offered a recording contract from XL Recordings after a friend posted her demonstration on MySpace in 2006. The next year she received the Brit Awards "Critics' Choice" and won the BBC Sound of 2008. Her debut album, 19, was released in 2008 to much commercial and critical success in the UK. 19 was certified four times platinum in the UK. Her career in the US was boosted by a Saturday Night Live appearance in late 2008. At the 2009 Grammy Awards, Adele received the awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. She has also won a total of 8 Grammy Awards and 3 Brit Awards.

Adele released her second album, 21, in early 2011. The album was well received critically and surpassed the success of her debut commercially. 21 has been certified 14 times platinum in the UK; in the US the album held the top position longer than any other album since 1993. The success of 21 earned Adele numerous mentions in the Guinness Book Of World Records. The album won the Grammy for Album of the Year. She is the first artist to sell more than 3 million copies of an album in a year in the UK. With her two albums and the first two singles from 21, "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone Like You", Adele became the first living artist to achieve the feat of two top five hits in both the UK Official Singles Chart and the Official Albums Chart simultaneously since the Beatles in 1964. With her third release from the album, "Set Fire to the Rain", becoming her third number one single in the US, Adele became the first artist in history to lead the Billboard 200 concurrently with three Billboard Hot 100 number ones. 21 is the longest running number one album by a female solo artist on the UK Albums Chart and is tied for the longest cumulative stay at number one by a female solo artist as well. In 2011, Adele was artist of the year by Billboard and "Rolling in the Deep" was the year's best-selling song in the United States.

Early Life

Adele Laurie Blue Adkins was born in Tottenham, north London, UK, to a single teenage mother named Penny on 5 May 1988. Adele's father split from Adele's mother when Adele was 3 years which as of 2012[update] Adele had not forgiven him for. She began singing at age four and asserts that she became obsessed with voices. Adele has cited the Spice Girls as a major influence in regard to her love and passion for music, stating that "they made me what I am today." Adele impersonated the Spice Girls at dinner parties as a young girl. To make her look like singer Gabrielle, her mother made an eye patch with sequins, which Adele said was embarrassing. At the age of nine, Adele and her mother, a furniture-maker and adult learning activities organiser, relocated to Brighton. At the age of 11, Adele and her mother moved to Brixton, and then to neighbouring district West Norwood, in South London. West Norwood is the subject for Adele's first record, "Hometown Glory", written when she was 16. After moving to South London, she became interested in R&B artists such as Aaliyah, Destiny's Child and Mary J. Blige.

Adele says that one of the most defining moments in her life was when she watched Pink perform at Brixton Academy. "It was the Missundaztood record, so I was about 13 or 14. I had never heard, being in the room, someone sing like that live I remember sort of feeling like I was in a wind tunnel, her voice just hitting me. It was incredible." Adele graduated from the BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology in Croydon in May 2006, where she was a classmate of Leona Lewis and Jessie J. Adele credits the school with nurturing her talent. In school, she was more interested in going into A&R and hoped to launch other people's careers. Although she moved away from North London aged nine, Adele remains an ardent fan of her hometown Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur.

Personal Life

Adele said that her album 21 was inspired by her ex-boyfriend and the heartbreak. In 2012 Adele was renting a £7 million mansion in West Sussex with boyfriend Simon Konecki.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Jude Law

David Jude Heyworth Law (born 29 December 1972), known professionally as Jude Law, is an English actor, film producer and director.

He began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre in 1987, and had his first television role in 1989. After starring in films directed by Andrew Niccol, Clint Eastwood and David Cronenberg, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1999 for his performance in Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr. Ripley. In 2000 he won a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA Award for his work in the film. In 2003, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in another Minghella film, Cold Mountain.

In 2006, he was one of the top ten most bankable movie stars in Hollywood. In 2007, he received an Honorary César and he was named a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. He was a member of the main competition jury at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.

Early Life

Law was born in Lewisham, South London, the second child of comprehensive school teachers Margaret Anne (née Heyworth) and Peter Robert Law; his father later became, according to Law, "the youngest headmaster in London". He has a sister, Natasha. Law was named after a "bit of both" the book Jude the Obscure and the song Hey Jude. He grew up in Blackheath, an area in the Borough of Lewisham, and was educated at John Ball Primary School in Blackheath and Kidbrooke School, before attending the Alleyn's School.

Personal Life

Law's parents live in Vaudelnay, France, where they run their own drama school and theatre. His sister Natasha is an illustrator and artist, living in London.

Law met actress Sadie Frost while working on the film Shopping. They married on 2 September 1997 and divorced on 29 October 2003. He has a stepson, Finlay Munro (born 20 September 1990), and three biological children with Frost: son Rafferty (born 6 October 1996), daughter Iris (born 25 October 2000), and son Rudy (born 10 September 2002).

While making the film Alfie in late 2003, Law and co-star Sienna Miller began a relationship, becoming engaged on Christmas Day 2004. Miller and Law separated in November 2006.

On 29 July 2009, it was announced that Law would become a father for the fourth time following a brief relationship with American model Samantha Burke in 2008. Burke gave birth to a daughter, Sophia, on 22 September 2009 in New York.

In December 2009, it was reported that Law and Miller had rekindled their relationship after starring in separate shows on Broadway in late 2009. They spent Christmas 2009 in Barbados, along with three of Law's children. They announced they had split again in February 2011.

From : www.wikipedia.org

Bernie Ecclestone

Bernard Charles "Bernie" Ecclestone (born 28 October 1930) is an English business magnate, as president and CEO of Formula One Management and Formula One Administration and through his part-ownership of Alpha Prema, the parent company of the Formula One Group of companies. As such, he is generally considered the primary authority in Formula One racing. He is most commonly addressed in tabloid journalism as "F1 Supremo". His early involvement in the sport was as a competitor and then as a manager of drivers Stuart Lewis-Evans and Jochen Rindt. In 1972, he bought the Brabham team, which he ran for fifteen years. As a team owner he became a member of the Formula One Constructors Association. His control of the sport, which grew from his pioneering the sale of television rights in the late 1970s, is chiefly financial, but under the terms of the Concorde Agreement he and his companies also manage the administration, setup and logistics of each Formula One Grand Prix. Ecclestone himself entered two Grand Prix races during the 1958 season, failing to qualify for either of them.

Ecclestone is also the ex-majority owner of the British Queens Park Rangers F.C..

Early Life

Ecclestone was born in St Peter South Elmham, a small hamlet three miles south of Bungay, Suffolk. The son of a fisherman, he attended primary school in Wissett before the family moved to Bexleyheath, Kent, in 1938. Ecclestone left school at the age of 16 to work at the local gasworks, and to pursue his hobby of motorcycles.

Personal Life

The Forbes World's Billionaires List of 2011 ranked Ecclestone as the 4th richest person in the United Kingdom, with an estimated fortune of $4.2 billion, an increase of $200 million from the previous year.

In early 2004, he sold one of his London residences in Kensington Palace Gardens, never having lived in it, to steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal for £57.1 million, at the time making it the most expensive house ever sold.

Ecclestone was married twice. His first wife was called Ivy, and they had a daughter named Deborah. He was then married to Slavica Ecclestone (née Slavica Radić) for almost 25 years. Radić was born in the town of Rijeka in Croatia in the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia in 1958. She is a 6'2" (1.88 m) former Armani model who is 28 years his junior, and 11.5 inches (29 cm) taller than her husband. The couple have two daughters, Tamara Ecclestone (born 1984) and Petra Ecclestone (born 1988). The Sun newspaper announced on 20 November 2008 that Slavica Ecclestone had moved out of the family home and filed for divorce. The divorce was granted on 11 March 2009.

From : www.wikipedia.org