Mr Talent

                        !Simon Cowell!
                                                                          (Phillip)

A little Simon:
Simon Phillip Cowell, was born 7th October 1959, he was brought up in Hertfordshire where his home was in Elstree. Cowell spent his school days in a boarding school in Dover, which he hated. He even sent a letter home to his parents to try and make them feel guilty for sending him there. At the age of 16 he was suspended once and left school as soon as he could.

Simon had taken his first job as a runner as Elstree studios, when that job had come to an end, Cowell had taken a job as a mailroom boy at EMI music (A record company) in 1979. Deciding that this job wasn't going to take him no where, he decided to leave and yet found another job in an Estate Agents, which he hated.

In the early nineties, a program called "Soldier, soldier" was a huge television hit. It stared Robson Green and Jerome Flynn.  In the program they sang 'Unchained Melody', and then Simon knew it would be a number one hit.

He went to great lengths to sign them up, until finally they produced Simon's first number one record.

Their second record 'I Believe' also went to number one, followed by the album which become the best selling album of 1995. 

After the success of his first number one single and album, Simon was pilling on the luck although there were some disappointments along the way as he nearly missed out on signing The Spice Girls, although little did he know a big opportunity was just around the corner.

This big opportunity was named 'Westlife'. Simon had met with their manager Louis Walsh and together they created possibly the biggest boy band this country has seen. The day their first record went to number one, was the day that Simon's father had passed away, which had made that celebration a down fall. From that day, Westlife went on to sell millions of singles and albums, including the number one millennium single.

When we think of Simon Cowell today the words, American Idol, Pop Idol, Britain's Got talent and X Factor comes to mind.




In 2001, Simon had the opportunity to be apart of the new TV show Pop Idol, and he had took this offer. With Simon on the Judging panel, he was joined with Pete Waterman, Neil Fox and Nicki Chapman, with And and Dec as the show hosts.



 

It was after season 2 when Simon Fuller had took Idol over to the States, not with Pop Idol, but with a new name of American Idol which Cowell was also apart of the judge panel along with Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson.






In 2004, Simon had launched a show called 'X Factor' in Britain and still holds the position of being the number one show on television. Some of the biggest stars are the ones who where founded from show such as Leona Lewis and... One Direction (mehh). In 2010 Simon had left Idol to begin launching X Factor in America.



2007, Britain's Got Talent was first screened, yet again Simon is part of the judge panel, Join him is Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan. Piers had left the show and Simon only appeared on one live show in 2011 and returned full time for the 2012 series with David Walliams, Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon.

Simon Cowell has the effect on people as the mean judge with great teeth. This is because he speaks his mind, and as a judge he is entitled to his own opinion, but this is why he his where he is today. 

Branson.... its not just Virgin

Richard Branson

                                                    (Richard Charles Nicolas Branson)




Just a little Richard

Richard was born July 18th 1950 (age 62) in Surrey, England. Richard had a hard time with education due to his struggle with dyslexia. At 13 Branson had attended at Scaitclaffe School, he was then transferred to Stowe school, a boarding school in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. After struggling still through to the age of 15, Richard had dropped out of school to start a youth-culture magazine called "Student". The magazine was run by students for students and had sold $8000 worth of advertising in the first addition, which was launched in 1966.

Not just Virgin
(Typical thing he done)

In 1969, Richard had an idea to start a mail-order record company called "Virgin" to help fund his magazine. The business had become such a success that Branson was able to expand to his own record shop in Oxford street in London. With all the success with the business and shop, he was able to build a recording studio in Oxfordshire, England in 1973.

Virgin records had its first artist, Mike Oldfield, in 1973 with his record single "Tubular bells" with the help of Branson's team.


It stayed on the UK charts for 247 weeks, instantly became a smash hit. After Oldfield's success, Virgin records had begun signing more artists such as the sex pistols. Other groups for example, The rolling stones and Culture club have put Virgin records in one of the top six record companies in the world.

Yet again, Branson had expanded his efforts, to include the travel company, Voyager group in 1980 the airline Virgin Atlantic in 1984, and a series of Virgin Megastores.












(Choice he made)
By 1992, Virgin started struggling financially, due to this, the company was sold later that year to THORN EMI for $1 billion.
1993, Branson founded the station Virgin Radio, and later started another record company. V2 includes such artists as Power Finger and Tom Jones.

Richard's Virgin Group holds more than 200 companies in over 30 countries to this day, including the UK, the U.S., Australia, Canada, Asia, Europe and South Africa. His business has yet again expanded to include, a train company, a luxury game preserve, a
mobile phone company, and a space tourism company "Virgin Galactic". Space flights had begun in 2009.