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Which Edinburgh landmark did Bill Bryson describe as looking like a “Gothic rocket ship”?
Scott Monument : definition of Scott Monument and synonyms of Scott Monument (English) The Scott Monument is a Victorian Gothic monument to Scottish author Sir Walter Scott . It stands in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh , opposite the Jenners department store on Princes Street and near to Edinburgh Waverley Railway Station . The tower is 200 feet 6 inches (61.11 m) high, and has a series of viewing decks reached by a series of narrow spiral staircases giving panoramic views of central Edinburgh and its surroundings. The highest viewing deck is reached by a total of 287 steps (those who climb the steps can obtain a certificate commemorating the event). It is built from Binny sandstone quarried in nearby Ecclesmachan . This oily stone was known to attract dirt quickly and was probably a deliberate choice to allow the Gothic form to quickly obtain the patina of age.[ citation needed ] Arguably the soot of Edinburgh's chimneys, in combination with smoke from the nearby railway line and Waverley Station perhaps over-egged the result, and it is now very hard to make out the numerous carved figures. Bill Bryson has described it as looking like a "gothic rocket ship". [1] Contents   The Monument seen from the first level   The Sir Walter Scott statue designed by John Steell , located inside the Scott Monument Following Scott's death in 1832, a competition was held to design a monument to him. An unlikely entrant went under the pseudonym " John Morvo ", the name of the medieval architect of Melrose Abbey . Morvo was in fact George Meikle Kemp , forty-five year old joiner , draftsman , and self-taught architect . Kemp had feared his lack of architectural qualifications and reputation would disqualify him, but his design (which was similar to an unsuccessful one he had earlier submitted for the design of Glasgow Cathedral ) was popular with the competition's judges, and in 1838 Kemp was awarded the contract to construct the monument. John Steell was commissioned to design a monumental statue of Scott to rest in the space between the tower's four columns. Steell's statue, made from white Carrara marble , shows Scott seated, resting from writing one of his works with a quill pen and his dog Maida by his side. The foundation stone was laid on the 15th of August 1840. Following an Act of Parliament permitting it (the Monument to Sir Walter Scott Act 1841 (4 & 5 Vict.) C A P. XV.), construction began in 1841 and ran for nearly four years. The tower was completed in the autumn of 1844, with Kemp's son placing the finial in August of the year. The total cost was £16,154/7/11. [2] When the monument was inaugurated on the 15th of August 1846, George Meikle Kemp himself was absent; walking home from the site on the foggy evening of the 6th of March 1844, Kemp had fallen into the Union Canal and drowned.   Modern administration In the 1990s, the monument was closed periodically for restoration work: In the early 1990s it was covered in scaffolding for several years, and it was closed again for additional work in 1998/99. For these purposes, the original quarry was re-opened to get matching sandstone from which craftsmen carved the necessary replacements. Proposals to stoneclean the monument as part of the restoration were shelved due to the damage it would sustain. [3] The overall cost of the restoration was £2.36 million and was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund , Historic Scotland and the City of Edinburgh Council . [2] The monument is now administered by the Culture and Sport division of the City of Edinburgh Council, although the cost of restoration led to discussions in 1996 about selling the landmark to private interests. [4]   A panorama of Edinburgh, seen from the Scott Monument   References
Scott Monument
Which building did Clive James describe as a “portable typewriter full of oyster shells”?
Notes from a small Island By Bill Bryson PROLOGUE 2 ... Pages 101 - 150 - Text Version | FlipHTML5 151 - 171 Description: Notes from a small Island By Bill Bryson PROLOGUE 2 CHAPTER ONE 10 CHAPTER TWO 16 from up there, with its crowded towns and houses climbing up the steep hillsides to thebleak upland fells, and I found myself wondering, as I often do when I stand on anorthern hillside, what all those people in all those houses do. There used to be scores ofmills all up and down Airedale ­ ten or more in Bingley alone ­ and now they are virtuallyall gone, torn down to make room for supermarkets or converted into heritage centres,blocks of flats or shopping complexes. French's Mill, Bingley's last surviving textilefactory, had closed a year or two before and now sat forlorn with broken windows.One ofthe great surprises to me upon moving North was discovering the extent to which it feltlike another country. Partly it was from the look and feel of the North ­ the high, openmoors and big skies, the wandering drystone walls, the grimy mill towns, the snug stonevillages of the Dales and Lakes ­ and partly, of course, it was to do with the accents, thedifferent words, the refreshing if sometimes startling frankness of speech. Partly it wasalso to do with the way Southerners and Northerners were so extraordinarily, sometimesdefiantly, ignorant of the geography of the other end of the country. It used to astonishme, working on newspapers in London, how often you could call out a question like'Which of the Yorkshires is Halifax in?' and be met with a tableful of blank frowns. Andwhen I moved North and told people that I'd previously lived in Surrey near Windsor, Ioften got the same look ­ a kind of nervous uncertainty, as if they were afraid I was goingto say, 'Now you show me on the map just where that is.' Mostly what differentiated the North from the South, however, was the exceptionalsense of economic loss, of greatness passed, when you drove through places like Prestonor Blackburn or stood on a hillside like this. If you draw an angled line between Bristoland the Wash, you divide the country into two halves with roughly 27 million people oneach side. Between 1980 and 1985, in the southern half they lost 103,600 jobs. In thenorthern half in the same period they lost 1,032,000 jobs, almost exactly ten times asmany. And still the factories are shutting. Turn on the local television news any eveningand at least half of it will be devoted to factory closures (and the other half will be about acat stuck up a tree somewhere; there is truly nothing direr than local television aews). SoI ask again: what do all those people in all those houses do ­ and what, more to the point,will their children do? We walked out of the grounds along another track towards Eldwick, past a large andflamboyant gatehouse, and David made a crestfallen noise. 'I used to have a friend wholived there,' he said. Now it was crumbling, its windows and doorways bricked up, a sadwaste of a fine structure. Beside it, an old walled garden was neglected and overgrown. Across the road, David pointed out the house where Fred Hoyle had grown up. In hisautobiography (It'll Start Getting Cold Any Minute Now, Just You See), Hoyle recallshow he used to see servants in white gloves going in and out the gate of Milner Field, but is mysteriously silent on all the scandal and tragedy that was happening beyondthe high wall. I had spent £3 on his autobiography in a second­hand bookshop in thecertain expectation that the early chapters would be full of accounts of gunfire andmidnight screams, so you can imagine my disappointment. A bit further on, we passed three large blocks of council flats, which were not onlyugly and remote but positioned in such an odd and careless way that, although they stoodon an open hillside, the tenants didn't actually get a view. They had, David told me, won many architectural awards. As we ambled into Bingley down a curving slope, David told me about his childhoodthere in the Forties and Fifties. He painted an attractive picture of happy times spentgoing to the pictures ('Wednesdays to the Hippodrome, Fridays to the Myrtle'), eating fishand chips out of newspapers, listening to Dick Barton and Top of the Form on the radio ­a magic lost world of half­day closings, second posts, people on bicycles, endlesssummers. The Bingley he described was a confident, prosperous cog at the heart of aproud and mighty empire, with busy factories and a lively centre full of cinemas, tea­rooms and interesting shops, which was strikingly at odds with the dowdy, traffic­frazzled, knocked­about place we were passing into now. The Myrtle and Hippodromehad shut years before. The Hippodrome had been taken over by a Woolworth's, but that,too, was now long gone. Today there isn't a cinema in Bingley or much of anything elseto make you want to go there. The centre of the town is towered over by the forbiddingpresence of the Bradford and Bingley Building Society ­ not a particularly awful buildingas these things go, but hopelessly out of scale with the town around it. Between it and atruly squalid 1960s brick shopping precinct, the centre of Bingley has had its characterdestroyed beyond repair. So it came as a pleasant surprise to find that beyond its centralcore Bingley remains a delightful spot. We walked past a school and a golf course to a place called Beckfoot Farm, a prettystone cottage in a dell beside a burbling beck. The main Bradford road was only a fewhundred yards away, but it was another, pre­motorized century back here. We followed ashady riverside path, which was exceedingly fetching in the mild sunshine. There used tobe a factory here where they rendered fat, David told me. It had the most awful smell, andthe water always had a horrible rusty­creamy colour with a skin of frothy gunge on it.Now the river was sparkling green and healthy­looking and thespot seemed totallyuntouched by either time or industry. The old factory had been scrubbed up and guttedand turned into a block of stylish flats. We walked up to a place called Five­Rise Locks,where the Leeds­to­Liverpool Canal climbs a hundred feet or so in five quick stages, andhad a look at the broken windows beyond the razor­wire perimeter of French's Mill.Then, feeling as if we had exhausted pretty much all that Bingley had to offer, we went toa convivial pub called the Old White Horse and drank a very large amount of beer, whichis what we had both had in mind all along. The next day I went shopping with my wife in Harrogate ­ or rather I had a lookaround Harrogate while she went shopping. Shopping is not, in my view, something thatmen and women should do together since all men want to do is buy something noisy likea drill and get it home so they can play with it, whereas women aren't happy until they'veseen more or less everything in town and felt at least 1,500 different textures. Am I alonein being mystified by this strange compulsion on the part of women to finger things inshops? I have many times seen my wife go twenty or thirty yards out of her way to feelsomething ­ a mohair jumper or a velveteen bed jacket or something. 'Do you like that?' I'll say in surprise since it doesn't seem her type of thing, and she'lllook at me as if I'm mad. 'That? she'll say. 'No, it's hideous.' Then why on earth,' I always want to say, 'did you walk all the way over there to touch it?' But of course like all long­term husbands I have learned to say nothing whenshopping because no matter what you say ­ 'I'm hungry', 'I'm bored', 'My feet are tired','Yes, that one looks nice on you, too', 'Well, have them both then', 'Oh, for fuck sake','Can't we just go home?', 'Monsoon? Again? Oh, for fuck sake', 'Where have I been?Where have you been?', 'Then why on earth did you walk all the way over there to touchit?' ­ it doesn't pay, so I say nothing. On this day, Mrs B. was in shoe­shopping mode, which means hours and hours ofmaking some poor guy in a cheap suit fetch endless boxes of more or less identicalfootwear and then deciding not to have anything, so I wisely decided to clear off and havea look at the town. To show her I love her, I took her for coffee and cake at Betty's (and atBetty's prices you need to be pretty damn smitten), where she issued me with her usualprecise instructions for a rendezvous. Three o'clock outside Woolworth's. But listen ­ stop fiddling with that and listen ­ if Russell & Bromley don't have the shoes I want I'llhave to go to Ravel, in which case meet me at 3.15 by the frozen foods in Marks.Otherwise I'll be in Hammick's in the cookery books section or possibly the children'sbooks ­ unless I'm in Boots feeling toasters. But probably, in fact, I'll be at Russell &Bromley trying on all the same shoes all over again, in which case meet me outside Nextno later than 3.27. Have you got that?' 'Yes.' No. 'Don't let me down.' 'Of course not.' In your dreams. And then with a kiss she was gone. I finished my coffee and savoured the elegant, old­fashioned ambience of this fine institution where the waitresses still wear frilly caps andwhite aprons over black dresses. There really ought to be more places like this, if you askme. It may cost an arm and a leg for a cafetiere and a sticky bun, but it is worth everypenny and they will let you sit there all day, which I seriously considered doing now as itwas so agreeable. But then I thought I really ought to have a look around the town, so Ipaid the bill and hauled myself off through the shopping precinct to have a look atHarrogate's newest feature, the Victoria Gardens Shopping Centre. The name is a bit richbecause they built it on top of Victoria Gardens, so it really ought to be called the NiceLittle Gardens Destroyed By This Shopping Centre. I wouldn't mind this so much, but they also demolished the last great public toilets inBritain ­ a little subterranean treasure house of polished tiles and gleaming brass in theaforementioned gardens. The Gents was simply wonderful and I've had good reportsabout the Ladies as well. I might not even mind this so much either but the new shoppingcentre is just heartbreakingly awful, the worst kind of pastiche architecture ­ a sort ofBath Crescent meets Crystal Palace with a roof by B&Q. For reasons I couldn't begin toguess at, a balustrade along the roofline had been adorned with life­sized statues ofordinary men, women and children. Goodness knows what this is meant to suggest ­ Isuppose that this is some sort of Hall of the People ­ but the effect is that it looks as if twodozen citizens of various ages are about to commit mass suicide. On the Station Parade side of the building, where the pleasant little Victoria Gardensand their pleasant little public toilets formerly existed, there is now a kind of open­airamphitheatre of steps, where I suppose it is intended for people to sit on those two or three days a year when Yorkshire is sunny, and high above theroad there has been built atruly preposterous covered footbridge in the same Georgian/Italianate/Fuck­Knows styleconnecting the shopping centre to a multi­storey car park across the way. Now, on the basis of my earlier remarks about Britain's treatment of its architecturalheritage, you may foolishly have supposed that I would be something of an enthusiast forthis sort of thing. Alas, no. If by pastiche you mean a building that takes some note of itsneighbours and perhaps takes some care to match adjoining rooflines and echo the sizeand position of its neighbours' windows and door openings and that sort of thing, thenyes, I am in favour of it. But if by pastiche you mean a kind of Disneyland version ofJolly Olde England like this laughable heap before me, then thank you but no. You could argue, I suppose ­ and I dare say Victoria Gardens' architect would ­ that atleast it shows some effort to inject traditional architectural values into the townscape andthat it is less jarring to the sensibilities than the nearby glass­and­plastic box in which theCo­op is happy to reside (which is, let me say here, a building of consummate ugliness),but in fact it seems to me that it is just as bad as, and in its way even more uninspired andunimaginative than, the wretched Co­op building. (But let me also say that neither is evenremotely as bad as the Maples building, a Sixties block that rises, like some kind of half­witted practical joke, a dozen or so storeys into the air in the middle of a long street ofinnocuous Victorian structures. Now how did that happen?) So what are we to do with Britain's poor battered towns if I won't let you have RichardSeifert and I won't let you have Walt Disney? I wish I knew. More than this, I wish thearchitects knew. Surely there must be some way to create buildings that are stylish andforward­looking without destroying the overall ambience of their setting. Most otherEuropean nations manage it (with the notable and curious exception of the French). Sowhy not here? But enough of this tedious bleating. Harrogate is basically a very fine town, and farless scarred by careless developments than many other communities. It has in the Stray, a215­acre sweep of parklike common land overlooked by solid, prosperous homes, one ofthe largest and most agreeable open spaces in the country. It has some nice old hotels, apleasant shopping area and, withal, a genteel and well­ordered air. It is, in short, as nice atown as you will find anywhere. It reminds me, in a pleasantly English way, a little ofBaden­Baden, which is, of course, not surprising since it was likewise a spa town in its day ­ and a very successful one, too. According to a leaflet Ipicked up at the Royal Pump Room Museum, as late as 1926 they were still dispensing asmany as 26,000 glasses of sulphurous water in a single day. You can still drink the waterif you want. According to a notice by the tap, it is reputedly very good for flatulence,which seemed an intriguing promise, and I very nearly drank some until I realized theymeant it prevented it. What an odd notion. I had a look around the museum and walked past the old Swan Hotel, where AgathaChristie went and hid after she found out that her husband was a philanderer, the beastlycad, then wandered up Montpellier Parade, a very pretty street filled with awesomelyexpensive antique shops. I examined the seventy­five­foot­high War Memorial, and wentfor a long, pleasantly directionless amble through the Stray, thinking how nice it must beto live in one of the big houses overlooking the park and be able to stroll to the shops. You would never guess that a place as prosperous and decorous as Harrogate couldinhabit the same zone of the country as Bradford or Bolton, but of course that is the otherthing about the North ­ it has these pockets of immense prosperity, like Harrogate andIlkley, that are even more decorous and flushed with wealth than their counterparts in theSouth. Makes it a much more interesting place, if you ask me. Eventually, with the afternoon fading, I took myself back into the heart of theshopping area, where I scratched my head and, with a kind of panicky terror, realized Ididn't have the faintest idea where or when I had agreed to meet my dear missis. I wasstanding there wearing an expression like Stan Laurel when he turns around to find thatthe piano he was looking after is rolling down a steep hill with Ollie aboard, legswriggling, when by a kind of miracle my wife walked up. 'Hello, dear!' she said brightly. 'I must say, I never expected to find you here waitingfor me.' 'Oh, for goodness' sake, give me a bit of credit, please. I've been here ages.' And arm in arm we strode off into the wintry sunset. CHAPTER   EIGHTEEN I TOOK A TRAIN TO LEEDS AND THEN ANOTHER TO MANCHESTER ­ Along, slow but not unpleasant ride through steep­sided dales that looked uncannily likethe one I lived in except that these were thickly strewn with old mills and huddled, soot­blackened villages. The old mills seemed to come in three types: 1. Derelict with brokenwindows and TO LET signs. 2. Gone ­ just a grassless open space. 3. Something non­manufacturing, like a depot for a courier service or a B&Q Centre or similar. I must havepassed a hundred of these old factories but not until we were well into the outskirts ofManchester did I see a single one that appeared to be engaged in the manufacture ofanything. I had left home late, so it was four o'clock and getting on for dark by the time Iemerged from Piccadilly Station. The streets were shiny with rain, and busy with trafficand hurrying pedestrians, which gave Manchester an attractive big­city feel. For sometotally insane reason, I had booked a room in an expensive hotel, the Piccadilly. My roomwas on the eleventh floor, but it seemed like about the eighty­fifth such were the views. Ifmy wife had had a flare and an inclination to get up on the roof, I could just about haveseen her. Manchester seemed enormous ­ a boundless sprawl of dim yellow lights andstreets filled with slow­moving traffic. I played with the TV, confiscated the stationery and spare tablet of soap, and put a pairof trousers in the trouser press ­ at these prices I was determined to extract full value fromthe experience ­even though I knew that the trousers would come out with permanentpleats in the oddest places. (Is it me or are these things totally counter­productive?) That done, I went out for a walk and to find a place to eat. There seems to be a kind of inverse ratio where dinner establishments and I areconcerned ­ namely that the more of them there are, the harder it is for me to find one thatlooks even remotely adequate to my modest needs. What I really wanted was a littleItalian place on a side­street ­ the kind with checked tablecloths and Chianti bottles with candles and a nice 1950s feel about them. British cities used to abound in these places,but they are deucedly hard to find now. I walked for some distance but the only places Icould find were either the kind of national chains with big plastic menus and dismal foodor hotel dining rooms where you had to pay £17.95 for three courses of pompousdescription and overcooked disappointment. Eventually I ended up in Chinatown, which announces itself to the world with a bigcolourful arch and then almost immediately loses heart. There was a scattering ofrestaurants among big office buildings, but I can't say I felt as if I had wandered into alittle corner of the Orient. The bigger, better­looking restaurants were packed, so I endedup going to some upstairs place, where the decor was tatty, the food barely OK and theservice totally indifferent. When the bill came, I noticed an extra charge beside a notationmarked 'S.C.' 'What's that?' I said to the waitress, who had, I should like to note, been uncommonlysurly throughout. 'Suhvice chawge.' I looked at her in surprise. 'Then why, pray, is there also a space here for a tip?' She gave a bored, nothing­to­do­with­me shrug. 'That's terrible,' I said. 'You're just tricking people into tipping twice.' She gave a heavy sigh, as if she had been here before. 'You got complaint? You wantsee manager?' The offer was made in a tone that suggested that if I were to see the manager it wouldbe with some of his boys in a back alley. I decided not to press the matter, and insteadreturned to the streets and had a long, purposeless walk through Manchester's dank andstrangely ill­lit streets ­ I can't remember a darker city. I couldn't say where I went exactlybecause Manchester's streets always seem curiously indistinguishable to me. I never feltas if I were getting nearer to or farther from anything in particular but just wanderingaround in a kind of urban limbo.Eventually I ended up beside the great dark bulk of theArndale Centre (there's that name again). What a monumental mistake that was. I supposeit must be nice, in a place as rainy as Manchester, to be able to shop undercover and ifyou are going to have these things at all, much better to have them in the city than outsideit. But at night it is just twenty­five acres of deadness, a massive impediment to anyonetrying to walk through the heart of the city. I could see through the windows that they hadtarted it up inside since the last time I had been there ­ and very nice it appeared now, too­ but outside it was still covered in those awful tiles that make it look like the world'slargest gents' lavatory, and indeed as I passed up Cannon Street three young men withclose­cropped heads and abundantly tattooed arms were using an outside wall for thatvery purpose. They paid me scant heed, but it suddenly occurred to me that it was gettinglate and the streets were awfully empty of respectable­looking fellows like me, so Idecided to get back to my hotel before some other late­night carousers put me to similaruse. I awoke early and hit the drizzly streets determined to form some fixed impression ofthe city. My problem with Manchester, you see, is that I have no image of it, none at all.Every other great British city has something about it, some central motif, that fixes it inmy mind: Newcastle has its bridge, Liverpool has the Liver Buildings and docks, Edinburgh its castle, Glasgow the great sprawl of Kelvingrove Park and the buildings ofCharles Rennie Mackintosh, even Birmingham has the Bull Ring (and very welcome it isto it, too). But Manchester to me is a perennial blank ­ an airport with a city attached.Mention Manchester to me and all that swims into my mind is a vague and unfocusedimpression of Ena Sharpies, L.S. Lowry, Manchester United football club, some plan tointroduce trams because they have them in Zurich or some place and they seem to workpretty well there, the Halle Orchestra, the old Manchester Guardian and these rathertouching attempts every four years or so to win the bid for the next summer Olympics,usually illustrated with ambitious plans to build a £400­million velodrome or a £250­million table tennis complex or some other edifice vital to the future of a decliningindustrial city. Apart from Ena Sharpies and L.S. Lowry, I couldn't name a single great Mancunian.It's clear from the abundance of statues outside the town hall that Manchester hasproduced its share of worthies in its time, though it is equally clear from all the frockcoats and mutton chops that it has either stopped producing worthies or stopped producingstatues. I had a look around them now and didn't recognize a single name. If I haven't got a very clear image of the city, it's not entirely my fault. Manchesterdoesn't appear to have a very fixed image of itself. 'Shaping Tomorrow's City Today' isthe official local motto, but in fact Manchester seems decidedly of two minds about itsplace in the world. At Castlefield, they were busy creating yesterday's city today,cleaning up the old brick viaducts and warehouses, recobbling the quaysides, puttingfresh coats of glossy paint on the old arched footbridges and scattering about a generousassortment of old­fashioned benches, bollards and lampposts. By the time they havefinished, you will be able to see exactly what life was like in nineteenth­centuryManchester ­ or at least what it would have been like if they had had wine­bars and cast­iron litter bins and directional signs for heritage trails and the G­Mex Centre. At SalfordQuays, on the other hand, they have taken the opposite tack and done everything they canto obliterate the past, creating a kind of mini­Dallas on the site of the once­boomingdocks of the Manchester Ship Canal. It's the most extraordinary place ­ a huddle of glassymodern office buildings and executive flats in the middle of a vast urban nowhere, all ofthem seemingly quite empty. The one thing you have a job to find in Manchester is the one thing you mightreasonably expect to see ­ row after row of huddled Coronation Streets. These used toexist in abundance, I'm told, but now you could walk miles without seeing a single brickterrace anywhere. But that doesn't matter because you can always go and see the realCoronation Street on the Granada Studios Tour, which is what I did now ­ along with, itseemed, nearly everyone else in the North of England. For some distance along the roadto the studios there are massive waste­ground car and coach parks, and even at 9.45 in themorning they were filling up. Coaches from far and wide ­ from Workington, Darlington,Middlesbrough, Doncaster, Wakefield, almost every northern town you could think of ­were decanting streams of sprightly white­haired people, while from the car parks issuedthrongs of families, everyone looking happy and good natured. I joined a queue that was a good 150 yards long and three or four people wide and wondered if this wasn't a mistake, but when the turnstiles opened the line advanced prettysmartishly and within minutes I was inside. To my deep and lasting surprise, itwasactually quite wonderful. I had expected it to consist of a stroll up the CoronationStreet set and a perfunctory guided tour of the studios, but they have made it into a kindof amusement park and done it exceedingly well. It had one of those MotionmasterCinemas, where the seats tilt and jerk, so that you actually feel as if you are being hurledthrough space or thrown off the edge of a mountain, and another cinema where you puton plastic glasses and watched a cherishably naff 3D comedy. There was an entertainingdemonstration of sound effects, an adorably gruesome show about special effects make­up and a lively, hugely amusing debate in an ersatz House of Commons, presided over bya troupe of youthful actors. And the thing was, all of these were done not just withconsiderable polish but with great and genuine wit. Even after twenty years here, I remain constantly amazed and impressed by the qualityof humour you find in the most unlikely places ­ places where it would simply not existin other countries. You find it in the patter of stallholders in places like Petticoat Laneand in the routines of street performers ­ the sort of people who juggle flaming clubs ordo tricks on unicycles and keep up a steady stream of jokes about themselves and selectedmembers of the audience ­ and in Christmas pantomimes and pub conversations andencounters with strangers in lonely places. I remember once years ago arriving at Waterloo Station to find the place in chaos. Afire up the line at Clapham Junction had disrupted services. For an hour or so hundreds ofpeople stood with incredible patience and implacable calm watching a blank departureboard. Occasionally a rumour would rustle through the crowd that a train was about toleave from platform 7, and everyone would traipse off there only to be met at the gate bya new rumour that the train was, in fact, departing from platform 16 or possibly platform2. Eventually, after visiting most of the station's platforms and sitting on a series of trainsthat went nowhere, I found myself in the guards' van of an express reputed to bedeparting for Richmond shortly. The van had one other occupant: a man in a suit sittingon a pile of mailbags. He had an enormous red beard ­ you could have stuffed a mattresswith it ­ and the sort of world­weary look of someone who has long since abandonedhope of reaching home. 'Have you been here long?' I asked. He exhaled thoughtfully and said: 'Put it this way. I was clean shaven when I got here.'I just love that. Not too many months before this, I had been with my family to Euro Disneyland. Technologically, it had been stunning. The amount of moneyinvested by Disney in a single ride would make any part of the Granada Studios Tourlook like amateur night in a village hall. But it occurred to me now, as I sat in theimmense conviviality of Granada's mock House of Commons debate, that not once atDisneyland had there been a single laugh. Wit, and particularly the dry, ironic, taking­the­piss sort of wit, was completely beyond them. (Do you know that there isn't even anequivalent in American speech for 'taking the piss'?) Yet here in Britain it is such afundamental part of daily life that you scarcely notice it. Just the day before at Skipton Ihad asked for a single to Manchester with a receipt. When the man in the window passed them to me he said: 'The ticket's free . .. but it's eighteen­fifty for the receipt.' If he haddone that in America, the customer would have said: 'What? What're ya saying? Theticket's free, but the receipt costs £18.50? What kind of cockamamy set­up is this?' IfDisney had had a House of Commons debate, it would have been earnest, hokey,frighteningly competitive and over in three minutes. The people on the two sides of thechamber would have cared deeply, if briefly, about coming out on top. Here, things wereso contrived that there wasn't the remotest possibility of anyone's winning. It was allabout having a good time, and it was done so well, so cheerfully and cleverly, that I couldhardly stand it. And I knew with a sinking feeling that I was going to miss this verymuch. The one place you don't find any humour on the Granada Studios Tour is onCoronation Street, but that is because for millions of us it is a near­religious experience. Ihave a great fondness for Coronation Street because it was one of the first programmes Iwatched on British television. I had no idea what was going on, of course. I couldn'tunderstand half of what the characters said or why they were all called Chuck. But Ifound myself strangely absorbed by it. Where I came from, soap operas were alwaysabout rich, ruthless, enormously successful people with $1,500 suits and offices high upin angular skyscrapers, and the main characters were always played by the sort of actorsand actresses who, given a choice between being able to act and having really great hair,would always go for the hair. And here was this amazing programme about ordinarypeople living on an anonymous northern street, talking a language I could barelyunderstand and never doing much of anything. By the time the first adverts came on, Iwas a helpless devotee.Then I was cruelly forced into working nights on Fleet Street andfell out of the habit. Now I am not even permitted in the room when Coronation Street ison because I spend the whole time saying, 'Where's Ernie Bishop? So who's that then? Ithought Deirdre was with Ray Langton? Where's Len? Stan Ogden is dead?' and after aminute I find myself shooed away. But, as I discovered now, you can go years withoutwatching Coronation Street and still enjoy walking along the set because it's so obviouslythe same street. It's the real set, by the way ­ they close the park on most Mondays so thatthey can film on it ­ and it feels like a real street. The houses are solid and made of realbricks, though, like everyone else, I was disappointed to peer in the windows and findthrough gaps in the curtains that they were empty shells with nothing but electrical cablesand carpenters' sawhorses inside. I was a bit confused to encounter a hairdresser's salonand a pair of modern houses, and the Kabin, to my clear distress, was much smarter andwell ordered than it used to be, but I still felt uncannily on familiar and hallowed turf.Throngs of people walked up and down the street in a kind of reverential hush,identifying front doors and peering through lace curtains. I latched on to a friendly littlelady with blue­rinsed hair under a transparent rain hat she seemed to have made from abread wrapper, and she not only informed me who lived in which houses now, but whohad lived in which houses way back when, so that I was pretty well brought up to speed.Pretty soon I found myself surrounded by a whole flock of little blue­haired ladiesanswering my shocked questions ('Deirdre with a toy boy? Never!') and assuring me withsolemn nods that it was so. It is a profoundly thrilling experience to walk up and downthis famous street ­ you may smirk, but you would feel just the same and you know it ­ and it comes as something of a shock to round the corner at either end and find yourselfback in an amusement park. I had only intended to stay an hour or so at the park, and hadn't got anywhere near theguided studio tour or the Coronation Street gift shop, when I glanced at my watch anddiscovered with a snort of alarm that it was nearly one o'clock. In a mild panic, I hastenedf$om the park and back to my distant hotel, fearful that I would be charged for anotherday or, at the very least, that my trousers would be overcooked. In consequence I found myself, three­quarters of an hour later, standing on the edge ofPiccadilly Gardens with a heavy rucksack and a pretty near total uncertainty about where to go next. I had it vaguely in mind tohead for the Midlands, since I had given this noble if challenging region of the countrypretty short shrift on my previous foragings, but as I was standing there a faded reddouble­decker bus announcing WIGAN in its little destination window pulled up besideme and the matter was out of my hands. It happened that at this very moment I had TheRoad to Wigan Pier sticking out of my back pocket, so unhesitatingly ­ and wisely ­ Itook this for a sign. I bought a single and found my way to a seat midway along the back upstairs. Wigancan't be more than fifteen or sixteen miles from Manchester, but it took most of theafternoon to get there. We lurched and reeled through endless streets that never seemed tochange character or gain any. They were all lined with tiny terrace houses, of which everyfourth one seemed to be a hairdresser's, and dotted with garages and brick shoppingprecincts with an unvarying array of supermarkets, banks, video takeouts, pie and peashops, and betting establishments. We went through Eccles and Worsley, then through asurprisingly posh bit, and on to Boothstown and Tyldesley and Atherton and Hindley andother such places of which I had never heard. The bus stopped frequently ­ every twentyfeet in places, it seemed ­ and at nearly every stop there was a large exchange of people.They nearly all looked poor and worn out and twenty years older than I suspect theyactually were. Apart from a sprinkling of old men in flat caps and dun­coloured, tightlyzippered Marks 8c Spencer's jackets, the passengers were nearly all middle­aged womenwith unlikely hairdos and the loose, phlegmy laughter of hardened smokers, but theywere unfailingly friendly and cheerful and seemed happy enough with their lot. They allcalled each other 'darlin' and 'love'. The most remarkable thing ­ or perhaps the least remarkable thing, depending on howyou look at it ­ was how neat and well looked after were the endless terraces of littlehouses we passed. Everything about them bespoke an air of modesty and make­do, butevery stoop shone, every window gleamed, every sill had a fresh, glossy coat of paint. Itook out my copy of The Road to Wigan Pier and lost myself for a bit in another world,one that occupied the same space as these little communities we were passing through,but was impossibly at odds with what my eyes were telling me when I glanced up fromthe pages. Orwell ­ and let us never forget that he was an Eton boy from afairly privilegedbackground ­ regarded the labouring classes the way we might regard Yap Islanders, as astrange but interesting anthropological phenomenon. In Wigan Pier he records how oneof the great panic moments of his boyhood years was when he found himself in the company of a group of working men and thought he would have to drink from a bottlethey were passing round. Ever since I read this, I've had my doubts about old Georgefrankly. Certainly he makes the working class of the 1930s seem disgustingly filthy, butin fact every piece of evidence I've ever seen shows that most of them were almostobsessively dedicated to cleanliness. My own father­in­law grew up in an environment ofstarkest poverty and used to tell the most appalling stories of deprivation ­ you know thekind of thing: father killed in a factory accident, thirty­seven brothers and sisters, nothingfor tea but lichen broth and a piece of roofing slate except on Sundays when they mighttrade in a child for a penny's worth of rotten parsnips, and all that sort of thing ­ and hisfather­in­law, a Yorkshireman, used to tell even more appalling stories of hopping forty­seven miles to school because he only had one boot and subsisting on a diet of stale bunsand snot butties. 'But,' they would both invariably add, 'we were always clean and thehouse was spotless.' And it must be said they were the most fastidiously scrubbed personsimaginable, as were all their countless brothers and sisters and friends and relatives. It also happens that not long before this I had met Willis Hall, the author andplaywright (and a very nice man into the bargain), and somehow we got to talking aboutthis very matter. Hall grew up poor in Leeds, and he unhesitatingly confirmed that thoughthe houses were barren and conditions hard, there was never the tiniest hint of dirtiness.'When my mother was to be rehoused after the war,' he told me, 'she spent her last daythere scrubbing it from top to bottom until it shone, even though she knew it was going tobe torn down the next day. She just couldn't bear the thought of leaving it dirty ­ and Ipromise you that that wouldn't have been thought peculiar by anyone from thatneighbourhood.' For all his professed sympathy for the masses, you would never guess from readingOrwell that they were capable of any higher mental activities, and yet one Leedsneighbourhood alone produced Willis Hall, Keith Waterhouse and Peter O'Toole, while asimilarly impoverished district of Salford that I know of produced Alistair Cooke and theartist Harold Riley, and I am sure the story was repeated countless times all up and down the country. Such was the picture of appalling squalor Orwell painted that even now I was startledto find how neat and well maintained Wigan appeared to be as we entered it by means ofa long hill. I got off at the bottom, pleased to return to the fresh air, and set off in searchof the famous pier. Wigan Pier is an arresting landmark, yet ­ and here's another reason tobe a bit cautious with regard to old George's reporting skills ­ after spending some days inthe town, he concluded that the pier had been demolished. (So too, for that matter, didPaul Theroux in Kingdom by the Sea.) Now correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you thinkit a bit odd to write a book called The Road to Wigan Pier and to spend some days in thetown and never once think to ask anybody whether the pier was still there or not? In any case, you could hardly miss it now since there are cast­iron signposts pointingthe way to it on almost every corner. The pier ­it is really just an old coal shed on the sideof the Leeds­to­Liverpool Canal ­ has (inevitably) been refurbished as a tourist attractionand incorporates a museum, gift shop, snack bar and a pub called, without evident irony,The Orwell. Alas for me, it was shut on Fridays, so I had to content myself with walkingaround it and peering in the windows at the museum displays, which looked reasonably diverting. Across the street was something nearly as arresting as the pier ­ a real workingmill, a mountain of red bricks with the name Trencherfield Mill emblazoned across anupper storey. It's now part of Courtauld's, and is a sufficient rarity these days that it issomething of a tourist attraction, too. There were signs out front telling you which way togo for the guided tours, the factory shop and the snack bar. It seemed a bit of an oddnotion to me, the idea of joining a queue to watch people making duvets or whatever it isthey do in there, but in any case it too appeared to be closed to the public on Fridays. Thesnack bar door was padlocked. So I walked into the centre, a fair hike but a not unrewarding one. Such is Wigan'sperennially poor reputation that I was truly astounded to find it has a handsome and well­maintained town centre. The shops seemed prosperous and busy and there were lots ofpublic benches to sit on for the many people unable to take an active part in all theeconomic activity around them. Some talented architect had managed to incorporate anew shopping arcade into the existing fabric of the buildings in a simple but deceptivelyclever and effective way by making the glass canopy of the entrance matchthe line of thegables of the surrounding structures. The result was an entrance that was bright andmodern but pleasantly harmonious ­ precisely the sort of thing I've been going on aboutfor all these many pages ­ and I was delighted to think that if this sort of thing is going tohappen just once in Britain that it should be in poor beleaguered Wigan. To celebrate, I went off to have a cup of tea and a sticky bun at a place indoors calledthe Corinthia Coffee Lounge, which boasted, among its many other advertised features, a'Georgian Potato Oven'. I asked the girl at the counter what that was and she looked at meas if I were very strange. 'It's for cooking potatoes and tha',' she said. But of course. I took my tea and sticky bun to a table, where I spent a little time going'Ooh, lovely,' and smiling inanely at some nice ladies at the next table, and afterwards,feeling strangely pleased with my day, went off to find the station. CHAPTER   NINETEEN I TOOK A TRAIN TO LIVERPOOL. THEY WERE HAVING A FESTIVAL OFlitter when I arrived. Citizens had taken time off from their busy activities to add crisppackets, empty cigarette boxes and carrier­bags to the otherwise bland and neglectedlandscape. They fluttered gaily in the bushes and brought colour and texture to pavementsand gutters. And to think that elsewhere we stick these objects in rubbish bags. In another bout of extravagant madness, I had booked a room in the Adelphi Hotel. Ihad seen it from the street on earlier visits and it appeared to have an old­fashionedgrandeur about it that I was keen to investigate. On the other hand, it looked expensiveand I wasn't sure my trousers could stand another session in the trouser press. So I wasmost agreeably surprised when I checked in to discover that I was entitled to a specialweekend rate and that there would be money spare for a nice meal and a parade of beer inany of the many wonderful pubs in which Liverpool specializes. And so, soon afterwards, I found myself, like all fresh arrivals in Liverpool, in thegrand and splendorous surroundings of the Philharmonic, clutching a pint glass and rubbing shoulders with a happy Friday­evening throng. The Phil (you can call it this ifyou have been there twice) was in fact a bit too crowded for my liking. There wasnowhere to sit and scarcely any room to stand, so I drank two pints, just enough at mytime of life to need a pee ­ for there is no place in the world finer for a pee than the ornategents' room of the Philharmonic ­ then went off to find some place a little quieter. I ended up back in a place called The Vines, which was nearly asornate as thePhilharmonic but infinitely quieter. Apart from me, there were only three othercustomers, which was a mystery to me because it was a very fine pub with woodpanelling by some Grinling Gibbons wannabe and a plaster ceiling even more ornate thanthe panelling. As I was sitting there drinking my beer and savouring my plushsurroundings, some guy came in with a collecting tin from which the original label hadbeen clumsily scratched, and asked me for a donation for handicapped children. '\"Which handicapped children?' I asked. 'Ones in wheelchairs like.' 'I mean which organization do you represent?' 'It's, er, the, er, Handicapped Children's Organization like.' 'Well, as long as it's totally legitimate,' I said and gave him 20p. And that is what I likeso much about Liverpool. The factories may be gone, there may be no work, the city maybe pathetically dependent on football for its sense of destiny, but the Liverpudlians stillhave character and initiative, and they don't bother you with preposterous ambitions towin the bid for the next Olympics. So nice was The Vines that I drank two more pints and then realized that I reallyought to get something in my stomach lest I grow giddy and end up staggering into streetfurniture and singing 'Mother Machree'. Outside, the hill on which the pub stood seemedsuddenly and unaccountably steep and taxing, until it dawned on me, in my mildly addledstate, that I had come down it before whereas now I was going up it, which seemed to puteverything in a new light. I found myself, after no great distance, standing outside aGreek restaurant and surveying the menu with a hint of a sway. I'm not much of one forGreek food ­ no disrespect to a fine cuisine, you understand, but I always feel as if I couldboil my own leaves if I had a taste for that sort of thing ­ but the restaurant was soforlornly empty and the proprietress beckoned at me with such imploring eyes that Ifound myself wandering in. Well, the meal was wonderful. I have no idea what I ate, butit was abundant and delicious and they treated me like a prince. Foolishly I washed it alldown with many additional draughts of beer. By the time I finished and settled the bill,leaving a tip of such lavishness as to bring the whole family to the kitchen door, andbegan the long process of stabbing an arm at a mysteriously disappearing jacket sleeve, Iwas, I fear, pretty nearly intoxicated. I staggered out into the fresh air, feeling suddenlyqueasy and largely incapable. Now the second rule of excessive drinking (the first, of course, is don't take a sudden shine to a woman larger than Hoss Cartwright) is never to drink ina place on a steep slope. I walked down the hill on unfamiliar legs that seemed to snapout in front of me like whipped lengths of rope. The Adelphi, glowing beckoningly at thefoot of the hill, managed the interesting trick of being both near by and astonishinglydistant. It was like looking at it through the wrong end of a telescope ­ a sensation somewhat enhanced by the fact that my head was a good seven or eight yards behind mymanically flopping appendages. I followed them helplessly, and by a kind of miracle theyhurtled me down the hill, safely across the road and up the steps to the entrance to theAdelphi, where I celebrated my arrival by making a complete circuit in the revolvingdoor so that I emerged into open air once again, before plunging back in and being flungwith a startling suddenness into the Adelphi's grand and lofty lobby. I had one of thosewhere­am­I moments, then grew aware that the night staff were silently watching me.Summoning as much dignity as I could and knowing that the lifts would be quite beyondme, I went to the grand staircase and managed ­ I know not how ­ to fall up them in amanner uncannily reminiscent of a motion picture run in reverse. All I know is that at thevery end I leapt backwards to my feet and announced to the craning faces that I was quiteall right, and then embarked on a long search for my room among the Adelphi's endlessand mysteriously numbered corridors. Here's a piece of advice for you. Don't go on the Mersey ferry unless you are preparedto have the famous song by Gerry and the Pacemakers running through your head forabout eleven days afterwards. They play it when you board the ferry and they play itwhen you get off and for quite a lot of time in between. I went on it the followingmorning thinking a bit of a sitdown and a cruise on the water would be just the way toease myself out of a killer hangover, but in fact the inescapable sound of 'Ferry 'cross theMersey' only worsened my cranial plight. Apart from that, it must be said that the Merseyferry is an agreeable, if decidedly breezy, way of passing a morning. It's a bit like theSydney Harbour cruise, but without Sydney. When they weren't playing 'Ferry 'cross the Mersey', they played a soundtrackoutlining the famous sights from the deck, but the acoustics were terrible and 80 per centof whatever was said was instantly blown away on the wind. All I could hear weresnatchesof things like 'three million' and 'world's biggest' but whether they were talkingabout oil refinery capacity or Derek Hatton's suits I couldn't say. But the gist of it wasthat this was once a great city and now it's Liverpool. Now don't get me wrong. I'm exceedingly fond of Liverpool. It's probably myfavourite English city. But it does rather feel like a place with more past than future.Leaning on a deck rail gazing out on miles of motionless waterfront, it was impossible tobelieve that until quite recently ­ and for 200 proud and prosperous years before that ­Liverpool's ten miles of docks and shipyards provided employment for 100,000 people,directly or indirectly. Tobacco from Africa and Virginia, palm oil from the South Pacific,copper from Chile, jute from India, and almost any other commodity you could care toname passed through here on its way to being made into something useful. So too, no lesssignificantly, did some 10 million people bound for a new life in the new world, drawnby stories of streets paved with gold and the possibility of accumulating immensepersonal wealth, or in the case of my own forebears by the giddy prospect of spending thenext century and a half dodging tornadoes and shovelling snow in Iowa. Liverpool became the third richest city in the empire. Only London and Glasgow hadmore millionaires. By 1880 it was generating more tax revenue than Birmingham,Bristol, Leeds and Sheffield together even though collectively they had twice thepopulation. Cunard and White Star Lines had their headquarters in Liverpool, and there were countless other lines, now mostly forgotten ­ Blue Funnel, Bank Line, Coast Line,Pacific Steam Line, McAndrews Lines, Elder Dempster, Booth. There were more linesoperating out of Liverpool then than there are ships today, or so at least it can seem whenthere is nothing much along the waterfront but the ghostly warble of Gerry Marsden'svoice. The decline happened in a single generation. In 1966, Liverpool was still the secondbusiest port in Britain, after London. By 1985, it had fallen so low that it was smaller andquieter than even Tees and Hartlepool, Grimsby and Immingham. But in its heyday it wassomething special. Maritime commerce brought Liverpool not just wealth andemployment, but an air of cosmopolitanism that few cities in the world could rival, and itstill has that sense about it. In Liverpool, you still feel like you are some place. I walked from the ferry to the Albert Dock. There were plans at one time to drain itand turn it into a car park ­ it seems a miracle sometimes that there is anything at all left in this poor, stumbling country ­ but now,of course, they have been scrubbed up and gentrified^ the old warehouses turned intooffices, flats and restaurants for the sort of people who carry telephones in theirbriefcases. It also incorporates an outpost of the Tate Gallery and the MerseysideMaritime Museum. I love the Merseyside Maritime Museum, not merely because it is well done butbecause it gives such a potent sense of what Liverpool was like when it was a great port ­indeed, when the world was full of a productive busyness and majesty of enterprise that itseems utterly to have lost now. How I'd love to have lived in an age when you could walkto a waterfront and see mighty ships loading and unloading great squares of cotton fibreand heavy brown bags of coffee and spices, and when every sailing involved hundreds ofpeople ­ sailors and dockers and throngs of excited passengers. Today, you go to awaterfront and all you find is an endless expanse of battered containers and one guy in anelevated cabin shunting them about. Once there was infinite romance in the sea, and the Merseyside Maritime Museumcaptures every bit of it. I was particularly taken with an upstairs room full of outsizedships' models ­ the sort that must once have decorated executive boardrooms. Gosh, theywere wonderful. Even as models they were wonderful. All the great Liverpool ships werehere ­ the Titanic, the Imperator, the RMS Majestic (which began life as the Bismarckand was seized as war reparations) and the unutterably lovely TSS Vauban, with its broaddecks of polished maple and its jaunty funnels. According to its label, it was owned bythe Liverpool, Brazil and River Plate Steam Navigation Company Limited. Just readingthose words, I was seized with a dull ache at the thought that never again will we see sucha beautiful thing. J.B. Priestley called them the greatest constructions of the modernworld, our equivalent of cathedrals, and he was absolutely right. I was appalled to thinkthat never in my life would I have an opportunity to stride down a gangplank in a panamahat and a white suit and go looking for a bar with a revolving ceiling fan. How crushinglyunfair life can sometimes be. I spent two hours wandering through the museum, looking with care at all thedisplays. I would happily have stayed longer, but I had to check out of the hotel, so Iregretfully departed and walked back through central Liverpool's fine Victorian streets to the Adelphi, where I grabbed my things and checked out.I had a slight hankering to go toPort Sunlight, the model community built in 1888 by William Lever to house his soapworkers, as I was interested to see how it compared with Saltaire. So I went to LiverpoolCentral and caught a train. At Rock Ferry we were informed that because of engineeringworks we would have to complete the journey by bus. This was OK by me because I wasin no hurry and you can always see more from a bus. We rode along the Wirral peninsulafor some time before the driver announced the stop for Port Sunlight. I was the onlyperson to get off, and the most striking thing about it was that this was patently not PortSunlight. I tapped on the front doors and waited for them to gasp open. 'Excuse me,' I said, 'but this doesn't look like Port Sunlight.' 'That's because it's Bebington,' he said. 'It's as close as I can get to Port Sunlightbecause of a low bridge.' Oh. 'So where exactly is Port Sunlight then?' I asked but it was to a cloud of blue smoke. Ihooked my rucksack over a shoulder and set off along a road that I hoped might be theright one ­ and no doubt would have been had I taken another. I walked for somedistance, but the road seemed to go nowhere, or at least nowhere that looked PortSunlightish. After a time an old man in a flat cap came doddering along and I asked himif he could point me the way to Port Sunlight. 'Port Sunlight!' he replied in the bellow of someone who thinks the world is goingdeaf with him, and with a hint that that was a bloody daft place to want to go. 'You want aboosel' 'A bus?' I said in surprise. 'How far am I then?' 'I say you want a boosel' he repeated, but more vehemently. 'I understand that. But which way is it exactly?' He jabbed me with a bony finger in a tender spot just below the shoulder. It hurt. 'It's aboose you're wanting!' '1 understand that.' You tedious­deaf old fart. I raised my voice to match his andbellowed near his ear: 'I need to know which way to go!' He looked at me as if I were unsustainably stupid. 'A bloody boose! You want abloody boose!' And then he shuffled off, working his jaw wordlessly. 'Thank you. Die soon,' I called after him, rubbing my shoulder. I returned to Bebington where I sought directions in a shop, which I should have donein the first place, of course. Port Sunlight, it turned out, was just down the road, under a railway bridge and over a junction ­ orperhaps it was the other way round. I don't know because it was now pissing down withrain and I tucked my head so low into my shoulders that I didn't see much of anything. I walked for perhaps half a mile, but it was worth every sodden step. Port Sunlightwas lovely, a proper little garden community, and much cheerier in aspect than thehuddled stone cottages of Saltaire. This had open green spaces and a pub and pretty littlehouses half hidden behind drifts of foliage. There wasn't a soul about and nothing seemedto be open ­ neither the shops nor the pub nor the heritage centre nor the Lady Lever ArtGallery, all of which was a bit of a pisser ­ but I made the best of things by having a longslog around the rainy streets. I was a bit surprised to see a factory still there, still churning out soap as far as I could tell, and then I realized that I had exhausted all that PortSunlight had to offer on a rainy Saturday out of season. So I trudged back to the bus­stopwhere I had so recently alighted and waited an hour and a quarter in a driving rain for abus onward to Hooton, which was even less fun than it sounds. Hooton offered the world not only a mildly ridiculous name, but the dumpiest BritishRail station I ever hope to sneeze in. The shack­like platform waiting­rooms weredripping wet, which didn't matter a great deal as I was soaked already. With six others, Iwaited a small eternity for a train to Chester, where I changed to another for Llandudno. The Llandudno train was gratifyingly empty, so I took a seat at a table for four, andcontented myself with the thought that I would soon be in a nice hotel or guesthousewhere I could have a hot bath followed by a generously apportioned dinner. I spent a littletime watching the scenery, then pulled out my copy of Kingdom by the Sea to see if PaulTheroux had said anything about the vicinity that I might steal or modify to my ownpurposes. As always, I was amazed to find that as he rattled along these very tracks hewas immersed in a lively conversation with his fellow passengers. How does he do it?Quite apart from the consideration that my carriage was nearly empty, I don't know howyou strike up conversations with strangers in Britain. In America, of course, it's easy. Youjust offer a hand and say, 'My name's Bryson. How much money did you make last year?'and the conversation never looks back from there. But in England ­ or in this instance Wales ­ it's so hard, or atleast it is for me. I'venever had a train conversation that wasn't disastrous or at least regretted. I either blurt thewrong thing ('Excuse me, I can't help notice the exceptional size of your nose') or it turnsout that the person whose companionship I've encouraged has a serious mental disorderthat manifests itself in murmurings and prolonged helpless weeping, or is a sales rep forthe Hoze­Blo Stucco Company who mistakes your polite interest for keenness andpromises to drop by for an estimate the next time he's in the Dales, or who wants to tellyou all about his surgery for rectal cancer and then makes you guess where he keeps hiscolostomy bag ('Give up? Look, it's here under my arm. Go on, have a squeeze') or is arecruiter for the Mormons or any of ten thousand other things I would sooner be spared.Over a long period of time it gradually dawned on me that the sort of person who willtalk to you on a train is almost by definition the sort of person you don't want to talk to ona train, so these days I mostly keep to myself and rely for conversational entertainment onbooks by more loquacious types like Jan Morris and Paul Theroux. So there is a certain neat irony that as I was sitting there minding my own businesssome guy in a rustling anorak came by, spied the book, and cried, 'Aha, that Thoreauchap!' I looked up to find him taking a perch on a seat opposite me. He looked to be in hisearly sixties, with a shock of white hair and festive, lushly overgrown eyebrows that rosein pinnacles, like the tips of whipped meringue. They looked as if somebody had beenlifting him up by grabbing hold of them. 'Doesn't know his trains, you know,' he said. 'Sorry?' I answered warily. 'Thoreau.' He nodded at my book. 'Doesn't know his trains at all. Or if he does hekeeps it to himself.' He laughed heartily at this and enjoyed it so much that he said itagain and then sat with his hands on his knees and smiling as if trying to remember thelast time he and I had had this much fun together. I gave an economical nod of acknowledgement for his quip and returned my attentionto my book in a gesture that I hoped he would correctly interpret as an. invitation to fuckoff. Instead, he reached across and pulled the book down with a crooked finger ­ an actionI find deeply annoying at the best of times. 'Do you know that book of his ­ GreatRailway what's­it? All across Asia. You know the one?' I nodded. 'Do you know that in that book he goes from Lahore to Islamabad on the DelhiExpress and never once mentions the make of engine.' I could see that I was expected to comment, so I said, 'Oh?' 'Never mentioned it. Can you imagine that? What use is a railway book if you don'ttalk about the engines.' 'You like trains then?' I said and immediately wished I hadn't. The next thing I knew the book was on my lap and I was listening to the world's mostboring man. I didn't actually much listen to what he said. I found myself riveted by hissoaring eyebrows and by the discovery that he had an equally rich crop of nose hairs. Heseemed to have bathed them in Miracle­Gro. He wasn't just a train­spotter, but a train­talker, a far more dangerous condition. . 'Now this train,' he was saying, 'is a Metro­Cammel self­sealed unit built at theSwindon works, at a guess I'd say between July 1986 and August, or at the very latestSeptember, of '88. At first I thought it couldn't be a Swindon 86­88 because of the cross­stitching on the seatbacks, but then I noticed the dimpled rivets on the side panels, and Ithought to myself, I thought, What we have here, Cyril my old son, is a hybrid. Therearen't many certainties in this world but Metro­Cammel dimpled rivets never lie. Sowhere's your home?' It took me a moment to realize that I had been asked a question. 'Uh, Skipton,' I said,only half lying. 'You'll have Crosse & Blackwell cross­cambers up there,' he said or somethingsimilarly meaningless to me. 'Now me, I live in Upton­on­Severn­' 'The Severn bore,' I said reflexively, but he missed my meaning. 'That's right. Runs right past the house.' He looked at me with a hint of annoyance, asif I were trying to distract him from his principal thesis. 'Now down there we have Z­46Zanussi spin cycles with Abbott & Costello horizontal thrusters. You can always tell a Z­46 because they go patoosh­patoosh over seamed points rather than katoink­katoink. It's adead giveaway every time. I bet you didn't know that.' I ended up feeling sorry for him. His wife had died two years before ­ suicide, I wouldguess ­ and he had devoted himself since then to travelling the rail lines of Britain,counting rivets, noting breastplate numbers, and doing whatever else it is these poorpeople do to pass the time until God takes them away to a merciful death. I had recentlyread a newspaper article in which it wasreported that a speaker at the BritishPsychological Society had described train­spotting as a form of autism called Asperger'ssyndrome. He got off at Prestatyn ­ something to do with a Faggots & Gravy twelve­ton blendertender that was rumoured to be coming through in the morning ­ and I waved to him fromthe window as the train pulled out, then luxuriated in the sudden peace. I listened to the train rushing over the tracks ­ it sounded to me like it was saying Asperger's syndromeAsperger's syndrome ­ and passed the last forty minutes to Llandudno idly countingrivets. CHAPTER   TWENTY FROM THE TRAIN, NORTH WALES LOOKED LIKE HOLIDAY HELL ­ENDLESS ranks of prison­camp caravan parks standing in fields in the middle of alonely, windbeaten nowhere, on the wrong side of the railway line and a merciless dualcarriageway, with views over a boundless estuary of moist sand dotted with treacherous­looking sinkholes and, far off, a distant smear of sea. It seemed an odd type of holidayoption to me, the idea of sleeping in a tin box in a lonesome field miles from anywhere ina climate like Britain's and emerging each morning with hundreds of other people fromidentical tin boxes, crossing the rail line and dual carriageway and hiking over a desert ofsinkholes in order to dip your toes in a distant sea full of Liverpool turds. I can't put myfinger on what exactly, but something about it didn't appeal to me. Then suddenly the caravan parks thinned, the landscape around Colwyn Bay took on ablush of beauty and grandeur, the train made a sharp jag north and minutes later we werein Llandudno. It is truly a fine and handsome place, built on a generously proportioned bay and linedalong its broad front with a huddle of prim but gracious nineteenth­century hotels thatreminded me in the fading light of a line­up of Victorian nannies. Llandudno waspurpose­built as a resort in the mid­1800s, and it cultivates a nice old­fashioned air. Idon't suppose that Lewis Carroll, who famously strolled this front with little Alice Liddellin the 1860s, telling her captivating stories of white rabbits and hookah­smokingcaterpillars and asking between times if he could borrow her knickers to wipe his feveredbrow and possibly take a few innocuous snaps ofher in the altogether, would notice agreat deal of change today, except of course that the hotels were now lit with electricityand Alice would be ­ what? ­ 127 years old and perhaps less of a distraction to a poor,perverted mathematician. To my consternation, the town was packed with weekending pensioners. Coachesfrom all over were parked along the side­streets, every hotel I called at was full and inevery dining room I could see crowds ­ veritable oceans ­ of nodding white headsspooning soup and conversing happily. Goodness knows what had brought them to theWelsh seaside at this bleak time of year. Further on along the front there stood a clutch of guesthouses, large and virtuallyindistinguishable, and a few of them had vacancy signs perched in their windows. I hadeight or ten to. choose from, which always puts me in a mild fret because I have anunerring instinct for choosing badly. My wife can survey a row of guesthouses andinstantly identify the one run by a white­haired widow with a kindly disposition and afondness for children, snowy sheets and sparkling bathroom porcelain, whereas I cangenerally count on choosing the one run by a guy with a grasping manner, a drooping fagand the sort of cough that makes you wonder where he puts the phlegm. Such, I feltgloomily certain, would be the case tonight. All the guesthouses had boards out front listing their many amenities ­ 'Colour TV','En Suite All Rooms', 'Hospitality Trays', 'Full CH' ­ which only heightened my sense ofunease and doom. How could I possibly choose intelligently among such a welter ofoptions? One offered satellite TV and a trouser press and another boasted, in specialjaunty italics, 'Current Fire Certificate' ­ something I had never thought to ask for in a B& B. It was so much easier in the days when the very most you could hope for was H 8cC in all rooms. I selected a place that looked reasonable enough from the outside ­ its board promiseda colour TV and coffee­making facilities, about all I require these days for a livelySaturday night ­ but from the moment I set foot in the door and drew in the mildewy pongof damp plaster and peeling wallpaper, I knew it was a bad choice. I was about to turnand flee when the proprietor emerged from a back room and stayed my retreat with anunenthusiastic 'Yes?' A short conversation revealed that a single room with breakfastcould be had for £19.50 ­ little short of a swindle. It was entirely out of the question that Iwould stay the night in such a dismal place at such a larcenous price, so I said, 'That sounds fine,' and signed in. Well, it's so hard tosay no. My room was everything I expected it to be ­ cold and cheerless, with melaminefurniture, grubbily matted carpet and those mysterious ceiling stains that bring to mind aneglected corpse in the room above. Fingers of icy wind slipped through the single ill­fitting sash window. I drew the curtains and was not surprised that they had to be yankedviolently before they would budge and came nowhere near meeting in the middle. Therewas a tray of coffee things but the cups were ­ let me be charitable ­ disgusting and thespoon was stuck to the tray. The bathroom, faintly illuminated by a distant light activatedby a length of string, had curling floor tiles and years of accumulated muck packed intoevery corner and crevice. I peered at the yellowy grouting round the bath and sink andrealized what the landlord did with his phlegm. A bath was out of the question, so I threwsome cold water on my face, dried it with a towel that had the texture of a Weetabix andgladly took my leave. I had a long stroll along the prom to boost my appetite and pass an hour. It feltwonderful. The air was still and sharp and there wasn't a soul about, though there werestill lots of white heads in the hotel lounges and dining rooms, all bobbing merrily about.Perhaps they were having a Parkinson's convention. I walked nearly the length of TheParade, enjoying the chill autumn air and the trim handsomeness of the setting: a softglow of hotels to the left, an inky void of restless sea to my right and a scatteredtwinkling of lights on the near and far headlands of Great and Little Ormes. I couldn't help notice ­ it seemed so obvious now ­ that nearly all the hotels andguesthouses looked markedly superior to mine. Almost without exception they had namesthat bore homage to other places ­ 'Windermere', 'Stratford', 'Clovelly', 'Derby', 'St Kilda',even Toronto' ­ as if their owners feared that it would be too much of a shock to thesystem to remind visitors that they were in Wales. Only one place, with a sign that said'Gwely a BrecwastfRed and Breakfast', gave any hint that I was, at least in a technicalsense, abroad. I dined simply at a small nondescript restaurant off Mostyn Street and afterwards, feeling disinclined to return to my dingy room in a state of stark sobriety, went huntingfor a pub. Llandudno had surprisingly few of these vital institutions. I walked for sometime before I found one that looked even vaguelyapproachable. It was a typical town pubinside ­ maroon­plush, stale­odoured, smoky ­ and it was busy, mostly with youngpeople. I took a seat at the bar, thinking I might be able to eavesdrop on my neighboursand receive more immediate attention when my glass was empty, but neither of these wasto be. There was too much music and background noise to discern what my neighbourswere saying and too much clamour for service at a spot near the till for the single harriedserver to notice an empty glass and a beggarly face up at my end. So I sat and drank beer when I could get some and instead watched, as I often do inthese circumstances, the interesting process by which customers, upon finishing a pint,would present the barman with a glass of clinging suds and golden dribble, and that thiswould be carefully filled to slightly overflowing, so that the excess froth, charged with aninvisible load of bacteria, spittle and micro­fragments of loosened food, would run downthe side of the glass and into a slop tray, where it would be carefully ­1 might almost sayscientifically ­ conveyed by means of a clear plastic tube back to a barrel in the cellar.There these tiny impurities would drift and float and mingle, like flaky pooh in a goldfishbowl, awaiting summons back to someone else's glass. If I am to drink dilute dribble andmouth rinsings, then I do rather wish I could do it in a situation of comfort and cheer,seated in a Windsor chair by a blazing fire, but this appears to be an increasingly elusivedream. As sometimes also happens in these circumstances, I had a sudden urge not todrink any more beer, so instead I hauled myself from my bar­side perch and returned tomy seafront lodgings for an early night. In the morning, I emerged from the guesthouse into a world drained of colour. Thesky was low and heavy and the sea along the front vast, lifeless and grey. As I walkedalong, rain began to fall, dimpling the water. By the time I reached the station it wascoming down steadily. Llandudno Station is closed on Sundays ­ that the largest resort inWales has no Sunday rail services is too preposterous and depressing to elaborate on ­ butthere was a bus to Blaenau Ffestiniog from the station forecourt at eleven. There was nobench or shelter by the bus­stop, nowhere to get out of the rain. If you travel much bypublic transport in Britain these days you soon come to feel like a member of someunwanted sub­class, like the handicapped or unemployed, and that everyone essentiallywishes you would just go away. I felt a bit like that now ­ and I am rich and healthy andimmensely good­looking. What must it be like to be permanently poor or disabled or otherwise unable to take a full and active part inthe nation's headlong rush for the sunny slopes of Mt Greedy? It is remarkable to me how these matters have become so thoroughly inverted in thepast twenty years. There used to be a kind of unspoken nobility about living in Britain.Just by existing, by going to work and paying your taxes, catching the occasional bus andbeing a generally decent if unexceptional soul, you felt as if you were contributing insome small way to the maintenance of a noble enterprise ­ a generally compassionate andwell­meaning society with health care for all, decent public transport, intelligenttelevision, universal social welfare and all the rest of it. I don't know about you, but Ialways felt rather proud to be part of that, particularly as you didn't actually have to do anything ­ you didn't have to give blood or buy the Big Issue or otherwise go out of yourway ­ to feel as if you were a small contributory part. But now, no matter what you do,you end up stung with guilt. Go for a ramble in the country and you are reminded thatyou are inexorably adding to congestion in the national parks and footpath erosion onfragile hills. Try to take a sleeper to Fort William or a train on the Settle­to­Carlisle lineor a bus from Llandudno to Blaenau on a Sunday and you begin to feel shifty andaberrant because you know that these services require vast and costly subsidization. Gofor a drive in your car, look for work, seek a place to live, and all you are doing is takingup valuable space and time. And as for needing health care ­ well, how thoughtless andselfish can you possibly be? ('We can treat your ingrown toenails, Mr Smith, but it will ofcourse mean taking a child off a life­support machine.') I dread to think how much it cost Gwynedd Transport to convey me to BlaenauFfestiniog on this wet Sunday morning since I was the only customer, apart from a younglady who joined us at Betws­y­Coed and left us soon after at the interestingly namedPont­y­Pant. I had been looking forward to the journey for the chance to see a little ofSnowdonia, but the rain was soon falling so hard, and the bus windows so beaded withdirty droplets, that I could see almost nothing ­ just blurry expanses of dead, rust­coloured ferns dotted here and there with motionless, seriously discontented­lookingsheep. Rain pattered against the windows like thrown pebbles and the bus swayedalarmingly under gusts of wind. It was like being on a ship in rough seas. The buslumbered with grinding reluctance up twisting mountain roads, itswindscreen wipersflapping wildly, to a plateau in the clouds and then embarked on a precipitate, seeminglyout­of­control descent into Blaenau Ffestiniog through steep defiles covered withnumberless slagheaps of broken, rain­shiny slate. This was once the heart of the Welshslate­mining industry, and the scattered rejects and remnants, which covered virtuallyevery inch of ground, gave the landscape an unearthly and eerie aspect like nothing else Ihad seen before in Britain. At the epicentre of this unearthliness squatted the village ofBlaenau, itself a kind of slate slagheap, or so it seemed in the teeming rain. The bus dropped me in the centre of town near the terminus of the famous BlaenauFfestiniog Railway, now a private line run by enthusiasts and which I hoped to takethrough the cloudy mountains to Porthmadog. The station platform was open, but all thedoors to waiting­rooms, toilets and ticket halls were padlocked, and there was no­onearound. I had a look at the winter timetable hanging on the wall and discovered to mydismay that I had just missed ­ literally just missed ­ a train. Puzzled, I dragged mycrumpled bus timetable from my. pocket and discovered with further dismay that the buswas actually scheduled to arrive just in time to miss the one midday train out of Blaenau.Running a finger down the rail timetable, I learned that the next train would not be foranother four hours. The next bus would follow that by minutes. How could that bepossible and, more to the point, what on earth was I supposed to do with myself in thisGod­forsaken, rain­sodden place for four hours? There was no possibility of staying onthe platform. It was cold and the rain was falling at such a treacherous slant that there wasno place to escape it even in the furthest corners. Muttering uncharitable thoughts about Gwynedd Transport, the Blaenau FfestiniogRailway Company, the British climate and my own mad folly, I set off through the little town. This being Wales and this being Sunday, there was nothing open and no life on thenarrow streets. Nor, as far as I could see, were there any hotels or guesthouses. Itoccurred to me that perhaps the train wasn't running at all in this weather, in which case Iwould be truly stuck. I was soaked through, cold and deeply, deeply gloomy. At the farend of town, there was a little restaurant called Myfannwy's and by a miracle it was open.I hastened into its beckoning warmth, where I peeled off my sodden jacket and sweaterand went with a headful of suddenly enlivened hair to a table by a radiator. I was the only customer. I ordered a coffee and a little something to eat and savoured the warmth anddryness. Somewhere in the background Nat King Cole sang a perky tune. I watched therain beat down on the road outside and told myself that one day this would be twentyyears ago. If I learned just one thing in Blaenau that day it was that no Blatter how hard you tryyou cannot make a cup of coffee and a cheese omelette last four hours. 1 ate as slowly asI could and Ordered a second cup of coffee, but after nearly an hour of delicate eating andsipping, it became obvious that I was either going to have to leave or pay rent, so Ireluctantly gathered up my things. At the till, I explained my plight to the kindly couplewho ran the place and they both made those sympathetic oh­dear noises that kindlypeople make when confronted with someone else's crisis. 'He might go to the slate mine,' suggested the woman to the man. 'Yes, he might go to the slate mine,' agreed the man and turned to me. 'You might goto the slate mine,' he said as if thinking I might somehow have missed the foregoingexchange. 'Oh, and what's that exactly?' I said, trying not to sound too doubtful. 'The old mine. They do guided tours.' 'It's very interesting,' said his wife. 'Yes, it's very interesting,' said the man. 'Mind, it's a fair hike,' he added. 'And it may not be open on a Sunday,' said his wife. 'Out of season,' she explained. 'Of course, you could always take a cab up there if you don't fancy the walk in thisweather,' said the man. I looked at him. A cab? Did he say 'a cab'! This seemed too miraculous to be taken in.'You have a cab service in Blaenau?' 'Oh, yes,' said the man as if this were one of Blaenau's more celebrated features.'Would you like me to order one to take you to the mine?' 'Well,' I sought for words; I didn't want to sound ungrateful when these people hadbeen so kind, but on the other hand I found the prospect of an afternoon touring a slatemine in damp clothes about as appealing as a visit to the proctologist. 'Do you think thecab would take me to Porthmadog?' I wasn't sure how far it was, and I dared not hope. 'Of course,' said the man. So he called a cab for me and the next thing I knew I wasdeparting to a volley of good wishes from theproprietors and stepping into a cab, feelinglike a shipwreck victim being winched to unexpected safety. I cannot tell you with whatjoy I beheld the sight of Blaenau disappearing into the distance behind me. The cab driver was a friendly young man and on the twenty­minute ride toPorthmadog he filled me in on much important economic and sociological data withregard to the Dwyfor peninsula. The most striking news was that the peninsula was dry on Sundays. You couldn't get an alcoholic drink to save your life between Porthmadogand Aberdaron. I didn't know such pockets of rectitude still existed in Britain, but I wasso glad to be getting out of Blaenau that I didn't care. Porthmadog, squatting beside the sea under a merciless downpour, looked a grey andforgettable place, full of wet pebbledash and dark stone. Despite the rain, I examined themeagre stock of local hotels with some care ­1 felt entitled to a spell of comfort andluxury after my night in a cheerless Llandudno guesthouse ­ and I chose an inn called theRoyal Sportsman. My room was adequate and clean, if not exactly outstanding, andsuited my purposes. I made a cup of coffee and, while the kettle boiled, changed into dryclothes, then sat on the edge of the bed with a coffee and a Rich Tea biscuit, and watcheda soap opera on television called Pobol Y Cwm, which I enjoyed very much. I had noidea what was going on, of course, but I can say with some confidence that it had betteracting, and certainly better production values, than any programme ever made in, say,Sweden or Norway ­ or Australia come to that. At least the walls didn't wobble whensomeone shut a door. It was an odd experience watching people who existed in arecognizably British milieu ­ they drank tea and wore Marks & Spencer's cardigans ­ buttalked in Martian. Occasionally, I was interested to note, they dropped in English words ­'hi ya', 'right then', 'OK' ­presumably because a Welsh equivalent didn't exist, and in onememorable encounter a character said something like 'Wlch ylch aargh ybsy cwm dirtyweekend, look you,' which I just loved. How sweetly endearing of the Welsh not to havetheir own term for an illicit bonk between Friday and Monday. By the time I finished my coffee and returned to the streets, the rain had temporarilyabated, but the streets were full of vast puddles where the drains were unable to cope withthe volume of water. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you would think that if one nationought by now to have mastered the science of drainage, Britain would be it. In any case, cars aquaplaned daringly through these temporarylakes and threw sheets of water over nearby houses and shops. Mindful of my experiencewith puddles in Westori, and aware that this was a place where there truly was nothing todo on a Sunday, I proceeded up the High Street in a state of some caution. I nosed around the tourist information centre, where I picked up a leaflet that informedme that Porthmadog was built in the early nineteenth century as a port for Blaenau slateby one Alexander Maddocks and that by late in the century a thousand ships a year wereentering the port to carry off 116,000 tones of Welsh stone. Today the quayside is,inevitably, a renovated zone for yuppies, with cobbles and smart flats. I had a polite lookat it, then followed a back lane through a harbourside neighbourhood of small boatyardsand other marine businesses, and up one side of a residential hill and down the other untilI found myself in the tranquil hamlet of Borth­y­Gest, a pretty village of brick villas on ahorseshoe bay with gorgeous views across Traeth Bach to Harlech Point and TremadocBay beyond. Borth­y­Gest had an engaging old­fashioned feel about it. In the middle ofthe village, overlooking the bay, was a sub­post office with a blue awning announcing onthe dangling part 'SWEETS' and 'ICES' and near by was an establishment called the SeaView Cafe. This place might have been lifted whole from Adventures on the Island. I wascharmed at once. I followed a grassy path out above the sea towards a headland. Even under low cloud, the views across the Glaslyn estuary and Snowdon range beyond were quite majestic. Thewind was gusting and down below the sea battered the rocks in an impressivelytempestuous way, but the rain at least held off and the air was sweet and fresh in that wayyou only get when you are beside the sea. The light was failing and I was afraid of endingup joining the waves on the rocks far below, so I headed back into town. When I gotthere, I discovered that the few businesses that had been open were now shut. Only onesmall beacon of half­light loomed from the enclosing darkness. I went up to see what itwas and was interested to find that it was the southern terminus and operational HQ forthe famous Blaenau Ffestiniog Railway. Interested to see the nerve centre of this organization which had caused me so muchdistress and discomfort earlier, I went in. Though it was well after five, the stationbookshop was still open and liberally sprinkled with silent browsers, so I went in and hadanose around. It was an extraordinary place, with shelf after shelf of books, all with titleslike Railways of the Winion Valley and Maivddach Estuary and The CompleteEncyclopaedia of Signal Boxes. There was a multi­volume series of books called Trainsin Trouble, each consisting of page after page of photographs of derailments, crashes andother catastrophes ­ a sort of train­spotter's equivalent of a snuff movie, I suppose. Forthose seeking more animated thrills, there were scores of videos. I took down one atrandom, called The Hunslet and Hundreds Steam Rally 1993, which bore a bold labelpromising '50 Minutes of Steam Action!' Under that there was a sticker that said:'Warning: Contains explicit footage of a Sturrock 0­6­0 Heavy Class coupling with aGWR Hopper.' Actually, I just made that last part up, but I did notice, with a kind ofprofound shock, that all the people around me were browsing with precisely the same sortof self­absorbed, quiet breathing concentration that you would find in a porno shop and Isuddenly wondered if there was an extra dimension to this train­spotting lark that hadnever occurred to me. According to a plaque on the wall in the ticket hall, the Blaenau Ffestiniog Railwaywas formed in 1832 and is the oldest still running in the world. I also learned from theplaque that the railway society has 6,000 members, a figure that staggers me from everypossible direction. Though the last train of the day had finished its run some time ago,there was still a man in the ticket booth, so I went over and interrogated him quietly aboutthe lack of coordination between the train and bus services in Blaenau. I don't know why,because I was charm itself, but he got distinctly huffy, as if I were being critical of hiswife, and said in a petulant tone: 'If Gwynned Transport want people to catch the middaytrain from Blaenau, then they should have the buses set off earlier.' 'But equally,' I persisted, 'you could have the train leave a few minutes later.' He looked at me as if I were being outrageously presumptuous, and said: 'But whyshould we?' And there, you see, you have everything that is wrong with these train enthusiasttypes. They are irrational, argumentative, dangerously fussy and often, as here, have anirritating little Michael Fish moustache that makes you want to stick out two forkedfingers and pop them in the eyes. Moreover, thanks to my journalistic sleuthing in thebookshop, I think we can safely say that there is a prima facie case to presume that theyperform unnatural acts with steam videos. For their own good, and for the good of society, they .should be taken awayand interned behind barbed wire. I thought about making a citizen's arrest there and then ­ 'I detain you in the name ofHer Majesty the Queen for the offence of being irritatingly intractable about timetables,and also for having an annoying and inadequate little moustache' ­ but I was feelinggenerous and let him go with a hard look and an implied warning that it would be a coldday in hell before I ventured anywhere near his railway again. I think he got the message. CHAPTER   TWENTY­ONE IN THE MORNING, I WALKED TO PORTHMADOG STATION ­ NOT THEBlaenau Ffestiniog let's­play­at­trains one, but the real British Rail one. The station wasclosed, but there were several people on the platform, all studiously avoiding each other'sgaze and standing, I do believe, on the same spot on which they stood every morning. Iam pretty certain of this because as I was standing there ­minding my own business, aman in a suit arrived and looked at first surprised and then cross to find me occupyingwhat was evidently his square metre of platform. He took a position a few feet away andregarded me with an expression not a million miles from hate. How easy it is sometimes,I thought, to make enemies in Britain. All you have to do is stand in the wrong spot orturn your car round in their driveway ­ this guy had NO TURNING written all over him­or inadvertently take their seat on a train, and they will quietly hate you to the grave. Eventually a two­carriage Sprinter train came in and we all shuffled aboard. Theyreally are the most comfortless, utilitarian, deeply unlovely trains, with their hard­edgedseats, their mystifyingly simultaneous hot and cold draughts, their harsh lighting and,above all, their noxious colour scheme with all those orange stripes and hopelessly jauntychevrons. Why would anyone think that train passengers would like to be surrounded bya lot of orange, particularly first thing in the morning? I longed for one of those old­styletrains that you found when I first came to Britain, the ones that had no corridors butconsisted of just a series of self­contained compartments, each a little world unto itself.There was always a frisson of excitement as you opened the carriage door because you never knew whatyou would find on the other side. There was something pleasingly intimate and randomabout sitting in such close proximity with total strangers. I remember once I was on oneof these trains when one of the other passengers, a shy­looking young man in a trenchcoat, was abruptly and lavishly sick on the floor ­ it was during a flu epidemic ­ and thenhad the gall to stumble from the train at the next station, leaving three of us to ride on intothe evening in silence, with pinched faces and tucked­in toes and behaving, in that mostextraordinary British way, as if nothing had happened. On second thoughts perhaps it isjust as well that we don't have those trains any more. But I'm still not happy with theorange chevrons. We followed a coastal route past broad estuaries and craggy hills beside the grey, flatexpanse of Cardigan Bay. The towns along the way all had names that sounded like a catbringing up a hairball: Llywyngwril, Morfa Mawddach, Llandecwyn, Dyffryn Ardudwy.At Penrhyndeudraeth the train filled with children of all ages, all in school uniforms. I expected shouting and smoking and things to be flying about, but they were impeccablybehaved, every last one of them. They all departed at Harlech and the interior suddenlyfelt empty and quiet ­ quiet enough that I could hear the couple behind me conversing inWelsh, which pleased me. At Barmouth we crossed another broad estuary, on a rickety­looking wooden causeway. I had read somewhere that this causeway had been closed forsome years and that Barmouth had until recently been the end of the line. It seemed akind of miracle that BR had invested the money to repair the causeway and keep the lineopen, but I bet that if I were to come back in ten years, this trundling, half­forgotten lineto Porthmadog will be in the hands of enthusiasts like those of the Blaenau FfestiniogRailway and that some twit with a fussy little moustache will be telling me that I can'tmake a connection at Shrewsbury because it doesn't suit the society's timetable. So I was pleased, three hours and 105 miles after setting off, to make a connection atShrewsbury while the chance was still there. My intention was to turn north and resumemy stately progress towards John O'Groats, but as I was making my way through thestation, I heard a platform announcement for a train to Ludlow, and impulsively I boardedit. For years I had heard that Ludlow was a delightful spot, and it suddenly occurred tome that this might be my last chance to see it. Thus it was that I found myself, sometwenty minutes later, alighting on to a lonely platform at Ludlow and making my way upa long hill into the town. Ludlow was indeed a charming and agreeable place on a hilltop high above the RiverTeme. It appeared to have everything you could want in a community ­ bookshops, acinema, some appealing­looking tearooms and bakeries, a couple of 'family butchers' (Ialways want to go in and say, 'How much to do mine?'), an old­fashioned Woolworth'sand the usual assortment of chemists, pubs, haberdashers and the like, all neatly arrayedand respectful of their surroundings. The Ludlow Civic Society had thoughtfully putplaques up on many of the buildings announcing who had once lived there. One suchhung on the wall of the Angel, an old coaching inn on Broad Street now sadly ­ and Ihoped only temporarily ­ boarded up. According to the plaque, the famous Aurora coachonce covered the hundred or so miles to London in just over twenty­seven hours, whichjust shows you how much we've progressed. Now British Rail could probably do it in halfthe time. Near by I chanced upon the headquarters of an organization called the Ludlow andDistrict Cats Protection League, which intrigued me. Whatever, I wondered, did thepeople of Ludlow do to their cats that required the setting up of a special protectiveagency? Perhaps I'm coming at this from the wrong angle, but short of setting cats alightand actually throwing them at me, I can't think of what you would have to do to drive meto set up a charity to defend their interests. There is almost nothing, apart perhaps from atouching faith in the reliability of weather forecasts and the universal fondness for jokesinvolving the word 'bottom', that makes me feel more like an outsider in Britain than thenation's attitude to animals. Did you know that the National Society for the Prevention ofCruelty to Children was formed sixty years after the founding of the Royal Society for thePrevention of Cruelty to Animals, and as an offshoot of it? Did you know that in 1994Britain voted for a European Union directive requiring statutory rest periods fortransported animals, but against statutory rest periods for factory workers? But even against this curious background, it seemed extraordinary to me that therecould be a whole, clearly well­funded office dedicated just to the safety and well­being ofLudlow and District cats. I was no less intrigued by the curiously specific limits of thesociety's self­imposed remit ­ the idea that they were interested only in the safety andwell­being of Ludlow and District cats. What would happen, I wondered, if the members of the league found you teasing a catjust outside the district boundaries? Would they shrug resignedly and say, 'Out of ourjurisdiction'? Who can say? Certainly not I, because when I approached the office with aview to making enquiries, I found that it was shut, its members evidently ­ and I wish youto read nothing into this ­ out to lunch. Which is where I decided to be. I went across the road to a pleasant little salad barrestaurant called the Olive Branch, where I quickly made myself into a pariah by taking atable for four. The place was practically empty when I arrived and as I was strugglingwith a rucksack and a tippy tray, I took the first empty table. But immediately I sat downpeople poured in from all quarters and for the rest of my brief lunch period I could feeleyes burrowing into me from people who turned from the till to find me occupying aspace obviously not designed for a solitary diner and that they would have to take theirtrays to the unpopular More Seating Upstairs section, evidently a disagreeable option. AsI sat there, trying to eat quickly and be obscure, a man from two tables away came andasked me in a pointed tone if I was using one of the chairs, and took it without awaitingmy reply. I finished my food and slunk from the place in shame. I returned to the station and bought a ticket for the next train to Shrewsbury andManchester Piccadilly. Because of a points failure somewhere along the line, the trainwas forty minutes late arriving. It was packed and the passengers were testy. I found aseat by disturbing a tableful of people who gave up their space grudgingly and glared atme with disdain ­ more enemies! What a day I was having! ­ and sat crammed into a tinyspace in my overcoat in an overheated carriage with my rucksack on my lap. I had vaguehopes of getting to Blackpool, but I couldn't move a muscle and couldn't get at my railtimetable to see where I needed to change trains, so I just sat and trusted that I couldcatch an onward train at Manchester. British Rail was having a bad day. We crept a mile or so out of the station, and thensat for a long time for no evident reason. Eventually, a voice announced that because offaults further up the line this train would terminate at Stockport, which elicited a generalgroan. Finally, after about twenty minutes, the train falter­ingly started forward andlimped across the green countryside. At each station the voice apologized for the delayand announced anew that the train would terminate at Stockport. When at last wereachedStockport, ninety minutes late, I expected everyone to get off, but no­one moved, soneither did I. Only one passenger, a Japanese fellow, dutifully disembarked, then watchedin dismay as the train proceeded on, without explanation and without him, to Manchester. At Manchester I discovered that I needed a train to Preston, so I had a look at atelevision screen, but these only gave the final destination and not the stations in between.So I went off and joined a queue of travellers asking a BR guard for directions to variousplaces. It was unfortunate for him that there were no stations in Britain called Fuck Offbecause that was clearly what he wanted to tell people. He told me to go to platform 13, so I set off for it, but the platforms ended at 11. So I went back to the guy and informedhim that I couldn't find a platform 13. It turned out that platform 13 was up some secretstairs and over a footbridge. It appeared to be the platform for missing trains. There was awhole crowd of travellers standing there looking lost and doleful, like the people in thatMonty Python milkman sketch. Eventually we were sent back to platform 3. The train,when it arrived, was of course a two­carriage Sprinter. The usual 700 people squeezedonto it. Thus it was, fourteen hours after setting off from Porthmadog that morning, that Iarrived tired, dishevelled, hungry and full of woe, in Blackpool, a place that I didn'tparticularly want to be in anyway. CHAPTER   TWENTY­TWO BLACKPOOL ­ AND I DON'T CARE HOW MANY TIMES YOU HEAR THIS, ITnever stops being amazing ­ attracts more visitors every year than Greece and has moreholiday beds than the whole of Portugal. It consumes more chips per capita thananywhere else on the planet. (It gets through forty acres of potatoes a day.) It has thelargest concentration of roller­coasters in Europe. It has the continent's second mostpopular tourist attraction, the forty­two­acre Pleasure Beach, whose 6.5 million annualvisitors are exceeded in number only by those going to the Vatican. It has the mostfamous illuminations. And on Friday and Saturday nights it has more public toilets thananywhere else in Britain; elsewhere they call them doorways. Whatever you may think of the place, it does what it does very well ­ or if not verywell at least very successfully. In the past twenty years, during a period in which thenumber of Britons taking traditional seaside holidays has declined by a fifth, Blackpoolhas increased its visitor numbers by 7 per cent and built tourism into a £250­million­a­year industry ­ no small achievement when you consider the British climate, the fact thatBlackpool is ugly, dirty and a long way from anywhere, that its sea is an open toilet, andits attractions nearly all cheap, provincial and dire. It was the illuminations that had brought me there. I had been hearing and readingabout them for so long that I was genuinely keen to see them. So, after securing a room ina modest guesthouse on a back street, I hastened to the front in a sense of someexpectation. Well, all I can say is that Blackpool's illuminations are nothing if notsplendid, and they are not splendid. There is, ofcourse, always a danger ofdisappointment when you finally encounter something you have wanted to see for a longtime, but in terms of letdown it would be hard to exceed Blackpool's light show. I thoughtthere would be lasers sweeping the sky, strobe lights tattooing the clouds and other gasp­making dazzlements. Instead there was just a rumbling procession of old trams decoratedas rocket ships or Christmas crackers, and several miles of paltry decorations onlampposts. I suppose if you had never seen electricity in action, it would be prettybreathtaking, but I'm not even sure of that. It all just seemed tacky and inadequate onrather a grand scale, like Blackpool itself. What was no less amazing than the meagreness of the illuminations were the crowdsof people who had come to witness the spectacle. Traffic along the front was bumper to bumper, with childish faces pressed to the windows of every creeping car, and there weremasses of people ambling happily along the spacious promenade. At frequent intervalshawkers sold luminous necklaces and bracelets or other short­lived diversions, and weredoing a roaring trade. I read somewhere once that half of all visitors to Blackpool havebeen there at least ten times. Goodness knows what they find in the place. I walked for amile or so along the prom, and couldn't understand the appeal of it ­ and I, as you mayhave realized by now, am an enthusiast for tat. Perhaps I was just weary after my longjourney from Porthmadog, but I couldn't wake up any enthusiasm for it at all. I wanderedthrough brightly lit arcades and peered in bingo halls, but the festive atmosphere thatseemed to seize everyone failed to rub off on me. Eventually, feeling very tired and veryforeign, I retired to a fish restaurant on a side­street, where I had a plate of haddock, chipsand peas, and was looked at like I was some kind of southern pansy when I asked fortartare sauce, and afterwards took yet another early night. In the morning, I got up early to give Blackpool another chance. I liked it considerablybetter by daylight. The promenade had some nice bits of cast iron and elaborate huts withonion domes selling rock, nougat and other sticky things, which had escaped me in thedarkness the night before, and the beach was vast and empty and very agreeable.Blackpool's beach is seven miles long and the curious thing about it is that it doesn'tofficially exist. I am not making this up. In the late 1980s, when the EuropeanCommunity issued a directive about minimum standards of ocean­borne sewage, it turned out that nearly every British seaside town failed to come anywhere near eventhe minimum levels. Most of the bigger places like Blackpool went right off the edge ofthe turdometer, or whatever it is they measure these things with. This presented anobvious problem to the Government, which was loath to spend money on British beacheswhen there were perfectly good beaches for rich people in Mustique and Barbados, so itdrew up a policy under which it officially decreed ­ this is so bizarre I can hardly stand it,but I swear it is true ­ that Brighton, Blackpool, Scarborough and many other leadingresorts did not have, strictly speaking, bathing beaches. Christ knows what they thentermed these expanses of sand ­ intermediate sewage buffers, I suppose ­ but in any caseit disposed of the problem without either solving it or costing the Exchequer a penny,which is, of course, the main thing, or in the case of the present Government, the onlything. But enough of political satire! Let us away in haste to Morecambe. I went there next,on a series of rattling Sprinters, partly to make poignant comparisons with Blackpool, butmostly because I like Morecambe. I'm not at all sure why, but I do. Looking at it now, it is hard to believe that not so very long ago Morecambe rivalledBlackpool. In fact, starting in about 1880 and for many decades afterwards, Morecambewas the northern English seaside resort. It had Britain's first seaside illuminations. It wasthe birthplace of bingo, lettered rock and the helter­skelter. During the celebrated WakesWeeks, when whole northern factory towns went on holiday together (they calledMorecambe Bradford­by­Sea), up to 100,000 visitors at a time flocked to its boarding­houses and hotels. At its peak it had two mainline railway stations, eight music halls,eight cinemas, an aquarium, a funfair, a menagerie, a revolving tower, a boating garden, aSummer Pavilion, a Winter Gardens, the largest swimming­pool in Britain, and two piers. One of these, the Central Pier, was one of the most beautiful and elaborate in Britain,with fabulous towers and domed roofs ­ an Arabian palace afloat on Morecambe Bay. It had over a thousand boarding­houses catering for the masses, but also classierdiversions for those with more extravagant ambitions. The Old Vie and Sadler's Wellsspent whole seasons there. Elgar conducted orchestras in the Winter Gardens and NellieMelba sang. And it was the home of many hotels that were the equal of any in Europe,like the Grand and the Broadway, where in the early 1900s well­heeled patrons couldchoose between a dozentypes of hydro bath, including 'Needle, Brine, Foam, Plombiereand Scotch Douche'. I know all this because I had been reading a book called Lost Resort: The Flow andEbb of Morecambe, by a local vicar named Roger K. Bingham, which was not onlyexceptionally well written (and it is quite extraordinary, let me say here, how much goodlocal history there is in this country) but full of photos of Morecambe from its heydaythat were just staggeringly at variance with the scene I found before me now as I steppedfrom the train, one of only three passengers to alight, and ambled out into the sunny butbreathtakingly faded charms of Marine Road. It is hard to say when or why Morecambe's decline started. It remained popular wellinto the 1950s ­as late as 1956 it had 1,300 hotels and guesthouses, ten times the numberit has today ­ but its descent from greatness had begun long before. The famous CentralPier was extensively damaged by a fire in the 1930s, then gradually sank into anembarrassing wreck. By 1990 the town officials had removed it from the local map ­simply pretended that the derelict heap projecting into the sea, dominating the front,wasn't there. The West End Pier, meanwhile, was swept away by a winter storm in 1974.The magnificent Alhambra music hall burned down in 1970 and the Royally Theatre wasrazed to make way for a shopping centre two years later. By the early 1970s Morecambe's decline was precipitate. One by one the locallandmarks vanished ­ the venerable swimming­pool in 1978, the Winter Gardens in 1982,the truly sumptuous Grand Hotel in 1989 ­ as people abandoned Morecambe forBlackpool and the Spanish Costas. By the late 1980s, according to Bingham, you couldbuy a large, once­proud seafront hotel like the five­storey Grosvenor for the same price asa semi­detached house in London. Today Morecambe's tattered front consists largely of little­used bingo halls andamusement arcades, everything­for­£l shops, and the kind of cut­price boutiques wherethe clothes are so cheap and undesirable that they can be safely put outside on racks andleft unattended. Many of the shops are empty, and most of the rest look temporary. It hasbecome once again ­ irony of ironies ­ Bradford­by­Sea. So low had Morecambe'sfortunes sunk that the previous summer the town couldn't even find someone to take onthe deckchair concession. When a seaside resort can't find anyone willing to set updeckchairs, you know that business is bad. And yet Morecambe has its charms. Its seafront promenade is handsome and wellmaintained and its vast bay (174 square miles, if you're taking notes) is easily one of themost beautiful in the world, with unforgettable views across to the green and blueLakeland hills: Scafell, Coniston Old Man, the Langdale Pikes. Today almost all that remains of Morecambe's golden age is the Midland Hotel, a jaunty, cheery, radiant white art deco edifice with a sweeping, streamlined frontageerected on the seafront in 1933. Concrete structures were all the rage in 1933, butconcrete apparently was beyond the capabilities of local builders, so it was built ofAccrington brick and rendered in plaster so that it looked like concrete, which I find veryendearing. Today the hotel is gently crumbling around the edges and streaked here andthere with rust stains. Most of the original interior fittings were lost during periodic andcareless refurbishments over the years, and several large Eric Gill statues that once gracedthe entranceway and public rooms simply disappeared, but it still has an imperishable1930s charm. I couldn't begin to guess where the Midland gets its custom these days. There didn'tseem to be any custom of any sort when I went in now and had a cup of coffee in anempty sun lounge overlooking the bay. One of the small endearments of modernMorecambe is that wherever you go they are grateful for your patronage. I enjoyed superbservice and a nice view, two things wholly unobtainable in Blackpool as far as I can tell.As I was departing, my eye was caught by a large white plaster statue by Gill of amermaid in the empty dining room. I went and had a look at it and found that the tail ofthe statue, which I presume is worth a small fortune, was held on with a mass of stickytape. It seemed a not inappropriate symbol for the town. I took a room in a seafront guesthouse, where I was received with a kind of startledgratitude, as if the owners had forgotten that all those empty rooms upstairs were to let,and spent the afternoon strolling around with Roger Bingham's book looking at thesights, trying to imagine the town in its heyday, and occasionally bestowing mypatronage on pathetically grateful tea­rooms. It was a mild day and there were a number of people, mostly elderly, walking alongthe promenade, but little sign of anyone spending money. With nothing better to do, Itook a long walk along the front nearly to Carnforth and then walked back along thesands since the tide was out. The surprising thing aboutMorecambe, it occurred to me,isn't that it declined, but that it ever prospered. It would be hard to imagine a less likelyplace for a resort. Its beaches consist of horrible gooey mud and its vast bay spends largeperiods devoid of water thanks to the vagaries of the tides. You can walk six miles acrossthe bay to Cumbria when the tide is out, but they say it is dangerous to do so without aguide, or sand pilot as they are known hereabouts. I once spent some time with one ofthese pilots, who told alarming stories about coaches and horses that tried to cross the bayat low tide and disappeared into the treacherous quicksands, never to be seen again. Evennow people sometimes stroll out too far and then get cut off when the tide comes in,about as disagreeable a way to finish an afternoon as I could imagine. Feeling daring, I walked a few hundred yards out on to the sands now, studying wormcasts and the interesting corrugated imprints left by the receding waters, and keeping aneye out for quicksand ­which isn't really sand at all, but silty mud and it really doeshoover you up if you blunder into it. The tides at Morecambe don't rush in and out likethe Severn bore, but creep in from various angles, which is all the more menacing sinceyou can easily find, if you are the sort to get lost in thought, that you are suddenlystranded on a large but insidiously shrinking sandbar in the middle of a great wet bay, soI kept my eyes out and didn't venture too far. It was quite wonderful ­ certainly better than anything Blackpool could offer. It is anodd sensation to be walking about on a seabed and to think that any time now this couldbe under thirty feet of water. I especially liked the solitude. One of the hardest things toadjust to, if you come from a large country, is that you are seldom really alone out ofdoors in England ­ that there is scarcely an open space where you could, say, safely standand have a pee without fear of appearing in some birdwatcher's binoculars or havingsome matronly rambler bound round the bend ­ so the sense of aloneness on the opensands was rather luxurious. From a few hundred yards out, Morecambe looked quite fetching in the late afternoonsun, and even up close, as I left the sands and clambered up some mossy concrete steps tothe prom, it didn't look half bad away from the desolate bingo parlours and novelty shops.The line of guesthouses along the eastern length of Marine Road looked neat and trim andsweetly hopeful. I felt sorry for the owners who had invested their hopes and foundthemselves now in a dying resort. The decline that began in the Fifties and accelerated out of control in the Seventies must have seemed bewildering and inexplicable tothese poor people as they watched Blackpool, just twenty miles to the south, going fromstrength to strength. Foolishly, but not unnaturally, Morecambe responded by trying to compete withBlackpool. It built an expensive dolphinarium and a new outdoor swimming­pool, andrecently there had been some half­assed plan to open a Mr Blobby amusement park. Butreally its charm, and certainly its hope, lies in being not Blackpool. That is what I likedabout it ­ that it is quiet and friendly and well behaved, that there is plenty of room in thepubs and cafes, that you aren't bowled off the kerb by swaggering youths and don't gosidewalk surfing on abandoned styrofoam chip platters and vomit slicks. One day, I would like to think, people will rediscover the charms of a quiet break atthe seaside, the simple pleasures of strolling along a well­kept front, leaning on railings,drinking in views, sitting in a cafe with a book, just pottering about. Then perhapsMorecambe can thrive again. How nice it would be if the Government actually erected apolicy to this end, took steps to restore fading places like Morecambe ­ rebuilt the pier toits original plans, gave a grant for a new Winter Gardens, insisted on the restoration ofseafront buildings, perhaps moved a division of the Inland Revenue or some otherbureaucracy to the town to give it a bit of year­round life. With a little priming and a thoughtful long­term plan, I am sure you could attract thesort of people who would want to open bookshops, little restaurants, antique shops,galleries, maybe even tapas bars and the odd boutique hotel. Well, why not? Morecambe could become a little northern English equivalent of Sausalito or St Ives.You may smirk at the thought of it, but what other possible future is there for a place likeMorecambe? People could come for weekends to eat quality meals in new seafrontrestaurants overlooking the bay and perhaps take in a play or concert at the WinterGardens. Yuppie fell walkers could spend the night there and thus ease pressure on theLake District. It would all make eminent sense. But of course it will never happen, andpartly, if I may say so, because you smirk. CHAPTER   TWENTY­THREE I HAVE A SMALL, TATTERED CLIPPING THAT I SOMETIMES CARRY WITHME and pull out for purposes of private amusement. It's a weather forecast from the'Western Daily Mail and it says, in toto: 'Outlook: Dry and warm, but cooler with somerain.' There you have in a single pithy sentence the English weather captured to perfection:dry but rainy with some warm/cool spells. The Western Daily Mail could run thatforecast every day ­ for all I know, it may ­ and scarcely ever be wrong. To an outsider the most striking thing about the English weather is that there isn't verymuch of it. All those phenomena that elsewhere give nature an edge of excitement,unpredictability and danger ­ tornadoes, monsoons, raging blizzards, run­for­your­lifehailstorms ­ are almost wholly unknown in the British Isles, and this is just fine by me. Ilike wearing the same type of clothing every day of the year. I appreciate not needing airconditioning or mesh screens on the windows to keep out the kind of insects and flyinganimals that drain your blood or eat away your face while you are sleeping. I likeknowing that so long as I do not go walking up Ben Nevis in carpet slippers in February Iwill almost certainly never perish from the elements in this soft and gentle country. I mention this because as I sat eating my breakfast in the dining room of the OldEngland Hotel in Bowness­on­Windermere, two days after leaving Morecambe, I wasreading an article in The Times about an unseasonable snowstorm ­ a 'blizzard', TheTimes called it ­ that had 'gripped' parts of East Anglia. According to The Times report,the storm had covered parts of the region with 'more than two inches of snow' and created 'drifts up to six inches high'. In response to this, Idid something I had never done before: I pulled out my notebook and drafted a letter tothe editor in which I pointed out, in a kindly, helpful way, that two inches of snow cannotpossibly constitute a blizzard and that six inches of snow is not a drift. A blizzard, Iexplained, is when you can't get your front door open. Drifts are things that make youlose your car till spring. Cold weather is when you leave part of your flesh on doorknobs,mailbox handles and other metal objects. And then I crumpled the letter up because Irealized I was in serious danger of turning into one of the Colonel Blimp types who sataround me in considerable numbers, eating cornflakes or porridge with their blimpishwives, and without whom hotels like the Old England would not be able to survive. I was in Bowness because I had two days to kill until I was to be joined by two friendsfrom London with whom I was going to spend the weekend walking. I was lookingforward to that very much, but rather less to the prospect of another long, purposeless dayin Bowness, pottering about trying to fill the empty hours till tea. There are, I find, onlyso many windowsful of tea­towels, Peter Rabbit dinnerware and patterned jumpers I canlook at before my interest in shopping palls, and I wasn't at all sure that I could faceanother day of poking about in this most challenging of resorts. I had come to Bowness more or less by default since it is the only place inside theLake District National Park with a railway station. Besides, the idea of spending a coupleof quiet days beside the tranquil beauty of Windermere, and wallowing in the plumpcomforts of a gracious (if costly) old hotel, had seemed distinctly appealing from thevantage of Morecambe Bay. But now, with one day down and another to go, I was beginning to feel stranded and fidgety, like someone at the end of a long period ofconvalescence. At least, I reflected optimistically, the unseasonable two inches of snowthat had brutally lashed East Anglia, causing chaos on the roads and forcing people tobattle their way through perilous snowdrifts, some of them as high as their ankletops, hadmercifully passed this corner of England by. Here the elements were benign and theworld outside the dining­room window sparkled weakly under a pale wintry sun. I decided to take the lake steamer to Ambleside. This would not only kill an hour andlet me see the lake, but deliver me to a place rather more like a real town and less like amisplaced seaside resortthan Bowness. In Bowness, I had noted the day before, there areno fewer than eighteen shops where you can buy jumpers and at least twelve selling PeterRabbit stuff, but just one butcher's. Ambleside on the other hand, though hardlyunfamiliar with the manifold possibilities for enrichment presented by hordes of passingtourists, did at least have an excellent bookshop and any number of outdoor shops, whichI find hugely if inexplicably diverting ­ I caiPspend hours looking at rucksacks,kneesocks, compasses and survival rations, then go to another shop and look at preciselythe same things all over again. So it was with a certain animated keenness that I made myway to the steamer pier shortly after breakfast. Alas, there I discovered that the steamersrun only in the summer months, which seemed shortsighted on this mild morning becauseeven now Bowness gently teemed with trippers. So I was forced, as a fallback, to pick myway through the scattered, shuffling throngs to the little ferry that shunts back and forthbetween Bowness and the old ferry house on the opposite shore. It travels only a fewhundred yards, but it does at least run all year. A modest line­up of cars was patiently idling on the ferry approach, and there wereeight or ten walkers as well, all with Mustos, rucksacks and sturdy boots. One fellow waseven wearing shorts ­ always a sign of advanced dementia in a British walker. Walking ­walking, that is, in the British sense ­ was something that I had come into only relativelyrecently. I was not yet at the point where I would wear shorts with many pockets, but Ihad taken to tucking my trousers into my socks (though I have yet to find anyone whocan explain to me what benefits this actually confers, other than making one look seriousand committed). I remember when I first came to Britain wandering into a bookstore and beingsurprised to find a whole section dedicated to 'Walking Guides'. This struck me as faintlybizarre and comical ­where I came from people did not as a rule require writteninstructions to achieve locomotion ­ but then gradually I learned that there are, in fact,two kinds of walking in Britain, namely the everyday kind that gets you to the pub and,all being well, back home again, and the more earnest type that involves stout boots,Ordnance Survey maps in plastic pouches, rucksacks with sandwiches and flasks of tea,and, in its terminal phase, the wearing of khaki shorts in inappropriate weather. For years, I watched these walker types toiling off up cloud­hidden hills in wet andsavage weather and presumed they were genuinely insane. And then my old friend John Price, who had grown up in Liverpooland spent his youth doing foolish things on sheer­faced crags in the Lakes, encouragedme to join him and a couple of his friends for an amble ­ that was the word he used ­ upHaystacks one weekend. I think it was the combination of those two untaxing­sounding words, 'amble' and 'Haystacks', and the promise of lots of drink afterwards, that lulled mefrom my natural caution. 'Are you sure it's not too hard?' I asked. 'Nah, just an amble,' John insisted. Well, of course it was anything but an amble. We clambered for hours up vast,perpendicular slopes, over clattering scree and lumpy tussocks, round towering citadels ofrock, and emerged at length into a cold, bleak, lofty nether world so remote andforbidding that even the sheep were startled to see us. Beyond it lay even greater andremoter summits that had been quite invisible from the ribbon of black highwaythousands of feet below. John and his chums toyed with my will to live in the cruellestpossible way; seeing me falling behind, they would lounge around on boulders, Smokingand charting and resting, but the instant I caught up with them with a view to falling attheir feet, they would bound up refreshed and, with a few encouraging words, set offanew with large, manly strides, so that I had to stumble after and never got a rest. Igasped and ached and sputtered, and realized that I had never done anything remotely thisunnatural before and vowed never to attempt such folly again. And then, just as I was about to lie down and call for a stretcher, we crested a final riseand found ourselves abruptly, magically, on top of the earth, on a platform in the sky,amid an ocean of swelling summits. I had never seen anything half so beautiful before.'Fuck me,' I said in a moment of special eloquence and realized I was hooked. Ever sincethen I had come back whenever they would have me, and never complained and evenstarted tucking my trousers in my socks. I couldn't wait for the morrow. The ferry docked and I shuffled on board with the others. Windermere looked sereneand exceedingly fetching in the gentle sunshine. Unusually there wasn't a single pleasureboat disturbing its glassy calmness. To say that Windermere is popular with boaters is toflirt recklessly with understatement. Some 14,000 powerboats ­ let me repeat thatnumber: 14,000 ­ ate registered to use the lake. On a busy summer's day, as many as1,600 powerboats may be outon the water at any one time, a good many of them zippingalong at up to 40 mph with water­skiers in tow. This is in addition to all the thousands ofother types of floating objects that may be out on the water and don't need to register ­dinghies, sailboats, sailboards, canoes, inflatables, li­los, various excursion steamers andthe old chugging ferry I was on now ­ all of them searching for a boat­sized piece ofwater. It is all but impossible to stand on a lakeside bank on an August Sunday watchingwater­skiers slicing through packed shoals of dinghies and other floating detritus and notend up with your mouth open and your hands on your head. I had spent some weeks in the Lakes a year or so before working on an article forNational Geographic and one of the passing thrills of the experience was being taken outfor a morning on the lake on a national park launch. To show me just how dangerous itcould be to let high­powered craft race around in this kind of crowded environment, thepark warden pootled the launch out into the middle of the lake, told me to hang on ­1smiled at this: listen, I do 90 on the motorways ­ then opened the throttle. Well, let mesay this: 40 mph in a boat is nothing like 40 mph on a road. We took off with a velocitythat snapped me back in the seat and had me clutching on for dear life with both hands,and bounced across the water like a flat stone fired from a gun. I have seldom been so petrified. Even on a quiet morning out of season, Windermere was clogged withimpediments. We shot between little islands and skittered sideways past headlands thatloomed up with alarming suddenness, like frights on a funfair ride. Imagine sharing thisspace with 1,600 other similarly dashing craft, most of them in the control of some pot­bellied urban halfwit with next to no experience of powered craft, plus all the floatingjetsam of rowboats, kayaks, pedalos and the like and it is a wonder that there aren't bodiesall over the water. The experience taught me two things ­ first, that vomit vaporizes at 40 mph in an openboat and second that Windermere is an exceedingly compact body of water. And here wecome to the point of all this. Britain is, for all its topographical diversity and timelessmajesty, an exceedingly small­scale place. There isn't a single natural feature in thecountry that ranks anywhere in world terms ­ no Alp­like mountains, no stunning gorges,not even a single great river. You may think of the Thames as a substantial artery, but inworld terms it is little more than an ambitious stream. Put it down in North America and it wouldn't even make the top one hundred. Itwould come in at number 108, to be precise, outclassed by such relative obscurities as theSkunk, the Kuskokwim and even the little Milk. Windermere may have pride of placeamong English lakes, but for each twelve square inches of Windermere's surface, LakeSuperior offers 268 square feet of water. There is in Iowa a body of water called DanGreen Slough, which even most lowans have never heard of, and it is bigger thanWindermere. The Lake District itself takes up less space than the Twin Cities. I think that's just wonderful ­ not that these features are modest in their dimensions butthat they are modest, in the middle of a densely crowded island and still wonderful. Whatan achievement that is. Do you have any idea, other than in a vague theoretical sense, justhow desperately crowded Britain is? Did you know, for instance, that to achieve the samedensity of population in America you would have to uproot the entire populations ofIllinois, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, Colorado and Texas andpack them all into Iowa? Twenty million people live within a day­trip of the Lake Districtand 12 million, roughly a quarter of England's population, come to the Lakes each year.No wonder on some summer weekends it can take two hours to get through Amblesideand that you could almost walk across Windermere by stepping from boat to boat. And yet even at its worst, the Lake District remains more charming and lessrapaciously commercialized than many famed beauty spots in more spacious countries.And away from the crowds ­away from Bowness, Hawkshead and Keswick, with their teatowels, tea­rooms, teapots and endless Beatrix Potter shit ­ it retains pockets of sheerperfection, as I found now when the ferry nosed into its landing and we tumbled off. Fora minute the landing area was a hive of activity as one group of cars got off, another goton and the eight or ten foot passengers departed in various directions. And then all wasblissful silence. I followed a pretty, wooded road around the lake's edge before turninginland and heading for Near Sawrey. Near Sawrey is the home of Hilltop, the cottage where the inescapable Potter drew hersweet little watercolours and contrived her soppy stories. For most of the year, it isoverrun with tourists from far and wide. Much of the village is given over to large (butdiscreetly sited) car parks and the tea­room even has a sign outfront advertising its fare in Japanese, egads. But the approaches to the village ­ actually, it's just a hamlet (and do youknow the difference, by the way, between 'village' and 'hamlet'? Surprisingly few peopledo, but it's quite simple really: one is a place where people live and the other is a play byShakespeare) ­ from every direction are exquisite and unspoiled: a meadowy green Edenlaced with wandering slate walls, woodland clumps and low white farms against abackdrop of blue, beckoning hills. Even Near Sawrey itself has a beguiling, well­concocted charm that belies the overwhelming hordes who come to shuffle through itsmost famous residence. Such indeed is Hilltop's alarming popularity that the NationalTrust doesn't even actively advertise it any more. Yet still the visitors come. Two coacheswere disgorging chattering white­haired occupants when I arrived and the main car parkwas already nearly full. I had been to Hilltop the year before, so I wandered past it and up a little­known trackto a tarn on some high ground behind it. Old Mrs Potter used to come up to this tarnregularly to thrash about on it in a rowing­boat ­ whether for healthful exercise or as akind of flagellation I don't know ­ but it was very lovely and seemingly quite forgotten. Ihad the distinct feeling that I was the first visitor to venture up there for years. Across theway, a farmer was mending a stretch of fallen wall and I stood and watched him for awhile from a discreet distance, because if there is one thing nearly as soothing to the spiritas mending a drystone wall it is watching someone else doing it. I remember once, notlong after we moved to the Yorkshire Dales, going for a stroll and happening across afarmer I knew slightly rebuilding a wall on a remote hill. It was a rotten January day fullof drifting fog and rain and the thing is there wasn't any discernible point in his rebuildingthe wall. He owned the fields on either side and in any case there was a gate that stoodpermanently open between the two so it wasn't as if the wall had any real function. Istood and watched him awhile and finally asked him why he was standing out in a coldrain rebuilding the wall. He looked at me with that special pained look Yorkshire farmerssave for onlookers and other morons and said: 'Because it's fallen down, of course.' Fromthis I learned, first of all, never to ask a Yorkshire farmer any question that can't beanswered with 'pint of Tetley's' and that one of the primary reasons so much of the Britishlandscape is so unutterably lovely and timeless is that most farmers, for whatever reason,take the trouble to keep it that way. It certainly has very little to do with money. Did you know that the Governmentspends less per person each year on national parks*\"* than you spend on a single dailynewspaper, that it gives more to the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden than it does toall ten national parks together? The annual budget for the Lake District National Park, anarea widely perceived as the most beautiful and environmentally sensitive in England, is£2.4 million, about the same as for a single large comprehensive school. From that sumthe park authorities must manage the park, run ten information centres, pay 127 full­timestaff and forty part­time staff in summer, replace and maintain equipment and vehicles,fund improvements to the landscape, implement educational programmes and act as thelocal planning authority. That the Lakes are so generally wonderful, so scrupulouslymaintained, so seldom troubling to mind and spirit is a ringing testament to the peoplewho work in them, the people who live in them and the people who use them. I recentlyread that more than half of Britons surveyed couldn't think of a single thing about their country to be proud of. Well, be proud of that. I spent a happy few hours tramping about through the sumptuous and easygoinglandscape between Windermere and Coniston Water, and would gladly have stayedlonger except that it began to rain ­ a steady, dispiriting rain that I foolishly had notallowed for in regard to my walking apparel ­ and anyway I was growing hungry, so Imade my way back to the ferry and Bowness. Thus it was that I found myself an hour or so and an overpriced tuna sandwich later,back in the Old England, staring out at the wet lake through a large window and feelingbored and listless in that special way peculiar to wet afternoons spent in plushsurroundings. To pass a half­hour, I went to the residents' lounge to see if I couldn't scareup a pot of coffee. The room was casually strewn with ageing colonels and their wives,sitting amid carelessly folded Daily Telegraphs. The colonels were all shortish, roundmen with tweedy jackets, well­slicked silvery hair, an outwardly gruff manner thatconcealed within a heart of flint, and, when they walked, a rakish limp. Their wives,lavishly rouged and powdered, looked as if they had just come from a coffin fitting. I feltseriously out of my element, and was surprised to find one of them ­ a grey­haired ladywho appeared to have put on her lipstick during an earth tremor ­addressing me in afriendly, conversational manner. It always takes me a moment to remember in thesecircumstances that I am now areasonably respectable­looking middle­aged man and not agangly young rube straight off the banana boat. We began, in the customary fashion, with a few words about the beastliness of theweather, but when the woman discovered I was an American she went off on someelaborate tangent about a trip she and Arthur ­ Arthur, I gathered, being the shyly smilingclot beside her ­ had recently taken to visit friends in California, and this gradually turnedinto what appeared to be a well­worn rant about the shortcomings of Americans. I neverunderstand what people are thinking when they do this. Do they think I'll appreciate theircandour? Are they winding me up? Or have they simply forgotten that I am one of thespecies myself? The same thing often happens when people talk about immigration infront of me. They're so forward, don't you think?' the lady sniffed and took a sip of tea. 'You'veonly to chat to a stranger for five minutes and they think you've become friends. I hadsome man in Encino ­ a retired postal worker or some such thing ­ asking my address andpromising to call round next time he's in England. Can you imagine it? I'd never met theman in my life.' She took a sip of tea and grew momentarily thoughtful. 'He had the mostextraordinary belt buckle. All silver and little gemstones.' 'It's the food that gets me,' said her husband, raising himself a little to embark on asoliloquy, but it quickly became evident that he was one of those men who never get tosay anything beyond the first sentence of a story. 'Oh yes, the food!' cried his wife, seizing the point. 'They have the most extraordinaryattitude to food.' 'What, because they like it tasty?' I enquired with a thin smile. 'No, my dear, the portions. The portions in America are positively obscene.'' 'I had a steak one time,' the man began with a little chortle. 'And the things they do to the language! They simply cannot speak the Queen's English.' Now wait a minute. Say what you will about American portions and friendly guyswith colourful belt buckles, but mind what you say about American English. 'Why shouldthey speak the Queen's English?' I asked a trifle frostily. 'She's not their queen, after all.' 'But the words they use. And their accents. What's that word you so dislike, Arthur?' 'Normalcy,' said Arthur. 'I met this one fellow.' 'But normalcy isn't an Americanism,' I said. 'It was coined in Britain.' 'Oh, I don't think so, dear,' said the woman with the certainty of stupidity andbestowed a condescending smile. 'No, I'm sure not.' 'In 1687,' I said, lying through my teeth. Well, I was right in the fundamentals ­normalcy is an anglicism. I just couldn't recall the details. 'Daniel Defoe in MollFlanders,' I added in a flash of inspiration. One of the things you get used to hearing whenyou are an American living in Britain is that America will be the death of English. It is asentiment expressed to me surprisingly often, usually at dinner parties, usually bysomeone who has had a little too much to drink, but sometimes by a semi­demented,overpowdered old crone like this one. There comes a time when you lose patience withthis sort of thing. So I told her ­ I told them both, for her husband looked as if he wasabout to utter another fraction of thought ­ that whether they appreciated it or not Britishspeech has been enlivened beyond measure by words created in America, words that theycould not do without, and that one of these words was moron. I showed them my teeth,drained my coffee, and with a touch of hauteur excused myself. Then I went off to writeanother letter to the editor of The Times. By eleven the next morning, when John Price and a very nice fellow named DavidPartridge rolled up at the hotel in Price's car, I was waiting for them by the door. Iforbade them a coffee stop in Bowness on the grounds that I could stand it no longer, andmade them drive to the hotel near Bassenthwaite where Price had booked us rooms.There we dumped our bags, had a coffee, acquired three packed lunches from the kitchen,accoutred ourselves in stylish fell­ware and set off for Great Langdale. Now this wasmore like it. Despite threatening weather and the lateness of the year, the car parks and vergesalong the valley were crowded with cars. Everywhere people delved for equipment inboots or sat with car doors open pulling on warm socks and stout boots. We dressed ourfeet, then fell in with a straggly army of walkers, all with rucksacks and knee­high woollysocks, and set off for a long, grassy humpback hill called the Band. We were headed forthe fabled summit of Bow Fell, at 2,960 feet the sixth highest of the Lakeland hills.Walkers ahead of us formed well­spaced dots of slow­moving colour leading to animpossibly remote summit, lost in cloud. As ever, I was quietly astounded to find that somany people had beenseized with the notion that struggling up a mountainside on a dampSaturday on the winter end of October was fun. We climbed through the grassy lower slopes into ever­bleaker terrain, picking our wayover rocks and scree, until we were up among the ragged shreds of cloud that hung abovethe valley floor perhaps a thousand feet below. The views were sensational ­ the jaggedpeaks of the Langdale Pikes rising opposite and crowding against the narrow andgratifyingly remote valley, laced with tiny, stonewalled fields, and off to the west a swelling sea of hefty brown hills disappearing in mist and low cloud. As we pressed on the weather severely worsened. The air filled with swirling particlesof ice that hit the skin like razor nicks. By the time we neared Three Tarns the weatherwas truly menacing, with thick fog joining the jagged sleet. Ferocious gusts of windbuffeted the hillside and reduced our progress to a creeping plod. The fog cut visibility toa few yards. Once or twice we briefly lost the path, which alarmed me as I didn'tparticularly want to die up here ­ apart from anything else, I still had 4,700 unspentProfiles points on my Barclaycard. Out of the murk ahead of us emerged what lookeddisconcertingly like an orange snowman. It proved on closer inspection to be a hi­techhiker's outfit. Somewhere inside it was a man. 'Bit fresh,' the bundle offered understatedly. John and David asked him if he'd come far. 'Just from Blea Tarn.' Blea Tarn was ten miles away over taxing terrain. 'Bad over there?' John asked in what I had come to recognize was the abbreviatedspeech of fell walkers. 'Hands­and­knees job,' said the man. They nodded knowingly. 'Be like that here soon.' They nodded again. 'Well, best be off,' announced the man as if he couldn't spend the whole day jabbering,and trundled off into the white soup. I watched him go, then turned to suggest thatperhaps we should think about retreating to the valley, to a warm hostelry with hot foodand cold beer, only to find Price and Partridge dematerializing into the mists thirty feetahead of me. 'Hey, wait for me!' I croaked and scrambled after. We made it to the top without incident. I counted thirty­three people there ahead of us,huddled among the fog­whitened boulders with sandwiches, flasks and madly fluttering maps, and tried to imagine howI would explain this to a foreign onlooker ­the idea of three dozen English people havinga picnic on a mountain top in an ice storm ­ and realized there was no way you couldexplain it. We trudged over to a rock, where a couple kindly moved their rucksacks andshrank their picnic space to make room for us. We sat and delved among our brown bagsin the piercing wind, cracking open hard­boiled eggs with numbed fingers, sipping warmpop, eating floppy cheese­and­pickle sandwiches, and staring into an impenetrable murkthat we had spent three hours climbing through to get here, and I thought, I seriouslythought: God, I love this country. CHAPTER   TWENTY­FOUR I WAS HEADING FOR NEWCASTLE, BY WAY OF YORK, WHEN I DID anotherimpetuous thing. I got off at Durham, intending to poke around the cathedral for an houror so and fell in love with it instantly in a serious way. Why, it's wonderful ­ a perfectlittle city ­ and I kept thinking: 'Why did no­one tell me about this?' I knew, of course,that it had a fine Norman cathedral but I had no idea that it was so splendid. I couldn't believe that not once in twenty years had anyone said to me, 'You've never been toDurham? Good God, man, you must go at once! Please ­ take my car.' I had readcountless travel pieces in Sunday papers about weekends away in York, Canterbury,Norwich, even Lincoln, but I couldn't remember reading a single one about Durham, andwhen I asked friends about it, I found hardly any who had ever been there. So let me sayit now: if you have never been to Durham, go at once. Take my car. It's wonderful. The cathedral, a mountain of reddish­brown stone standing high above a lazy greenloop of the River Wear, is, of course, its glory. Everything about it was perfect ­ not justits setting and execution but also, no less notably, the way it is run today. For a start therewas no nagging for money, no 'voluntary' admission fee. Outside, there was simply adiscreet sign announcing that it cost £700,000 a year to maintain the cathedral and that itwas now engaged on a £400,000 renovation project on the east wing and that they wouldvery much appreciate any spare money that visitors might give them. Inside, there weretwo modest collecting boxes and nothing else ­ no clutter, no nagging notices, no irksomebulletin boards or stupid Eisenhower flags, nothing at all to detract from the unutterable soaring majestyof the interior. It was a perfect day to see it. Sun slanted lavishly through the stained­glasswindows, highlighting the stout pillars with their sumptuously grooved patterns andspattering the floors with motes of colour. There were even wooden pews. I'm no judge of these things, but the window at the choir end looked to me at least theequal of the more famous one at York, and this one at least you could see in all itssplendour since it wasn't tucked away in a transept. And the stained­glass window at theother end was even finer. Well, I can't talk about this without babbling because it was justso wonderful. As I stood there, one of only a dozen or so visitors, a verger passed andissued a cheery hello. I was charmed by this show of friendliness and captivated to findmyself amid such perfection, and I unhesitatingly gave Durham my vote for bestcathedral on planet Earth. When I had drunk my fill, I showered the collection pot with coins and wandered offfor the most fleeting of looks at the old quarter of town, which was no less ancient andbeguiling, and returned to the station feeling simultaneously impressed and desolate atjust how much there was to see in this little country and what folly it had been to supposethat I might see anything more than a fraction of it in seven flying weeks. I took an intercity train to Newcastle and then a local to Pegswood, eighteen miles tothe north, where I emerged into more splendid, unseasonal sunshine and hiked a mile ortwo along an arrow­straight road to Ashington. Ashington has long called itself the biggest mining village in the world, but there is nomining any more and, with a population of 23,000, it is scarcely a village. It is famous asthe birthplace of a slew of footballers ­ Jackie and Bobby Charlton, Jackie Milburn andsome forty others skilled enough to play in the first division, a remarkable outpouring fora modest community ­ but I was drawn by something else: the once famous and nowlargely forgotten pitmen painters. In 1934, under the direction of an academic and artist from Durham University namedRobert Lyon, the town formed a painting club called the Ashington Group, consistingalmost exclusively of miners who had never painted ­ in many cases had never seen a real painting ­ before they started gathering in a hut on Monday evenings. They showed anunexpected amount of talent and'carried the name of Ashington over the grey mountains',as a critic for the Guardian (who clearly knew fuck­all about football) later put it. In the1930s and '40s particularly, they attracted huge attention, and were the frequent focus ofarticles in national papers and art magazines, as well as exhibitions in London and otherleading cities. My friend David Cook had an illustrated book by William Feaver calledPitmen Painters, which he had once shown me. The illustrations of the paintings werequite charming, but it was the photographs of burly miners, dressed up in suits and tiesand crowded into a little hut, earnestly hunched over easels and drawing­boards, thatstuck in my mind. I had to see it. Ashington was nothing like I expected it to be. In the photographs from David's bookit appeared to be a straggly, overgrown village, surrounded by filthy waste heaps andlayered with smoke from the three local pits, a place of muddy lanes hunched under aperpetual wash of sooty drizzle, but what I found instead was a modern, busy communityswimming in clean, clear air. There was even a new business park with flutteringpennants, spindly new trees and an impressive brick gateway on what was clearlyreclaimed ground. The main street, Station Road, had been smartly pedestrianized and itsmany shops appeared to be doing a good trade. It was obvious that there was not a greatdeal of money in Ashington ­ most of the shops were of the Price Busters/Superdrug/Wotta Loada Crap variety, their windows papered with strident promises ofspecial offers within ­ but at least they appeared to be thriving in a way that those ofBradford, for instance, were not. I went to the town hall to ask the way to the site of the once­famous hut, and set offdown Woodhorn Road in search of the old Co­op building behind which it had stood. Thefame of the Ashington Group, it must be said, rested on a large measure of well­meaningbut faintly objectionable paternalism. Reading the old accounts of their exhibitions inplaces like London and Bath, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the Ashington artistswere regarded by critics and other aesthetes rather like Dr Johnson's performing dog: thewonder was not that they did it well but that they did it at all. Yet the Ashington painters represented only a small fragment of a greater hunger forbetterment in places like Ashington, where most people were lucky to come away withmore than a few years of primary education. It is quite astonishing, seeing it now, to realize just how rich life was, and how enthusiastically opportunities were seized, inAshington in the years before the war. At one time the town boasted a philosophicalsociety, with a busy year­round programme of lectures, concerts and evening classes; anoperatic society; a dramatic society; a workers' educational association; a miners' welfareinstitute with workshops and yet more lecture rooms; and gardening clubs, cycling clubs,athletics clubs, and others in similar vein almost beyond counting. Even the work­ingmen's clubs, of which Ashington boasted twenty­two at its peak, offered libraries andreading­rooms for those who craved more than a pint or two of Federation Ale. The townhad a thriving theatre, a ballroom, five cinemas, and a concert chamber called theHarmonic Hall. When, in the 1920s, the Bach Choir from Newcastle performed on aSunday afternoon at the Harmonic Hall, it drew an audience of 2,000. Can you imagineanything remotely like that now? And then, one by one, they faded away ­ the Thespians, the Operatic Society, thereading­rooms and lecture halls. Even the five cinemas all quietly closed their doors.Today the liveliest diversion in Ashington is a Noble's amusement arcade, which I passednow on my way to the Co­op building, which wasn't hard to find. At the back of the Co­op stood a large, unpaved car park surrounded by a scattering of low buildings ­ abuilder's merchants, a boy scout hut, a DHS compound, a Veterans' Institute buildingmade of wood and painted a bright veridian green. I knew from William Feaver's bookthat the Ashington Group hut had stood beside the Veterans' Institute, but on which side Ididn't know and now there was no telling. The Ashington Group was one of the last local institutions to go, though its declinewas slow and painful. Throughout the 1950s, its numbers inexorably fell as the oldermembers died off and younger people decided that it was naff to put on a suit and tie andponce about with paintboxes. For the last several years, only two surviving members,Oliver Kilbourn and Jack Harrison, regularly showed up on Monday nights. In thesummer of 1982, they received a notice that the ground rent on the hut was to be raisedfrom 50p a year to £14. 'That,' as Feaver notes, 'plus the £7 standing quarterly charge forelectricity seemed too much.' In October 1983, just short of its fiftieth anniversary and forwant of £42 a year in running costs, the Ashington Group was disbanded and the hutpulled down.Now there is nothing to look at but a car park, but the paintings are faithfullypreserved in the Woodhorn Colliery Museum another mile or so up Woodhorn Road. Iwalked there now, past endless ranks of former miners' cottages. The old colliery stilllooks like a colliery, its brick buildings intact, its old winding wheel hanging in the airlike some kind of curious and forlorn fairground ride. Rusting iron tracks still curveacross the grounds. But all is quiet now and the marshalling yards have been turned totidy green lawns. I was almost the only visitor. The Woodhorn Colliery closed down in 1981, seven years short of its hundredthanniversary. Once it was one of 200 pits in Northumberland, and of some 3,000 in thecountry as a whole. In the 1920s, at the industry's peak, 1.2 million men worked in Britishcoal mines. Now, at the time of my visit, there were just sixteen working pits in thecountry and the number employed had fallen by 98 per cent. All of which seems a little sad until you step into the museum and are remindedthrough photographs and accident statistics just how harsh and draining the work was,and how carefully it systematized generations of poverty. It's no wonder the townproduced so many footballers; for decades there was no other way out. The museum was free and full of cleverly engaging displays showing life down thepits and in the busy village above it. I had no idea, other than in a loose notional sense,just how hard life was in the mines. Well into this century, more than a thousand men ayear died in mines and every pit had at least one fabled disaster. (Woodhorn's was in1916 when thirty men died in an explosion caused by criminally lax supervision; themine's owners were sternly told not to let it happen again or next time they would reallyget told off.) Until 1847, children as young as four ­ can you believe this? ­ worked in themines for up to ten hours a day, and until relatively recent times boys of ten were put towork as trapper lads, confined in total darkness in a small space with nothing to do butopen and shut ventilation traps when a coal cart passed by. One boy's shift ran from 3 a.m. to 4 p.m. six days a week. And those were the soft jobs. Goodness knows how people found the time or strength to haul themselves off tolectures and concerts and painting clubs, but they most assuredly did. In a brightly litroom hang thirty or forty paintings executed by members of the Ashington Group. Somodest were the group's resources that many are painted with walpamur,­ a kind of primitiveemulsion, on paper, card or fibreboard. Hardly any are on canvas. It would be cruellymisleading to suggest that the Ashington Group harboured a budding Tintoretto, or evena Hockney, but the paintings provide a compelling record of life in a mining communityover a period of fifty years. Nearly all depict local scenes ­ 'Saturday Night at the Club','Whippets' ­ or life down the pits, and seeing them in the context of a mining museum,rather than in some gallery in a metropolis, adds appreciably to their lustre. For thesecond time in a day I was impressed and captivated. And here's a small, incidental point. As I was leaving, I noticed on a label recordingthe mine's owners that one of the principal beneficiaries of all this sweat and toil at thecoalface was none other than our old friend W.J.C. Scott­Bentinck, the fifth Duke ofPortland, and it occurred to me, not for the first time, what a remarkably, cherishablysmall world Britain is. That is its glory, you see ­ that it manages at once to be intimate and small­scale and atthe same time packed to bursting with incident and interest. I am constantly filled withadmiration at this ­ at the way you can wander through a town like Oxford and in thespace of a few moments pass the home of Christopher Wren, the buildings where Halleyfound his comet and Boyle his first law, the track where Roger Bannister ran the first sub­four­minute mile, the meadow where Lewis Carroll strolled; or how you can stand onSnow's Hill at Windsor and see, in a single sweep, Windsor Castle and the playing­fieldsof Eton, the churchyard where Gray wrote his elegy, the site where The Merry Wives ofWindsor was first performed. Can there anywhere on earth be, in such a modest span, alandscape more packed with centuries of busy, productive attainment? I returned to Pegswood lost in a small glow of admiration and caught a train toNewcastle, where I found a hotel and passed an evening in a state of some serenity,walking till late through the echoing streets, surveying the statues and buildings withfondness and respect, and I finished the day with a small thought, which I shall leave youwith now. It was this: How is it possible, in this wondrous land where the relics of genius and enterpriseconfront you at every step, where every realm of human possibility has been probed andchallenged and generally extended, where many of the very greatest accomplishmentsofindustry, commerce and the arts find their seat, how is it possible in such a place thatwhen at length I returned to my hotel and switched on the television it was Cagney andLacey again? CHAPTER   TWENTY­FIVE AND SO I WENT TO EDINBURGH.  CAN THERE ANYWHERE BE A MOREbeautiful and beguiling city to arrive at by train early on a crisp, dark Novembery evening? To emerge from the bustling, subterranean bowels of Waverley Station and findyourself in the very heart of such a glorious city is a happy experience indeed. I hadn'tbeen to Edinburgh for years and had forgotten just how captivating it can be. Everymonument was lit with golden floodlights ­ the castle and Bank of Scotland headquarterson the hill, the Balmoral Hotel and the Scott Monument down below ­ which gave them acertain eerie grandeur. The city was abustle with end­of­day activity. Buses sweptthrough Princes Street and shop and office workers scurried along the pavements,hastening home to have their haggis and cock­a­leekie soup and indulge in a few skirls orwhatever it is Scots do when the sun goes doon. I'd booked a room in the Caledonian Hotel, which was a rash and extravagant thing todo, but it's a terrific building and an Edinburgh institution and I just had to be part of itfor one night, so I set off for it down Princes Street, past the Gothic rocket ship of theScott Monument, unexpectedly exhilarated to find myself among the hurrying throngsand the sight of the castle on its craggy mount outlined against a pale evening sky. To a surprising extent, and far more than in Wales, Edinburgh felt like a differentcountry. The buildings were thin and tall in an un­English fashion, the money wasdifferent, even the air and light felt different in some ineffable northern way. Everybookshop window was full of books about Scotland or by Scottish authors.And of coursethe voices were different. I walked along, feeling as if I had left England far behind, andthen I would pass something familiar and think in surprise, Oh, look, they have Marks&C Spencer here, as if I were in Reykjavik or Stavanger and oughtn't to expect to findBritish things. It was most refreshing. I checked into the Caledonian, dumped my things in the room, and immediatelyreturned to the streets, eager to be out in the open air and to take in whatever Edinburghhad to offer. I trudged up a long, curving back hill to the castle, but the grounds were shutfor the night, so I contented myself with a shuffling amble down the Royal Mile, whichwas nearly empty of life and very handsome in a dour, Scottish sort of way. I passed thetime browsing in the windows of the many tourist shops that stand along it, reflecting onwhat a lot of things the Scots have given the world ­ kilts, bagpipes, tam­o'­shanters, tinsof oatcakes, bright yellow jumpers with big diamond patterns of the sort favoured byRonnie Corbett, plaster casts of Greyfriars Bobby looking soulful, sacks of haggis ­ andhow little anyone but a Scot would want them. Let me say right here, flat out, that I have the greatest fondness and admiration forScotland and her clever, cherry­cheeked people. Did you know that Scotland producesmore university students per capita than any other nation in Europe? And it has churnedout a rollcall of worthies far out of proportion to its modest size ­Stevenson, Watt, Lyell,Lister, Burns, Scott, Conan Doyle, J.M. Barrie, Adam Smith, Alexander Graham Bell,Thomas Telford, Lord Kelvin, John Logic Baird, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and lanMcCaskill, to name but a few. Among much else we owe the Scots are whisky, raincoats,rubber wellies, the bicycle pedal, the telephone, tarmac, penicillin and an understandingof the active principles of cannabis, and think how insupportable life would be withoutthose. So thank you, Scotland, and never mind that you seem quite unable to qualify forthe World Cup these days. At the bottom of the Royal Mile, I came up against the entrance to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, and picked my way to the centre of things along a series of darkenedback lanes. Eventually I ended up in an unusual pub on St Andrew Square called Tiles ­an apt name since every inch of it from floor to ceiling was covered in elaborate, chunky,Victorian tiles. It felt a bit like drinking in Prince Albert's loo ­ a not disagreeableexperience, as it happens. In any case, something about it must have appealed to mebecause I drank a foolish amount of beer and emerged to find that nearly all the restaurants round about were closed, so I toddled back to my hotel, where I winked atthe night staff and put myself to bed. In the morning, I awoke feeling famished, perky and unusually­clear­headed. Ipresented myself in the entrance to the dining room of the Caledonian. Would I likebreakfast? asked a man in a black suit. 'Does the Firth have a Forth?' I replied drolly and nudged him in the ribs. I was shownto a table and was so hungry that I dispensed with the menu and told the man to bring methe full whack, whatever it might consist of, then sat back happily and idly glanced at themenu, where I discovered that the full cooked breakfast was listed at £14.50.1 snared apassing waiter. 'Excuse me,' I said, 'but it says here that the breakfast is fourteen­fifty.' That's right, sir.' I could feel a sudden hangover banging on the cranial gates. 'Are you telling me,' Isaid, 'that on top of the lavish sum I paid for a room I must additionally pay fourteen­fiftyfor a fried egg and an oatcake?' He allowed that this was, in essence, so. I withdrew my order and asked instead for acup of coffee. Well, honestly. Perhaps it was this sudden early blot on my happiness that put me in a grumpy moodor perhaps it was the drippy rain I emerged into, but Edinburgh didn't look half so fine indaylight as it had appeared the night before. Now people plodded through the streets withumbrellas and cars swished through puddles with a noise that sounded testy andimpatient. George Street, the core of the New Town, presented an unquestionably fine, ifdamp, prospect with its statues and stately squares, but far too many of the Georgianbuildings had been clumsily abused by the addition of modern frontages. Just around thecorner from my hotel was an office supply shop with plate­glass windows that had beengrafted onto an eighteenth­century frontage in a way that was nothing short of criminal,and there were others in like vein here and there along the surrounding streets. I wandered around looking for some place to eat, and ended up on Princes Street. It,too, seemed to have changed overnight. Then, with homeward­bound workers scurryingpast, it had seemed beguiling and vibrant, exciting even, but now in the dull light of day itmerely seemed listless and grey. I shuffled along it looking for a cafe or bistro, but withthe exception of a couple of truly dumpy discount woollens places where the goodsseemed to have beendrop­kicked onto display counters or were spontaneously climbingout of bins, Princes Street appeared to offer nothing but the usual array of chainestablishments ­ Boots, Littlewoods, Virgin Records, BHS, Marks & Spencer, BurgerKing, McDonald's. What central Edinburgh lacked, it seemed to me, was a venerable andmuch­loved institution ­ a Viennese­style coffeehouse or treasured tea­room, some placewith newspapers on gripper rods, potted palms and perhaps a fat little lady playing a grand piano. In the end, fractious and impatient, I went into a crowded McDonald's, waited acentury in a long, ragged line, which made me even more fractious and impatient, andfinally ordered a cup of coffee and an Egg McMuffin. 'Do you want an apple turnover with that?' asked the spotty young man who servedme. 'I'm sorry,' I said, 'do I appear to be brain­damaged?' 'Pardon?' 'Correct me if I'm wrong, but I didn't ask for an apple turnover, did I?' 'Uh . . . no.' 'So do I look as if I have some mental condition that would render me unable torequest an apple turnover if I wanted one?' 'No, it's just that we're told to ask everyone like.' 'What, you think everyone in Edinburgh is brain­damaged?' 'We're just told to ask everyone like.' 'Well, I don't want an apple turnover, which is why I didn't ask for one. Is thereanything else you'd like to know if I don't want?' 'We're just told to ask everyone.' 'Do you remember what I do want?' He looked in confusion at his till. 'Uh, an Egg McMuffin and a cup of coffee.' 'Do you think I might have it this morning or shall we talk some more?' 'Oh, uh, right, I'll just get it.' 'Thank you.' Well, honestly. Afterwards, feeling only fractionally less fractious, I stepped out to find the rainbeating down. I sprinted across the road and, on an impulse, ducked into the RoyalScottish Academy, a grand pseudo­hellenic edifice with banners suspended between thecolumns, which make it look a little like a lost outpost of the Reichstag. I paid £1.50 for aticket and, shaking myself dry like a dog, shuffled in. They were having their autumn show or perhaps it was their winter show orperhaps it was their annual show. I couldn't say because I didn't notice any signs and thepictures were labelled with numbers. You had to pay an extra £2 for a catalogue to findout what was what, which frankly annoys me when I have just parted with £1.50. (TheNational Trust does this, too ­ puts numbers on the plants and trees in its gardens and soon, so that you have to buy a catalogue ­ which is one reason why I won't be leaving myfortune to the National Trust.) The works in the RSA exhibition extended over manyrooms and appeared to fall chiefly into four categories: (1) boats on beaches, (2) lonelycrofts, (3) half­clad girlfriends engaged in their toilette, and, for some reason, (4) Frenchstreet scenes, always with at least one shop front saying BOULANGERIE or EPICERIEso that there was no possibility of mistaking the setting for Fraserburgh or Arbroath. Many of the pictures ­ indeed most ­ were outstanding, and when I saw red gummedcircles attached to some of them I not only realized that they were for sale but developeda sudden, strange hankering to buy one myself. So I started making trips to the lady at thefront desk and saying, 'Excuse me, how much is number 125?' She would look it up and state a figure several hundred pounds beyond what I was prepared to pay, so I wouldwander off again and after a bit come back and say, 'Excuse me, how much is number47?' At one point, I saw a picture I particularly liked ­ a painting of Solway Firth by afellow named Colin Park ­ and she looked it up and told me that it was £125. This was agood price and I was prepared to buy it then and there even if I had to carry it all the wayto John O'Groats under my arm, but then she discovered that she had read the wrong line,that the £125 picture was a little thing about three inches square and that the Colin Parkwas very considerably more than that, so I went off again. Eventually, when my legsbegan to tire, I tried a new tack and asked her what she had for £50 or less, and when itturned out there was nothing, I left, discouraged in my quest but £2 richer in regard to thecatalogue. Then I went to the Scottish National Gallery, which I liked even better and not justbecause it was free. The Scottish National Gallery is tucked away behind the RSA anddoesn't look much from outside, but inside it was very grand in an imperial, nineteenth­century sort of way, with red baize walls, outsized pictures in extravagant frames,scattered statues of naked nymphs and furniture trimmed in gilt, so that it rather broughtto mind astroll through Queen Victoria's boudoir. The pictures were not only outstanding,but they had labels telling you their historical background and what the people in themwere doing, which I think is to be highly commended and in fact should be mademandatory everywhere. I read these instructive notes gratefully, pleased to know, for instance, that the reasonRembrandt looked so glum in his self­portrait was that he had just been declaredinsolvent, but in one of the salons I noticed that there was a man, accompanied by a boyof about thirteen, who didn't need the labels at all. They were from what I suspect the Queen Mother would call the lower orders.Everything about them murmured poorness and material want ­ poor diet, poor income,poor dentistry, poor prospects, even poor laundering ­ but the man was describing thepictures with a fondness and familiarity that were truly heartwarming and the boy wasraptly attentive to his every word. 'Now this is a later Goya, you see,' he was saying in aquiet voice. 'Just look at how controlled those brush strokes are ­ a complete change instyle from his earlier work. D'ye remember how I told you that Goya didn't paint a singlegreat picture till he was nearly fifty? Well, this is a great picture.' He wasn't showing off,you understand; he was sharing. I have often been struck in Britain by this sort of thing ­ by how mysteriously welleducated people from unprivileged backgrounds so often are, how the most unlikelypeople will tell you plant names in Latin or turn out to be experts on the politics ofancient Thrace or irrigation techniques at Glanum. This is a country, after all, where thegrand final of a programme like Mastermind is frequently won by cab drivers andfootplatemen. I have never been able to decide whether that is deeply impressive or justappalling ­whether this is a country where engine drivers know about Tintoretto andLeibniz or a country where people who know about Tintoretto and Leibniz end up drivingengines. All I know is that it exists more here than anywhere else. Afterwards, I climbed up the steep slope to the castle grounds, which seemed oddly,almost spookily, familiar. I hadn't been here before, so I couldn't think why this should be, and then I realized that a regimental tattoo from Edinburgh Castle had been one of thefeatures of This Is Cinerama back in Bradford. The castle precinct was just as it had beenin the film, apart from a change of weather and a merciful absence of strutting GordonHighlanders, but one other thing had changed mightily since 1951 ­ the view of Princes Street from theterrace. In 1951, Princes Street remained one of the world's great streets, a graciousthoroughfare lined along its northern side with solid, weighty Victorian and Edwardianedifices that bespoke confidence, greatness and empire ­ the North British MercantileInsurance Company, the sumptuous, classical New Club building, the old WaverleyHotel. And then, one by one, they were unaccountably torn down, and replaced for themost part with grey concrete bunkers. At the eastern end of the street the whole of StJames' Square, an open green space surrounded by a crowd of eighteenth­centurytenements, was bulldozed to make way for one of the squattest, ugliest shoppingcentre/hotel complexes ever to spill from an architect's pen. Now about all that is left ofPrinces Street's age of confident grandeur are odd fragments like the Balmoral Hotel andthe Scott Monument and part of the front of Jenners Department Store. Later, when I was back home, I found in my AA Book of British Towns an artist'sillustration of central Edinburgh as it might be seen from the air. It showed Princes Streetlined from end to end with nothing but fine old buildings. The same was true of all theother artists' impressions of British cities ­ Norwich and Oxford and Canterbury andStratford. You can't do that, you know. You can't tear down fine old structures andpretend they are still there. But that is exactly what has happened in Britain in the pastthirty years, and not just with buildings. And on that sour note, I went off to try to find some real food. CHAPTER   TWENTY­SIX SO  LET'S  TALK  ABOUT  SOMETHING  HEARTENING.   LET'S  TALKABOUT John Fallows. One day in 1987 Fallows was standing at a window in a Londonbank waiting to be served when a would­be robber named Douglas Bath stepped in frontof him, brandished a handgun and demanded money from the cashier. Outraged, Fallowstold Bath to 'bugger off to the back of the line and wait his turn, to the presumedapproving nods of others in the queue. Unprepared for this turn of events, Bath meeklydeparted from the bank empty­handed and was arrested a short distance away. I bring this up here to make the point that if there is one golden quality thatcharacterizes the British it is an innate sense of good manners and you defy it at yourperil. Deference and a quiet consideration for others are such a fundamental part ofBritish life, in fact, that few conversations could even start without them. Almost anyencounter with a stranger begins with the words 'I'm terribly sorry but' followed by arequest of some sort ­ 'could you tell me the way to Brighton,' 'help me find a shirt mysize,' 'get your steamer trunk off my foot.' And when you've fulfilled their request, theyinvariably offer a hesitant, apologetic smile and say sorry again, begging forgiveness fortaking up your time or carelessly leaving their foot where your steamer trunk clearly Pages:
i don't know
The so-called “Curse of the Bambino” afflicted which team between 1918 and 2004?
What is Bambino's Curse? What is Bambino's Curse? What is My Belief? the Legend of the Curse In 1918 the Red Sox won their 5th World Series, the most by any club at that time. One of the stars of the Boston championship franchise was a young pitcher by the name of George Herman Ruth, aka The Babe or The Bambino. In 1920, however, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee needed money to finance his girlfriend's play, so he sold Babe Ruth's contract to Colonel Jacob Ruppert's New York Yankees for $100,000 (plus a loan collateralized by Fenway Park). Since then, the Yankees, who had never won a World Championship before acquiring Ruth, have gone on to win 26, and are arguably one of the greatest success stories in the history of sport. Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox have appeared in only four World Series since 1918, losing each one in game seven. Many consider Boston's performance after the departure of Babe Ruth to be attributable to "The Curse of the Bambino." the Weblog The weblog Bambino's Curse is my attempt to capture the day to day experience of being a life long Red Sox fan, an experience marked by more lows than highs, but an experience that in the end has its own rewards. Like the adage says, the treasure is always found in the journey itself and not the final destination. So each day (or close to it) during the regular season (less frequently during the off season), I post my thoughts on the main page . As far as the actual writing goes, I'll be the first to admit it's a work in progress. I have a daily struggle with the writing, especially with trying to establish my own unique voice and tone.  Even after doing this for the entire '01 season and beyond , , I STILL don't have a solid grasp or comfort level with the words on the screen. Some days I come across as a dull "just the facts, ma'am" correspondent doing little more than aping what others, the professional sports writers, do so, so much better than I; other days I sound like a pathetic school girl crying into the pages of her diary, and other times I seem unsure whether the whole Bambino's Curse experience for me is an ironic, tongue-in-cheek joke or a profound and earnest attempt to understand and share my inner-self. I guess my uncertainty makes sense, as what I'm trying to do when I write is a mixture of all the above. the Evidence of the Curse Over the years, the Red Sox have compiled one of the most infamous stories of defeat, near miss, and utter collapse that the world of sports has ever known. To read the gory details, check out the ultimate timeline of Amazing Boston Red Sox Losses, Remarkable Collapses and other Record Breaking Feats at SoxSuck.com (link opens in new window). After looking the timeline over, ask yourself if it's all "just a coincidence." the meaning of "1918," The ubiquitous appearance on the Bambino's Curse website of "1918," refers to the last year the Red Sox won the World Series. The comma is symbolic of the fact that at the time of selling Babe Ruth in 1920 the Red Sox were the premier team in baseball, and everyone expected they'd win the next World Series quite soon. The comma is in expectation of completing the listing of the championship years: 1903, 1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, . . .   Well, we've been waiting for the next one for 83 years now.  The comma following the 1918 date continues to symbolize every Red Sox fan's ongoing belief that a World Series Championship will happen "next year." An unfortunate yet familiar phrase among Red Sox fans is "wait 'til next year."
Boston Red Sox
Tiger Woods wears a shirt of which colour for the final round of each tournament?
Boston Red Sox Mt. Rushmore Boston Red Sox Mt. Rushmore Boston Red Sox Mt. Rushmore By Charlie Miller , 9/20/11, 9:50 AM EDT Red Sox Nation has many choices and arguments aplenty MLB Mt. Rushmores by Charlie Miller Major League Baseball is promoting an effort to identify the best four players in each team’s history. We selected our choices for Mt. Rushmores a few years ago. Here are updated versions for all 30 teams. Who are the four baseball players that have risen above all others for each organization? The question sounds simple, right? Not so fast. Let the arguments begin.   Boston Red Sox Mt. Rushmore The overplayed drought of championships from 1918 to 2004 and the Curse of the Bambino have overshadowed what has been a very successful franchise. By 1918 the team had won five World Series and another AL pennant in 1904, a year there was no Series. Dark days followed from 1922-33 when they finished in last place in nine of 12 seasons and next-to-last in another two. But Sox fans have had much to cheer for recently. Even going back to 1966, there have been just seven losing seasons. They have finished worse than second place just three times since 1997. The Sox have made 13 postseason appearances in the past 28 years. And since the Curse was reversed in 2004, Boston has won two more titles (2007, 2013). However, the team has won 100 games in a season only three times, the last all the way back in 1946. The famous 1978 playoff game with the Yankees would have been the Sox 100th win had Bucky Dent not shattered Boston’s championship plans. The Red Sox pose a tough test in selecting just four individuals. Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski are easy choices. The list of candidates for the last two spots is long, and filled with strong arguments. Ted Williams There is absolutely no doubt that Teddy Ballgame belongs here. The Splendid Splinter is also in the discussion for the MLB Hitters Mt. Rushmore. There may not have been a better hitter ever. His entire career was spent in Boston and was interrupted twice by stints in the U.S. Marine Corps — first in World War II then again during the Korean War. The 10 best on-base percentages in Boston history, ranging from .479-.553, all belong to Williams.   Carl Yastrzemski It isn’t easy to step into a legend’s shoes, especially at the age of 21 and a legend the size of Williams. But that’s what was asked of Yastrzemski in 1961. But 3,308 games later, Yaz had cemented his place alongside Williams as the two greatest players in Red Sox history. Yastrzemski won three batting titles, a triple crown, made 18 All-Star teams and earned seven Gold Gloves. At ages 22 and 38 he finished 18th in MVP voting. In between, he had nine finishes that high or better, including winning the award in his triple crown season of 1967. Sadly, Yaz never won a World Series, but he batted .400 and hit three home runs in the 1967 Classic and hit .310 in the 1975 Series. Overall, he batted .369 in the postseason with 11 RBIs and 15 runs in 17 games.   David Ortiz Big Papi has embodied the spirit of the Red Sox in the 2000s. Over his first five seasons with the team, he averaged .302 with 42 home runs, 128 RBIs, 105 runs and 41 doubles, and finished in the top 5 in MVP votes each year. And most importantly, the Sox won two World Series in that time, and added a third since then. He has 17 postseason home runs and owns a .455 average with 14 RBIs in 14 World Series games.   Jim Rice Rice is third on the Red Sox list in hits, total bases and RBIs. He and Hank Aaron (in 1959) are the only two hitters with as many as 400 total bases in a season between 1948 and 1997. From the mid-1970s to the mid-’80s, Rice was the most feared hitter in the American League. Close Calls Pedro Martinez spent only seven years in a Boston uniform, but he won 117 games, winning 76 percent of his decisions. He was 6-2 in the postseason, but made just one start in the World Series, tossing seven shutout innings in 2004. In those seven seasons, he won two Cy Young awards, finished second twice, third once and fourth once.   You would think any player with a foul pole named for him would deserve a Mt. Rushmore honor. And Johnny Pesky remains a beloved player to fans of several generations.   The Game 6 home run in 1975 by Carlton Fisk certainly is on Boston’s Mt. Rushmore of moments, but the catcher had a tough breakup and spent too much time in white socks.   Third in career runs, fourth in hits and total bases, Dwight Evans was as good a rightfielder as we’ve seen since the 1970s. Cy Young has an award named for him, but fewer than 200 wins in Boston.   Bobby Doerr made nine All-Star teams and drove in 100 runs six times. He missed a full season due to military service at age 27. He played only second base in his career and wore no other uniform.   From 1935 to 1947, Joe Cronin managed Lefty Grove, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams and Bobby Doerr, among others, to a pennant, four second-place finishes and 10 .500 seasons or better in 13 years.   Tris Speaker won the 1912 MVP in a Boston uniform. In seven full-time seasons from 1909-15, he averaged .342-6-76 with 99 runs, 34 doubles and 15 triples and a .909 OPS.  
i don't know
Which of Shakespeare’s plays is set in Vienna?
Songs From Shakespeare's Plays William Shakespeare "The Bard" It is appropriate that this collection of songs for Shakespeare's plays, recorded by boy soprano Lorin Wey, should contain music used in the original productions and early revivals, for the songs would then have been performed by boys who were accomplished singers as well as actors. Many of them would have been recruited from established companies, such as the Children of the Chapel or the Paul's Boys. Originally trained as choristers for religious duties in such prestigious places as the Chapel Royal or St Paul's Cathedral, these boys were also commanded to provide musical and theatrical entertainment at court and indeed became so well-known and popular that their masters set up their own companies to perform additionally in private playhouses. Their success overtook for a time that of the companies of professional adult actors, until the playwrights providing them with material introduced political and religious satire, which so displeased James I that he effectively closed the children's companies down. In 1608 Shakespeare's company, The King's Men, took over the Blackfriars theatre, which until then had hosted a children's company. But Shakespeare's company would also have taken over the best of the boy actors and singers, who were needed to play the female roles, as women were not permitted to act on stage professionally. These boys would be required, together with the apprentices of the King's Men, to create such demanding roles as Ophelia, Desdemona and Juliet. This programme of songs for Shakespeare's plays takes us back as far as the earliest productions. But as the early editions of the plays contain no printed music we cannot be certain which of the songs might actually have been used. Nor can we be sure how many of the texts came from Shakespeare's own pen: often existing ballads were quoted or misquoted, and the length dictated by the needs of the action. Robert Johnson (15821633) is the composer most readily associated with Shakespeare: he was employed by the King's Men from 1609 and it is likely that the two songs for Ariel, Where the Bee Sucks and Full Fathom Five were used in early revivals of The Tempest. The Willow Song (Anon) was already known before Othello was written and Shakespeare adapted a shortened version of it for the boy who played Desdemona. Thomas Morley (1557-1602) published his song It was a lover and his lass about the same time as the first production of As You Like It and the setting of 0 Mistress Mine appeared just before Twelfth Night was first performed. But in both cases there is nothing to establish if the words were indeed Shakespeare's. Other songs in this collection most likely used in the early productions of the plays include Take, 0 Take those Lips Away by John Wilson (1597-1674) and Hark! Hark! The Lark!, which has been attributed to Robert Johnson. In Measure for Measure only the first verse set by Wilson is printed, although the second verse appears in a play by Fletcher. Wilson was employed as composer to the King's Men in succession to Robert Johnson, and also held positions as King's Lutenist, Gentleman of the Chapel Royal and Professor of Music at Oxford. At each successive revival of Shakespeare's plays, English composers were keen to show their skill in writing or arranging music to accompany the new productions. From the eighteenth century,Thomas Arne (1710-1778), prolific writer of operas and incidental music for the theatre, is best now remembered for his Shakespeare settings, of which Under the Green Wood Tree, Blow, Blow thou Winter Wind and Where the Bee Sucks, written in the 1740s, are represented here. The words set by Thomas Linley junior (17561778) for a revival of The Tempest at Drury Lane in 1777 were not by Shakespeare but R. B. Sheridan, who had rewritten the beginning of the play to allow for a storm chorus and bright opening aria for Ariel: 0 Bid your Faithful Ariel Fly. Thomas Linley junior was the most promising composer of his age: coming from a multi-talented musical family, he was already an accomplished violinist and composer before going to Italy to study with Nardini at the age of twelve. There, two years later, he met Mozart (they were exact contemporaries) and they soon became friends, performing together at private salons. Back in England Linley was a prolific and acclaimed composer, but tragically his life was cut short when he drowned in a boating accident at the age of 22. Mozart called him "A true genius... had he lived he would have been one of the greatest ornaments of the musical world" Over Hill, Over Dale from A Midsummer Night's Dream, is probably the least known song in this collection. It was written by an Irishman, Thomas Cooke (1782-1848), one of a large number of songs written for the stage. Cooke was a versatile musician, a noted singer and trainer of singers; he was also proficient in most string, keyboard and wind instruments. After leaving his native Dublin for London, he became associated for a long time with the Drury Lane Theatre where he composed music for more than fifty theatrical productions. The name of Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) is inevitably associated with that of W. S. Gilbert, the provider of librettos for Sullivan's best-known operettas. But Sullivan left a quantity of other work, including orchestral music, oratorios, songs, anthems, and church services, as well as an attempt at serious opera. And just as his operettas were popular in the theatre, so were his songs in the home. He fulfilled the Victorians' passion for home music-making with some seventy songs: these vary in quality from those which aimed high (and succeeded) to others which descended to the overly sentimental. Most of these songs were written before his collaboration with Gilbert, and no doubt provided him with a comfortable income. He wrote five settings of Shakespeare texts between 1863-4, of which Orpheus and his Lute is the best known. A more polished and elegant development of the Victorian drawing-room song is to be found in the work of Roger Quilter, (1877-1953). From a wealthy family, this most English of composers found early success as a song writer and only occasionally strayed outside this genre. The two well-crafted Shakespeare songs It was a Lover and Hey, Ho, the Wind and the Rain are from his Opus 23. Our two most recent Shakespeare settings are by two of the greatest twentieth century British composers, Benjamin Britten (1913-1976) and Michael Tippett (1905-1998). Instantly recognisable by their individual styles, both are represented by works from the 1960s, Britten's Fancie (1961) and two of Tippett's Songs for Ariel, Full Fathom Five and Where the Bee Sucks (1962). These latter pieces were part of the incidental music Tippett wrote for a production of The Tempest at the Old Vic theatre, London. It is interesting to compare Britten's setting of Fancy with that of Francis Poulenc, (1899-1963) which dates from a couple of years earlier (1959). Almost every major Western composer since Shakespeare's day has either set his words to music or written incidental music based on his plays. Hey, Ho, the Wind and the Rain is largely an anthology of English music through the ages, but it is fitting that Lorin, a former Vienna Choir Boy, and resident of Vienna, should include two songs by Franz Schubert (1797-1828), also a former member of the choir. The two songs An Sylvia and Horch, Horch die Lerch are both well-known favourites. Note: The recording "Hey, Ho, the Wind and the Rain" by boy soprano Lorin Wey is currently available online at Tadpole Music in the UK. Three tracks from the recording may be heard at Lorin's discography page on this site. Copyright � 2003 Nick Wright, Tadpole Music Used with permission. Copyright � 2004 boychoirs.org This page was last modified on 18 November 2005
Measure for Measure
Which play contains the famous stage direction “Exit, pursued by a bear”?
Vienna Verona: a double bill of Shakespeare from Three Spoon Theatre — Salient Written by William Shakespeare Directed by Alex Lodge With James Davenport, Richard Falkner, Ralph Upton, Nick Zwart, Eli Kent, Charlotte Bradley, Clare Wilson, Sophie Hambleton, Thomas McGrath, Edward Watson, Paul Harrop and Ally Garrett Measure for Measure is, to put it mildly, an interesting play. It is one of Shakespeare’s “Problem Plays”, which were a particularly twisted and occasionally starkly psychologically realist comedies. It is the dense, dark and complex story of when the Duke of Vienna (James Davenport) hands over his power, as the word of law, to his deputy Angelo (Richard Falkner). Angelo soon becomes drunk with his newfound status. Angelo’s power madness has dire and disturbing results for Isabella (Charlotte Bradley,) a nun, and her brother Claudio (Eli Kent), who has been sentenced to death for impregnating Juliet (Clare Wilson). - SPONSORED - Measure is also one of Shakespeare’s less well-known plays and this alon,g with the aforementioned density, must have made the cutting down of the script, by director Alex Lodge, assistant director Cherie Jacobsen and dramaturgs Matthew Wagner and Jean Sergent, substantially harder than that for its stable mate. This really shows in the finished production, whose greatest fault is a deeply erratic rhythm. It begins very well, and then seems to spend half its running length getting ready to end, and when it does it is so abrupt that you feel you have missed something. It drags rather obviously for the middle forty minutes and comes at one or two points quite close to being actively boring. But apart from this rhythmic dysfunction, Measure is a largely successful production. The design is gorgeous if somewhat clumsily idiosyncratic. The costumes by Dawa Devereux, white Jedi-style robes with Ugg boots, are a delight to look at but actually add little to the characters or story. The set by Kent Seaman, a split-level dystopian mess of pipes, is used to great dramatic effect. The acting is, on the whole, very good. Bradley makes somewhat of a meal of Isabella and while she is infinitely watchable, her hysteria pitches itself a little too high so we never really buy the weight of her decision—whether to sleep with Angelo, unthinkable at the time, to save Claudio—on which the play turns. Falkner is workable as Angelo, he keeps his performance close to his chest. This makes the character quite hard to get a hook into. The real stand-out performance of Measure for Measure is James Davenport as the Duke. He has a warm, welcoming and lively stage presence that you never tire of watching. Lodge’s choice to skew Measure for Measure towards a broader form of comedy is an interesting move. It has both positive and negative effects. It successfully draws you into the production but at the same time reduces some of the play’s nuance. Broad strokes is not a bad country to visit, theatrically, but I hope Lodge doesn’t move there. 9pm Romeo and Juliet Written by William Shakespeare Directed by Ralph McCubbin Howell With Thomas McGrath, Aaron Baker, Allan Henry, Richard Falkner, Alex Lodge, Eli Kent, Jack Sergent-Shadbolt, Cameron Reid, Paul Harrop, Charlotte Bradley, Clare Wilson, Dominic de Souza, Jean Sergent, Paul Waggott, Nick Zwart, Jonny Potts, Ally Garrett and Sophie “Hambotron” Hambleton Everyone knows Romeo and Juliet. It is, by a rather wide margin, Shakespeare’s most famous play. We know the story, we know the characters, we know most of the lines, well… the famous ones anyway. This makes it much more of a challenge to put on than one would assume. Everyone has a picture of the story in their head. When a director or company chooses to put on R&J they have not just the film versions and famous stage productions to combat, but the whole collective unconscious of the English-speaking world. In a move that veers eerily close to genius, director Ralph McCubbin Howell and assisstant director Hannah Smith have decided to explore this very aspect of the text. They present the story as witnessed and retold by Friar Lawrence (a magnetic Jonny Potts). We are, very directly, getting one person’s version of the story. Or, at least, at the beginning we do. Romeo and Juliet’s biggest issue is that it doesn’t seem to trust itself to hold the line. The best metaphor for this is within the production itself. The final sequence of Romeo breaking into the Capulet tomb and the heartbreak that follows begins being lit solely by a torch held by Romeo. This is a bold and powerful image, but the show seems to lose its nerve and cheats in some blunt and obvious fill. This lack of nerve is the same with the recounted story concept, it starts strong and wonderful and we see how well it works and then slowly they cheat in some fill so it becomes dilute. Very luckily, this is the only major issue with the production, apart from some bad sound levels masking dialogue. That one blip aside, Romeo and Juliet is a tangible and crunchy success. The lights by Rachel Marlow are evocative, epic and cinematic. The set by Kent Seaman is raw and stripped back. The soundtrack composed by Tane Upjohn-Beatson is not just a collection of cool atmos tracks, but some awesome tunes in their own right. Dawa Devereux’s costumes are iconic and perfect, spanning a range of countries and times which clash and combine in perfect (dis)harmony. Ricky Dey’s fight choreography is energetic, entertaining and performed with flair and vigour by the actors. The cast is very good and deeply consistent. This seems like shallow praise but Wellington theatre is oft peppered with the sore single thumb of ineptitude. Every show seems to have at least one performer who is at a substantially lower skill level than the rest, so seeing a show where everyone was on the same level of very, very good is a refreshing blow to my theatre face. Clare Wilson as Juliet is very good, bringing a spark of independence and life to what can often be the most pixie of girlfriends. Eli Kent as Romeo gives an enjoyable performance despite it seeming, at times, to be a simple run down of all of his acting tricks. We’ve seen Kent play this character before. He just wasn’t called Romeo and it is a testament to his talent that this familiarity only jars and doesn’t completely blow his performance wide open. Their chemistry together is natural and believable. It seems obvious, but it is infuriating how often Romeos and Juliets seem to have absolutely no chemistry together, not here however, the Spooners are smarter than that. McCubbin Howell has achieved the almost impossible and breathed life into Romeo and Juliet, the one play so well known that it is by default deadly theatre. This production’s energy, elocution and electricity should stand as a yard stick for any Shakespeare production to come. At BATS, from 5—15 August 2009 $13/$16 for one show, $25 for both
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Which group recorded the early heavy-metal classic Very 'Eavy Very 'Umble?
Uriah Heep: Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble - Music on Google Play Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble ( 31) Description …Very 'Eavy …Very 'Umble is the debut album by British rock band Uriah Heep, released in 1970. It was issued in the United States as Uriah Heep with different sleeve artwork, and with the track "Bird of Prey" in place of "Lucy Blues". The album shows the band trying out various genres – a mix of heavy metal and progressive rock – rather than the hard rock that they would become known for on later albums. The album was generally panned by the mainstream critical press upon its release, although it has since been acknowledged as an early classic of the heavy metal genre. Rolling Stone magazine's Melissa Mills began her review by saying, "If this group makes it I'll have to commit suicide. From the first note you know you don't want to hear any more." The original vinyl release was a gatefold sleeve, featuring David Byron on the front sleeve, almost unrecognisable beneath cobwebs. The album was first released on the Vertigo label in the UK, as was the follow-up Salisbury, but both were quickly reissued by Bronze when the band signed to that label. Tracks 3 and 8 were recorded as Spice songs, with Colin Wood on keyboards.
Uriah Heep
In which board game might you hit a blot?
Uriah Heep | New Music And Songs | Uriah Heep About Uriah Heep Uriah Heep's by-the-books progressive heavy metal made the British band one of the most popular hard rock groups of the early '70s. Formed by vocalist David Byron and guitarist Mick Box in the late '60s, the group went through an astonishing number of members over the next two decades -- nearly 30 different musicians passed through the band over the years. Byron and Box were members of the mid-'60s rock band called the Stalkers; once that band broke up, the duo formed another group called Spice. Spice would eventually turn into Uriah Heep in the late '60s, once Ken Hensley (guitar, keyboards, vocals) and bassist Paul Newton joined the pair. Former Spice drummer Alex Napier was the band's drummer for a brief time; he was quickly replaced by Nigel Olsson. Uriah Heep released their debut album Very 'eavy...Very 'umble (called Uriah Heep in the U.S.) in 1970. After its release, Keith Baker became the group's drummer; he recorded Salisbury, the group's second album, before deciding he couldn't keep up with the band's extensive touring and was replaced by Ian Clarke. Salisbury, featuring a 16-minute title track recorded with a 26-piece orchestra, showcased the band's more progressive tendencies. Later that year, Ian Clarke was replaced by Lee Kerslake and Mark Clarke replaced Newton; Mark Clarke quickly left the band and Gary Thain became the group's bassist. This lineup of Uriah Heep was its most stable and popular; beginning with 1972's Demons and Wizards, they released five albums between 1972 and 1975. After 1975, the band's popularity began to slip. Byron left the band in 1977 and was replaced by John Lawton, yet the group's fortunes kept declining right into the early '80s. However, Uriah Heep soldiered on, continuing to release albums into the '90s and 2000s. The album roster included Different World (1994), Sea of Light (1995), Sonic Origami (1998), and Spellbinder (1999). ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi Hear more of
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What musical instrument forms one of the playing pieces in Buckaroo?
asiantheatre - Musical Instruments of Kabuki by Will Goodwin asiantheatre Music and Instruments of Kabuki by Will Goodwin Nagauta--Traditional music of Kabuki theatre. Literally meaning "long song". The schools of shamisen music into two different schools. One is called "sekkyo", while the other is called "jiuta". Both stem from ancient Buddhist music of Japan. During performance, this music is divided into different sections within the play. There are three of them, each having a different name. Gidayabushi, shimoza ongaku--played in lower seats below stage, and incidental music played onstage called debayashi. Early kabuki music was much like that of Noh music with added singing. Indeed the first performances of kabuki drama used a noh ensemble for the music. Music with the shamisen was previously popular with brothel music and when eventually incorporated into kabuki drama it brought this connotation with it. Hence it gave the newly formed theatre a much more boisterous atmosphere than the aristocratic noh. Debayashi--Naguata ensemble when onstage. SHAMISEN Figure 1-Shamisen player Three stringed instrument similar to a banjo but without frets. The "doe", or the body of the instrument, is usually made of stretched cat or dog skin; however, many of the newer instruments are made with various types of plastics. The shamisen is the central instrument in the Kabuki music. It's importance lies in that it plays the melody of the Naguata song, which establishes the specific mood of the kabuki scene. Its origins traces to China where a similar, much older instrument called the san-hsien was being played. This instrument was originally an ovular, longer-necked version of the shamisen, but morphed into the modern shamisen when it was exported to Okinawa, Japan in 1392. The shamisen has a characteristic buzzing sound on the lowest pitched string called a "sawari" that is caused by the cutting of a small niche on the head of the guitar. This alteration of the instrument was done by early Japanese musicians who wanted to change the shamisen to play more like their native biwa, a Japanese stringed lyre popular among court nobles of the Heian period. The evolution of the plectrum used to play shamisen has a story of itself as well. Originally the shamisen's plectrum was similar to that of a biwa plectrum, which was small and round-like. As playing styles changed over time, though, a larger more powerful plectrum was necessary to create more volume. This gave way to the much larger, pointed, modern plectrum, which is commonly made of ivory. Although there are many different sizes and variations of the shamisen, the one most typically used in kabuki is a medium-sized one (chuzao), the neck usually measuring 2.5 cm in width, 75 cm in length. The body measures 18.5 cm across and 9.5 cm deep. DRUMS OF THE HAYASHI (RYTHMIC ENSEMBLE) KO-TSUZUMI AND O-TSUZUMI The ko-tsuzumi is the primary drum of the hayashi--the small hand drum. Its hourglass body is necessary for the pitch changes that it creates during performance by the use of the strings on the sides. This is not unlike the African talking drum, which features pitch-changing side strings also, yet it is struck with a mallet instead of the hand. The heads of the drum are made of horsehide, which are stretched across the body with two encircling strings. The ko-tsuzumi is held on the right shoulder with the left hand and struck with the right hand. The tone of the drum may be changed by flexing the strings but also by hitting the drum on different areas of the head. The larger counterpart of the ko-tsuzumi is the o-tsuzumi, which is usually made from cowhide. There are four types of tones created by the drums: Pon--created when center of drum is struck while applying, sudden, slight pressure to the surrounding ropes. Pu--created by hitting center of drum with index finger with a little rope tension. Chi--created by hitting edge of drum with one finger and slight rope tension. Ta--played with two fingers on edge and lots of rope tension. Figure 3-Ko-tsuzumi Figure 4-O-tsuzumi FLUTES OF THE HAYASHI ENSEMBLE TAKEBUE--BAMBOO FLUTE The takebue, which is also known as the yokobue or shinobue, is a seven-holed flute that is played with the first joint of the fingers. Typically tuned with the shamisen, a flute is chosen based on in what the music is written and most flutes' root notes are anywhere from E to A flat. The flute's primary duty onstage is embellish the melody the shamisens play. Colorful overtones add different ambiences to the scene onstage while the shamisen keeps the basic rythm. This is not to say, however, that all flute music is dependent on the lead of the shamisen. For example, in part IV of Utsubozaru the flute has a solo that allow it to musically illustrate the imaginary autumn winds onstage. The takebue is bamboo and has been associated with Japanese folk music for centuries. Therefore, it is heard many times during folk scenes with ordinary townspeople. ​NOKAN--NOH FLUTE Like the Bamboo flute, the noh flute is constructed of bamboo and has seven finger holes. However, its usage is much different kabuki performances. The bamboo it is made of is stripped inside out and cherry bark is attatched to it for better tone. The range is two octaves plus a fifth, yet when the upper octave is reached it begins to flatten and a minor seventh is achieved. This musical instrument is used considerably less than the takebue because of its radically different tone compared to the other instruments. It is primarily played with the taiko drums during their rythmic processions. Figure 5-Takebue Figure 6-Noh flute THE MUSIC OF KABUKI Kabuki plays have a unique musical prelude for each of their shows. The sound of the hyoshigi (wooden clapping sticks) is the first noise heard upon the beginning of the play. Next to join is a melody produced by the noh flute, which is then accopanied by the deep threatening sounds of the o-daiko, symblizing that the play has begun. The shamisens are always to follow with the chorus onstage. Because kabuki drama incorporates almost as much dance in it as lyrics, there are two main types of kabuki music: dance oriented, and lyric oriented. These categories are further subdivided into smaller groups called hanmono (poetic) and danmono (poetic). Each type of music requires different types of training. The different types of historical forms of kabuki music are even more numerable and listed below: Meriyasu--simple, short melodies played when actor is called to utilize improvisation and express inner emotions. Shosa--music that accompanies the dance-poses of the actors Joruri--abbreviated pieces derived from longer joruri type pieces. ozashiki--non-dance, non-linear music that is composed freely without a designated formula. ozatsuma--narrative music form. Shinkyoku--newer contemporary pieces. GEZA INSTRUMENTS The geza-ongaku is the offstage music heard in Kabuki that is not covered by the onstage musicians. These performers are located behind a bamboo curtain invisible to the audience on the downstage right part of the stage in a room called the Kuromisu or "black curtain". These performers have a plethora of small percussive and other types of instruments at their creative disposal. These instruments are specifically for the creation of atmosphere and sound-effects onstage. The major types (not all, since there are so many) of Geza instruments are listed below: Okedo--small folk drum with two heads tied together. Used mainly in folk scenes, this drum is played with tapered sticks. Daiboyoshi--two-headed drum played with thin sticks and is used in Shinto-music. Gaku-daiko--short bodied drum similar in size to a tambourine. Used in war scenes. Dora--small gong with a protruding center. Used in temple scenes and for signals. Soban--gong with grainy surface that is made from thin metal giving it more percussive sound. Used upon the entrance of rough characters. Atari-gane--small brass gong played with small bone hammer. Hitotsu-gane--Used in religious scenes, this gong is much like the atari-gane except that it stands on three legs. Rei--sutra bell used in Bhuddist religious services. The bell is used to indictate, not surprisingly, religious scenes in kabuki drama. Mokkin--wooden xylophone that is smaller than a western xylophone yet played the same. Figure 7-Assortment of geza instruments BIBLOGRAPHY: Malm, William P. Japanese Music and Musical Instruments. Rutland: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1959. Malm, William P. Naguata: The Heart of Kabuki Music. Rutland: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1963. "Traditional Japanese Music". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Japanese_music . 2007. Dec 2 2009. Wikipedia.org IMAGES:
Guitar
What, according to Dr Johnson, is “the triumph of hope over experience”?
Nineteenth-Century Classical Music | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art Works of Art (14) Essay The nineteenth century brought great upheaval to Western societies. Democratic ideals and the Industrial Revolution swept through Europe and changed the daily lives of citizens at all levels. Struggles between the old world order and the new were the root causes of conflicts from the Napoleonic Wars to the American Civil War . From New York, to London, to Vienna, the world was changing and the consequences can still be felt to this day. The lives of musicians, composers, and makers of musical instruments were greatly altered by these social changes. In earlier times, musicians were usually employed by either the church or the court and were merely servants to aristocratic circles. Composers wrote music for performances in these venues, and musical instrument makers produced instruments to be played by wealthy patrons or their servant musicians. With the rise of the middle class, more people wanted access to music performances and music education. A new artistic aesthetic, Romanticism , replaced the ideals of order, symmetry, and form espoused by the classicists of the late eighteenth century. Romantics valued the natural world, idealized the life of the common man, rebelled against social conventions, and stressed the importance of the emotional in art. In music, Romanticism, along with new opportunities for earning a livelihood as a musician or composer, produced two seemingly opposite venues as the primary places for musical activity—the large theater and the parlor. Music as Public Spectacle One result of the Industrial Revolution was the creation of a middle class. This new economic strata consisted of a larger number of people with more expendable income and more leisure time than had ever existed before. Musical extravaganzas that triumphed the musician or composer gained popularity with the masses of concertgoers. Beginning with Beethoven, composers began to arrange large concerts in order to introduce their works to the public. As audiences desired more, composers wrote larger musical works and demanded more of performers and their instruments. The “bigger is better” mentality led to new musical forms such as the tone poem and large-scale symphonic and operatic works . Orchestras grew, including larger string sections with a full complement of woodwinds, brass, and ever more percussion instruments. New types of orchestral winds ( 2003.150a-g ) and brass ( 2002.190a-n ) that allowed for greater facility and more accurate playing were introduced. Composers such as Hector Berlioz, and later Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner, continually pushed the limits of the available musical forms, performers, instruments, and performance spaces throughout the nineteenth century. Musicians who could dazzle and amaze their audiences by their virtuosity became the first musical superstars. The two most famous nineteenth-century examples were the violinist Nicolò Paganini (1782–1840) and the pianist Franz Liszt (1811–1886). Both dazzled audiences throughout Europe with their performances, elevating the status of the musician from servant to demi-god. Their fame grew throughout Europe and their likenesses would be recorded in a variety of visual arts. In order to withstand the virtuosic and often bombastic playing of these soloists, as well as to provide the type of volume needed in large concert venues, more powerful instruments were needed. Larger and louder violins like those by Antonio Stradivari or Guarneri del Gesù (1698–1744)—preferred by Paganini—replaced the quieter and subtler violins of earlier masters like Jacob Stainer or the Amati family. The demands of pianists like Franz Liszt pressed the technology and design of pianos to ever-larger instruments, eventually replacing the internal wooden structures of the eighteenth century with cast iron frames that could withstand thousands of pounds of pressure. Parlor Music Conversely, music gained popularity in the intimate nineteenth-century parlor. At the time, home life was centered in the salon, or parlor, where children played and learned with adult supervision, and where the family entertained company. Musical performances for small groups of people became popular events, and some composers/performers were able to support themselves financially by performing in these small venues and attracting wealthy patrons. Most famous among these was Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849). Music in the parlor was of a very different sort than in the concert hall. Solo performances and chamber music were popular, and included everything from operatic and orchestral transcriptions to sentimental love songs and ballads. In the United States, hymns and folk songs by composers like Stephen Foster (1826–1864) supplemented the European repertoire. With the rise of the parlor as the center of family life, music education became increasingly important. Children were often taught to play musical instruments as part of a well-rounded education; for girls, playing an instrument was more important than learning to read. When guests and potential suitors visited, the children and teenagers would entertain with performances of the latest popular works. All sorts of musical instruments were used in the home, and at various times the guitar , harp ( 2001.171 ), concertina, and banjo were extremely popular. However, the most important musical instrument in the home was the piano, because it was useful as both a solo instrument and as accompaniment to a group of singers or instrumentalists. To accommodate home use, smaller pianos were created, first square pianos and later uprights. Small pianos took up less space and, although they were not as powerful as larger types, they were also less expensive. With the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution, the mass manufacturing of musical instruments—especially pianos—provided a seemingly endless supply of musical instruments for the huge markets of both the United States and Europe. The piano would remain a central component of domestic life until it was replaced by the phonograph, radio, and television in the twentieth century. Jayson Kerr Dobney Department of Musical Instruments, The Metropolitan Museum of Art October 2004 Citation Dobney, Jayson Kerr. “Nineteenth-Century Classical Music.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/amcm/hd_amcm.htm (October 2004) Further Reading Samson, Jim, ed. The Cambridge History of Nineteenth-Century Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Additional Essays by Jayson Kerr Dobney Dobney, Jayson Kerr. “ Archtop Guitars and Mandolins .” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. (September 2016) Dobney, Jayson Kerr. “ The Piano: Viennese Instruments .” (March 2009) Dobney, Jayson Kerr, and Wendy Powers. “ The Guitar .” (September 2007) Related
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An island purchased by Isaac Bedlow in 1667 is the site of which US National Monument?
Liberty Island Chronology - Statue Of Liberty National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) Liberty Island Chronology Early History A.D. 994 Native Americans begin to inhabit the land that is now Liberty Island. This island is one of the three "Oyster Islands" in New York Harbor, for the numerous shell beds in this location and a major source of food. 1609 Henry Hudson lands in New York Harbor and the Hudson River estuary. Europeans begin to colonize the area which includes the Oyster Islands. Occupation, war, and disease during colonization force the Native Americans to move both north and west. 1667 Isaac Bedloe, a Dutch colonist, obtains a colonial land grant for this Oyster Island. 1669 Colonial Governor Francis Lovelace confirms Bedloe's ownership of the island on the condition that it is renamed Love Island. 1673 Bedloe dies, Governor Lovelace is overthrown by the Dutch navy, and Love Island is renamed Bedloe's Island. 1674 The English take over Bedloe's Island. 1732 Mary Bedloe Smith (Isaac's widow) sells Bedloe's Island to Adolph Philipse and Henry Lane, New York merchants, to get out of bankruptcy. 1738 New York City takes possession of the island, using it as a quarantine station, inspecting incoming ships for contamination and disease. 1746 Archibald Kennedy (later 11th Earl of Cassiles) purchases the island and establishes a summer residence. 1755-1757 Bedloe's Island is reestablished as a quarantine station due to the outbreak of smallpox. 1758 Ownership of Bedloe's Island is again granted to New York City. 1759-1760 A hospital is constructed on Bedloe's Island. 1772-1776 During the American Revolution, the island is used as an asylum for Tory sympathizers (American colonists loyal to Great Britain during the war). 1776 Colonial insurgents lay siege Bedloe's Island and burn its buildings. 1784 The New York state legislature passes an act once again making the island a quarantine station. 1793-1796 The French (allies of the Patriots during the war) use Bedloe's Island as an isolation station. 1794 After the events of the American Revolution, and the rising tensions between the United States, England, and France, federal dollars are appropriated to construct fortifications on Bedloe's Island. 1807 The United States Army administers Bedloe's Island as a military post until 1937. Construction on the "Works on Bedloe's Island," later known as Fort Wood, begins. The 11-point star fort aids in the protection of the New York Harbor. It is garrisoned with artillery and infantry until the outbreak of the Civil War. 1811 The "Works on Bedloe's Island" is completed. 1814 The "Works on Bedloe's Island," is renamed Fort Wood by New York Governor Daniel D. Tompkins in the memory of Eleazer D. Wood, an army hero killed in action at Fort Erie. 1834 An interstate agreement between New York and New Jersey places Bedloe's Island (the land above low level water mark) within New York while New Jersey retains riparian rights to waters and all submerged land surrounding the island. 1861 The United States Civil War begins and Fort Wood serves as a recruiting station and ordinance depot. A small garrison is maintained at the fort. 1877 The garrison at Fort Wood is disbanded. However, the United States Army continues to supervise an ordnance post (and remains active) on Bedloe's Island until 1937. Bedloe's Island is designated as the site for the Statue of Liberty.   Bartholdi in his studio, Vavin Street, Paris, 1892 National park service, statue of liberty NM The Origins of the Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty is more than a monument; she is a beloved friend and living symbol of freedom to millions of people worldwide. 1865 Edouard de Laboulaye, a French political intellectual and authority on the U.S. Constitution, proposes that France give a statue representing liberty to the United States for its centennial. The recent Union victory in the American Civil War reaffirms the United States' ideals of freedom and democracy, serving as a platform for Laboulaye to argue that honoring the United States would strengthen the cause for democracy in France. 1870 Auguste Bartholdi, a young sculptor fascinated with the idea of creating colossal works, enthusiastically supports Laboulaye's proposed statue and becomes the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty. 1871 Bartholdi comes to the United States to promote the Statue and scout out possible sites. In his travels, Bartholdi discusses the project with politicians and publishers. 1872 Bartholdi returns to France and reports on having found interest in the project as well as the perfect site - Bedloe's Island located in New York Harbor.   Bartholdi and workmen constructing a final wood-and-plaster model of the Statue’s left hand. Bartholdi is thought to be below the Statue’s arm on the left hand side. National Park Service, Statue of Liberty NM The Statue in France The Statue of Liberty's construction holds great significance, for it is a tapestry of old symbols woven together to create new meaning. Her classical face and drapery suggest a Roman Goddess of Liberty; the broken shackles symbolize freedom newly achieved; the radiant crown represents her shedding light on the seven seas and continents. The tablet she holds, inscribed in Roman Numerals "July 4, 1776," identifies the figure as an apostle of American freedom, law and justice. - Statue of Liberty Exhibit Text 1875 Bartholdi's plaster model of the Statue, referred to as "The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World," is approved by Laboulaye. Laboulaye makes a formal request to President Ulysses S. Grant for using Bedloe's Island as the Statue's official site. The Franco-American Union is formed in France to oversee fundraising for the Statue. The Statue of Liberty's creators strongly feel that the project should be a joint French-American effort: the French agree to fund the Statue if the people of the United States fund the pedestal. Between 1875 and 1880, the French committee raises about 400,000 francs. 1876 Bartholdi begins constructing the Statue. Bartholdi completes the Statue's hand holding the torch. This section of the Statue is sent to the United States and displayed at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia on May 18th. 1877 After being part of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, the Statue's torch is displayed at Madison Square in New York City. It remains there until 1882. February 22nd - The U.S. Congress accepts the Statue of Liberty as a gift from the people of France. March 3rd - President Ulysses S. Grant signs a bill designating Bedloe's Island as the Statue's site. The United States begins fundraising for the construction of the pedestal through the American Committee for the Statue of Liberty, which is chaired by William Maxwell Evarts. Bartholdi's friend Richard Butler is also heavily involved. The committee raises $125,000 between 1877 and 1884. 1878 The Statue's head and shoulders are completed and displayed for the first time at the Paris Universal Exposition. 1879 The Statue's engineer, Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, dies and Bartholdi hires Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel to complete the project and overcome various obstacles concerning the Statue's structure and assembly. The obstacles include the Statue's height, weight, unusual shape, and the high winds in New York harbor. 1880 Eiffel devises his ingenious support system: a 98 foot (29.87 meters) inner iron framework that will support the Statue's structure. 1881 The Statue's copper plates are completed and the first rivet is driven into the structure. This begins the Statue's assembly and completion. As the Statue is gradually built near the Parc Monceau, in Paris, the French people fall in love with her. She is referred to as the "Lady of the Park." The American Committee for the Statue of Liberty commissions American architect Richard Morris Hunt to design the pedestal; within months he submits a detailed plan. 1883 The Statue's assembly continues in Paris and work begins on the 15 foot deep foundation for the pedestal on Bedloe's Island. General Charles P. Stone is appointed as Chief Engineer, responsible for design and construction of the concrete foundation and the construction of the pedestal. Edouard de Laboulaye dies. November 2nd - Emma Lazarus composes "The New Colossus" for the "Art Loan Fund Exhibition in Aid of the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund for the Statue of Liberty" - a fundraiser for the pedestal. 1884 Hunt completes his finalized plan for the pedestal, with poured concrete walls up to 20 feet thick, faced with granite blocks. The concrete mass is the largest mass of poured concrete at that time. The pedestal's cornerstone is laid on Bedloe's Island. July 4th - hundreds of people gather at the feet of the completed Statue in Paris to watch as she is formally presented to Levi P. Morton, the U.S. minister to France. A crisis occurs in the United States. The Statue is scheduled to arrive in the United States in 1885, but funds for the pedestal project run out and work on the pedestal stops. 1885 New York World publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, comes to the Statue's financial rescue with a highly successful, six-month fund raising campaign. Over $100,000 is raised. The Statue is disassembled in Paris and shipped to the United States aboard the French navy ship the Isère. It arrives in New York Harbor on June 17th. The Statue is met with tremendous fanfare and a naval parade, but is placed in storage for a year while the pedestal is completed.  
Statue of Liberty
Which notable person died in the Ritz Hotel on the 8th of April 2013?
Welcome to my World: Another Look at the Statue of Liberty Welcome to my World: Another Look at the Statue of Liberty By Carole Christman Koch, Columnist Posted: # Comments How did a friendship between the United States and France come about? It was France, who, during the American Revolution, helped America win her freedom from Britain (a long time rival of Britain) by providing us with ships, arms, money and men. Marquis de Lafayette, a noble, persuaded his own government to help. Lafayette served as a major-general under George Washington. The bond between the two grew so strong, that when Lafayette was wounded in battle, Washington sent his own surgeon to take care of him and “treat him as if he were my son.” Where did the idea for a monument in honor of America’s independence come from? It came from a French law professor, politician, president of the French Anti-Slavery Society, and author of a “Political History of the U.S.” by Edouard de Laboulaye. Advertisement It happened at a small dinner party in 1865, hosted by Laboulaye, with a few liberal Frenchmen, one of them being Frederick Bartholdi, the future sculptor of Miss Liberty. Following dinner, a discussion led to Napoleon III’s repressive regime, and America’s success in a democratic government. This is when Laboulaye commented to his guests that it would be great if France gave America a monument as a lasting memorial to independence as a common project between both nations. He felt it would help in the cause for democracy in France as well. He talked about America and France being the “two sisters.” Although Bartholdi said later, this was only a comment, Laboulaye’s dream of seeing a monument in the New World was never realized. He died of a heart failure in 1883. Miss Liberty received her final touches in 1884! How did Laboulaye’s comment for a monument continue to develop? After the dinner party, the idea of a monument didn’t leave Bartholdi’s mind. Although he didn’t take action at first, he did discuss it with Laboulaye at times. As early as 1870, Bartholdi was making sketches for this project. Still, he was busy with other projects and even served as major in the French Army. In time, France would have political stability, and the economy would improve. Also coming up was America’s 100th Centennial Expo of 1876 in Philadelphia. By 1871, Laboulaye suggested Bartholdi travel to America to promote the statue, as well as find a site for the statue. In 1876, Bartholdi again traveled to America with a huge painting of the statue for America’s Centennial Exhibition. Although the statue wasn’t complete, a fabrication of the right arm holding a torch and the head was exhibited at the Centennial. What was America’s obligation, other than money, for the statue? As a joint project, the U.S. was in charge of the pedestal and foundation. Architect Richard Morris was in charge of the pedestal, the cornerstone being laid in 1884 and finished on April 1886. It would be 89 feet high on a concrete foundation requiring 24,000 tons of concrete. Where did the money come from? It was in 1875 when Laboulaye and Bartholdi announced the project and the formation of the Franco-American Union to start fundraising, with the idea of completion in time for America’s Centennial. American committees of the Union faced great difficulties in obtaining funds. There was plenty of controversy even with the many money-making events. Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World newspaper, announced a drive to raise $100,000. He promised to print the name of each contributor, no matter what amount was given. He kept his promise and gained 120,000 contributions. Most gave under $1.00. By Aug. 11, 1885, the $100,000 goal was reached. Why Bedloe’s Island was chosen, its many names, and its uses over the years Bartholdi, the sculptor, made his first trip to America in 1871, arriving in New York Harbor. He was in awe of the view “where people get their first view of the New World.” He was even more delighted that the island belonged to the government and was on national ground, belonging to the U.S. It’s many names: It was a group of three islands called “Oyster Islands,” due to the many shell beds in the area; in 1667, Isaac Bedlow, a Dutch colonist, obtained the island, thus Bedloe’s Island; in 1807, it was known as Fort Wood, in memory of army hero, Eleazer Wood; in 1956, the island was renamed Liberty Island. It’s former uses: quarantine station, a hospital, asylum, military post, recruiting station and ordinance depot, and now the Statue of Liberty site Physical characteristics of the Statue of Liberty: Both Laboulaye and Bartholdi wanted to find the best way to express American liberty in a monument. They wished to completely steer away from any type of revolutionary figure. At the time, a Liberty figure was on most American coins, even atop the dome of the U.S. capitol. The Liberty figure had been around more than 2,000 years. It came from the ancient Roman goddess, Libertas, meaning freedom. The female figure would wear a stola (a floor length dress) and pella (similar to a shawl worn by today’s women), which was common in depictions of Roman goddesses. The face of the statue was modeled after Bartholdi’s mother, Charlotte. Atop the head is a crown, a symbol of honor, glory and victory. The seven rays surrounding the crown form a halo, which evokes the sun, the seven seas, and the seven continents. The left hand holds a tabula ansata, a keystone-shaped tablet used to invoke the concept of law. Inscribed on the tablet is July IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4, 1776), establishing America’s liberty. For the right hand, Bartholdi chose a torch to represent progress. The broken shackles, half-hidden under the flowing robe, represented breaking away from England’s rule. How does the Eiffel Tower fit in with Miss Liberty? The statue’s engineer died, so Bartholdi asked for assistance for internal structural help from the engineer, Alexander Gustave Eiffel. You’ll remember him for his most famous project, the Eiffel Tower, which he completed for the Paris World Fair in 1889. What have ticker tape parades to do with Miss Liberty? Preceding the dedication of the Statue of Liberty was a parade through the streets of New York City, passing by the New York Stock Exchange building. Traders threw ticker tape (paper output from the ticker tape machines) out the windows, which created a snowstorm effect. Thus it was that ticker tape parades became a tradition in New York City for special occasions. It was 13 years later, in 1899, that the first person honored with a ticker tape parade was Admiral George Dewey, the hero in the battle of Manila Bay. Two million people showed up. In a section of Lower Broadway, from the bottom of Broadway up to City Hall, “Canyon of Heroes” plaques have been placed in the sidewalk to commemorate each of the city’s ticker tape (now mostly confetti is used) parades. In 2010, there were 204 plaques laid. What does Emma Lazarus have to do with the Statue of Liberty? One of the committee efforts to raise funds for the pedestal, in 1883, for the statue was an auction of art and manuscripts. At the time, young poet Emma Lazarus was a volunteer in helping indigent immigrants coming to America. Thus, Emma, in empathy to the immigrants she helped, wrote “The New Colossus,” submitting it to the auction. It was published and soon forgotten. A friend of hers discovered her poem in a used bookstore in 1903. Realizing the impact on Emma’s sonnet, her friend persuaded others to place a bronze plaque of the sonnet on the base of the statue. Alas, Emma Lazarus died in 1887, at the age of 38, never knowing how much her famous words would mean to others: “ Give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” A few features of the Statue of Liberty: The official dedication day of the statue was October 28, 1886. Height of copper statue: 151 feet, 1 inch Weight of steel used in statue: 450,000 pounds Weight of copper used in statue: 60,000 pounds 354 steps to reach the crown 25 windows in the crown The statue arrived in New York Harbor June 17th, 1885 but laid in storage one year until the pedestal was completed. It took 9 years for the statue to be completed. The statue had to be packed in 350 individual pieces and 214 crates to ship it to America.
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In which town is the Black Country Living Museum?
An old Black Country town - recreated - Black Country Living Museum, Dudley Traveller Reviews - TripAdvisor Black Country Living Museum Tipton Road, Dudley DY1 4SQ, England +44 121 557 9643 More attraction details Attraction details Owner description: Covering 26 acres of former industrial land, Black Country Living Museum is uniquely placed to tell the story of the creation of the world’s first industrial landscape. Over fifty authentic shops, houses and workshops have been carefully reconstructed to preserve the character of the region when its manufacturers bought worldwide fame to Black Country Towns. Take a trip on the tram to explore the canal-side village, where you can meet and chat to the costumed characters. Explore the underground mine and experience the authentic sights, sounds, smells and tastes from the past. Useful Information: Activities for older children, Activities for young children There are newer reviews for this attraction “An old Black Country town - recreated” Reviewed 2 June 2012 This was my 5th visit, and the "town" has grown a lot since my last visit. A whole new street of shops and houses has been added. Firstly, from the entrance you can ride an old tram down into the town, although it's only a few minutes walk. There are lots of shops and houses that you can go inside and most have a very knowledgeable person inside dressed in clothes of the period. You can buy fish and chips from the "new" shop in the upper street. They are cooked the old way in very unhealthy beef dripping, but they taste just wonderful. Pity they are no longer wrapped in newspaper like they used to be! You can buy old fashioned sweets and cakes, or (if you are an adult) take a drink in the old pub. You can watch a silent movie, go down a coal mine. It's a real one, even though the entrance is artificial. There is a blacksmith. Go for a ride on a barge into the tunnels, visit the old fairground, go into the school. Well, so much more to see and do, you can spend all day here. Good for anyone of any age. Pity it now costs £2 to park there when it used to be part of the entrance fee! Visited April 2012
Dudley
Fictional character Selena Kyle is better known by what name?
Black Country Living Museum Tickets 2FOR1 Offers Tipton Road, Dudley, West Midlands DY1 4SQ Phone number: Nearest Station: Tipton Visit the award-winning Black Country Living Museum and you’ll be joining in with 300 years of history like no other. One of the most extraordinary open-air museums in the UK, the Museum immerses visitors into the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the past. Explore 26 acres of original period shops and houses and meet the Museum’s costumed characters along the way - they’ll explain what it was like to live and work in one of the world’s most heavily industrialised landscapes. You’ll discover the Black Country’s mighty industrial past as you descend on foot ‘into the thick’ of underground drift mine, see sparks fly at our chain making forge and step inside a full scale working replica or the world’s very first working steam engine – built right here in the Black Country. Ride a bus or take a tram down to the Museum’s Canalside village where you’ll witness the everyday lives of Black Country folk. Step inside the shops and houses and chat with our friendly costumed characters. Discover weird and wonderful treatments of the past in Emile Doo’s Chemist; indulge yourself in our Victorian sweet shop; test your times tables in our school or watch a film in our 1930s Lime Light Cinema. Once you’ve worked up an appetite, grab a bag of our traditionally cooked fish and chips or quench your thirst in the Bottle & Glass Inn where a warm welcome awaits.
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Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem was the resident band on which TV show?
Dr. Teeth | Muppet Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Dr. Teeth at the Smithsonian Dr. Teeth with Vicki on The Jim Henson Hour Dr. Teeth is the leader of the Electric Mayhem , the house band on The Muppet Show . Originally performed by Jim Henson , Dr. Teeth plays the keyboard and is also the lead singer of the band. He first appeared in The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence in 1975 and had a prominent role in Muppet productions until Henson's death in 1990. Dr. Teeth is green-skinned and red-haired with, as his name suggests, a large grinning mouth of teeth, including one gold tooth on his upper jaw (which either he got from a voodoo princess named Tianna in Tupelo, MS [1] or is made from his gold records, melted, putting his money where his mouth is). [2] He wears a scruffy beard, a fur vest, a striped shirt, and a floppy purple top hat, though during the 1980s he switched to wearing a black leather vest. He has very long arms so additional puppeteers are required to guide them; this design enabled Henson to work the Teeth puppet while another performer acted as Teeth's "hands" in order to play the keyboard. Dr. Teeth had been less involved in Muppet productions due to Jim Henson's death. Since then, he was performed by John Kennedy in various projects until 2005, when the role was assumed by Bill Barretta . He has also appeared in all of the Muppet movies, from his prominent roles in The Muppet Movie , The Great Muppet Caper , and The Muppets Take Manhattan , to his much smaller, often non-speaking roles in The Muppet Christmas Carol , Muppet Treasure Island , Muppets from Space , It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie , The Muppets' Wizard of Oz and A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa . He has since had more prominent speaking parts in the OK Go music video for " The Muppet Show Theme ", The Muppets and Muppets Most Wanted (particularly the extended cut). Contents [ show ] Trivia Dr. Teeth's look was inspired by jazz keyboardist Dr. John . Henson's original sketch for the character appears in the book Jim Henson's Designs and Doodles . Michael Frith then made a more refined, color sketch of the character, with the heading "Leon 'Doctor' Eltonjohn Dontshoot (the Piano Player)" -- adding the influence of Elton John (and possibly Leon Russell ) to the character. Dr. Teeth's creative vocabulary is a direct nod to Dr. John. While Dr. Teeth usually has live hands, his hands were originally rod hands in The Muppet Show: Sex and Violence . The rod arms would occasionally be used on The Muppet Show . Also, the live hands version has five fingers on each hand , while the rod arm version has four on each hand. According to the inside cover for Rock Music with the Muppets, Dr. Teeth has his name because he's never had a cavity. In the Sesame Street " Monsterpiece Theater " sketch spoofing Upstairs, Downstairs , a picture of Dr. Teeth can be seen at the top of the staircase that Grover climbs. Casting History Primary Performers Bill Barretta - The Muppets' Wizard of Oz (2005) to Present Other Performers
The Muppets
In 1961, where did a CIA-sponsored group make an unsuccessful attempt to invade Cuba?
TV ACRES: Puppets & Puppeteers > Jim Henson Muppets (Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie) Fozzie the Bear , a terrible comedian Scooter (Richard Hunt), whose uncle J.P. Grosse owned the theater where the Muppets performed Sam the Eagle, the show's censor and self-appointed guardian of good taste and culture The Swedish Chef, a goofy unintelligible gourmet Dr. Bunsen Honey Dew, a resident scientist who worked on unsuccessful invention with the help of his terrified assistant Beaker Waldorf and Statler, two grouchy old men who heckled the Muppet performers from a theater balcony. The Muppet's in-house band was " Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem Band ," a parody of late 1960s burnt out heavy metal musicians, who hung around the Muppet show cause "it was a good gig." Members included:  Floyd Pepper (Jerry Nelson), their verbal rep and laid-back hipster Zoot (Dave Goelz), an aging, saxophonist  Janis (Richard Hunt), a California surfer girl/guitar player Leon "Dr. Teeth" Elton John Don't Shoot (Jim Henson), the piano player and band leader with a big round body, skinny arms and protruding teeth Animal (Frank Oz), a hairy drummer who cried "Animal needs WOMAN!" THE MUPPET SHOW was awarded the Emmy Award in 1974 for Outstanding Achievement in Children's Programming and in 1978 for Outstanding Comedy Variety or Music Series. The program also spawned an animated spin-off called MUPPET BABIES/CBS/1984-92 with stories of the Muppets when they were little children under the care of a nanny (voice of Barbara Billingsley). Support players in the Muppet magic included puppeteers: Don Sahlin (died in 1978), who formerly worked with puppeteer Burr Tillstrom Franz "Faz" Fazakas, the resident mechanical genius who devised remote controlled eyes and puppets Frank Oz (born in Hereford, England in 1944), sidekick and assistant to Jim Henson who was the talent behind Miss Piggy, Animal, the drummer and the voice/puppeteer of Yoda in the movie Star Wars (1977). The Muppet characters have appeared in the feature motion pictures The Muppet Movie (1979); The Great Muppet Caper (1981); and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984). The wizardry of Jim Henson and his talented puppeteers from his special effects division called the Creature Shop have also loaned their skills to such motion pictures as The Dark Crystal (1983), Labyrinth (1986), Witches (1990), The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Secret of the Ooze (1991); as well as such television programs as TALES FROM MUPPETLAND, a special that aired on the ABC network (4/10/1970); FRAGGLEROCK (which became the first American TV show to air in USSR), and THE JIM HENSON HOUR/NBC/1989. In 1987, Jim Henson was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. Six years after Jim Henson died of pneumonia on May 16, 1990, the Muppets returned to television on MUPPETS TONIGHT/ABC/1996/DIS/1997 as the Muppets put on a "live" program at TV station KMUP. The show included regular sketches such as "Pigs in Space: Deep Dish Nine! The Next Generation of ...Pigs in Space!" starring Miss Piggy and the new crew of Swinetrek II. Other sketches included "E-I-E-I-O/R" billed as a fast-paced medical drama starring Mister Poodlepants"; "The Bay of Pig Watch," a seaside parody of BAYWATCH; and "Tails from the Vet" with such strange animals as a ham-eating pig and lactose-intolerant cow. Henson Productions under the guidance of Jim's Son, Brian have continued the Muppet legacy with the sci-fi adventures BRATS Of THE LOST NEBULA/WB/1998 (Five teenage refugees wander the universe and FARSCAPE/SCI/1999-2002 with Rygel XVI, a slug-like Dominar of the Hynerian Empire). External Links
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Who won an acting Oscar for a six-minute role in Shakespeare in Love?
Shakespeare in Love (1998) Shakespeare in Love Staring: Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow, Judi Dench, Geoffrey Rush Oscars: 7 wins, 13 nominations AFI 100 years, 100 _____ tributes: Passions (#50) Runtime: 2h 2min Best quote: "Let us have pirates, clowns, and a happy ending, or we shall send you back to Stratford to your wife!" - Philip Henslowe In 1593, a young William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) is having trouble writing a new play, "Romeo and Ethel the pirate's daughter." He's got a severe case of writer's block at a time when he needs a play most desperatly. It isn't long until the idea's slowly start comming to him (with oustide help of course). Auditioning actors for the main roles, Shakespeare discovers a young actor named Thomas Kent (Gwyneth Paltrow) who is really a young woman in disguise. The young woman wants to act on stage at a time when women were forbidden to do so. Shakespeare discovers the young woman's secret quickly, and a romance ensues. Shakespeare must complete his new play on time, keep his "best" actor's secret and pay off all his debts time... or face being sent back home... to his wife. Personal Comments Shakespeare in Love is a well crafted, fictional account of the writing of one of history's most famous plays. (That is, of course, Romeo and Juliet.) The film is, for the most part, acurate and faithful to the time period. (There are a couple of notable anachronisms, but I won't get into them.) Joseph Finnes, who plays Shakespeare, does a very good job of portrying the Bard, and he even manages to look like him, too. (Finnes wasn't nominated, though, and he definatly should have been.) The part I like about the film - and dislike at the same time - was that many, amny laines of Shakespeare's own writing are used as dialogue in the script. I like that part. However, Shakespeare was not credited as a writier of the screenplay, which he most certainly was. Gwyneth Paltrow, for a big portion of the film, plays a male actor, and became the second of three people to win the Oscar for playing a member of the opposit sex, joining Linda Hunt (in 1983's The Year of Living Dangerously) and Hilary Swank (in 1999's Boys Don't Cry ). Paltrow's turn as the male Thomas Kent was as good as Swank's Brandon Teena was and is very convincing, though the mustache and beared are fairly cheesy. Gwyneth does a heckuva job, though, and was rewarded accordingly. It seems the Academy likes giving the Oscar to actors who can play the opposit sex well on screen. (Dissappointingly enough, though, they did not give the Oscar to Julie Andrews for her memorable turn in Victor/Victoria.) Full of wit and sweetness with an exceptional recreation of 1590's London, Shakespeare in Love is reminder that we were all young once, struggling to obtain something, however insignificant, even if we didn't become the most famous writer in history. Plot: The story is a fictionalized version of what the Bard's life might have been like. The story was well written was sample of Will's own work mixed in. Visual Effects: Although there really weren't any special effects shots, practiaclly every set used in the film was wonderfully decorated, with authentic details from the time period. Sound: Character Development: Atmosphere: Shakespeare in Love is a film that runs a fine line between "Shakespeare" and "romantic comedy." Those who like Shakespeare will love this film with all of it's shakespeareisms sprinkled throughout. Those of you that don't care for Shakespeare may like this film as a romantic comedy, which is just what it is. Those of you who don't like Shakespeare any which way - or find him just too damn confusing - can use Shakespeare in love as a gateway into the plays of the Bard. The movie uses his quotes in only the right places, and they are utilized well. Then again, you may just hate this film alltogether. Realism: Set in 1593 London, England, the film servves as a an acurate example of what life was really like in those day. Everything - from costumes to simple props to actuall locations - were amazingly well detailed and designed. As mentioned above, there are a couple of notable anachronisms in the film, but they hardly detract. Warren�s Rating: Movies it beat out for Best Picture: Elizabeth; La Vita � Bella (Life is Beautiful, 1997); Saving Private Ryan ; The Thin Red Line FINAL RATING Is the movie worth your time to watch? 09-05-05 DOB: September 28, 1972 Age at win: 27 Nominated for: Best Actress in a Leading Role, Viola De Lesseps / Thomas Kent, Shakespeare in Love Nomination: 1/1 (acting), 1/1 (total); Win: Only Gwyneth Paltrow, in the movie that made her a true star, joined Linda Hunt (who won for 1983's The Year of Living Dangerously) and was joined the very next year by Hilary Swank (who won for 1999's Boys Don't Cry ) as the only actors to win an Oscar for playing a member of the opposit sex. Having nailed the Elizabethan accent, and even mastering Shakespeare's dialogue, Paltrow is totally convincing as Thomas Kent, the boy who is secretly a woman, who longs to be an actress on stage. Even when she is a woman on screen, as Viola, the woman smitten with Joseph Finnes' Shakespeare, she gives a wonderful performance. Gwyneth is very bubbly and slightly over-the-top in her persormance yet she manages to make both man and woman characters work well together. Her performance is seemless, and well deserving of the Oscar. Gwyneth Paltrow's performance Nominated for: Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare in Love Nomination: 2/5 (acting), 2/5 (total); Win: Only At only 6 minutes and change, and even shorter than the 16 minutes Anthony Hopkins received for his Oscar winning turn as Dr. Hannibal Lecter (from The Scilence of the Lambs ), Dame Judi Dench's performance as Queen Elizabeth I has got to be the shortest Oscar winning turn in cinema history. With all of her bright, vibrant costumes, and very bold performance, Judi Dench paints a memorable portrait of the virgin queen. It wouldn't be surprising if it was discovered to be a dead-on acurate portrayal of the famous monarch.
Judi Dench
Which canal forms a navigable link between New York and the Great Lakes?
Shakespeare in Love Shakespeare's Awards True Or False Shakespeare in Love: Shakespeare's Awards True or False 1. How many Oscars did Shakespeare in Love win? -> 7 True Who won a Best Supporting Actress award for the film? -> Judi Dench True Who won a BAFTA for Best Acting in a Supporting Role? -> Judi Dench True Shakespeare in Love won a "Best Kiss" award from who? -> MTV True False 5. Another actress was nominated the same year for playing Queen Elizabeth I in another film. Who was it? -> Vanessa Redgrave True
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Rimini Miramare airport has been renamed in honour of which noted film director?
Fellini and Rimini, an illustrated guidebook, 1999 Fellini and Rimini, an illustrated guidebook, 1999 Current Language: You can select another language: ‹« visits since 21 january 2005 Written and illustrated by Lamberto Bozzi I was born, I came to Rome, I got married, I entered Cinecitt�, There�s nothing to add Federico Fellini � Rimini 1920 � Rome, 1993 Federico Fellini has put his hometown on the world map of motion pictures on an equal footing with Hollywood and Rome. The director was born in Rimini, worked in the eternal City and got his Oscars in Southern California. Rome, once the centre of an empire and later the seat of the Catholic Church, is the capital of the Italian Republic. In 1849 a revolt ousted the reigning Pope and a Roman Republic was founded with the help of Giuseppe Garibaldi a.k.a the �Hero of the Two Worlds� for his feats as a freedom fighter in South America. France soon restored the Pontiff to his throne and Garibaldi and his followers retreated across the Apennines to the Adriatic coast. In 1870 during the French-Prussian war Garibaldi, suffering in every single bone, raised a volunteer army and fought gallantly and successfully against the Germans. Garibaldi At Dijon this man sick with rheumatism Beat the Prussians and hurt French chauvinism. Modern Italy dates back to 1861 when the peninsula was united by the Piedmontese king Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy with the help of Garibaldi. On September 20, 1870 The King entered Rome and took over the Pontiff�s Palace �Il Quirinale�. On leaving his home Pius IX had all the doors locked and kept the keys forcing Victor Emmanuel II (�Il Re galantuomo� �The Gentleman King�) to enter the mansion as a burglar. Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti, the Pope, was born in Senigallia (in the Marches) once a town of the Pentapolis, the maritime league grouping also the seaports of Rimini, Pesaro, Fano and Ancona. In 1929 the Vatican City State was carved out of Rome to give independence to the Holy See. The Pact was signed by Benito Mussolini, a Romagnol, and by the Secretary of State, Pietro Cardinal Gasparri, a Marchigiano. Pope Pius XI, Achille Ratti, was very interested in motion pictures. In 1932 he received Edward G. Robinson to talk about the influence of films on people. In 1934 he expressed his views on the industry to the representatives of the trade press and in 1936, having just turned eighty, he issued an encyclical (Vigilanti Cura) on the subject. After a postwar trip to the United States Iljia Ehremburg acidly remarked that �the most intelligent of the priests (had) made peace with Hollywood.� In Rome one eats well, sleeps well and can have a good time Moravia Roman born author Alberto Moravia, pseudonym of Alberto Pincherle, wrote six scripts and more than 2,000 articles as a critic. Twenty movies were based on his novels. When he died director Bernardo Bertolucci cryptically wrote that �his words were illuminated by the light as in a special effect�. Moravia saw a romantic urge in Fellini�s obsession with Rome. Mario Longardi, a former MGM press agent, remembers that all the visitors to Rome asked to meet the Pope and Fellini. From 1922 to 1943 king Victor Emmanuel III reigned and the Fascist Dictator ruled. In 1923 Samuel Goldwyn produced �The Eternal City� with a documentary cameo appearance of the King and Mussolini on the balcony of the Quirinale during a mob scene. To avoid trouble with the authorities the director had to smuggle the negative out of the country. In 1947 Orson Welles rented the Royal Palace to film �Cagliostro�, a movie later renamed �Black Magic�. Cagliostro, the notorious XVIII century adventurer, was imprisoned and died in the Fortress of San Leo, in the Province of Pesaro and Urbino (Marches). San Leo isn�t far from the Republic of San Marino and Rimini. In 1978 Fellini�s �Prova d�Orchestra� (�The Rehearsal�) had a preview showing in the Quirinale for the President of the Italian Republic. Mussolini�s office in the Palazzo Venezia, the Globe Hall, was almost as big as a sound stage and the walk to his desk was an impressive 20 metre crossing over the shining mosaic floor. The Palazzo was protected by a guard of musketeers (i moschettieri del Duce) whose uniform had been designed by a Russian emigr�. Every visitor to Rome in those days wanted to see the Duce and the Pope of course. Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Pictures, once went to see Mussolini and was impressed by his clever use of space. The Crossing In Fascist Party inside small talk �La Traversata� was the long walk Across the immense Hall of the Globe To give the Duce ample time to probe The wits and guts of those who paid a call Movie mogul Harry Cohn walked the hall And was tickled pink by the ruse Of space put to politic use. Back home he altered his office to meet the measurements of Mussolini�s style His visitors had to walk 30 feet Soon dubbed, after an old flick, �The Last mile� Cohn was himself a �ducetto� (a tin-pot Mussolini) in his confined world and went so far as to keep a framed photo with the dictator�s dedication on his desk. Shelley Winters recalls the fear he �induced in most people� around the studio. Miss Winters was once married to Vittorio Gassman. Fellini toyed with the idea of casting Vittorio in the title role of the movie he never managed to make, �Il Viaggio di G.S. Mastorna�, �The Trip of G.S. Mastorna�. The Cinema is the strongest weapon Mussolini The Duce did a lot for the Italian cinema. In the late thirties he founded Cinecitt� which, with its 10 huge sound stages and state-of-the-art facilities, put Italy in the technological forefront of the industry. At Villa Torlonia he had a private screening room to watch the newsreels previous to their release and also his favourite movies. His eldest son Vittorio founded a production and distribution company. Independent producer Hal Roach took him to Hollywood in return for an invitation to the �Rocca delle Caminate�, the Duce's castle in the Romagna. After a remarkably unsuccessful visit to California, President Roosevelt and his wife asked Vittorio to have tea with them at the White House. During the war Fellini and his friend Roberto Rossellini worked for Vittorio�s �Alleanza Cinematografica Italiana�. �It�s Roberto that made me discover the cinema� Federico would say. Maria Antonietta Maciocchi described the place where Fellini lived during the war years as a slum. She was taken there by her sweetheart Rinaldo Geleng, Federico�s Roman friend of Prussian descent. They also would meet at the coffee bar of the Plaza Hotel. In those days Federico lived from hand to mouth drawing caricatures, a valuable skill after the liberation of Rome when he helped Enrico De Seta open a �Funny Face Shop� next to the Church of �San Andrea delle fratte� (�St. Andrew of the bushes�). They had long lines of allied servicemen waiting their turn and were so successful they opened a series of funny face shops. In those days Fellini had a fine head of hair and, according to Alberto Sordi, suffered a lot when he started losing it. In the evening of June 4, 1944, two days before the Landing in Normandy, US army patrols reached Cinecitt� whose studios had been turned into a shelter for the survivors of the bombed out quarters of the capital. Some American soldiers looted the props storage rooms and cheerfully spread around the streets dressed like ancient Romans. Giulio Andreotti, born in the heart of Rome, served in Alcide De Gasperi�s cabinet as undersecretary to the Presidency and was responsible for show business for seven years. He reopened Cinecitt� with the help of the U.S. Ambassador who managed to have M.G.M.�s �Colossal Quo Vadis� made in Rome. Andreotti said that the Americans non only tried, in vain, to hinder legislative action in favour of the Cinema in the Italian Parliament but paid hefty fines to prevent the dubbing of Italian movies into English thus killing their distribution in the United States. When Ingrid Bergman first arrived in Rome Rossellini threw a party in her honour in his apartment. She was delighted to see �a lot of marvellous little caricatures of Roberto and herself on the island of Stromboli� that Fellini had drawn and hung on the walls. Ingrid would have liked to work for Fellini and the other big Italian directors, but her husband was against it and his colleagues were, in her words, furious. During a short stay in Berlin before the war Ingrid, who was half German, was surprised at the unspeakable fear the Nazis generated in the film circles and at the power of Joseph Goebbels, the Propaganda minister whose crush on Czech star Lida Baarov� was stopped by Hitler in person. In the early 1950�s Fellini cast Lida as Giulia Curti in �I Vitelloni�. In an interview published in a weekly in 1950, Rossellini pointed out that �the level of education of the (Hollywood) producers was below that of the Italian ushers� adding that the production of a movie was �fully entrusted to whoever seemed to be the best businessman�. No wonder Sam Goldwyn once told Ingrid he couldn�t understand her husband. � I don�t know what he�s doing, what he�s talking about� he said �He doesn�t know anything about budgets; he doesn�t know anything about schedules.� I don�t need many people: Noschese and the two Lionellos � Alberto and Oreste (who dubs Woody Allen in Italian) - will suffice. I can dub a whole film with them Fellini Alighiero Noschese (1932-1979) was an imitator appreciated by Fellini who employed him to dub some of the characters of his movies. Noschese once imitated Andreotti so well on TV as to deceive the politician�s own mother. I go back to Rimini without pleasure Fellini Tonino Guerra wrote Fellini hadn�t �shot a single metre of film in Rimini�, and his sister Maddalena added that �Federico was never loved or appreciated in Rimini� a town in the Romagna, a region of fiery passions and strong political beliefs. The beauty of the Romagnol landscape was summed up by Poet and Latinist Giovanni Pascoli who studied in Urbino and in Rimini: �Village after village, tillage after tillage My heart laughs and my heart cries, O Severino. The stretch of land where large looms the image Of the blue vision of San Marino�. Fellini is a lot more concise, to him �the Romagna is a mixture of sea lore and Catholic Church�. The Romagnols are such warm-hearted people, like the characters who crop up in the director�s autobiographical films. Rimini is mentioned in �I Promessi Sposi� (�The Betrothed�), the historical novel written by Alessandro Manzoni in the XIX Century, a great book reviewed by E.A.Poe as early as 1835. �The Betrothed� is, like Carlo Collodi�s �Pinocchio�, an acute, no nonsense picture of the Italians. Fellini appreciated Pinocchio�s adventures and toyed with the idea of making a movie based on them for the Italian Television. The puppet has little in common with Disney�s little guy in a Tyrolean hat. Federico kept all his life the copy of �Pinocchio� he had been given as a boy. It was the 1913 Bemporad edition illustrated by Carlo Chiostri, the artist who best captured the spirit of the book and may have had some influence on the director. Walt Disney bowed to Fellini�s genius and went so far as to welcome Federico and Giulietta at the entrance of Disneyland leading a band playing the tune of �Gelsomina�. Fellini and his wife were in California for the Oscar to �La Strada�. In 1991 a parody of the movie was published in a comic book with Minnie as �Gelsomina�, Mickey Mouse as �Il Matto� and Peter Peg Leg as �Zampan�. Ah, How I would have liked to make a movie on a day in Disneyland: that was the true movie I really had to make about America Fellini Back in the 1930�s Walt Disney was welcomed to the Palazzo Venezia where he showed up with an enormous Mickey Mouse, his personal present to Anna Maria, Mussolini�s youngest daughter. The gloomy looming mountain of San Marino Fellini The Rimini-San Marino narrow gauge railway was opened on 12 June 1932. The 17 tunnels, all on Sammarinese soil, were used as air-raid shelters by the Riminesi during the war. The railway was completely destroyed during the front line operations in 1944. After riding out the war in Rome, Fellini went back to Rimini where he felt a little guilty every time he heard people talk about the front line and the caves of San Marino where they had taken refuge. La gente parlava del fronte, delle grotte di San Marino in cui si erano rifugiati e io provavo la sensazione un po� vergognosa di essere stato fuori dal disastro. Fellini, �La mia Rimini�, 1967 San Marino, a sovereign state, is the oldest republic in the world. During the war of secession its Captains Regent corresponded with Abraham Lincoln who thought their state was small but most honoured. In 1849 San Marino gave shelter to Giuseppe Garibaldi and his retreating troops. Giuseppe managed to escape to New York where he worked for a while as a candlemaker in the factory of his friend Antonio Meucci. We Italians know very well It wasn�t Alexander G. Bell But Antonio Meucci, he alone, The inventor of the telephone And the real dad of Ma Bell. The hero, an experienced skipper, soon left the candle factory for the seas of China. During the war Lincoln tried to secure his services against the Confederates, but Garibaldi turned down the proposal. Garibaldi leader of red-shirted volunteers Fought injustice and tyranny in two hemispheres Like a dauntless romantic conqueror. When Lincoln, bogged down in the Civil War, Offered him the command of an army corps Giuseppe turned down that fighting chance Because of Abe�s weak anti-slavery stance. Urbino still gives the feeling or memory of an Italy more maybe imagined than real Fellini The Dukes of Montefeltro, rulers of Urbino, were warlords with a deep love for beauty and plenty of common sense. They left an enduring mark on their duchy. There was mutual animosity between Federico II of Montefeltro and Sigismondo Malatesta, the Lord of Rimini. Ezra Pound, who always had a soft spot for a loser, sided with the latter who left his work unfinished. Pound also had this strange fixation for Mussolini whom he considered a latter-day �Condottiere�. The Duce once granted him an audience and casually uttered a sentence that struck and intrigued Ezra: �Poetry is a necessity to the State�. The poet stood for the dictator even after Fascist Italy declared war to his own country and worked for the Italian Radio which cost him a period of internment first in a U.S Army stockade in Pisa and later on in a lunatic asylum back home. Mussolini will end up with Sigismundo and the men of order Pound The President of the Free University of Urbino, author and literay critic Carlo Bo, conferred an honorary degree to Fellini. On April 22, 1988 playwright Arthur Miller got one too and thanked Carlo Bo saying "I promised a short speech, but not so short that I forget to thank Professor Bo, Rector of this ancient university, and the Faculty, for this great honour". Carlo Bo, Moravia and other writers addressed a petition for the release of Pound from the mental institution where he was confined. Anglo-Irish Poet William Yeats once visited Urbino and was deeply affected by the beauty of the ducal palace. He admired Guidubaldo II, the complete Renaissance man. The Duke and his wife rest in the Church of St. Ubaldus in Pesaro. Laurel-wreathed William Yeats In Duke Guidubaldo�s domicile �Upon Urbino�s windy hill�. Poet Giovanni Pascoli, who studied for seven years in Urbino, wrote a poem, memorized by generations of Italian students, about the flying of kites, a favourite pastime in that windy town. There is something new under the Sun today Or rather ancient: I live elsewhere and feel That new violets are already under way. The Kite, Giovanni Pascoli Rimini, the dregs of the Marches, the discard of the Romagna Mussolini Benito Mussolini (named after Mexican leader Benito Juarez) was born in Predappio, in the Province of Forl�, from a socialist blacksmith. His mother, Rosa Maltoni, was the local schoolteacher. Mussolini, a first-class editor and newspaperman, marched on Rome in 1922, when Fellini was two years old. Pesaro is the most Romagnol city in the Marches Tullio Kezich Pesaro (click here for the Guidebook to Pesaro) Pesaro is the birthplace of Gioachino Rossini, of composer Riz Ortolani, of soprano Renata Tebaldi, of Anna Maria Alberghetti, of Annibale Ninchi, who played the role of Fellini�s father in �La Dolce Vita� and in �8 ��. Maria Righetti, Alberto Sordi�s mother, was also from Pesaro. Sordi, the most Roman of Fellini�s actors (�The White Sheik�, �I Vitelloni�) was Mayor of Rome for one day when he turned eighty on June 15, 2000. Aristide Togni, the founder of the famous Italian Circus, was a Pesarese. Gianfranco Angelucci, Federico�s devoted friend and important collaborator, also comes from Pesaro. The Malatestas ruled over Pesaro for some time. Ezra Pound, always partial to Rimini, once described it as �a heap of old bricks�. The Romagnol variety of the dialect spoken in Pesaro is very close to �Riminese� and �A m�arcord� means �I remember� in both towns. During the making of �La Dolce Vita� Fellini asked Annibale Ninchi to speak with a slight tinge of Pesarese� to make him sound just like his father. Federico also appreciated the cuisine of Bruno Dolcini, the renowned owner-chef of the �da Bruno� restaurant at the �Hotel Principe� on the promenade of Pesaro. Two major events take place in Pesaro annually: the �International Exhibition of the New Cinema� in June and the �Rossini Opera Festival� in August. Tenor Luciano Pavarotti owns a villa on a hill overlooking Pesaro and the Adriatic sea. After every operatic feat As the hero of Verdi or Puccini Pavarotti climbs to his retreat Vis-a-vis the sky and the blue sea In the birthplace of Rossini. Fano once belonged to the Malatestas and owes its name to an ancient fane dedicated to fortune, �Fanum Fortunae�. Ezra Pound fondly remembered the �Malatestis� and the �long hall over the arches at Fano� in the �Pisan Cantos�. Federico said he attended a school run by the Christian Brothers there, but according to his mother he didn�t. In Italy the names of fish vary from region to region according to the dialects spoken along the 7,500-Km long coastline. �Saraghina� is one of the 24 dialect words for sardine listed in a fish dictionary. It�s the nickname of the woman Fellini said he had met on the beach of Fano. The mother of Anna Magnani (�Open City�, �The Rose Tattoo�) was from Fano. Anna and Federico were cast by Rossellini in the �The Miracle�, one of the two episodes of his movie entitled �Amore�. Anna, Sordi and Gore Vidal made a cameo appearance each, playing themselves, in �Roma�. When Fellini was shooting �La Dolce Vita� Vidal was writing the script for �Ben Hur�. They were on very good terms and called each other �Gorino� and �Fred�. Vidal remembers that Jackie (his stepsister) and President Kennedy were very interested about the making of �La Dolce Vita.� Approaching Rimini Roman milestone Roman milestone on the Flaminian Way near Miramare airport, three miles from Rimini, an important centre during the Roman Empire. Portal of �La Colonnella� Via Flaminia �I remember�, wrote Fellini, the Capuchins� church, also called �La Colonnella� because of a chipped Roman column standing in front of the portal. Federico said he was once taken there by his �little� grandma (�little� to tell her from the other grandmother nicknamed �toro Seduto�, �Sitting Bull�). Entering Rimini Fellini called the small and still partly walled city centre �E borg� (�Il Borgo� in Italian). It lies between the Marecchia River and the now culverted Ausa creek. In July 1934 newspaper editor Giovanni Ansaldo visited Rimini and, like Federico, pointed out the striking difference between the busy historical centre, with little caf�s full of people, and the modern district along the beach. One day I�d like to make a movie on the Romagnol peasant: a western with no shootouts Fellini On 11 April, 1906 at the end of a long European tour, William Frederick Cody, �Buffalo Bill�, took his travelling �Wild West Circus� to Rimini. Moving four trains with the equipment and 130 horsemen with their mounts was, in those days, a real feat. The circus could seat 5,000 spectators under an immense tent set up in Borgo XX Settembre. The show was exciting: it included mock battles, plenty of shooting and Custer�s Last Stand at Little Big Horn. Arch of Augustus Originally one of the city gates, it was built in the year 27 A.D. at the end of the Flaminian Way by decree of the Roman Senate. The arch was damaged during world war two when 396 bombings wiped out the town. Fellini, who preferred to work in a studio, had no choice but to reconstruct Rimini in order make �Amarcord�. The Flaminian Way The Flaminian Way, the Great North Road that ran from Rome to Rimini was named after Gaius Flaminius, the Consul who built it in 220 B.C. The Flaminian Way is mentioned in Rudyard kipling�s �Puck of Pook�s Hill� �When I left Rome for Lalage�s sake By the Legion�s Road to Rimini, She vowed her heart was mine to take With me and my shield to Rimini- (Till the Eagles flew from Rimini)�. The modern �Via Flaminia� (327 Km) is still the main road from Rimini to Rome via Pesaro, Fano, Fossombrone, the Furlo Pass, a gorge over which once loomed the profile of Mussolini carved on Mount Pietralata (it was blasted away after the war), Gubbio, Foligno, Spoleto, Terni, Orte. On July 3, 1964, after covering the whole length of the Via Flaminia, Luigi �Titta� Benzi arrived at Federico�s flat in the exclusive Parioli neighbourhood with 12 bottles of Sangiovese wine. Benzi, nicknamed �il grosso� (�the big one�) was Fellini�s close friend. The arch of Augustus is the entrance to the east west axis (decumanus) common to all the towns that originated as Roman military camps. The decumanus is today�s Corso d� Augusto where everybody goes to meet everybody else during the evening promenade (Fellini�s �passeggino�). Corso d�Augusto Palazzo Garattoni (Cima/Castracane) - Corso d�Augusto n. 14 The imposing portal of the Palazzo, on the corner of via Castracane, dates back to the Seicento but the building was completely altered in the XVIII century. In 1940 it was altered again and the facade was moved back 5 metres to widen the Corso. Portal of the palazzo Buonadrata The palazzo is now the property of the local Savings-Bank. A plaque in the hallway remembers Giuseppe Garibaldi, a very modest man, who set up his headquarters there during the 1859 war of independence. The private Lyc�e attended by Fellini was once housed in the palazzo. Vicolo Cima e Vicolo del Voltone The heavy bombings blew to bits a lot of architectural treasures and fine ancient houses in the town centre. The characteristic atmosphere of old Rimini was lost for ever during the hasty reconstruction that took place in the postwar period. Vicolo Cima is situated beween Corso d�Augusto and via Santa Chiara. There is a quaint sculpted tile worth seeing on the facade of a house. Vicolo del Voltone is a short alley, named after an archway, between Largo �Giulio Cesare� and Vicolo Cima. Via Serpieri Church of �Santa Croce� (�The Holy Rood�) The stone on the facade shows the Greek letter �tau�, a symbol of the Knights Hospitallers. Antonio Giannoni, the first Italian who settled in South Australia, was born in Rimini and was baptized in �Santa Croce� in 1814. Antonio left his hometown and sailed down under after the 1838 troubles. Faithful to his Republican and seafaring past he named two of his horses �Garibaldi� and �Captain�. He died in Kensington S.A. in 1883, the year after Garibaldi�s death. His birth certificate was found in the church archives by an Australian university professor in 1991. Piazza tre Martiri Pedestal Piazza tre Martiri, named after the three freedom fighters hanged near the pedestal by the retreating Germans in 1944, was the ancient Forum of Ariminum. A stone, once set on the pedestal, vanished during the war. Legend has it that Julius Caesar stood on it when he addressed his troops after crossing the Rubicon. In the 1960�s Fellini was in a Roman hospital, suffering from the Schwartzmann-Sanarelli syndrome, when a visitor introduced himself as Bissi, a relative of one of the three men hanged by the Germans. The syndrome was correctly diagnosed at first sight by Dr. Ercole Sega M.D. an old schoolmate. In his young days Dr. Sega�s nickname (each riminese had one) was �bagarone�, the italianized form of the dialect word for cockroach. In Rimini �bagarone� was also the term to describe the low buzz rising from the voices of the semiliterate spectators reading the subtitles of the silent movies. Fellini liked to point out that he was old enough to have had the opportunity to see the silent movies accompanied by a pianist. Federico was given not one but two nicknames, �Gandhi� and �Can�cia�. �Can�cia� is the dialect name for mantis shrimp. In the XIII century Saint Anthony lived in Rimini for some time and worked miracles to bring a lot of heretics back to the fold. He would also preach to the fish assembled at the mouth of the Marecchia river and once had a fasting she-mule refuse food and devoutly kneel in front of the Holy Host on the spot where a small temple was built. Bramante's temple The Temple of Bramante, which looked like a baptistery to Fellini, is dedicated to St. Anthony and dates back to the XVI century. It was rebuilt after the earthquake which destroyed it on 14 April 1672. The Church of the Paolotti The Church of the Paolotti is a modern substitute (1963) for the original building which was destroyed during the war. It has been run by the Minims (members of a religious order founded by St. Francis of Paola) since 1614. The Clock Tower The Clock Tower was built in 1547. The timepiece dates back to 1562 and has an extra dial for the months and the phases of the Moon. Via Garibaldi Old Rimini The Tinkers� Arch at the entrance to via Garibaldi as it was before the war. In the past �La Contrada dei magnani� was the quarter of Rimini where tinkers, blacksmiths and locksmiths produced all sorts of tools. Today via Garibaldi is a busy shopping area. Via Garibaldi The coat of arms of Gozio Cardinal dei Battagli on the wall of his palazzo dates back to the XIV century. He was born circa 1270 to a wealthy and powerful Riminese family. Pope Benedict XII made him a cardinal in the Consistory of December 1338. Gozio entered the papal Curia in Avignon where he died on June 10, 1348. He is buried in the church of Saint Agnes in Rimini. Via Garibaldi Chiesa di Santa Agnese The ancient church of St Agnes was destroyed during the war, but the bell tower, built in the second half of the XIX century in mock-medieval style, survived the bombings. The new building dates back to 1953 and was designed by Leonardo Trevisol MEng in the style of simplified neoclassicism made popular by architect Marcello Piacentini. The inscription on the facade is a verse from the Gospel of Matthew 5:8 �Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God�. Via Garibaldi Oratory of San Nicola da Tolentino The facade is what is left of the oratory which was destroyed during the war. The Ghetto of Rimini, dating back to the XVI century, was near the oratory. The synagogue and the Jewish cemetery were outside the town walls near the Montanara Gate. Via Garibaldi Old Rimini The Montanara Gate (at the far end of via Garibaldi) as it was at the beginning of the XX century. In the XVIII century Giovan Francesco Buonamici (Rimini 1692- Rome 1759) lived in Via Garibaldi. Buonamici is the famous architect who designed the fishmarket (1747), the Clock Tower (1759) and the church of San Bernardino (1759). Chiesa di San Gaudenzo Saint Gaudentius is the Patron saint of Rimini (his day is celebrated on 14 October). The original church dating back to 1856 was destroyed during the war. It was rebuilt in 1950. Church of St. Augustine, Via Sigismondo Niche with the sarcophagus of Giovanni Battista Paci on the facade of St. Augustine�s. The church dates back to the year one thousand and was badly damaged during an overnight fire on 23 June 1965. It contains a valuable series of frescoes and other artistic treasures. Alberto Marvelli, a saintly young man who did a lot to help his fellow citizens during the war years is buried next to the entrance. Corso d�Augusto, 119 The store on the ground floor of the Palazzo Ripa was inaugurated on 19 December, 1945. When Fellini got back home after the war Rimini was a sea of rubble and the few buildings still standing looked like a movie set designed by the architects of Cinecitt�. The palazzo belonged to his family�s landlord, Mr Ripa, an old man with a long white beard always dressed in blue, bowler hat included. The Piazzetta San Gregorio The Piazzetta San Gregorio is also known as the Piazza delle �poveracce�, the italianized form of the dialect word for �vongole� (�clams�). Poet Giovanni Pascoli lived in the house at N� 4 when he was a student in the years 1871-1872. A plaque remembers him. On September 20, 1924 Mussolini attended the �Ceremony for the honouring of Giovanni Pascoli in Rimini�. The official photographer was Luigi Severi who between November 1, 1943 and August 16, 1944 took 831 pictures of the town reduced to rubble by the bombings. Corso d�Augusto N� 155 The Palazzo Gioia/Belmonte/Pavoni was built by Monsignor Pietro Pavoni in 1614. Napoleon chose it as his residence during his stay in Rimini in 1797. The building was destroyed by air raids during the war but was rebuilt in 1959. A plaque on its facade remembers the day in 1859 when Giuseppe Garibaldi addressed the Riminese. Garibaldi still has a strong patriotic appeal to Italians. Garibaldi had a lot of admirers in the United States. In 1860 when he set sail from Genoa to conquer Southern Italy three US ships helped supply his 1,000 volunteers. The City of New York raised $100,000 and Colonel Colt sent him 100 of his new-fangled rifles. Thomas Nast, the German-born artist who first used the donkey and the elephant as symbols of the US parties, also marched with Garibaldi from Palermo to Naples. Piazza Cavour Fellini thought the eccentric behaviour of some local characters was enhanced by the �glorious topographic setting� of Piazza Cavour, the main square. The Palazzo del Podest� (Mayor) dates back to the XIV Century and was restored in the 1920�s. The �Assembly Hall�, built in 1204 and altered many times through the centuries, was restored to its basic form in 1924. The Madonna under the canopy on the Balcony of the Palazzo Garampi is the �Virgin of Conception�. Fountain The fountain pleased Leonardo da Vinci no end in the Summer of 1502. Years later he still remembered the harmony of the water falling from its 16 spouts. Leonardo a natural son To a notary public born Drew unheard-of machines And dabbled with colours meanwhile To paint a lady�s beguiling smile. Leonardo was the �dearest architect� and engineer of Cesare Borgia a.k.a. the Valentine, the cruel strongman who killed or kicked off the local rulers and princes in order to build his personal domain in central Italy. There was a foxy man called the Valentine That made himself the Lord of half the Apennine And placed high hope on his father the Pope That was so partial to his darling Valentine. Niccol� Machiavelli had the Valentino in mind when he wrote �The Prince�. In his sick bed in a Rome hospital Fellini said that the nun nurses that gave him injections without waking him up made him think of Cesare Borgia�s henchmen. Niccol� Machiavelli the celebrated Florentine Was acute, astute and a little libertine He became famous ever since He wrote a treatise about a Prince That became a favorite with Kings and Queens As it allowed the ends to excuse the means. Fishmarket The old fishmarket is a utilitarian brick building, with dolphin spouts on the four corners, designed by architect Giovan Francesco Buonamici and built by the Municipality of Rimini in 1747. The building, which has been converted into a flea market, is also the centre of the Riminese movida. Statue of Pope Paul V The statue was inaugurated on 22 June 1614. In 1797, before Napoleon�s arrival in Rimini, the Pope was disguised as Bishop Gaudenzo, the Patron Saint, by substituting the tiara with a mitre. Paul V got back his headpiece in 1940, but Fellini who left Rimini in 1937, always considered him a Bishop. Teatro Amintore Galli Only the facade of the opera house survived the war. The building, designed by Luigi Poletti (1792-1869), is now under reconstruction, but a lot of Riminesi dislike the new project and have founded an association to have it rebuilt �where it was, as it was.� Poletti also designed a monumental fa�ade in the main square of Pesaro and the Opera House of Fano. Thanks to a friend, a police commissioner who looked like slapstick comedian Ben Turpin, Urbano Fellini had the use of a box and once took his son to a performance of �I Cavalieri di Ekeb�� (�The Knights of Ekeb��). Federico never forgot these verses: �Cali il Maglio Tuoni gi� Cavalieri di Ekeb�� (�Let the Sledge Hammer strike And let it thunder, too O Knights of Ekeb��) �I Cavalieri di Ekeb�� is an opera by Riccardo Zandonai, the Trent-born director of the Musical Lyc�e (since 1940 Conservatory) of Pesaro where Pietro Sordi, Alberto�s father, studied the bass tuba. As bass tuba players were hard to find he was sure never to be out of a job. Pietro, a member of the Rome opera house orchestra, once was hired by the New York NBC symphony orchestra to play under Toscanini. It was not only Ben Turpin who might have passed for an Italian. Fellini thought Humphrey Bogart looked like a perfect �con man from Calabria� (�un bidonista calabrese�) and would have preferred to cast him, instead of Broderick Crawford, as Augusto in �Il Bidone� (�The Swindle�). Piazza malatesta (behind the opera House) Castel Sismondo A massive and forbidding mass of bricks is what is left of the once majestic castle whose construction Sigismondo Malatesta began in 1437. The building, used as a city jail for drunks and petty thieves, impressed Fellini as an �obscure presence� in the heart of Rimini. The area in front of the castle jail was reserved for the circuses that regularly came to Rimini. Federico liked their free and easy atmosphere and was very fond of clowns. The Orfeis, his lifelong friends, always kept a caravan at his disposal. It was Nando Orfei who played the uncle, nicknamed �pataca�, in �Amarcord�. During the Sunday matin�e - outside the big tent - near the jail the convicts kept shouting from behind the window grilles Fellini Piazza Malatesta Remains of the bell tower of St Columba�s Cathedral. The origins of the Romanesque Cathedral, perhaps built on the foundations of a Roman temple, date back to the XII century. The building was demolished in 1815. The author of a guidebook printed in London in 1769 wrote: � Rimini cathedral, which was built on the foundations of a temple of Castor and Pollox (sic), is dedicated to St. Columba, to whom Sens in France gave birth, and where she likewise died. I could get no information on what account the ancient inhabitants of Rimini chose this saint for their patroness : as to examining whether this choice was a consequence of the continuation of a fraternity between the Senonese of France and those of Romania (sic), till the first ages of the christian era, that I refer to others�. Corso d�Augusto, Cinema Fulgor The Fulgor cinema inaugurated on November 5, 1914 in a hall of the �Aquila d�oro� hotel in the Corso was moved to the present building in the early 1920�s. It was Fellini�s favourite cinema. Carlo Massa, the manager who looked like Ronald Colman, was quick to recognize Federico�s artistic talents and gave him free tickets in exchange for a series of caricatures of the most popular Hollywood stars. In the 1930�s the Fulgor was, according to Fellini, � the sewer of every vice ... where one was (likely to be) beaten up�. It was there that Federico, sitting on his father�s knees, first saw Bartolomeo Pagano a.k.a �Maciste� a herculean hero of the early silent Italian movies. Maciste first appeared in �Cabiria� a mass epic directed by Pietro Fosco (pseudoym of Giovanni Pastrone) which greatly influenced Cecil B. de Mille and D.W. Griffith. Pagano was introduced to Pastrone by actor Roberto Roberti, the father of Sergio Leone of "Spaghetti Western� fame. �Cabiria� was scripted by Gabriele D�Annunzio, poet and war hero. During WW1 D'annunzio was in one of the three small torpedo boats that sank an Austrian-Hungarian warship in a well protected inlet of the Adriatic sea. He also flew over Vienna to drop leaflets instead of bombs and after the collapse of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire occupied the Italian-speaking city of Fiume in Dalmatia with a private army. His friend and backer in the enterprise was a Riminese, Captain Giuseppe Giulietti, the President of the Seamen�s Federation and founder of the �Garibaldi Cooperative Society�. D�Annunzio was afraid of nothing and lost an eye before the war was out. In 1938, the poet, old and �terribly unhappy� ended his days at �Il Vittoriale� a personal Xanadu dedicated to his life and work on lake Garda. Il Vittoriale D�Annunzio gone to seed, his bald head empty: Poet, war hero, captain of dolce-far-niente And Landlord of the House of Ennui, Face down on his wrists died in the mists Of Catullus� lake in �fruitful Lombardy�. Luigi Barzini jr. wrote that �D�annunzio had very little success abroad, where his overwrought and feverish style was almost incomprehensible�. On the contrary an American critic praised �Cabiria�, the Italian colossal with the poet�s subtitles, in the 'Monography' issue of July 11, 1914: �Mr. Webster�s well known dictionary is pitifully inadequate when it comes to supplying adjectives to describe �Cabiria�, now playing at the Illinois Theater, Chicago, the stupendous film offering of the �Itala Film Company� of Turin, Italy, the story of which is from the pen of Gabriele D�Annunzio�. The likeness of the most famous Hollywood stars (�stelle� or �divi�, literally �gods�) painted on attractive posters at the entrance of the Fulgor enlivened the drab reality of a small provincial town. Among them Clark Gable, Wallace Beery, Franchot Tone, William Powell, Don Ameche and Jean Harlow, the only one of them who managed to make a short visit to Rimini in 1939. On the side wall of the Church of the Servites in the Corso there is the Coat of arms of the Agolanti family. Fellini was impressed by the �immense, very tall, windowless wall of the Church� where his friend �Tarzan� Bedassi spent a night in a confessional and won a bet. Across the street there is the former Church of Santa Maria in Nives (XVIII Century) now used as an Exhibition Center where the Fellini Foundation once collected the early publications of the Maestro written for �Il Marc�Aurelio� (�Marcus Aurelius�), a satirical magazine (�My Friend Pasqualino - Federico Fellini 1937-1947�). Fellini also worked for the �420� a fortnightly published by the Nerbini Company in Florence. Viale Tiberio The Bridge of Tiberius The Bridge of Tiberius, built between the years 14 and 21 A.D., spans the Marecchia River with five elegant arches of Istrian stone. On December 11, 1941 five days after Pearl Harbor, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini declared war on the United States of America. In 1943, at the end of the desert campaign, Fellini flew to Libya to shoot a few scenes of a movie, �I Cavalieri del Deserto/Gli ultimi Tuareg (�The Knights of the Desert/The last Tuaregs�). The worsening military situation forced the crew to a hasty and dangerous flight back to Italy, a flight recorded in a sketchbook that was put on display at a posthumous show in Rome on the director�s birthday (January, 20 1995). Borgo San Giuliano and Bridge of Tiberius The submarine was never moored by the bridge. It�s a reminder that on June 11, 1940 a lifeguard from Borgo San Giuliano, a fisherman from Fano and a mechanic from Pesaro were called up and assigned to the �Luigi Settembrini� which in the Summer of 1941 sank an enemy tanker losing her prow and thus deserving an article in �Il Corriere della Sera� by war correspondent Dino Buzzati, the Italian Kafka. In the 1960�s Buzzati helped Fellini write the script of �Il Viaggio di G. S. Mastorna� (The Trip of G.S. Mastorna). The two even went to see a clarvoyant together, but the movie never materialized. The name Mastorna sounds intriguing. Buzzati said he�d found it in the Milan phone book, but Marcello Mastroianni insisted it means Mas(troianni ri)torna (Mastroianni comes back). On January 19, 1992, the �Corriere della Sera� wrote: �Fellini, the birthday of a jobless man. Today the director is seventy-two and has been out of work for two years. What is happening to our cinema?�. Fellini never directed again. And yet with his 23 movies he had, according to screenwriter and film critic Tullio Kezich �created a lot of jobs without asking for votes�. Kezich is an authority on Fellini who would say �If you want to know what I did last Friday, don�t ask me: ask Tullio Kezich�. A Fellinian atmosphere survives in the narrow streets of Borgo San Giuliano, across the river, once a poor section of Rimini. The walls of some houses are decorated with murals showing scenes from the movies and the life of the maestro. Poet Tonino Guerra once wrote �Being next to Fellini is like being near a cloud�. Fellini always picked out his collaborators with sure instinct. Guerra, the screenwriter of �Amarcord�, was born in Sant�Arcangelo di Romagna and now lives in Pennabilli, a hilltop town in the upper Marecchia valley, in the Province of Pesaro-Urbino. Guerra, a man who played a big part in Fellini�s world, is now dedicated to saving the heritage of the Duchy of Urbino to the point of planting an �Orchard of Forgotten Fruits� in the village. �Tonino�, Federico told him while they were driving to Pennabilli �We insist on making airplanes, but there are no airports anymore�. The director called �airplanes� his movie projects. When Federico and Giulietta lived in a villa in the Fregene pinewood they were disturbed, day and night, by the planes starting the descent on Fiumicino airport. Author and screenwriter Bernardino Zapponi (1927-1999) who considered a plane to be �the oniric symbol of thought� was greatly disturbed every time he called on the Fellinis in Fregene but found consolation in Federico�s calm conversation and Giulietta delicious suppers. Ezra Pound went to �the forked rocks of Penna and Billi� in the 1920�s in search of the Malatesta�s roots. The poet with piercing eyes, trekking in the upper Valmarecchia in the Marches, must have been quite a sight. Via Marecchia Gervasona Gate The gate is named after Giovan Battista Gervasoni, the Riminese nobleman who rebuilt it in 1733. Via Bastioni settentrionali Francesca�s Arch Ruins of the Galliana Gate dating back to the XIV Century and a.k.a. Francesca�s Gate. Piazza ducale The Plaque on the fa�ade of the palazzo remembers Luigi Tonini, a Greek scholar and director of the Gambalunga Municipal Library. Via Tonini Canevone dei Veneziani The brick building is a XV Century warehouse which once belonged to the Venetian hospital of St. Mary of Mercy. The flag of St. Mark floated over Rimini from 1503 to 1509. Born in Venice in 1707 Carlo Goldoni wrote over 150 comedies in the Venetian dialect, in Italian and also in French. Goldoni studied philosophy at a Dominican college in Rimini, but he was more interested in plays and one day sailed away with a theatrical troupe bound for Chioggia. Giorgio Strehler, Federico�s friend and director of �Il Piccolo Teatro� of Milan staged memorable productions of Goldoni�s best comedies. After Fellini�s death Strehler was willing to direct the movie the Riminese had kept mulling in his head but never made, �The Trip of G. Mastorna�. Strehler was sentimentally attached to Valentina Cortese before she married Richard Basehart, �Il Matto� of �La Strada�. Fellini cast Anthony Quinn as Zampan� in the same film. �I never tell the truth to a Journalist. I always lie� he said to Quinn. Hugo Pratt, the Venetian creator of Corto Maltese, was born and baptized in Rimini, where his parents were on vacation, in 1927. Pratt was brought up in the lagoon city and in Ethiopia. Fellini once called him up after reading one of his books: �tonight I made a wonderful journey with this �Man from Somaliland�, you made me feel the very air and dust of the desert�. Hugo was related to actor Boris Karloff, the monster in �Frankenstein�, whose real name was William Pratt. In 1969 Karloff was too sick to accept Fellini�s offer to be cast as Trimalcion in �Satyricon�, his movie on ancient Rome. �Casanova�, Fellini�s movie based on the Venetian adventurer with Donald Sutherland in the title role, was severely criticized by director Riccardo Freda. Freda also objected to the Romagnol�s lavish use of �trainloads of film� saying he could make a movie with the money Federico spent on the lunches for actors and crews. Simenon and Fellini are no nervous wrecks, whenever they get depressed one writes a book and the other makes a movie Charlie Chaplin Georges Simenon was Fellini�s huge buff and the director was intrigued by Commissioner Maigret, maybe because of the mutual affinities. Zapponi said Federico was, like Maigret �a man of habits� adding that one day somebody would have to compare the two artists. Italy�s number one comedian was Antonio De Curtis, a Neapolitan prince a.k.a Tot�, as great a comedian as Chaplin was a pantomimist. In his young days Fellini went to Cinecitt� to interview him. After the release of �La Dolce Vita� Tot� summed up the director�s success with a sentence in Neapolitan: �Siete diventato un 'reggistone'!� (�you have become a big director!�) Monument to Captain Giuseppe Giulietti (1879-1953) Giulietti, a trade-unionist, did a lot to improve the Italian seamen�s working conditions. The inscription says he �redeemed the slaves of the sea�. He also supported D�Annunzio during the occupation of Fiume. Lighthouse The lighthouse was built in the XVIII Century. On the set of �La Citt� delle Donne� (�The City of Women�), remembers Sonia Schoonejans, the cast and crew called Fellini �er faro�, �the lighthouse� in romanesco (the Roman dialect). �No problem, er faro is always there� they would say�. The building was designed by architect Giovan Francesco Buonamici. Skyscraper The 100-meter high skyscraper was built in 1958. It can be clearly seen, rising from the waters, from the pier of the port canal of Pesaro. Grand Hotel As soon as it was opened in 1908 the art nouveau style Grand Hotel acquired a reputation for luxury and high life. In 1920, the year Fellini was born, a fire destroyed its characteristic moorish twin domes. Federico gave the hotel so much free publicity in his autobiographical movie that the grateful owner and friend granted him free accomodation in perpetuity, a gesture that was greatly appreciated. During the Summer holidays Claretta Petacci, the Duce�s mistress, stayed at the Grand Hotel while Benito was vacationing in his beach house on the promenade of Riccione. Fellini remembers that Mussolini went �swimming off the beach while militiamen circled around him darting like fins of sharks.�. Claretta was shot with Mussolini on 28 April 1945 presumably by Walter Audisio a.k.a. �il Colonnello Valerio�, an accountant with the �Borsalino� hat company. On the same day Valerio had 15 Fascist dignitaries lined up and executed on the lakeside promenade of Dongo. A few years later Audisio, then an MP, told an interviewer he felt so saddened after seeing �La Strada� as to prevent his own wife from going to see it. The bodies of Benito and Claretta were taken to Milan and hung by the heels in a gas station in the Piazzale Loreto. OSS captain Donald Downes, later a promoter of the Italian cinema, took Franco Zeffirelli there to see the apocalyptic scene. Ezra Pound, confined in an US army stockade in Pisa, recorded the dramatic spectacle in �The Pisan Cantos� (LVII): Thus Ben and la Clara a Milano by the heels at Milano Fascism had a tragic epilogue in Northern Italy. In 1974 Carlo Lizzani directed �Mussolini, ultimo atto� (�Mussolini, last act�), with Rod Steiger as the Duce, Lisa Gastoni as Claretta and Henry �Hank� Fonda as Ildefonso Cardinal Schuster, the Benedictine monk and Archbishop of Milan that played a part in Mussolini�s last days. Fonda�s Northern Italian ancestors fled to Holland during the Reformation. In 1957 he married Afdera Franchetti, daughter of a Venetian baron and explorer and sister of Nanook, a good friend of Hemingway�s. Fellini thought of casting Fonda or Peter Ustinov for the role of Steiner in �La Dolce Vita�. Ustinov�s great-great grandfather, Catterino Cavos, a Venetian musician with a heart of gold, once gave up the post of organist of St. Mark�s he had won in a competitive exam in favour of a sickly older man with a large family. Via IV novembre The Propylaea or gateway to the Oratory of St Jerome. The Oratory was destroyed in March 1944. Railway station (inaugurated on November 1, 1914) Fellini said that �the station was a place of romance�. It was at its news-stand that he regularly bought the �Lustige Bl�tter�, a German satirical magazine with the caricatures by Giuseppe Zanini (Nino Za), an artist he admired and who years later moved to Rimini to work for the rich patrons of the Grand hotel. Fellini was very pleased when he got to know Zanini in Rome after the war. When Federico took the train for the capital, Titta exclaimed �Now Federico goes international!� Via sabinia Amphitheater The remains of a big amphitheater built in the II Century A.D. testify to the importance of Rimini during the Roman Empire. Piazza Teatini The old Church of the Theatines The Theatines are a religious order of the Catholic Church. A plaque remembers their ancient church damaged by an earthquake in 1916 and destroyed during WW2. Old Rimini: �The Puppet Show� Via IV Novembre Tempio Malatestiano Fellini and Demos Bonini (FEBO) opened a �Bottega del Ritratto� (�Portrait Shop�), where they made caricatures to order, in front of the Tempio Malatestiano. The XV Century Cathedral, � so alien, so solemn � didn�t look like any other church or any other building� to Federico. Ezra Pound was stunned by that �temple so full of pagan work�. The exterior was designed by Leon Battista Alberti, one of the world�s greatest architects. Alberti, a man of many interests, made experiments with a camera oscura to project visual images. The interior, designed by Matteo de� Pasti, is full of amazing masterpieces: the tombs of the Malatestas, Giotto�s Crucifix and a fresco by Piero della Francesca. On November 5, 1944 the Lieutenant General of the Kingdom, later King, Umberto II visited the ruins of the Cathedral with Alberto Marvelli the only city administrator willing to meet him as the Monarchy was held responsible for the rise of Fascism in Italy. Marvelli was run down by an army truck and died by the roadside on October 6, 1946. Years later Federico was asked to testify to his virtues during the process of beatification. Via Leon Battista Alberti House behind the Cathedral Via F. D. Guerrazzi The remains of the ancient St. Andrew�s Gate (Porta montanara) were moved from via Garibaldi to the rear of the Cathedral. Via del Tempio malatestiano Palazzo Maschi, Marcheselli, Lettimi The palazzo, badly damaged during the war, was partly demolished to avoid the risk of total collapse. On December 28, 1943, Rimini was attacked by 105 Flying Fortresses and 21 Liberators of the 15th USAAF which dropped 306 tons of high-explosive bombs. Two more raids took place on the following days wiping out the town centre. Via Domenico Francolini Oratorio della �Crocina� (�Little Rood�) The deconsecrated �Oratory of the little Rood� is an ancient church whose origins date back to the VI century. Via Gambalunga Biblioteca Gambalunga Alessandro Gambalunga (circa 1554-1619), born in Rimini of humble Lombard parents, was a man of some stature and a wealthy patron of the arts. He built up a major collection of books and opened it to the public on 25 September 1617. The municipal library has therefore a continuous history dating back to that day and is one of the oldest in Italy. Among its treasures: a Divine Comedy copied by Jacopo Gradonigo at the end of the XIV century and a lot of rare and unique books, manuscripts and incunabula. In the 1930�s the top floor of the Palazzo Gambalunga housed the grammar school attended by Fellini. Old Rimini In the 1930�s the electric trams ran from Piazza Cavour to the Railway station along via Gambalunga. There was a tram stop in front of the Politeama theatre where Annibale Ninchi played the title role in the drama �Glauco� by the Pesarese Ercole Luigi Morselli on January 20, 1920. Fellini attended the �Carlo Tonini� primary school in via Gambalunga near his place in Via Clementini N� 9 (Villa Dolci). The Fellinis frequently moved house and also lived in via Fumagalli, in via Dardanelli N�10 (the house where Federico was born and which was destroyed during the war), in Corso d�Augusto (Palazzo Ripa), in via Gambalunga and in via Oberdan. Via Angher� The stone portal with a date in Roman numerals MDLXXX (1580) has survived the destruction of the Palazzo during the war. A plaque on the fa�ade of the building remembers Captain Domenico Angher� fallen on 7 December 1895 during the first Italo-Ethiopian war. Jesuits� College, Via Tonini The city museum and picture gallery are housed in the ancient Jesuits� college, later converted into a hospital. More than 500 works of art are on display in 40 rooms. The museum will soon be enlarged. House of Alfredo Panzini�s mother Panzini (1863-1939), a man of letters and a member of the Italian Academy, was born in Senigallia of Riminese parents. Fellini resorted to Panzini�s �Modern Dictionary� to find the exact definition of �clown�. Federico divided mankind into two categories represented by the dominant White Clown and the submissive one called Augustus. Fellini died on October 31, 1993 in Rome and had three funerals: the first in his favourite Studio 5 at Cinecitt� surrounded by 20,000 people, the second in the Basilica dedicated to �Nostra Signora degli Angeli� or �Our Lady of the Angels.� built by Michelangelo in the ruins of Diocletian�s Baths. The last funeral took place, prior to the interment, in the cemetery of Rimini where Federico now rests with Giulietta and Federichino, their little child, under a brass sculpture by Arnaldo Pomodoro representing a sail. There was a director that cast Clowns in movies that became a must, He won an award with Amarcord A flashback in his Romagnol past. Have you ever noticed the word �End� never appears in my movies? Fellini Guida illustrata alla Rimini felliniana, 1999 Sono nato, sono venuto a Roma, mi sono sposato, sono entrato a Cinecitt�, non c�� niente da aggiungere. Federico Fellini (Rimini, 1920 � Roma, 1993) Federico Fellini ha messo la sua citt� sull�atlante mondiale del cinema, alla pari di Hollywood e di Roma. Il regista � nato a Rimini, ha lavorato nella citt� eterna ed ha ricevuto i suoi Oscar in California. Roma, un tempo centro di un impero e poi sede della Chiesa cattolica, � oggi la capitale della Repubblica italiana. Nel 1849, dopo una rivolta che scacci� il Papa regnante, fu fondata la Repubblica romana con l�aiuto di Giuseppe Garibaldi, detto anche l�Eroe dei due mondi grazie alle sue gesta da guerrigliero in Sud America. Ben presto la Francia ristabil� il Papa sul trono costringendo Garibaldi a ritirarsi con i suoi seguaci verso la costa adriatica. Nel 1870 durante la Guerra franco-prussiana Giuseppe, pur sofferente di reumatismi, riusc� a battere i tedeschi con il suo corpo di volontari. L�Italia moderna risale al 1861, quando la penisola venne unificata dal Re piemontese Vittorio Emanuele II di Savoia, con l�aiuto di Garibaldi. Il 20 settembre 1870, il Re entr� a Roma e si impadron� del Palazzo del Quirinale. Nel lasciare la sua dimora Pio IX fece chiudere a chiave tutte le porte costringendo Vittorio Emanuele, il Re galantuomo, ad entrare come uno scassinatore. Il Papa, Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti, era nato nelle Marche a Senigallia, un tempo citt� della Pentapoli, la lega marittima che comprendeva anche i porti di Rimini, Pesaro, Fano ed Ancona. Nel 1929 fu creato lo Stato della Citt� del Vaticano per dare indipendenza alla Santa Sede. Il Patto venne firmato dal romagnolo Benito Mussolini e dal marchigiano Pietro Cardinal Gasparri, Segretario di stato. Il Papa Pio XI, Achille Ratti, dava molta importanza al cinema. Nel 1932 ricevette Edward G. Robinson per discutere sull�influenza dei film sul pubblico; nel 1934 espresse le sue vedute sull�industria cinematografica alla stampa specializzata, e nel 1936, a ottant�anni, scrisse l�enciclica �Vigilanti cura� sull�argomento. Al termine di un viaggio negli Stati Uniti, dopo la guerra, Iljia Ehremburg not� con acredine che �i pi� intelligenti tra i preti avevano fatto pace con Hollywood�. A Roma si mangia bene, si dorme bene, e ci si pu� divertire. Moravia Il romano Alberto Moravia (Alberto Pincherle) ha scritto sei copioni e pi� di 2.000 articoli di critica cinematografica. 20 film hanno avuto origine dai suoi libri. Alla sua morte il regista Bernardo Bertolucci ha scritto, chiss� perch�, che �le sue parole erano illuminate dalla luce come in un effetto speciale�. Moravia vedeva un impulso romantico nell�ossessione di Fellini per Roma. L� agente della M.G.M. Mario Lombardi ricorda che nella citt� eterna Roma i visitatori chiedevano di vedere solo due persone: il Papa e il regista. Vittorio Emanuele regn� dal 1929 al 1943, ma in quegli anni era Mussolini a governare. Nel 1923 Samuel Goldwyn produsse �La Citt� eterna� con un cammeo contenente il Re e il Duce affacciati al balcone del Quirinale davanti ad una piazza gremita di gente. Per evitare guai con le autorit�, il regista trafug� il negativo dall�Italia. Nel 1947, Orson Welles affitt� il Palazzo reale per girarvi �Cagliostro�, in seguito intitolato �Black Magic�. Il famoso avventuriero Cagliostro venne imprigionato e mor� nella Fortezza di San Leo, la pi� imponente delle Marche, in Provincia di Pesaro e Urbino, non lontano dalla Repubblica di San Marino e da Rimini. Nel 1978 un�anteprima di �Prova d�orchestra� venne proiettata al Quirinale in onore del Presidente della Repubblica italiana. Mussolini lavorava a Palazzo Venezia protetto dai suoi Moschettieri, la cui uniforme era stata disegnata da un emigrato russo. Il suo ufficio, la Sala del Mappamondo grande quasi quanto un teatro di posa, fece una grande impressione su Harry Cohn, capo della �Columbia Pictures�. E specialmente lo colp� la traversata di 20 metri per raggiungere la scrivania del Dittatore. Al suo ritorno a Hollywood egli si fece costruire un ufficio lungo 10 metri, il cui percorso fu prontamente battezzato dai suoi impiegati col titolo di un vecchio film: �L�ultimo miglio�. Nel suo piccolo, Cohn era anche lui un ducetto che teneva sulla scrivania una foto di Mussolini con dedica. Shelly Winters ricorda la paura che il produttore incuteva nel suo studio. La Winters � stata la moglie di Vittorio Gassman. Fellini aveva in mente di dare a Vittorio la parte principale nel film che non � mai riuscito a girare �Il Viaggio di G. S. Mastorna�. Il Cinema � l�arma pi� forte. Mussolini Il Duce ha fatto molto per il cinema italiano. Verso la fine degli anni trenta, fond� Cinecitt� che con i suoi 10 teatri di posa ed attrezzature modernissime mise l�Italia all�avanguardia del settore. A Villa Torlonia, si fece allestire una sala di proiezione per guardare sia i documentari propagandistici sia i suoi film preferiti. Il suo primogenito Vittorio fond� una casa di produzione e distribuzione. Il produttore Hal Roach lo condusse ad Hollywood per contraccambiare un invito alla Rocca delle Caminate, il castello romagnolo del padre. Al termine di una visita di scarso successo in California, il Presidente Roosevelt e la moglie invitarono il giovane a prendere un t� alla Casa Bianca. Durante la Guerra Fellini e il suo amico Roberto Rossellini lavorarono per l� �Alleanza Cinematografica Italiana�, la casa di produzione di Vittorio. �E� Roberto che mi ha fatto scoprire il cinema�, soleva dire Federico. Antonietta Maciocchi ha rivelato che Fellini ha passato gli anni della guerra in un tugurio. L�aveva condotta l� il suo fidanzato prussiano-romano Rinaldo Geleng, amico di Federico. I tre si incontravano anche al bar dell�Hotel Plaza. Federico viveva disegnando caricature, un�abilit� che gli torn� utile dopo la liberazione di Roma quando aiut� Enrico de Seta ad aprire una bottega di ritratti umoristici, la �Funny Face Shop� (nei pressi della Chiesa di Sant� Andrea alle Fratte) davanti alla quale c�era sempre in attesa una lunga fila di soldati alleati. Il successo fu tale che i due aprirono una serie di botteghe simili. In quei giorni Fellini aveva una bella testa di capelli e, a detta di Alberto Sordi, soffr� molto quando cominci� a perderli. Nella serata del 4 giugno 1944, due giorni prima dello sbarco in Normandia, le pattuglie americane raggiunsero Cinecitt� i cui Studi erano stati trasformati in ricoveri per i cittadini della capitale scampati ai bombardamenti. Alcuni soldati saccheggiarono i magazzini dei materiali di scena e girarono per le strade vestiti da antichi romani. Il romano Giulio Andreotti, in qualit� di Sottosegretario alla Presidenza del Consiglio nel Governo De Gasperi e responsabile del cinema, fece riaprire Cinecitt� ottenendo anche l�aiuto dell�Ambasciatore americano per farvi girare il film colossale �Quo Vadis�. Andreotti diceva che gli americani non solo cercarono, invano, di impedire la discussione di leggi a favore del cinema nel Parlamento italiano, ma pagarono grosse multe per impedire il doppiaggio dei film italiani in inglese impedendone in tal modo la distribuzione negli Stati Uniti. Dopo l�arrivo di Ingrid Bergman a Roma, Rossellini dette una festa in suo onore nel suo appartamento. L�attrice si meravigli� di vedere appese alle pareti alcune caricature, sue e di Roberto, disegnate da Federico. Ingrid avrebbe voluto lavorare per Fellini e per gli altri grandi registi italiani, ma suo marito era contrario, con grande risentimento dei colleghi. Durante una breve permanenza a Berlino prima della guerra la Bergman, che era di madre tedesca, fu molto sorpresa dalla indicibile paura che i Nazisti suscitavano negli ambienti del cinema, e dall�onnipotenza di Joseph Goebbels, Ministro della Propaganda, la cui infatuazione per l�attrice cecoslovacca Lida Baarov� ebbe termine per volere espresso di Hitler. Nei primi anni cinquanta, Fellini dette alla Baarov� la parte di Giulia Curti ne �I Vitelloni�. In una intervista risalente al 1950, Rossellini faceva notare che il livello di istruzione dei produttori di Hollywood era inferiore a quello delle maschere dei cinema italiani, aggiungendo che la produzione di un film era affidata a colui che dimostrava di essere il miglior imprenditore. Non c�� quindi da stupirsi se Sam Goldwyn una volta disse a Ingrid che non riusciva a capire Roberto. �Non so cosa fa, non so cosa dice � non sa niente n� di bilanci n� di programmazione�. Non ho bisogno di molta gente: Noschese e i due Lionello � Alberto e Oreste (che doppia Woody Allen in italiano) � bastano. Con loro posso doppiare un intero film. Fellini Alighiero Noschese (1932-1979) era un imitatore apprezzato da Fellini che se ne serv� per il doppiaggio di alcuni personaggi dei suoi film. Noschese aveva anche l�inquietante abilit� di assomigliare ai personaggi che imitava al punto da ingannare anche la madre di Andreotti durante una parodia del figlio alla televisione. Io torno a Rimini senza piacere. Fellini Tonino Guerra afferma che Fellini non ha girato nemmeno un metro di film nella sua citt� e sua sorella Maddalena ha scritto che Federico non � stato mai amato o apprezzato a Rimini, tipica citt� della Romagna, regione di passioni infuocate e di forti convinzioni politiche. La bellezza del paesaggio romagnolo � riassunta dai versi del poeta e latinista Giovanni Pascoli, che ha studiato in Urbino e a Rimini: �Sempre un villaggio, sempre una campagna Mi ride al cuore (o piange), Severino Il paese ove, andando, ci accompagna L�azzurra vis�on di San Marino� Fellini � pi� conciso, per lui la Romagna � un miscuglio di tradizioni marinare e di Chiesa cattolica. I romagnoli hanno un cuore grande cos�, proprio come i personaggi dei film autobiografici del maestro. Rimini � menzionata nei �Promessi Sposi�, il romanzo storico scritto nell�ottocento da Alessandro Manzoni e recensito da Edgar Allan Poe gi� nel 1835. Il romanzo �, al pari di �Pinocchio�, un�acuta rappresentazione del carattere degli italiani. Fellini apprezzava le avventure di Pinocchio e accarezzava l�idea di farne un film per la televisione italiana. Ma il burattino ha poco in comune con il tipino dal cappello alla tirolese di Disney. Federico conserv� tutta la vita la copia del libro che aveva avuto in dono da ragazzino. Si tratta dell�edizione stampata da Bemporad nel 1913 con le illustrazioni di Chiostri, l�artista che ha meglio interpretato lo spirito del personaggio e che pu� avere avuto una certa influenza sul regista. Disney si inchin� al genio di Fellini fino a dare il benvenuto a lui e a Giulietta all�ingresso di Disneyland alla testa di una banda musicale che suonava il �tema di Gelsomina�. Federico e la moglie erano a Los Angeles per la cerimonia del conferimento dell�Oscar a �La strada�. Nel 1991, una parodia del film fu pubblicata in un giornaletto a fumetti in cui Minnie era Gelsomina, Topolino il matto, e Gambadilegno Zampan�. Ah, come mi sarebbe piaciuto fare un film su una giornata a Disneyland: ecco il film che dovevo veramente fare sull�America. Fellini Negli anni trenta Walt Disney fu invitato a Palazzo Venezia, dove arriv� con un enorme Topolino, suo dono personale per Anna Maria, la figlia minore di Mussolini. Questo monte fosco e troneggiante di San Marino. Fellini La ferrovia a scartamento ridotto Rimini-San Marino venne inaugurata il 12 giugno 1932. Durante la guerra i riminesi si rifugiarono nelle sue 17 gallerie, tutte in territorio sammarinese. La ferrovia fu completamente distrutta durante il passaggio del fronte nel 1944. San Marino, Stato sovrano, � la pi� antica repubblica del mondo. Durante la guerra civile americana i suoi Capitani reggenti furono in corrispondenza con Abramo Lincoln il quale considerava il loro stato onoratissimo bench� piccolo. Nel 1849 san Marino dette rifugio a Giuseppe Garibaldi e alle sue truppe in ritirata da Roma. In seguito Garibaldi riusc� a fuggire a New York dove lavor� per qualche tempo nella fabbrica di candele di Antonio Meucci, l�inventore del telefono. L�eroe, esperto capitano marittimo, salp� ben presto per i mari della Cina. Durante la guerra di secessione Lincoln cerc� di assicurarsene la collaborazione militare, ma Garibaldi non accett� la proposta ritenendo debole l�impegno antischiavistico del Presidente. Urbino d� ancora la sensazione della memoria di un�Italia forse pi� immaginata che reale. Fellini I Duchi di Montefeltro, Signori di Urbino di stirpe guerriera e amanti del bello, hanno lasciato segni duraturi nel loro ducato. C�era una certa animosit� tra Federico II di Montefeltro e Sigismondo Malatesta, Signore di Rimini. Ezra Pound, che parteggiava sempre per i perdenti, ammirava Sigismondo, che non port� mai a termine le sue imprese. Pound aveva anche una strana fissazione per Mussolini, da lui considerato un moderno condottiero. Durante un�udienza, il Duce gli disse una frase che lo colp� molto: � la poesia � una necessit� per lo stato�. Ezra rimase col dittatore anche dopo che l�Italia ebbe dichiarato guerra agli Stati Uniti, lavorando alla radio italiana, il che gli procur� un lungo periodo di internamento, prima in un carcere militare e poi in manicomio. Mussolini finir� con Sigismondo e con gli uomini d�ordine. Pound Il rettore dell�Universit� libera di Urbino, lo scrittore e critico Carlo Bo, confer� una laurea onoraria a Fellini. Il 22 aprile 1988, ne confer� una anche al drammaturgo Arthur Miller, che nel suo discorso disse �Ho promesso di essere breve, ma non cos� breve da dimenticarmi di ringraziare il Professor Bo, Rettore di questa antica universit�, e il corpo accademico, di questo grande onore. Carlo Bo, Moravia e altri scrittori firmarono una petizione per chiedere il rilascio di Ezra Pound dal manicomio in cui era rinchiuso. Il poeta anglo-irlandese William Yeats, in visita ad Urbino, fu profondamente colpito dalla bellezza del Palazzo ducale e lo ricord� nei suoi versi. Nel Duca Guidubaldo II Yeats vedeva l�incarnazione dell�uomo rinascimentale completo. Guidubaldo � sepolto con la moglie nella chiesa di Sant�Ubaldo, a Pesaro. Il poeta Giovanni Pascoli, che ha studiato per sette anni in �Urbino ventoso�, ha scritto una poesia sugli aquiloni, mandata a memoria da generazioni di studenti italiani. L�Aquilone C�� qualcosa di nuovo oggi nel sole, Anzi d�antico: io vivo altrove e sento Che sono intorno nate le viole. Rimini, lo scarto delle Marche, il rifiuto della Romagna. Mussolini Benito Mussolini (cos� battezzato in onore di Benito Juarez) era di Predappio, in provincia di Forl�. Il padre faceva il fabbro, mentre la madre, Rosa Maltoni, era maestra elementare. Mussolini, ottimo giornalista e direttore di giornali, marci� su Roma nel 1922, quando Fellini aveva due anni. Pesaro � la citt� pi� romagnola delle Marche. Tullio Kezich (fare click qui per la Guida di Pesaro entro le mura) Pesaro � la citt� natale di Gioachino Rossini, del compositore Riz Ortolani, del soprano Renata Tebaldi, di Anna Maria Alberghetti, di Annibale Ninchi, che imperson� il padre di Fellini ne �La dolce vita� e in �8 ��. Maria Righetti, la madre di Alberto Sordi, era di Pesaro. Sordi, il pi� romano degli attori felliniani, (�Lo sceicco bianco�, �I vitelloni�) � stato sindaco di Roma per tutta la giornata del suo ottantesimo compleanno, il 15 giugno 2000. Aristide Togni, il fondatore del famoso circo equestre, era pesarese. Pesaro � la citt� di Gianfranco Angelucci, amico devoto e importante collaboratore di Federico. Anche i Malatesta hanno governato Pesaro per un certo periodo di tempo. Ezra Pound, che parteggiava per Rimini, considerava, a torto, Pesaro �un mucchio di vecchi mattoni�. La variet� del dialetto romagnolo parlata a Pesaro � molto vicina a quella riminese e �a m�arcord� significa �mi ricordo� in entrambe le citt�. Durante le riprese de �La dolce vita�, Fellini chiese a Ninchi di esprimersi con un leggero accento pesarese che gli ricordava quello del padre. Federico apprezzava molto la cucina di Bruno Dolcini, Chef del ristorante �da Bruno�, presso l��Hotel Principe�, di cui era anche proprietario, sul lungomare di Pesaro. Due eventi di importanza hanno luogo in citt�: �Il festival del nuovo cinema� a giugno e il �Rossini Opera Festival� in agosto. Il tenore Luciano Pavarotti ha una villa sulla strada panoramica di Pesaro, di fronte al mare. Fano appartenne un tempo ai Malatesta. Nei �Pisan Cantos� Ezra pound ricorda con affetto �i �Malatesti e la lunga sala sopra gli archi a Fano�. La citt� deve il suo nome ad un antico tempio dedicato alla fortuna, in latino �Fanum fortunae�. Federico affermava di avervi frequentato la scuola dei Fratelli cristiani (i Carissimi), ma sua madre sosteneva il contrario. La madre di Anna Magnani era fanese. Anna e Federico recitarono insieme in un episodio del film �Il miracolo� di Rossellini. La Magnani e Gore Vidal hanno rappresentato se stessi nel film �Roma�. Quando Fellini girava �La dolce vita� Vidal lavorava alla sceneggiatura di �Ben Hur�. I due si vedevano spesso e si chiamavano rispettivamente �Gorino� e �Fred�. Vidal ricorda che Jackie Kennedy (sua sorellastra) e il Presidente erano curiosi di avere da lui notizie sulle riprese de �La dolce vita�. In Italia il nome dei pesci varia secondo i dialetti parlati lungo i 7.500 km di costa. �Saraghina� � uno dei 24 nomi della sardina elencati in un vocabolario ittico, ed � il nome della donna che Fellini dice di avere incontrato sulla spiaggia di Fano. Rimini Pietra miliare romana sulla Via Flaminia, vicino all�aeroporto di Miramare, a tre miglia da Rimini. Portale de �La Colonnella� �Ricordo�, ha scritto Fellini, la chiesa dei Cappuccini chiamata anche �La Colonnella� a causa di una Colonna scheggiata, collocata di fronte al portale . Federico vi fu condotto dalla sua nonna �piccola� (per distinguerla dall�altra nonna, soprannominata �toro seduto�). Ingresso di Rimini Fellini chiamava il centro storico �E borg� (il borgo). Il centro della citt� � piccolo ed ancora parzialmente cinto di mura, fra il fiume Marecchia e il torrente (ora coperto) Ausa. Un giorno mi piacerebbe fare un film sul contadino romagnolo: un western senza sparatorie. Fellini L�undici aprile 1906 al termine di una lunga tourn�e europea, William Frederick Cody �Buffalo Bill� condusse il suo �Wild West Circus a Rimini. Il tendone venne innalzato nel Borgo XX settembre. Spostare quattro treni con 130 cavalieri, i loro cavalli e tutta l�attrezzatura era a quell�epoca un�impresa. Il circo poteva accogliere 5.000 spettatori. Lo spettacolo era emozionante: finte scaramucce, molte sparatorie, e la battaglia del �Little Bighorn�. Arco d�Augusto In origine una delle porte della citt�, fu costruito nel 27 A.D. per decreto del Senato romano al termine della Via Flaminia. L�arco venne danneggiato durante la seconda guerra mondiale quando 396 bombardamenti spazzarono via il centro storico. Il Maestro, che preferiva lavorare negli studi cinematografici, non ebbe scelta se non ricostruire Rimini per girare �Amarcord�. La Via Flaminia, la grande strada che da Roma conduce a Rimini, prese il nome da Gaio Flaminio, il Console che la costru� nel 220 B.C. (una pietra miliare � ancora visibile nei pressi dell�aeroporto). La moderna Flaminia (327 km) � tuttora la strada nazionale che va da Rimini a Roma attraverso Pesaro, Fano, Fossombrone, il Passo del Furlo (una gola su cui incombeva il profilo di Mussolini scolpito nella roccia. Esso fu fatto saltare in aria subito dopo la guerra), Gubbio, Spoleto, Terni, Orte. Il 3 luglio 1964, dopo aver percorso tutta la Flaminia, Titta Benzi arriv� all�appartamento di Fellini, ai Parioli, con 12 bottiglie di Sangiovese, il miglior vino del mondo a detta del regista. Benzi, soprannominato �il grosso� era un grande amico di Federico. Come in tutte le citt� che hanno avuto origine da campi militari romani, l�arco segna l�accesso al decumano, cio� all�odierno Corso d�Augusto, luogo del �passeggino� serale. Corso d�Augusto Palazzo Garattoni (Cima/Castracane) - Corso d�Augusto n. 14 L�imponente portale del palazzo all�angolo di via Castracane risale al Seicento, ma l�edificio venne completamente rimaneggiato nel secolo seguente e poi nel 1940, quando la facciata venne arretrata di cinque metri per permettere l�allargamento del Corso. Portale del palazzo Buonadrata Il palazzo � di propriet� della locale Cassa di Risparmio. Nell�atrio una lapide ricorda Giuseppe Garibaldi il quale pose qui il suo quartier generale durante la guerra di indipendenza del 1859. La sede del liceo classico parificato frequentato da Fellini si trovava nel palazzo. Vicolo Cima e Vicolo del Voltone I pesanti bombardamenti hanno polverizzato molti tesori architettonici e antiche case del centro storico. La caratteristica atmosfera della vecchia Rimini � scomparsa per sempre a causa dell�affrettata ricostruzione postbellica. Il vicolo Cima si trova tra il Corso d�Augusto e via Santa Chiara. E� interessante la mattonella scolpita, murata su un�abitazione. Il vicolo del Voltone � situato tra Largo Giulio Cesare e il vicolo Cima. Chiesa di �Santa Croce� La lapide sulla facciata mostra la lettera �Tau�, simbolo dei Cavalieri ospitalieri. Il primo italiano che si stabil� in Australia fu un riminese, Antonio Giannoni, battezzato in �Santa Croce� nel 1814. Nel 1991, il suo certificato di battesimo fu rintracciato da un professore universitario australiano nell�archivio della chiesa. Antonio lasci� la sua citt� dopo i moti del 1838. Fedele ai suoi ideali repubblicani e al suo passato di marinaio, egli chiam� due dei suoi cavalli �Garibaldi� e �Capitano�, rispettivamente. Giannoni mor� a Kensington, South Australia, nel 1883. Piazza tre martiri La piazza, che prende il nome dai tre partigiani impiccati vicino al piedistallo dai tedeschi in ritirata nel 1944, era l�antico Foro di Rimini. Sembra che Giulio Cesare, in piedi su una pietra posta sul piedistallo, abbia spronato le sue truppe dopo l�attraversamento del Rubicone. La pietra � sparita durante la guerra. Nel 1960, un certo Bissi, parente di uno dei tre martiri della piazza, and� all�ospedale a visitare Fellini che soffriva della sindrome di Schwartzmann-Sanarelli. La sindrome era stata correttamente diagnosticata, a prima vista, dal dottor Ercole Sega, suo compagno di scuola, soprannominato �Bagarone� (voce dialettale che significa scarafaggio). A Rimini, �Bagarone� era anche il rumore sordo emesso dagli spettatori semianalfabeti che compitavano a bassa voce i sottotitoli dei film muti. Fellini, che amava ricordare di essere abbastanza vecchio da avere avuto l�occasione di vedere i film muti accompagnati dal pianista, aveva due soprannomi: �Gandhi� e �Can�cia�. Piazza tre martiri Tempio Nel XIII secolo Sant�Antonio arriv� in Italia dal nativo Portogallo e visse per qualche tempo a Rimini dove fece miracoli per riportare gli eretici all�ovile. Il Santo predicava ai pesci riuniti alla foce del Marecchia e una volta fece inginocchiare una mula davanti all�Eucarestia, dopo averle fatto rifiutare del cibo pur essendo l�animale a digiuno. Piazza tre martiri Tempio del Bramante Il Tempio del Bramante, che a Fellini sembrava un battistero, � dedicato a Sant� Antonio e risale al secolo XVI. Fu ricostruito dopo il terremoto che lo distrusse il 24 Aprile 1672. Chiesa dei Paolotti La chiesa dei Paolotti sostituisce quella distrutta durante la guerra. E� officiata dai Minimi di San Francesco di Paola dal 1614. Piazza tre martiri La torre fu costruita nel 1547; l�orologio risale invece al 1562 ed ha un quadrante aggiuntivo per segnare i mesi e le fasi della luna. Via Garibaldi Old Rimini L�Arco dei Magnani all�entrata di via Garibaldi, com�era prima della guerra. Nel passato la contrada prese il nome dai fabbri e dai magnani che vi tenevano bottega. Oggi la via presenta un grande assortimento di negozi ed � molto movimentata. Via Garibaldi Lo stemma del Cardinale Gozio dei Battagli sul muro del suo palazzo risale al XIV secolo. Egli nacque attorno al 1270 da una ricca e potente famiglia riminese e fu fatto cardinale da Papa Benedetto XII nel concistoro del dicembre 1338. Gozio entr� a far parte della curia papale ad Avignone, dove si spense il 10 giugno 1348. La sua tomba si trova nella chiesa di Santa Agnese a Rimini. Via Garibaldi Chiesa di Santa Agnese L�antica chiesa di Santa Agnese fu distrutta durante la guerra, ma il campanile costruito nella seconda met� dell�ottocento in finto stile medievale rimase in piedi. Il nuovo edificio risale al 1953 e fu disegnato dall� Ing. Leonardo Trevisol nello stile neoclassico semplificato reso popolare dall�Architetto Marcello Piacentini. L�iscrizione sulla facciata � un verso tratto dal vangelo di San Matteo 5:8 �Beati i puri di cuore, perch� vedranno Dio�. Via Garibaldi Oratorio di San Nicola da Tolentino La facciata � quanto rimane dell�oratorio che venne distrutto durante la guerra. Nei pressi si trovava il Ghetto della citt�, risalente al XVI secolo. La sinagoga e il cimitero ebraico si trovavano fuori dalle mura, vicino alla Porta montanara. Via Garibaldi Vecchia Rimini La Porta montanara (all�estremit� di via Garibaldi) com�era agli inizi del XX secolo. Nel XVIII secolo Giovan Francesco Buonamici (Rimini 1692-Roma 1759) abitava in via Garibaldi. Buonamici � il famoso architetto che ha progettato la Pescheria (1747), la Torre dell�Orologio (1759) e la chiesa di San Bernardino (1759). Chiesa di San Gaudenzo San Gaudenzo � il Santo patrono di Rimini (la sua festa si celebra il 14 Ottobre). La chiesa originale, risalente al 1856 e distrutta durante la Guerra, venne ricostruita nel 1950. Via Sigismondo Chiesa di Sant�Agostino Nella nicchia sulla facciata della chiesa di Sant�Agostino � stato collocato il sarcofago di Giovanni Battista Paci. La chiesa, risalente all�anno mille, fu molto danneggiata da un incendio nella notte del 23 giugno 1965. Essa vanta una pregevole serie di affreschi ed altri capolavori. Vicino all�entrata si trova la tomba di Alberto Marvelli, il giovane ingegnere morto in odore di santit�. Corso d�Augusto n.119 Il negozio nel Palazzo Ripa fu inaugurato il 19 dicembre 1945. Al suo ritorno a Rimini dopo la guerra, Fellini vide un mare di macerie con qualche casa ancora in piedi come nella scene allestite dagli architetti di Cinecitt�. Il palazzo apparteneva al padrone di casa della sua famiglia, il Signor Ripa, un vecchio dalla barba bianca, tutto vestito di blu, compresa la bombetta. Piazzetta di San Gregorio, o piazza delle �poveracce� (le vongole). Negli anni 1871-1872, quando ancora andava a scuola, il poeta Giovanni Pascoli visse nella casa al n.4. Lo ricorda una lapide sulla facciata. Il 20 settembre 1924, Mussolini presenzi� la cerimonia delle onoranze a Giovanni Pascoli a Rimini. Fotografo ufficiale fu quel Luigi Severi che, tra il novembre 1943 e il settembre 1944, scatt� 831 immagini della citt� ridotta in macerie dai bombardamenti. Corso d�Augusto n.155 Il Palazzo Gioia/Belmonte/Pavoni fu costruito da Monsignor Pietro Pavoni nel 1614. Napoleone lo scelse come sua residenza quando si ferm� a Rimini nel 1797. L�edificio fu distrutto dalle incursioni aeree durante la guerra, ma venne ricostruito nel 1959. La lapide sulla facciata ricorda il giorno del 1859 in cui Garibaldi arring� i riminesi. Garibaldi ha ancora una forte presa patriottica sugli italiani. Egli aveva molti ammiratori anche negli Stati Uniti. Durante la Spedizione dei Mille, tre navi statunitensi rifornirono i suoi volontari; la citt� di New York raccolse per lui 100.000 dollari, e il Colonnello Colt gli fece avere 100 fucili modernissimi. Marci� con i Mille da Palermo a Napoli anche Thomas Nast, l�artista e caricaturista americano nato in Germania che per primo utilizz� i simboli dell�asino e dell�elefante per rappresentare i due partiti politici degli Stati Uniti. Piazza Cavour Fellini era convinto che la piazza principale costituisse un palcoscenico impareggiabile per le esibizioni dei suoi concittadini pi� eccentrici. Il Palazzo del Podest� risale al trecento e venne restaurato negli anni venti del secolo scorso. La Madonna sotto il baldacchino del Palazzo Garampi � la �Vergine della Concezione�. Fontana La Fontana piacque molto a Leonardo da Vinci nell�estate del 1502, e molti anni dopo egli ricordava ancora l�armonia dell�acqua che cadeva dalle sue 16 cannelle. Leonardo si trovava a Rimini in qualit� di �carissimo architetto� ed ingegnere di Cesare Borgia detto il Valentino. Cesare era l�uomo forte che cerc� di cacciare o uccidere i signorotti locali al fine di ritagliarsi un dominio personale nell�Italia centrale. Era a lui che pensava Niccol� Machiavelli quando scrisse �Il Principe�. Nel suo letto d�ospedale a Roma, Federico paragonava le suore-infermiere che gli facevano iniezioni senza svegliarlo agli scherani del Valentino. Pescheria Costruita dal Comune di Rimini nel 1747 su progetto dell�architetto Giovan Francesco Buonamici, la vecchia pescheria � un funzionale edificio di mattoni a vista con delfini provvisti di zampillo d�acqua ai quattro angoli. Attualmente viene utilizzata come mercatino ed � anche il centro delle animate notti riminesi. Statua di Papa Paolo V La statua venne inaugurata il 22 giugno 1614. All�arrivo di Napoleone a Rimini nel 1797, il Papa fu camuffato da Vescovo Gaudenzo (il Santo Patrono) mediante la sostituzione della tiara con la mitria. Al Papa fu restituito il copricapo nel 1940, ma Fellini avendo lasciato la sua citt� nel 1937, continu� a considerarlo un vescovo. Teatro Amintore Galli Solo la facciata � sopravvissuta alla guerra. L�edificio, opera di Luigi Poletti (1792-1869) � in via di ricostruzione, ma a molti riminesi il nuovo progetto non piace ed � stata quindi fondata un�associazione per ricostruirlo �dove era, come era�. Poletti � l�autore sia di una monumentale facciata sulla piazza principale di Pesaro sia del teatro di Fano. Grazie ad un amico commissario di polizia che assomigliava al comico Ben Turpin, il padre di Fellini, Urbano, aveva accesso ad un palco del teatro. Una volta port� Federico alla rappresentazione dei �Cavalieri di Ekeb��, un�opera del trentino Riccardo Zandonai, direttore del Liceo musicale (dal 1940, Conservatorio) di Pesaro dove studi� il basso tuba Pietro Sordi, padre di Alberto. Pietro aveva scelto quello strumento perch�, essendo rari quelli che lo sapevano suonare, pensava che non sarebbe mai rimasto senza lavoro. Sordi, che faceva parte dell�orchestra dell�Opera di Roma, fu anche chiamato a lavorare con quella di Toscanini a New York. Federico non dimentic� mai questi versi: Cali il maglio Cavalieri di Ekeb� Non era solo Ben Turpin che passava per italiano agli occhi di Fellini. Egli amava dire che Humphrey Bogart aveva l�aspetto del perfetto bidonista calabrese e lo avrebbe voluto come interprete di Augusto nel film �Il Bidone�, ruolo che poi assegn� a Broderick Crawford. Piazza Malatesta Castel Sismondo Una imponente e inquietante mole � quanto rimane del castello un tempo maestoso, la cui costruzione ebbe inizio nel 1437 per volont� di Sigismondo Malatesta. L�edificio, utilizzato come carcere per ladruncoli e ubriaconi, era ritenuto da Fellini una presenza oscura nel cuore della citt�. L�area di fronte al castello-prigione era riservata ai circhi che visitavano regolarmente Rimini. Federico amava l�atmosfera circense, libera e un po� pazza, e gli piacevano in modo particolare i clowns. Gli Orfei, suoi amici da sempre, tenevano sempre una roulotte a sua disposizione. Fu proprio Nando Orfei che il regista scelse per la parte dello zio soprannominato il �pataca� in �Amarcord�. Durante la rappresentazione pomeridiana, al di fuori del tendone (del circo) vicino alla prigione, i carcerati gridavano dietro le inferriate. Fellini Piazza Malatesta Resti del campanile della Cattedrale di Santa Colomba. Le origini della Cattedrale romanica, forse costruita sulle fondamenta di un tempio romano, risalgono al XII secolo. L�edificio fu demolito nel 1815. L�autore di una guida stampata a Londra nel 1769 scrisse: �La Cattedrale di Rimini, che fu costruita sulle fondamenta di un tempio di Castore e Polluce, � dedicata a Santa Colomba, che nacque e mor� a Sens in Francia. Non ho potuto sapere per qual motivo gli antichi abitanti di Rimini la scelsero come loro Patrona: lascio ad altri esaminare se la scelta fu la conseguenza della fratellanza tra i Senoni di Francia e quelli della Romagna fino agli albori dell�era cristiana�. Corso d�Augusto Cinema Fulgor Il cinema Fulgor, inaugurato il 5 novembre 1914 in una sala dell�Albergo �Aquila d�oro� sul corso, fu trasferito nell�odierno edificio qualche anno dopo. Era la sala preferita da Fellini. Il direttore Carlo Massa, che assomigliava a Ronald Colman, si accorse subito del talento artistico di Federico e gli dava biglietti gratis in cambio di una serie di caricature dei divi pi� popolari di Hollywood. Negli anni trenta, a detta di Fellini, il Fulgor era �la sentina di tutti i vizi� dove si rischiava di prendere le botte�. Fu al Fulgor che Federico, seduto sulle ginocchia del padre, vide per la prima volta Bartolomeo Pagano, alias �Maciste�, l�eroe erculeo dei primi film muti italiani. Maciste fece la sua prima apparizione in �Cabiria�, un film epico di massa diretto da Pietro Fosco, pseudonimo di Giovanni Pastrone, che ebbe grande influenza su Cecil B. de Mille e D.W. Griffith. Pagano fu presentato a Pastrone dall�attore Roberto Roberti, padre di Sergio Leone, il creatore dello �Spaghetti western�. Le didascalie sono opera di Gabriele D�Annunzio, poeta ed eroe di guerra. Durante il primo conflitto mondiale D�Annunzio partecip� alla �Beffa di Buccari� e vol� su Vienna per lanciarvi non bombe, ma manifestini di propaganda. Dopo la caduta dell�Impero austro-ungarico, il poeta occup� la citt� di Fiume con un piccolo esercito privato. In quest�impresa fu aiutato, anche finanziariamente, dal riminese Giuseppe Giulietti, Presidente della �Federazione dei lavoratori del mare� e fondatore della �Cooperativa Garibaldi�. Luigi Barzini Jr. sosteneva che D�Annunzio non aveva successo all�estero a causa del suo stile cos� sovraccarico da risultare quasi incomprensibile. Ma nel numero dell�11 luglio 1914 della rivista �Monography�, un critico Americano lod� i sottotitoli preparati dal poeta per �Cabiria� scrivendo che �Il famoso dizionario del Signor Webster � pietosamente inadeguato nel fornire gli aggettivi per descrivere �Cabiria� (in corso di programmazione al cinema �Illinois� di Chicago), stupenda riduzione cinematografica della �Itala Film�. Le immagini delle stelle pi� famose di Hollywood sui manifesti all�ingresso del �Fulgor� davano una nota di colore alla monotona vita quotidiana della cittadina di provincia. Fra i divi: Clark Gable, Wallace Beery, Franchot Tone, William Powell, Don Ameche e Jean Harlow, l�unica che fece una breve visita a Rimini nel 1939. Stemma della famiglia Agolanti sul muro della chiesa dei Servi in Corso d�Augusto. Fellini rimase colpito dall�immenso, altissimo muro della chiesa dove il suo amico �Tarzan� Bedassi pass� una notte in un confessionale per vincere una scommessa. L�ex chiesa di �Santa Maria in nives� (dall�altra parte del Corso) � ora utilizzata come spazio espositivo. E� qui che la Fondazione Fellini ha organizzato la mostra delle prime pubblicazioni del Maestro intitolata �Il mio amico Pasqualino� � Federico Fellini 1937-1947�. Si � trattato di una rievocazione della sua vita attraverso le storie autobiografiche scritte per il �Marc�Aurelio�, una rivista satirica. Federico ha lavorato anche per il �420�, un quindicinale pubblicato dall�editrice Nerbini di Firenze. Il Ponte di Tiberio, costruito tra il 14 e il 21 dopo Cristo, si trova all�estremit� del Corso, in Viale Tiberio. L�undici dicembre 1941, cinque giorni dopo Pearl Harbor, Adolf Hitler e Benito Mussolini dichiararono guerra agli Stati Uniti. Nel 1943, alla fine della campagna del deserto, Fellini vol� in Libia per girare alcune scene di un film (�I cavalieri del deserto/Gli ultimi Tuareg�). La troupe dovette ripartire in fretta, perch� le cose si mettevano male, come si � potuto appurare dal libro di schizzi esibito postumo a Roma il 20 gennaio 1995, compleanno del regista. Borgo San Giuliano e ponte di Tiberio Il sommergibile non ha mai attraccato vicino al ponte. Esso ricorda che l�undici giugno 1940 un bagnino di Borgo San Giuliano, un pescatore di Fano, e un meccanico di Pesaro furono richiamati ed assegnati al �Luigi Settembrini� che nell�estate del 1941 torn� alla base senza la prua, perduta speronando una petroliera. L�azione merit� un articolo di Dino Buzzati su �Il Corriere della Sera�. Negli anni sessanta Buzzati, il Kafka italiano, aiut� Fellini a scrivere il copione de �Il viaggio di G. S. Mastorna�. I due andarono anche a consultare una chiromante, ma il film non vide mai la luce. Il nome Mastorna � intrigante. Buzzati sosteneva di averlo trovato nella guida telefonica di Milano, ma Marcello Mastroianni era sicuro che il nome significasse Mas(troianni ri)torna. Il 9 gennaio 1992, il Corriere della Sera scriveva: �Fellini, il compleanno di un disoccupato� � oggi il regista ha 72 anni e da due � senza lavoro- cosa sta accadendo al nostro cinema?� Il critico e sceneggiatore Tullio Kezich, autore dell�articolo, sosteneva che il Maestro con i suoi 23 film aveva �creato un sacco di posti di lavoro senza chiedere voti�. Kezich � un�autorit� su Fellini, che amava dire �se volete sapere cosa ho fatto venerd� scorso, chiedetelo a Kezich, non a me�. Un�atmosfera felliniana sopravvive nelle stradine di Borgo San Giuliano, oltre il fiume, un tempo quartiere povero di Rimini. Le pareti esterne di alcune case sono decorate con �murali� che mostrano scene tratte dai film e dalla vita del Maestro. Federico ha avuto sempre la mano felice nella scelta dei suoi collaboratori. Il poeta Tonino Guerra diceva che �stare vicino a Fellini era come stare vicino ad una nuvola�. Guerra, lo sceneggiatore di �Amarcord�, � nato a Sant�Arcangelo di Romagna ed ora vive a Pennabilli una cittadina su un colle dell�alta Valmarecchia, in Provincia di Pesaro e Urbino. Guerra, che ha avuto una grande parte nel mondo del Maestro, si dedica alla salvaguardia delle tradizioni dell�antico ducato di Urbino ed ha perfino piantato in paese un �orto dei frutti dimenticati�. �Tonino�, gli disse una volta Federico mentre andavano in auto a Pennabilli, �noi insistiamo a fare aeroplani, ma non ci sono pi� aeroporti�. Il regista chiamava aeroplani i suoi progetti. Ezra Pound visit� �la roccia biforcuta di Penna e Billi� negli anni venti alla ricerca delle radici dei Malatesta. Deve essere stato uno spettacolo vedere questo poeta dagli occhi penetranti che vagava nelle campagne marchigiane dell�alta Valmarecchia. Via Marecchia La Porta Gervasona prende il nome dal nobile riminese Giovan Battista Gervasoni. Via Bastioni settentrionali Arco di Francesca Le Rovine di Porta Galliana, risalenti al XIV secolo, sono anche note come l�Arco di Francesca. Piazza ducale La lapide sulla facciata del palazzo ricorda il grecista Luigi Tonini, direttore della Biblioteca Civica Gambalunga. Via Tonini Canevone dei veneziani La costruzione in mattoni a vista � un magazzino del XV secolo che un tempo appartenne all�Ospedale veneziano di �Santa Maria della Misericordia�. La bandiera di San Marco sventol� su Rimini dal 1503 al 1509. Nato a Venezia nel 1707, Carlo Goldoni, scrisse pi� di pi� di 150 commedie in dialetto veneziano. Quando viveva a Rimini, con suo padre medico, studi� filosofia dai domenicani, ma il suo interesse era il teatro e un giorno salp� per Chioggia con una troupe di teatranti diretti in quella citt�. Giorgio Strehler, amico di Federico e direttore del �Piccolo Teatro� di Milano, ha messo in scena memorabili produzioni delle opere del veneziano, e dopo la scomparsa di Fellini, sarebbe stato disposto a girare �Il viaggio di G.S. Mastorna�, mai realizzato dal Maestro. Strehler � stato anche il fidanzato di Valentina Cortese, che poi spos� Richard Basehart, il �Matto� del film �La Strada�. Nel film, Anthony Quinn interpret� la parte di �Zampan� nelle ore libere dalle riprese di un altro film. �Io non dico mai la verit� ai giornalisti, mento sempre�, gli disse un giorno Federico. Hugo Pratt, l�artista veneziano creatore di Corto Maltese � nato ed � stato battezzato a Rimini, dove i suoi genitori erano in vacanza. Pratt crebbe tra la citt� lagunare e l�Etiopia. Fellini una volta lo chiam� al telefono per dirgli che durante la notte passata aveva fatto un viaggio meraviglioso leggendo �L�Uomo della Somalia� e assaporando l�aria e la sabbia del deserto. Hugo era imparentato con l�attore Boris Karloff, il cui vero nome era William Pratt. Nel 1969, Karloff stava troppo male per accettare l�offerta di interpretare il ruolo di Trimalcione nel �Satyricon� di Fellini. Il film �Casanova�, con Donald Sutherland nel ruolo principale, � stato particolarmente avversato dal regista-produttore Riccardo Freda che, riferendosi alle �vagonate� di pellicola impiegate dal romagnolo, diceva che lui avrebbe potuto fare un film con i soldi che Federico spendeva per i pasti degli attori e della troupe. Simenon e Fellini hanno i nervi a pezzi, ogniqualvolta si deprimono, uno scrive un libro e l�altro gira un film. Charlie Chaplin Georges Simenon era invece un grande ammiratore del maestro. Ammirazione ricambiata, perch� a Fellini piaceva molto il commissario Maigret. Zapponi diceva che Federico era, come Maigret, un uomo abitudinario, e che un giorno si sarebbe dovuto fare un paragone tra i due artisti. Chaplin era tanto grande nella pantomima quanto Tot� lo era nella comicit�. Da giovane Fellini and� a intervistare il comico a Cinecitt�. Molti anni dopo, all�uscita sugli schermi de �La Dolce Vita�, fu Tot� che riassunse il successo del regista con una frase in napoletano: �Siete diventato un reggistone!� Monumento a Giuseppe Giulietti (1879-1953) La lapide dice che Giulietti ha redento gli schiavi del mare. Il sindacalista, oltre a prodigarsi generosamente per migliorare la sorte le condizioni di lavoro dei marittimi, sostenne Gabriele D�Annunzio durante l�impresa di Fiume. Il faro risale al XVIII secolo. Sonja Schoonejans ricorda che nei teatri di posa Fellini era chiamato il faro, anzi �er faro� in romanesco. �Non ci sono problemi, er faro � sempre l�� dicevano tutti. Il grattacielo, alto 100 metri, � stato costruito nel 1958. Esso � chiaramente visibile dal molo del porto di Pesaro. Il Grand Hotel fu dal giorno della sua inaugurazione il simbolo del lusso e della bella vita. Nel 1920, anno di nascita di Fellini, un incendio ne distrusse le caratteristiche torri moresche. Il proprietario aveva concesso a Federico il graditissimo privilegio di risiedervi gratis grazie alla pubblicit� generata dal suo film autobiografico. Durante le vacanze, Claretta Petacci era ospite dell�Hotel, ma il Duce risiedeva nella sua casa sul lungomare di Riccione. Fellini ricorda che Mussolini andava a nuotare al largo, mentre attorno a lui gli uomini della Milizia volteggiavano come squali. Claretta venne giustiziata con Mussolini il 28 aprile 1945 presumibilmente da Walter Audisio, �il colonnello Valerio�, che nella stessa giornata fece fucilare anche 15 gerarchi fascisti allineati sul lungolago di Dongo. Alcuni anni pi� tardi Audisio, allora membro del Parlamento, disse a un giornalista che il film la �La Strada� lo aveva rattristato al punto che imped� a sua moglie di andare a vederlo. I corpi di Benito e Claretta furono portati a Milano dove Franco Zeffirelli assistette alla scena apocalittica descritta anche da Ezra Pound nei �Pisan Cantos� (LVII): �Thus Ben and la Clara a Milano By the heels at Milano� Nel 1974, Carlo Lizzani diresse il film �Mussolini ultimo atto�, con Rod Steiger, Lisa Gastoni ed Henry Fonda nella parte di Ildefonso Schuster, il cardinale che ebbe un ruolo nella vicenda. Fellini aveva in mente di dare a Fonda o a Peter Ustinov la parte di Steiner ne �La dolce vita�. Il trisnonno di Ustinov era il musicista veneziano Catterino Cavos, un uomo dal cuore d�oro che una volta rinunci� al posto di organista a San Marco, vinto per concorso, a favore di un collega malaticcio e carico di figli. Via IV novembre Propilei dell�Oratorio di San Girolamo. L�oratorio venne distrutto nel marzo del 1944. Stazione ferroviaria Fellini diceva che la stazione era il luogo delle avventure. All�edicola comprava regolarmente il �Lustige Bl�tter�, un giornale satirico tedesco con le caricature di Giuseppe Zanini (Nino Za), un artista che egli ammirava e che in seguito si trasfer� a Rimini per offrire i suoi lavori ai ricchi clienti del Grand Hotel. Fellini fu molto lieto di fare la sua conoscenza a Roma, dopo la Guerra. Il giorno in cui il regista prese il treno per trasferirsi nella capitale, Titta Benzi esclam� �Adesso Federico diventa internazionale!�. Via Sabinia I resti di un grande anfiteatro, costruito nel II secolo A.D., sono la prova dell�importanza di Rimini durante l�Impero romano. Piazza Teatini Vecchia Chiesa dei Teatini Una lapide ricorda l�antica chiesa dei Teatini, danneggiata dal terremoto del 1916 e distrutta durante la seconda Guerra mondiale. Vecchia Rimini: il �Gran Teatro dei Burattini� Via IV novembre Tempio malatestiano Fellini e Demos Bonini (FEBO) aprirono la �Bottega del Ritratto� di fronte al Tempio malatestiano per eseguire caricature su ordinazione. A Federico la Cattedrale quattrocentesca �cos� aliena, cos� solenne� non sembrava simile ad alcuna altra chiesa, ad alcun altro edificio�. Ezra Pound rimase sbalordito di fronte a quel �tempio cos� pieno di opera pagane�. L�esterno � opera di Leon Battista Alberti, uno dei maggiori architetti del mondo. Alberti, uomo di poliedrici interessi, fece anche esperimenti con la camera oscura per la proiezione di immagini visive. L�interno venne disegnato da Matteo de� Pasti. Le tombe malatestiane, il crocifisso di Giotto ed un affresco di Piero della Francesca, sono insigni capolavori. Il 5 novembre 1944, il Luogotenente del Regno, poi Re Umberto II, visit� le rovine della Cattedrale accompagnato dall�Ing. Alberto Marvelli, l�unico amministratore disposto ad incontrarlo, dato che la Monarchia era ritenuta responsabile di collusione col Fascismo. Marvelli, investito da un camion alleato, mor� il 6 ottobre 1946. Anni dopo, a Federico fu chiesto di testimoniare sulle virt� di Marvelli durante il suo processo di beatificazione. Via Leon Battista Alberti
Federico Fellini
The House of Braganza once ruled which European country?
The Films of Federico Fellini | Film The Films of Federico Fellini View More The Films of Federico Fellini examines the career of one of Italy’s most renowned filmmakers through close analysis of five masterpieces that span his career: La strada, La dolce vita, 81⁄2, Amarcord, and Intervista. Providing an overview of Fellini’s early career as a cartoonist and scriptwriter for neorealist directors such as Roberto Rossellini, this study traces the development of Fellini’s unique and personal cinematic vision as it transcends Italian neorealism. Rejecting an overtly ideological approach to Fellini’s cinema, Bondanella emphasizes the director’s interest in fantasy, the irrational, and individualism. Copyright: Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
i don't know
Both Hairy Bikers have tattoos on their right arms depicting which iconic figure?
The terrifying brain scares The Hairy Bikers have both survived | Daily Mail Online comments Last week The Hairy Bikers – TV’s quirky cookery presenters – revealed how their experiences of bullying and family tragedy blighted their childhood years.  Here, in the second exclusive extract from their moving joint autobiography, Dave Myers and Si King tell how personal heartbreak and dire financial straits led them to change careers and begin their unlikely quest for stardom – and how their rapidly increasing waistlines very nearly scuppered their chances of success…  Here, in the second exclusive extract from their moving joint autobiography, Dave Myers (right) and Si King (left) tell how personal heartbreak and dire financial straits led them to change careers and begin their unlikely quest for stardom SI SAYS... ‘What have you got on today?’ I asked the landlord of the pub. ‘Chicken curry, naan and poppadoms, Si,’ came the reply. ‘I’ll have one of them then,’ I said. ‘And another pint, please.’ ‘I’ll ’ave the same, please,’ came a voice behind me at the bar. It was 1995. I looked over my shoulder and saw a round-faced, bald-headed guy with a neatly trimmed beard. He introduced himself as Dave Myers, the new head of make-up on the set of The Gambling Man, the Catherine Cookson television drama on which I was the second assistant director. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Dave seemed like quite a serious, unassuming fella. He tells me his first memory of me is that I was ‘large, hairy and loud’. He told me he had a flat in Aberdeenshire and was renting digs in Newcastle. ‘So how are you getting around? Don’t suppose you’ve got a motorbike?’ I asked. That was it: the ice was well and truly broken, and over the following years we’d become as close as brothers. DAVE SAYS... It was New Year 1998, and I’d just got together with Glen Howarth, a script supervisor 16 years my senior. There was no doubt in my mind: Glen was the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. When she took me to Blackpool to meet her father shortly afterwards, I decided to propose. Glen hesitated for a split second and my heart nearly stopped, but then she said yes. It was a magical moment, one I’ll never forget. Dave and Si on their first show, which they said was only 'doing a bit of cooking in Dave's quirky old kitchen' A few weeks later, back at her flat at Hampstead, North London, something very strange happened to Glen’s face. Her skin turned yellow, just as if a switch had been flicked. On January 23, 1999 – Glen’s birthday – she was admitted to the Royal Free Hospital. In the midst of a lot of panic and confusion I can remember hearing the words ‘tumour’ and ‘stomach’ and ‘cancer’. The doctor said the tumour they had found in Glen’s stomach had its own blood supply, and she needed surgery to remove part of the digestive system to bypass it. Three days after the operation the doctors explained she had an infection, and she was going to be moved to the intensive care unit. I slept at the hospital nearly every night. Si came down to support me, for which I was very grateful. He was with me when I plucked up the courage to ask the consultant what Glen’s prognosis was. ‘There’s a 15 per cent chance of her living,’ the consultant said flatly. Si and I bawled our eyes out together that night, telling each other that Glen would pull through. I was convinced I had a giant brain tumour, and that I was going to die  Dave Myers  Eventually, I was allowed to take her home, but a week later, her temperature shot up and she was rushed back to hospital. She went straight into intensive care again, and that’s when the penny dropped. Glen was not going to beat her cancer. On May 9, I was sitting beside her when I felt a kind of veil waft across her, and I knew she was gone. I’d imagined a lifetime of happiness with Glen, and it had been snatched away in the blink of an eye. I went back to work in September, on a couple of films being shot in Luxembourg. I felt lethargic and terribly run-down the whole time. I was making up the beautiful American actress Pam Grier when something very odd happened. It was as if the make-up I was applying was sliding off her face. Then I couldn’t focus and had black dots floating in front of my eyes. I was taken to a nearby hospital run by German nuns. I caught a brief glimpse of the CT scan picture and was shocked to my core. There was a massive shadow in the left-hand side of my brain. I was convinced I had a giant brain tumour, and that I was going to die, just like Glen. The next day a consultant explained it was an extremely large but relatively harmless cyst. It was so big my brain had grown around it, and it could have been there possibly since I was a child. Now it had reached the size where it was putting pressure on my brain. I decided I wanted to go home. At Aberdeen Royal Infirmary I was seen by a wonderful neurosurgeon who suggested inserting a shunt into my head to relieve the pressure slowly, plus drains to remove the fluid gradually from the cyst. When the surgery was over I felt better than I had in a long time. The shunts and drains were left inside, which took a bit of getting used to, but they never gave me any trouble. They are still there to this day. And after more than 30 years of suffering from alopecia, my hair started to grow back normally, albeit with a receding hairline. Si, pictured with Jane at the birth of their son Als on September 27, 1989, said the couple had hardly any money after film budgets were slashed following 9/11 SI SAYS... I’d been fortunate enough to work on two Harry Potter films, but after 9/11 film budgets were being slashed. My work dried up very quickly. Jane and I had no savings and a big mortgage to pay every month, and in a frighteningly short space of time we didn’t have two pennies to rub together. Dave was also feeling quite jaded at this point in his career, having worked in make-up for more than two decades. As my debts stacked up, a phrase Dave had used years before came into my head. ‘How great would life be if we could just ride bikes, cook food and talk b******s?’ What if we could make a TV programme out of it? The following year, 2003, we were filming the pilot in Morecambe Bay and at Dave’s house. The results are laughable when we look back today. I start off saying: ‘Cockles don’t grow in Tesco you knooow! They grow in the sea! Oh, here’s Dave!’ Then Dave swoops over saying: ‘Eee, I’ve got loads of cockles!’ In fact, there wasn’t a single damn cockle to be found that day, so we used a bag full of pebbles instead. Then we did a bit of cooking in Dave’s quirky old kitchen. All the while we really did talk a load of twaddle. Our pilot was eventually submitted to BBC2 in early February 2004, and it sat there for many, many months. Eventually, one show was commissioned for BBC2. It was fantastic news, and we were of course completely cock-a-hoop. Now we had the commission in the bag there were emails and plans flying around all over the place. One email had ‘Hairy Bikers’ as its subject line. Nobody can remember who wrote it, but it was an affable description and it stuck. DAVE SAYS... We were filming in Transylvania for our debut series. In our hotel there was a striking but incredibly austere-looking woman on reception who checked us in very coldly. Nudging Si, I whispered: ‘I fancy her!’ ‘What? She’s dead scary!’ he replied. I found out her name was Liliana Orzac and when we were about to leave, we swapped email addresses. I liked her a lot and felt I’d made a friend. I phoned her on her birthday later that year and invited her to England for a visit. Dave married Liliana in 2011 after meeting her in Transylvania. Si, pictured with the couple, was his best man Lil was the mother of two children aged nine and 15, and was understandably cautious about visiting a big hairy biker from Barrow-in-Furness whom she barely knew. She did come to stay, though, and eventually, she and her children, Iza and Serge, came to live with me. On January 8, 2011, Lil and I got hitched. That year, we began work on a show called the Hairy Bikers’ Cook Off and the BBC asked us to have a routine medical. I was now pushing 18st, which was way too heavy, and taking tablets for high blood pressure and to lower my cholesterol. On top of that, I’d been warned I was borderline type 2 diabetic. By some miracle, the doctor deemed me fit for filming, but when Kingie came out he was ashen and spluttered: ‘I’ve been told to go straight to the doctor. My blood pressure is incredibly high.’ Si was given a repeat prescription for the same blood pressure tablets I was on, only much stronger. It was a shameful state of affairs. SI SAYS... In 2012 we were commissioned to make four shows called Hairy Dieters: How To Love Food And Lose Weight. The thrust of the series was simple: we were going to discover how people like us could continue to eat delicious food but still shed the pounds. Naturally, for the show to work Dave and I would have to lose a significant amount of weight. The first step was to get weighed and measured at Newcastle University. This was bloody terrifying. On the day, I weighed in at 19st 6lb, with a 50in waistline, and Dave was 17st 12lb, with a 49in waist. We were then both told we were morbidly obese. It was such a shock I could barely speak. With the help of a nutritionist and dietician, we started creating low-calorie recipes. We swapped fried breakfasts for lean ham, beans and rye bread with no butter, cut out milk in coffee, sprayed oil in the pan instead of lashing in a large glug, and started experimenting with low-fat replacements in all our favourite recipes. To our utter delight, when we went back to Newcastle University three months later we found we had each lost an incredibly impressive 3st. Best of all, we were told we could come off the various drugs we were taking. We were triumphant. DAVE SAYS... In 2013, I had a go at Strictly Come Dancing. When it came to my first performance with my partner Karen Hauer, I was shaking like a leaf. I gave it my absolute all and the audience roared wildly, but afterwards the judges said they felt the same way as I did: terrified! There are two tanning tents backstage at Strictly, and every week I embraced the fake tan with relish. I’d have a double dip for Latin and a single dip for ballroom, and usually ended up looking like a Greek fisherman, but I absolutely loved it. Dave went on Strictly Come Dancing in 2013 and was partnered with Karen Hauer (pictured together) In Halloween week I had to jive to the Monster Mash while dressed as Beetlejuice. I looked more like an angry panda, or Alice Cooper after a car crash. Karen and I survived for seven weeks, which was a great achievement, and something I am very proud of. SI SAYS... One Friday night in 2014, I went to bed at 8pm with a banging headache. On the Saturday morning I still felt absolutely terrible. Suddenly, when I looked at the telly, stuff started sliding off the screen, and that’s when I knew I was in serious trouble. A taxi took me to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle where I found out I had a brain aneurysm, which meant one of the blood vessels in my brain had bulged out like a balloon, and it had ruptured, causing a brain haemorrhage. Left untreated, this could cause a massive stroke at any moment, so I needed an operation to save my life. ‘I was so frightened I’d lose you, Si,’ Dave told me eventually. ‘What if I lose Kingie? I can’t lose my best mate.” ’ The first series we started working on after my illness was called The Pubs That Built Britain. We’d be visiting some of the oldest hostelries in the land to sample their beer and learn about their history. Working on a new series was exactly what I needed, and it was another fantastic chance for me and Dave to do what we set out to achieve years earlier. ‘You know what, Dave?’ I said. ‘Wouldn’t life be great if we could just ride bikes, cook food and…’ Before I finished, Dave added: ‘Aye, and go on an epic pub crawl for a job? We must be two of the luckiest men on the planet. Let’s have a pint to celebrate – I think we’ve earned it!’  The Hairy Bikers: Blood, Sweat And Tyres, by Si King and Dave Myers, is published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on November 5, priced £20. Get your copy for £15 with free p&p, until November 8, at www.mailbookshop.co.uk. The Hairy Bikers’ latest cookery book, Meat Feasts, is also out now.
Che Guevara
Abbotsford House, on the banks of the Tweed, was the home of which author?
Beatles Radio the Music of The Beatles and much More!: News Beatles Radio the Music of The Beatles and much More!: News News Vincent Bugliosi, Manson prosecutor and ‘Helter Skelter’ author, dies at 80 Wed June 10th, 2015 Vincent Bugliosi, the Los Angeles prosecutor who won convictions against Charles Manson and several of his followers for a series of heinous murders in 1969 and who later wrote a best-selling tru... John Lennon’s Gibson J-160E Hits the Auction Block Tue June 9th, 2015   Julien’s Auctions, the world’s premier entertainment and music memorabilia auction house announced the upcoming sale of the most historically important guitar associated with The Beatles... Fab four: The night The Beatles rocked the King's Hall Mon June 8th, 2015 It was one of the most famous gigs Belfast has ever staged. Now, half-a-century on, memories have been stirred of the day The Beatles came to town. A collection of previously unseen images sh... Backstage secrets of the Isle of Wight festival Mon June 8th, 2015 It wasn’t festival favourite Mick (he’s a mascara man). Or headliner Jay Z (he could have borrowed Beyonce’s). No, it was Paul McCartney – but, reveals the man behind rock’s wildest wee... Stones' (Dis)Satisfaction Defined the Summer of '65 Tue June 2nd, 2015 In 1964, the Beatles initiated a pop music renaissance and music became important to young baby boomers in a way it had never been for previous generations. Children, some not yet in double digit... I Thought I Bought a Beatles ‘Butcher Cover,’ But I Really Bought An Obligation Tue June 2nd, 2015 Take a close look at the photo above. See how “File Under: the Beatles” and “T 2553″ are partially obscured? Spotting that little line is like striking gold in a record store, because it ... Paul McCartney's tips for staying fit in his 70s - and it's not what you'd think Sun May 31st, 2015 The Beatles legend is still nimble as a ballerina and is as fit and healthy as ever - but what's his secret? Nimble as a ballerina, with the skin of a particularly soft baby thanks to his wife�... The Beatles’ “Rain” and the Advent of Backward Vocals Sun May 31st, 2015 How John Lennon's "creative accident" became one of rock 'n' roll's greatest innovations. The Beatles’ unprecedented sonic experimentation on their 1966 album Revolver make it one rock ‘n�... Bob Dylan: How the Isle of Wight festival managed to steal the voice of a generation from Woodstock Fri May 29th, 2015 The day the Woodstock festival opened was an epoch-defining moment in pop. Yet an even more extraordinary event was taking place less than 100 miles away on Friday, 15 August, 1969. In a journe... The Beatles, “Love of the Loved” [Decca Audition, 1962): Deep Beatles Fri May 29th, 2015 Deep Beatles’ look at the Decca audition concludes with another early John Lennon/Paul McCartney original, “Love of the Loved.” Primarily a McCartney composition, “Love of the Loved” fe... Jacaranda to open coffee shop and vinyl record store above iconic bar Thu May 28th, 2015 Famous Beatles venue to go back to its beginnings with vinyl shop and coffee bar. Iconic Liverpool venue The Jacaranda is to go back to its roots with a new coffee shop and vinyl record emporiu... Places I remember: The city centre venues which hosted The Beatles Wed May 27th, 2015 Ahead of Macca's gig at the Echo Arena we highlight some of the smaller city centre venues that hosted the Fab Four. This week sees a welcome return to his hometown for Sir Paul McCartney. Th... Read Previously Unknown George Harrison Letter From 1966 Wed May 27th, 2015 Penned during 'Revolver' sessions, letter reveals that The Beatles pulled out of planned Stax sessions due to financial issues A previously unreleased letter that George Harrison wrote to Atlan... Astonishing cache of unseen Beatles photos discovered after 50 years Fri May 22nd, 2015 WORLD EXCLUSIVE Hundreds of previously unseen Beatles photos have been found after languishing in boxes for 50 years alongside forgotten images of other famous names from the 1960s. The Beatles... THE BEATLES, MICHAEL JACKSON, AND JUST WHO OWNS WHAT IN THE WORLD OF MUSIC PUBLISHING Wed May 20th, 2015 It seems as though musicians are being busted for copyright infringement a lot more frequently. ‘Blurred lines’ sounds like ‘Got to give it up’, ‘Stay with me’ is a knock-off of ‘I ... ASTRID KIRCHHERR Mon May 18th, 2015 The Astrid Kirchherr Early Beatles Collection of photographs – available exclusively at Rock Paper Photo - is one of the most important photographic records of a time in 20th century popular cu... Mary McCartney: My recipe book has been torture Sun May 17th, 2015 Sir Paul McCartney's daughter talks about her family and the inspiration behind her new vegetarian cookbook At My Table. In her light-filled studio tucked away down a cobbled mews in an unglamo... Paul McCartney's 'McCartney II' Turns 35 Years Old: How It Foretold The Sound Of 1980s Pop Fri May 15th, 2015 An icon he may be, but sometimes Paul McCartney doesn’t get the respect he deserves, maybe because next to sarky, saintly Lennon, he can’t help but look like a bit of a sentimental old softie... The Cathedral and the Shrink’s Office 'All Things Must Pass' vs. 'Plastic Ono Band' Thu May 14th, 2015 Dualities are fascinating: Yin and Yang, Blur and Oasis, God and Satan, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, and so on. You can analyze these contrasting pairs to apparent death, and yet they’ll... This Album Proves the Best Beatles Songwriter Wasn't McCartney or Lennon Wed May 13th, 2015 The John Lennon and Paul McCartney songwriting duo has been so lionized throughout history it's difficult to consider them anything besides creative divinity. However, after the Beatles broke up,... May 12, 1963: Bob Dylan walks off the Ed Sullivan Show Tue May 12th, 2015 Performing on The Ed Sullivan Show might have helped launch the careers of Elvis Presley and the Beatles, but Bob Dylan took a different approach to fame: courting celebrity by not performing. ... Tampa wedding band Phase5 jams with Sir Paul McCartney Tue May 12th, 2015 It was, in almost every respect, a carbon-copy weekend gig for Josh Walther and his wedding band, Phase5. Booked a year in advance at a familiar Winter Park country club. Intimate, 200 people, to... Lyric Of The Week: The Beatles, “Julia” Tue May 12th, 2015 Songs by rock artists about their mothers are relatively few and far between. Those that there are tend to go to one of two extremes. You’ll get the occasional gushing tribute, a la Bruce Sprin... Cirque du Soleil's LOVE, Nine Years Later: Peace, Love and Harmony in a Torn World Mon May 11th, 2015 Most people float down the rivers of time without leaving a ripple. Some stir the waters and leave somewhat of an impact. And then there are those who carve out their own islands in time and form... John Lennon 'urinated in cocktail before watching American sex symbol Jayne Mansfield drink it' Mon May 11th, 2015 The legendary musician was being pursued at The Beatles rented mansion in Los Angeles by blonde actress  who was intent on seducing Lennon. John Lennon urinated in a cocktail before giving it... A Hard Day's Night. The Beatles Cinematic Odyssey. Sun May 10th, 2015 John. Paul. George. Ringo. It's difficult to imagine a time when those four names were not burned into popular culture's lexicon. But in 1964, The Beatles were just starting their ascent to w... 5 'Dirty' Things You Didn't Know About The Beatles Fri May 8th, 2015 The Beatles may now be thought of as squeaky clean, wholesome rockers that are a safe bet to play for all ages and sensibilities, but a closer look into their lyrics and legacy will probably make... Why The Beatles really did start a musical revolution Wed May 6th, 2015 Ignore the evidence of your own ears, dismiss the comments of eyewitnesses, scorn the testament of other musicians, reject the opinions of critics and historians, science has spoken: The Beatles ... Scientific study finds emergence of hip hop eclipsed Beatles, Stones Wed May 6th, 2015 The impact of hip-hop's arrival on the pop music scene eclipsed that of the Beatles-led British invasion of 1964, a computer analysis of 17,000 songs has found. The unusual study found three revo... Remembering Ben E. King Tue May 5th, 2015 It may seem foolhardy to compare Ben E. King, who died last week at age 76, with The Beatles. Their music and their backgrounds seem so totally different. But King, himself, did that when this ... Rolling Stone's Top 100 Songs Of All Time And The Instruments You Didn't Know Were Being Played Mon May 4th, 2015 What makes a song timeless? It could be the harmony, the subject matter or something intangible that defies explanation. Creating a song may seem easy enough -- add some drums, bass, guitars and ... The Beatles, “Like Dreamers Do” (Decca Audition, 1962): Deep Beatles Fri May 1st, 2015 In 1962, the Beatles did not pass the audition. January 1 of that year was supposed to be the Beatles’ huge break, as manager Brian Epstein had secured an audition with Decca Records. Decca A... Paul McCartney, “Take It Away” from Tug of War (1982): One Track Mind Thu April 30th, 2015 Celebrated at the time as a partial Beatles reunion, Paul McCartney’s “Take it Away” certainly starts that way, with an off-kilter rhythm courtesy of Ringo Starr and all of the tasteful hal... Roger Waters discusses the Beatles’ impact on Pink Floyd: ‘There was a value in that freedom’ Tue April 28th, 2015 Pink Floyd recorded its 1967 debut just one studio over from the Beatles at Abbey Road studios. But that’s where the similarities between Piper at the Gates of Dawn and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely H... McCartney recorded 'Hey Jude' in this Aston Martin Mon April 27th, 2015 One day in 1968, Paul McCartney was driving his Aston Martin DB6 to visit John Lennon's son, Julian, when a song came into his head. There was a reel-to-reel tape recorder installed in the car's ... Jeff Lynne’s Productions With the Beatles Rank With His Best Mon April 27th, 2015 As the young auteur behind Electric Light Orchestra, Jeff Lynne hardly made his admiration for the Beatles a secret, with his distinctive take on Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound engineering, multi... Ron Howard to direct documentary about The Beatles Sun April 26th, 2015 Oscar-winning director Ron Howard will direct a documentary about The Beatles' early touring career. The film will chronicle Beatlemania, from the band's appearance in the clubs of Liverpool, Eng... Vinyl gold: What are the world's ten most valuable records? Sun April 26th, 2015 Avid record collectors will happily pay through the nose for the right piece of rare vinyl. But how much is their upper limit and what would they be buying? Rare Record Price Guide has a list o... Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr-autographed Beatles piano raises more than $98,000 for veterans: ArtScape Thu April 23rd, 2015 A piano with a Beatles theme -- signed by Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr -- will allow East St. Tammany Habitat for Humanity to construct a home for a veteran and his or her family. The two... How John Lennon and Donovan dreamt up digital distribution...In the 1960s Thu April 23rd, 2015 Digital distribution may have only reached its true potential relatively recently, but the concept of artists reaching music fans directly and instantly was actually being banded around by pionee... Why Visiting Mendips and 20 Forthlin Road is Something Every Beatles Fan Should Do Tue April 21st, 2015 Liverpool is known all over the world as the birthplace of The Beatles. (And #scousebrow. Look it up.) Obviously, a large portion of the city's visitors are there to see what The Beatles saw in t... 7 Facts That Will Change the Way You See Yoko Ono Tue April 21st, 2015 It may seem like you know a lot about Yoko Ono. The artist, who has been prolific and active in the art world since the 1960s, was showing her conceptual work at a gallery in London in 1966 when ... Ringo Starr Inducted, Green Day Shine at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Sun April 19th, 2015 Lou Reed, Joan Jett and Bill Withers also receive special inductions "It's like my record collection is actually sitting in this room," Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong said midway through his ... Yoko Ono On John Lennon's Forgotten First Love -- Drawing Fri April 17th, 2015 "He had a habit of just giving his art away to people," Yoko Ono softly explained, in a phone interview with The Huffington Post. "He was pretty generous about that." Yes, that humble "he" refe... Take an Interactive Virtual Tour of Abbey Road Studios Thu April 16th, 2015 Abbey Road Studios is among the most famous recording studios in music history, and while music fans are no doubt familiar with the albums that came out of Abbey Road – the Beatles catalog, Dar... Ringo Starr snubs autobiography offers Tue April 14th, 2015 Ringo Starr refuses to write an autobiography because publishers are only interested in his career with The Beatles. The 74-year-old drummer has been approached to tell his story in a book on n... Sir Paul McCartney Calls for an End to Canada's Brutal Commercial Seal Hunt Tue April 14th, 2015 Sir Paul McCartney has issued an impassioned appeal for an end to the senseless slaughter of baby harp seals taking place off Canada's east coast. The Canadian government has authorized the killi... 9 Beatles Songs That Clearly Influenced Heavy Metal Mon April 13th, 2015 It’s difficult to find an area of music that the Beatles didn’t influence, but their contribution to the progression of heavy metal is often overlooked. Perhaps best remembered for their psyc... 'Mad' Ringo Starr Says He Was Drunk For Decades After Beatles' Breakup Sun April 12th, 2015 Were you upset by the breakup of the Beatles back in the day? So was Ringo Starr. The Fab Four drummer told the Times of London that he often spent the 1970s and '80s in a boozy haze. “I wa... 1965: Music's greatest year ever? Sun April 12th, 2015 Here in the media-saturated 2010s, we get to relive the events of the momentous 1960s in an inexorable year-by-year march. Last year, the Beatles re-invaded America. Next year, 50th-anniversary... The Fifth Man: Brian Epstein and the Beatles Fri April 10th, 2015 In a ceremony last year at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the Beatles’ original manager, Brian Epstein, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The honor was well deserved. Epstei... Stella McCartney: A success without making fashion victims out of animals Fri April 10th, 2015 In a nondescript building tucked away on a quiet street in west London, Stella McCartney and her team are comparing the properties of a real leather shoe with the various non-leather swatches bei... First-ever exhibition on Ravi Shankar in the US to be unveiled at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles on April 29 Thu April 9th, 2015 When ‘Ravi Shankar: A Life In Music’, is unveiled at the Grammy Museum here, on April 29, it would mark the first exhibition in the United States to celebrate India’s most esteemed musician... Revisiting The Beatles' 1988 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Tue April 7th, 2015 Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have never shared an embrace at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony. Call it a result of unique circumstances or bitter grudges. But it will all cha... Yes, I lost John to another woman... but it WASN'T Yoko Sun April 5th, 2015 For almost 50 years she kept an astonishing secret, refusing to attack the woman who ruined her life. When Cynthia Lennon died aged 75 from cancer last week, the world believed her marriage to Be... Backstage with The Beatles: Page signed by all four before Manchester Apollo gig in 1964 and fan letter listed on eBay Fri April 3rd, 2015 One piece of paper signed by all four Beatles before their 1964 gig at Manchester's O2 Apollo and a fan letter addressed to George are on sale on eBay for £6,000. The genuine autographs and le... The muse who brought out John’s dark side Fri April 3rd, 2015 Cynthia Powell Lennon’s influence an be heard in tender love songs, but also in the early vitriolic and sarcastic songs of The Beatles. John and Cynthia met at art school in Liverpool and bec... What if Ringo had wound up in Texas? Thu April 2nd, 2015 Ringo Starr didn't have to end up with The Beatles. He could have been a Texas factory worker moonlighting as a country blues player. He might have been a world-class knitter. Thankfully, fate ... John Lennon's first wife Cynthia has died Wed April 1st, 2015 Cynthia Lennon, first wife of The Beatles' John Lennon, has died at her home in Spain, her family has announced. A message on her son Julian's website said she died "following a short but brave b... Beatles’ childhood homes are selling at ridiculous premiums Wed April 1st, 2015 The semi-detached house at 1 Blomfield Rd. in Liverpool is a modest three-bedroom with a stucco exterior, wood-paneled walls, and red shag carpeting. In a typical scenario, such details would mak... Liverpool's Beatles-themed Hard Days Night Hotel on sale for £11m Mon March 30th, 2015 Luxury city centre hotel opened its doors in 2008 and has proved a hit with Fab Four fans from all over the world. Liverpool’s Beatles-themed Hard Days Night Hotel is being put up for sale to... Woman who inspired the Beatles’ ‘Dear Prudence’ once dated Robert Durst Sun March 29th, 2015 by Isabel Vincent And Melissa Klein Two months before she went missing, Kathie Durst received a call from her husband’s mistress. On the other end of the phone was Prudence Farrow — the s... Liverpool's quirkiest wedding venues revealed Thu March 26th, 2015 The Beatles Story and East Z East curry house included on list of unusual Government-approved wedding venues. An Indian restaurant, Everton Football Club and The Beatles Story are some of the q... Ringo's All-Starr Life: Inside Rolling Stone's New Issue Wed March 25th, 2015 Ringo Starr returns to the cover of Rolling Stone on his own for the first time since 1981 in our new issue (on stands Friday). The happy-go-lucky Beatle gets serious, tracing his whole life to t... What has John Lennon and Yoko Ono's bed-in taught us? Wed March 25th, 2015 It's forty years since John Lennon and Yoko Ono's Bed-In for Peace and, while as a protest it may have been ineffectual, as a work of art it has endured. In the piece I wrote here recently, the... Beatles' 1962 Hamburg tapes headed to auction for $300,000 Fri March 20th, 2015 What’s being described as the master tapes of the Beatles performing live in Hamburg, Germany, in 1962 not long before Beatlemania exploded worldwide is going to auction April 1 and is being of... Newly Released Photos Reveal Lennon's Final Days Fri March 20th, 2015 "These are your photos but just be careful how you use them," photographer Allan Tannenbaum recalls that Yoko Ono advised on a series of intimate portraits he took of her and her husband John Len... Music institute opens in Beatles' Abbey Road Studios Thu March 19th, 2015 Students around the world can learn music production and sound engineering in the footsteps of the Fab Four Beatles fans are being offered the chance to follow in the footsteps of the Fab Four ... ‘The Art of John Lennon’ coming to Off The Wall Gallery Wed March 18th, 2015 Houston’s Off The Wall Gallery presents an exhibition of the extraordinary artworks of John Lennon. All artwork is on exhibition and available for acquisition March 26-29. All events are compli... From the archive, 13 March 1969: Is Beatles’ manager George Martin the puppet master? Tue March 17th, 2015 Edward Greenfield looks at George Martin’s influence on the band’s creativity How much does Beatle music - as heard on record - owe to the quartet of performers, how much to George Martin, ... The chaotic pop genius of “The White Album” by The Beatles Mon March 16th, 2015 The Beatles' legacy is a monster of perfection and curiosity. Their records have become the go-to blueprint for commercial pop music—but there was also a slyly subversive, at times blatant, rej... 5 Underrated Beatles Songs That You Should Get to Know Thu March 12th, 2015 The Beatles are considered by many to be the greatest band of all time. Therefore, it is not surprising that most of their songs are well known by the general public, even though some people arou... 5 Underrated Beatles Songs That You Should Get to Know, Part II Thu March 12th, 2015 A week and a half ago, I published a blog post titled "5 Underrated Beatles Songs That You Should Get to Know". Originally, it was going to contain 10 songs in total, but it got too wordy toward... 1965: 12 Months That Shook the World Wed March 11th, 2015 Andrew Grant Jackson wasn’t even born in 1965, but in his new book, he does a credible impression of a baby-boomer author with firsthand experience of that year’s revolutionary music. Jackson... Just how fab are the Fab Four for Liverpool? Tue March 10th, 2015 A new study is being carried out between Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Liverpool to find out definitively what the legacy of the Beatles is worth to Liverpool. There will... John Lennon's 'Paperback Writer' Guitar Sells for $530K to Colts Owner Mon March 9th, 2015 Jim Irsay explains why he paid half a million dollars for the iconic instrument. Last November, John Lennon's Gretsch guitar, the instrument the rock legend used to record the Beatles' 1966 cla... Can you imagine? Lennon statue placed in downtown Tampa Sun March 8th, 2015 It isn’t Strawberry Fields. But outside The Barrymore Hotel in downtown Tampa, John Lennon stands wearing a sport coat, long hair and his signature eyeglasses. Steve and Cathy Ferguson walk... Never-before-seen images of The Beatles in 1968 may show Ge...rrying Paul McCartney's resignation letter in his shirt pocket Sun March 8th, 2015 They are extraordinary pictures of the Beatles in their heyday, images never published before.  And, it is claimed, these photographs reveal for the first time a bombshell moment in the band�... No 'Shelter' From Albert Maysles's Camera: How His Rock Docs Captured the Beginning and End of the '60s Sat March 7th, 2015 Albert Maysles was the least judgmental of documentary filmmakers, which is one compelling reason that Gimme Shelter holds up as the greatest of rock docs, 45 years after its release. The objec... John Lennon and Yoko Ono bed-in images found in Outaouais Sat March 7th, 2015 An Outaouais man has stumbled upon negatives of the John Lennon and Yoko Ono bed-in at Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel in 1969. John Urban was searching last month for an old negative of a... Louise Harrison talks Beatles brother, tribute show Fri March 6th, 2015 Louise Harrison says she was more than just a big sister to The Beatles’ George Harrison. She almost was like his second mother. “I was 11 years old when he was born,” says Harrison, 83, ... The photographs of 'Lovely Linda' McCartney capture the Bea...eve McQueen and Ali McGraw in a stunning portfolio of her work Fri March 6th, 2015 'Who was the most important photographer covering the sixties' rock and roll music scene? I can think of no one else whose work was so comprehensive and who captured the essence better than Linda... Paul and Ringo Are Good Role Models for Aging Boomers Tue March 3rd, 2015 The Beatles were a constant, compelling presence in the lives of baby boomers for six years between 1964 and 1970. First generation fans, as young as 6 and up through high school and college age,... Calgary man reveals his life of rock ‘n roll with the Beatles in new documentary Mon March 2nd, 2015 A few years ago, Calgary guitar-teacher Brian Griffiths told a student about tearing up the stage with the Beatles in the 1960s. The student’s mother approached Griffiths months later saying,... Crosby Marvel artist Tim Quinn: 'Growing up in Liverpool gave me the belief that things could happen' Mon March 2nd, 2015 The comic book writer on Beatlemania, Stan Lee and Dr Who - and why every Scouser should move to Indiana Tim Quinn, a comic-book writer from Crosby, has come full circle. He has lived in Indi... McCartney house sells for £150,000 Sun March 1st, 2015 The childhood home of Beatles legend Paul McCartney is to be sold at an auction in Liverpool's famous Cavern Club for £150,000.The Liverpool childhood property of Beatles legend Paul McCartney h... Author Ivor Davis Speaks on The Beatles 1964 Tour at Melvyn's Sat February 28th, 2015 His book gives an insider's account of the tour that changed America. We all love telling a good story, and Ivor Davis has one walrus of a tale to pass on. Davis had the unique opportunity to... Firefly Music Festival: Paul McCartney confirmed Thu February 26th, 2015 It's a booking that would have been unfathomable before Firefly Music Festival came to Dover in 2012: Paul McCartney is going to perform a nearly three-hour show of Beatles hits in Delaware this ... A Day In The Life- George Harrison Wed February 25th, 2015 In their post Beatles careers, each had a day that stands out. Let's take a look at those days, starting with Harrison.  For George, his big day was August 1, 1971.That was the day of The Conc... GEORGE HARRISON-BIOGRAPHY Wed February 25th, 2015 Known first as "The Quiet Beatle," George Harrison was a great songwriter who had the misfortune to be surrounded by two stone cold geniuses whose work often obscured his talents. Yet Harrison co... Paul McCartney dines at Vermont general store Tue February 24th, 2015 The J.J. Hapgood General Store & Eatery in Peru had royalty from the music world drop by for dinner Sunday afternoon. After spending a day on the slopes at nearby Bromley Mountain, famed musici... This 'day tripper' took a side trip to Liverpool Tue February 24th, 2015 The Beatles had sung about a day tripper, and I was ready to become one, making a one-day visit from London to the Fab Four's northern hometown of Liverpool. With all the buzz about the 50th ann... Plaque for Beatles manager Brian Epstein unveiled in Liverpool Tue February 24th, 2015 A plaque commemorating The Beatles manager Brian Epstein has been unveiled at his birthplace in Liverpool. The memorial was erected on 4 Rodney Street where the pop impresario was born in 1934.... Yoko Ono on John Lennon and his art Sat February 21st, 2015 SELECTION OF FORMER BEATLE’S DRAWINGS ON DISPLAY AT LISS GALLERY IN TORONTO The name Yoko Ono means different things to different people: To some, she’s one of the foundational members of th... George Harrison tree -- killed by beetles -- to be replanted Feb. 25 Sat February 21st, 2015 The George Harrison Memorial Tree, infamously killed by beetles, will be replanted on Feb. 25 in Griffith Park on what would have been the former Beatle’s 72nd birthday. Chris Carter, host ... ‘SNL 40’ reminds us of the power of live performance Wed February 18th, 2015 “Saturday Night Live” celebrated its 40th anniversary with a star-studded and surprisingly inclusive televised gala on Sunday evening. The show’s legacy in comedy, late-night television, ed... Beatles for sale: Hamburg strip club tapes capture band on brink of fame Sun February 15th, 2015 BEATLES FOR SALE: HAMBURG STRIP CLUB TAPES CAPTURE BAND ON BRINK OF FAME Package of original recordings and unedited versions of group’s 1962 shows set to fetch six-figure sum at London auctio... Paul McCartney Found New Romance in Old Songs at Irving Plaza on Valentine's Day Sun February 15th, 2015 "That was great — and I don't even like that song!" So proclaimed a thirtyish dude last night as Paul McCartney — Sir Paul, Macca, the Cute One, the One Who Once Was the Dead One But Now Bles... In a New Book, Never-Before-Seen Photos of John Lennon and Yoko Ono Tue February 10th, 2015 A little over 30 years ago, the Japanese photographer Kishin Shinoyama walked through Central Park with one of the most famous couples in the world. It was sunset, autumn; they sat on a bench jus... 2015 Lifetime Achievement Award: George Harrison Tue February 10th, 2015 TOM PETTY PAYS TRIBUTE TO HIS FELLOW TRAVELING WILBURYS BANDMATE AND TOUCHES ON HARRISON'S LASTING INFLUENCE ON POPULAR MUSIC HE never wanted to be the star of anything. But, that's the place ... Grammys 2015: Kayne West, Rihanna, Paul McCartney's 'FourFiveSeconds' Performance Brings Audience To Its Feet Tue February 10th, 2015 After a series of jaw-dropping multi-generational match-ups during Grammy night 2015, it took an acoustic performance from Paul McCartney, Rihanna and Kanye West to bring the audience to their fe... February 7, 1964: The Beatles Arrive in the United States Sat February 7th, 2015 Richard Kreitner and The Almanac If we are told to remember the Beatles’ arrival in the United States fifty years ago last month as an “invasion,” it is as one that was unopposed. But at ... Woody Guthrie Center welcomes traveling Beatles exhibit this week Thu February 5th, 2015 The traveling exhibit on the Fab Four will be on display from Wednesday through June. Beatlemania is taking over the Woody Guthrie Center. Tulsa is hosting the next stop on the Grammy Museum’... Why George Harrison was happier out of the spotlight Thu February 5th, 2015 Fans view George Harrison’s lead guitar as a key element in the Fab Four’s success, but according to a new book, Harrison took a backseat on many of the band’s greatest guitar songs — fro... Are you the world's biggest Beatles fan? Wed February 4th, 2015 Liverpool's Beatles Story hunts for 25 Fab Four ambassadors to mark 25th anniversary Calling all Beatles fans. Liverpool’s Beatles Story is celebrating its 25th birthday by launching a sear... Marisa Tomei’s parents file $10 million suit against Sean...on, alleging his tree is damaging their Greenwich Village home Wed February 4th, 2015 BY BARBARA ROSS , KERRY BURKE Gary and Addie Tomei said in a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit that the 60-foot-high ailanthus tree in Sean Lennon’s front yard on W. 13th St. is growing into... Paul McCartney Returns To Japan Sun February 1st, 2015 Paul McCartney announces a four-night, two-city run through Japan with his “Out There” tour scheduling three shows for Tokyo and one for Osaka. It’s a good bet that Macca’s fans in Japa... Beatles fans call for return of MBE medal rejected by John Lennon Sun February 1st, 2015 The MBE medal that John Lennon famously rejected has been unearthed in a royal vault and now, 40 years after Lennon sent the award back to the Queen, Beatles historians are calling for it to be d... Shoreworld: Cut Pieces - A Tribute To Yoko Ono Sun February 1st, 2015 by John Pfeiffer When it comes to the subject of Yoko Ono, so much vilification has been written about her that it’s almost pointless to reiterate here. But love her or hate her, you have to... Beatles' legacy celebrated in new film documentary Sun February 1st, 2015 By Catherine Jones Beatles tribute bands on the enduring appeal of Liverpool's Fab Four THE legacy of the Beatles on popular culture is being celebrated in a new digital music documentary bei... Rare, unusual Beatles and Rolling Stones photos surface via eBay sale Sat January 31st, 2015 BY RANDY LEWIS A shirtless Mick Jagger, relaxing poolside in Savannah, Ga., in 1965, intently studies the back cover of Bob Dylan’s then-new “Bringing It All Back Home” album, still in th... John Lennon's mum's 'House of Sin' home to go under the hammer Sat January 31st, 2015 By Eleanor Barlow Julia Lennon lived Blomfield Road house when John was a teenager The former home of John Lennon’s mum, dubbed the “House of Sin” by his aunt, is up for auction. The ... Ringo Starr Slates 'Postcards From Paradise' Weeks Before Hall of Fame Fri January 30th, 2015 Former Beatle's 18th solo album will feature appearances by Joe Walsh, Peter Frampton and Richard Marx By Kory Grow | January 29, 2015 Ringo Starr will not go quietly into the Rock and Roll H... Statue 4 Eppy concert announced to raise funds for Brian Epstein statue Thu January 29th, 2015 A star-studded concert at Liverpool’s Epstein Theatre is the latest fundraiser in the high-profile Statue 4 Eppy campaign. Organisers are hoping to both raise the profile of the campaign furt... No One Needs to Know Who Paul McCartney Is Tue January 27th, 2015 Celebrity, unlike influence, has an expiration date, but the value of older pop culture still shines in Kanye West's collaboration with the ex-Beatle.NOAH BERLATSKY The constant, unforgiving ch... 7 Ways The Beatles Changed Boomer Childhood Overnight Tue January 27th, 2015 Screaming teenage girls got a lot of attention in 1964 and they're the ones immortalized in the black and white footage, but the largest number of first-generation Beatle fans were actually boys ... Music festival to honor 50th anniversary of Beatles' Shea Stadium show Tue January 27th, 2015 By: Steve Marinucci  AXS Contributor Jan 22, 2015 5 days ago The 50th anniversary of the Beatles' iconic Shea Stadium show will be the theme of this year's Fab 4 Music Festival held in Danbury... Wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton "Layla" Coming to San Francisco Art Exchange on Valentines Day Tue January 27th, 2015 January 26, 2015 09:46 ET | SOURCE: San Francisco Art Exchange  MAJOR EXHIBITION OF PHOTOS FROM PATTIE BOYD'S ILLUSTRIOUS LIFE IN ROCK 'N' ROLL ORIGINAL LAYLA PAINTING ON DISPLAY FOR FIRS... Brighton author dons headphones, dives into the Beatles By Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press Pop Music Writer Sat January 24th, 2015 There are Beatles lovers. There are Beatles fanatics. And then there are guys who spend months scrutinizing every Beatles track over and over, meticulously taking notes, and writing about the exp... How Does Paul McCartney Feel About College Courses on The Beatles' Music? Wed January 21st, 2015 Paul McCartney thinks that college courses based on popular music, especially those that focus on his band The Beatles, are "ridiculous, and yet very flattering." Maca said this during a Q+A on h... Four puppies named after The Beatles in need of a family Thu January 15th, 2015 Four American Bulldog puppies named after The Beatles are in need of a new home on Merseyside. Fab Four John, Paul, George and Ringo are seven weeks old and being looked after by Dogs Trust. ... Paul McCartney Reboots Beatles Catalog for Neil Young’s Pono Music Player Mon January 12th, 2015 All you need is cash: I am told that Neil Young’s high end music player and library, Pono, has scored a coup. They’ve secured the Beatles catalog for download in what’s known as loss-less d... No plans to sell music publishing business, says Sony CEO Mon January 12th, 2015 Sony has no plans to sell the music publishing business that controls rights to songs from the Beatles and Taylor Swift, as was suggested by leaked e-mails, Sony Entertainment chief executive off... Ringo: New album on the way Sun December 28th, 2014 Beatle Ringo Starr has completed his 18th studio record, ahead of his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April. The drummer and singer-songwriter informed his fans in a video upd... Cirque performer recovering after hurt during LOVE show Wed December 24th, 2014 LAS VEGAS — A performer was hurt during a Monday evening performance of Cirque du Soleil's Beatles LOVE at the Mirage. According to a spokeswoman for the company, Cirque said it followed prot... Beatles Radio Review of 50 Things You May Not Know About The Beatles by "Lovely Rita" Tue December 23rd, 2014 David Roberts establishes himself as a long time Beatles fan in the introduction to this e-book and offers up his list of list of trivia apparently hoping there are still people interested enough... Beatlemania" seizes Mexican capital for 20th Beatles Festival Tue December 23rd, 2014  A boy looks at the book "The Beatles on the Road" in Mexico City, where fans of the legendary band can view all kinds of memorabilia at the 20th Beatles Festival. EFE/File Mexico City, Dec 22... Singer/songwriter Joe Cocker, who covered Beatles classic 'With a Little Help from My Friends', dies after cancer battle Tue December 23rd, 2014 Singer Joe Cocker after losing his battle with lung cancer. Sheffield-born musician Joe Cocker has died at aged 70. His agent Barrie Marshall confirmed the news and said, "It is with the heavie... Prague Wall Dedicated To John Lennon Painted Over Fri December 19th, 2014 Prague's colorful wall dedicated to the memory of John Lennon has been painted over, leaving just a single message: "Wall is over!" The wall, located at the heart of the Czech capital in the pic... Marissa Mulder Performs 'In My Life' By The Beatles Thu December 18th, 2014 Marissa Mulder puts her spin on a Beatles classic! Rising cabaret star and BroadwayWorld Cabaret Awards Performer Of The Year, Marissa Mulder persuasively performs The Beatles standout "In M... Paul Visits The Daily Show - Discusses His New Video Game Track - Wishes He Was On Ellen's Show Instead Thu December 18th, 2014 Paul and Jon got together this week to talk. Jon as in Jon Stewart of the Daily Show. The legendary Paul McCartney stopped by the Daily Show with Jon Stewart on December 16th to talk about... Official Bumper Beatles Bundles Christmas Contest Wed December 17th, 2014 As a special promotion for the Christmas holidays, the Beatles official website is conducting a daily giveaway now through Dec. 25. During “The 12 Days of a Beatles' Christmas,” which beg... Jazz Legend Who Used To Be More Famous Than The Beatles To Perform Concert Wed December 17th, 2014 A BONA fide jazz legend who formed a close friendship with The Beatles and has had his music played at Anfield is bringing an evening of world class jazz to Crawley. The Big Chris Barber Band... Effective Content Marketing the Beatles' Way Wed December 17th, 2014 Great recognition on myriads of deeds, ideas, concept or a work of art that is posted online surely have a lot to learn from how the greatest rock band of all time, The Beatles, managed to spur u... John & Yoko’s 1969 “Peace for Christmas” Concert and WAR IS OVER! Campaign Tue December 16th, 2014 On December 15, 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono launched their global WAR IS OVER! campaign, protesting the Vietnam War. On that day, they performed with the Plastic Ono Band at UNICEF’s �... Ringo Starr on Hall of Fame Induction: 'Finally, the Four of Us Are In' Tue December 16th, 2014 Ringo Starr first learned he was receiving the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Award for Musical Excellence when Paul McCartney called him up about two weeks ago. "He said, 'Would you accept the a... Elvis Presley's Connection to The Beatles and Nixon featured in New O2 Exhibit Tue December 16th, 2014 Two famous meetings that The King of Rock and Roll had, first with The Beatles, and later with President Richard Nixon, are featured in the new London exhibit, "Elvis at the O2, The Exhibition o... Paul And Nancy Return To The US After Promoting New Video Game Tue December 16th, 2014 They may have caught the same flight but Sir Paul McCartney, 72, and his 53-year-old wife Nancy were strides apart when they touched down at JFK International Airport, New York on Sunday. Aft... Father Of Modern Baseball Cards' Dies Mon December 15th, 2014 Even most non-sports fans know what a baseball card looks like. There's a color photo on the front, along with a player's name, team and position. Many have a copy of the player's autograph as we... Damien Dempsey's new charity single Happy Xmas (War is Over) Mon December 15th, 2014 Damien Dempsey's new charity single Happy Xmas (War is Over) is available from iTunes, RTE.ie/shop or your usual download store Watch! A Murray Christmas 2 launch A Murray Christmas Happy X... Paul McCartney is hopeless at Beatles video game Mon December 15th, 2014 Pop icon SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY is useless at video games - even when playing as himself in a BEATLES simulator. The legendary musician admits he is hopeless whenever his children challenge him to ... Sun Kings, a present-day take on the Beatles Fri December 12th, 2014 Drew Harrison plans to sing “Imagine” on Dec. 31, just as he has done each New Year’s Eve for the past 38 years. In many ways, he feels it to be the perfect song for fresh starts. It is, as... Beatles autographs from Newquay visit set for auction Thu December 11th, 2014 RARE autographs of the Beatles, collected by a fan who spotted them staying in Newquay during their Magical Mystery Tour almost 50 years ago, are to go on sale at a London auction house today. ... Beatles Tribute Documentary Out Globally Feb 3 Thu December 11th, 2014 Devolver Digital Films is proud to announce the digital VOD release of The Beatles tribute documentary, Come Together. Directed by Steve Ison and John Scofield, Come Together features performance... Ben performed his version of Come Together by The Beatles and John Lennon's Jealous Guy in front of his home town Wed December 10th, 2014 X FACTOR HUNK BEN HAENOW HAS INSISTED SIMON COWELL DOES NOT HAVE A "FAVOURITE" ON THE SHOW AS THEY VISITED THE SINGER'S HOME TOWN TO DRUM UP SUPPORT AHEAD OF THIS WEEKEND'S EAGERLY ANTICIPATED FI... Ringo Starr re-lists Shoot N' Starr ranch near Aspen Tue December 9th, 2014 SELLER: Ringo Starr LOCATION: Woody Creek, CO PRICE: $3,850,000 SIZE: 3,192 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms YOUR MAMA'S NOTES: Two weeks ago Your Mama dissed and discussed the pretty wel... John Lennon-Tribute Musical Through a Glass Onion to End Its New York Run Sun December 7th, 2014 John R. Waters sings the hits of the late Beatle at the Union Square Theatre. John R. Waters will end his New York run of Lennon: Through a Glass Onion in January. Lennon: Through a Glass Oni... Beatles Top Vinyl Chart After Record Store Day Sat December 6th, 2014 The Beatles top Billboard's Vinyl Albums chart for the fifth time with Long Tall Sally, a Black Friday Record Store Day exclusive. The limited-edition four-song 7" reissue also starts at No. 22 o... The Beatles' lyrics: Holy pop relics Sat December 6th, 2014 Hunter Davies' new book gathers the original scribblings of the Fab Four that became timeless pop classics. CBS News Songs with word by The Beatles have never failed to delight their listeners.... John Lennon and Me Sat December 6th, 2014 JOHN LENNON AND ME Friday, December 5, 2014 AVALON, CATALINA ISLAND - This weekend the Avalon High School Theater Department will be presenting John Lennon and Me. This powerful theatrical piec... Classic Rock Art Show features a Who’s Who of rock stars Sat December 6th, 2014 McCartney, Springsteen, Zeppelin, The Stones, The Who & Clapton reside at the Montgomery Mall as Classic Rock 102.9 ‘MGK presents the 102.9 ‘MGK Classic Rock Art Show & Sale, Friday, Dec. 5 t... Paul McCartney opens about John Lennon's death on The Jonathan Ross Show: 'His killer is the jerk of jerks' Sat December 6th, 2014 As the 34th anniversary of John Lennon's death approaches on December 8, his former Beatles band mate Sir Paul McCartney has branded his murderer Mark David Chapman "the jerk of jerks". The 72-... George we miss you:1943-2001 Sat November 29th, 2014 We miss you George Harrison, MBE, was an English musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles.   Born: Februar... Finding PowerPoint Inspiration In Beatles Lyrics And A Notepad Fri November 28th, 2014 As you head off for the holidays don’t forget to bring a small notepad. You never know when inspiration will strike. John Lennon found his inspiration for “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Aw... 16 Strange And Surreal Myths About The Beatles Investigated Tue November 25th, 2014 Last week marked 36 years since the release of the Beatles' 'White Album', a record dogged by rumours of containing subliminal messages that, when played backwards, seemed to suggest Paul McCartn... The Beatles' unused 'Abbey Road' photos sell for £180,000 Tue November 25th, 2014 Unused photos from The Beatles' 'Abbey Road' photoshoot have sold at auction for £180,000 at Bloomsbury Auctions in London. The shots were taken on August 8, 1969 by photographer Iain Macmilla... Plan to turn historic Newcastle building into student flats Tue November 25th, 2014 Music-loving students coming to Newcastle could soon get a chance to live in accommodation with a notable pop history. Plans have been submitted to convert Grade II listed Barclays House on Gre... Paul McCartney performs to smallest audience in years in the back of a shop Tue November 25th, 2014 BBC handout photo of Sir Paul McCartney performing live at Maida Vale for BBC Radio 6 Sir Paul McCartney swapped stadiums for the back of a London shop as he entertained one of his smallest aud... How John Lennon changed immigration policy Wed November 19th, 2014 Nixon tried to deport John Lennon for his political views, but Lennon's case is tied to today's immigration debate. John Lennon's legendary attorney joins Lawrence. watch John Lennon's Beatles guitar expected to fetch $1m at action Mon November 17th, 2014 A guitar owned by Beatles legend John Lennon is expected to raise more than £400,000 at auction. The Gretsch 6120 model was played by Lennon when the band recorded Paperback Writer at London's... Beatles project latest musical chapter for Memphis guitarist Robert Johnson Mon November 17th, 2014 When he was 15, wearing Beatle boots from Hardy’s Shoes in Downtown Memphis and playing Fab Four covers on his 1961 Cherry Red Gibson SG Special, Robert Johnson didn’t dream he’d one day pr... Go Inside Jimmy Page's Rock All-Star Dinner With Ringo Starr, Kirk Hammett, Joe Walsh & More Mon November 17th, 2014 Never one for a big media blitz, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has probably done more interviews in the last six weeks promoting the Zeppelin remasters and his new book, Jimmy Page On Jimmy P... Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr sign piano for Slidell veterans' project auction Fri November 14th, 2014 Everybody loves the Beatles. That's the first thought that came to Slidell artist Lori Gomez's mind as she tried to come up with a theme to transform a century-old, donated piano into a work of a... Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed inspired by Lennon Fri November 14th, 2014 the Spanish movie selected for this year’s Oscars “Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed”. The movie is based on the true story of the teacher Juan Carrion, who traveled to Almeria to meet John L... A supergroup for the ages: Dylan, the Beatles and the Stones? Fri November 14th, 2014 (CNN) -- It would have been the ultimate supergroup: the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. And it was actually proposed, says engineer and producer Glyn Johns, according to a piece in ... Rock Soundman Glyn Johns Talks Beatles Fri November 14th, 2014 Glyn Johns is a walking rebuttal to the maxim that if you remember the 1960s, you weren't there. He was there — overseeing the Rolling Stones' first recording session, arranging the Beatles' ... Father sings 'Blackbird' to dying newborn son just days after wife passes away Fri November 14th, 2014 He says over the course of two days, he sat and played and cried and sang at Lennon's side. It was a friend to took the video of Picco gently playing "Blackbird." "It's a song I really love and ... Sir Paul McCartney paid over $1 million to perform at rich dudes conference Thu November 13th, 2014 Sir Paul McCartney was paid more than $1 million to perform at billionaire Ron Baron’s New York investment conference. McCartney and Carrie Underwood, who also collected a large fee, headlined... Ringo Sets ‘All Starr’ Dates Tue November 11th, 2014 Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band reveal a February-March run that includes shows in South America, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic as well as in the U.S. Destinations include Orlando, ... How to Recover after Passing up the Beatles Sat November 8th, 2014 I invited Scott Freiman to dinner for a few reasons, but mostly because he gets paid to talk about rock ‘n’ roll. Scott, the CEO of a tech startup called Qwire(an intentional misspelling of c... Bob Dylan Wanted to Make an Album With the Beatles and Rolling Stones Sat November 8th, 2014 Dylan then dropped a bomb. "He said he had this idea to make a record with the Beatles and the Stones," John writes. "And he asked me if I would find out whether the others would be interested. I... City Lights: For the Beatles, all our loving in a tribute show Thu November 6th, 2014 I shared the same planet with the Beatles for one year, three months and two days. That was how old I was when John Lennon died, not that I learned that until nearly a decade later. By the time I... John Lewis Christmas advert 2014: The Beatles soundtrack Monty the Penguin in this year's ad Thu November 6th, 2014 His two predecessors in the role have both had number one singles on the back of their campaigns and the firm's commercials have spawned numerous hits. Tom - who landed the Critics' Choice priz... Crissie-hyndes--cover-of-the-beatles-let-it-be Wed November 5th, 2014 Chrissie Hynde's reverent, heartfelt cover of the Beatles' "Let It Be," which will appear on the upcoming, star-studded Paul McCartney tribute comp The Art of McCartney, is now streaming online. ... Beatles Radio Book Review - by Lovely Rita Wed November 5th, 2014 Larry Kane was the only American reporter to travel with the Beatles for every stop on both the 1964 and 1965 North American tours. Being a huge Beatles fan I looked forward to to reading this ac... A visit to Liverpool brings Beatles fans back to their roots Mon November 3rd, 2014 LIVERPOOL, England -- They were just another boy band, a gaggle of teenagers with too much energy. They'd meet in the basement of a friend's suburban home, horsing around and playing guitar. One ... Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder covers John Lennon at tiny gig Sat November 1st, 2014 Pearl Jam's EDDIE VEDDER covered songs by John Lennon, Tom Waits and Bob Dylan at a tiny gig last night (October 30) at Microsoft Studios near Seattle. The frontman played to just 90 people to ... Strawberry Fields Forever: Beatles teen forced to shorten her name for first bank card Fri October 31st, 2014 SUMMER STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER COLE WAS NAMED BY HER DAD PAUL, A FAB FOUR FANATIC   A teenager named Summer Strawberry Fields Forever by her Beatles-mad dad has been forced to cut it short ... The Top 20 Billboard Hot 100 Hits of the 1960s Thu October 30th, 2014 In honor of Billboard magazine's 120th anniversary on Nov. 1, we're revealing the top 20 Billboard Hot 100 hits from each decade since the 1960s (for a total of 120 songs).  The '60s was the f... Beatles battle Stones in Lakeport Thu October 30th, 2014 LAKEPORT >> The British are coming, the British are coming! Actually, they already came, sang and conquered. The British music invasion of the United States that started in 1964 reached the s... New Royal Liverpool Hospital glass installation inspired by the Beatles Thu October 30th, 2014 AWARD-WINNING GLASS ARTIST ALEXANDER BELESCHENKO TOOK INSPIRATION FROM THE YEARS HE SPENT The New Royal Liverpool Hospital will be finished in 1000 days. To mark the occasion the artwork for the... Do Republicans really not like the Beatles? Thu October 30th, 2014 Washington — We’re told that men are from Mars and women are from Venus, but what planets do Democratic and Republican supporters in the midterm elections come from? Culturally speaking, t... John Lennon Letter Praising Yoko Ono Fetches $28K Tue October 28th, 2014 A letter written by John Lennon to the radio and television host Joe Franklin to endorse Yoko Ono's music sold for $28,171, flying past its presale estimate of $15,000-20,000. It went under the h... John Lennon's iconic specs on sale for £25,000 Tue October 28th, 2014 A PAIR of John Lennon’s iconic glasses, which he lent to a flirty girl who had pinched his bottom during a conga, will go on sale for £25,000. Wendy Baker sat with the late Beatle in a Soho, L... The Flaming Lips’s Wayne Coyne on the Beatles, Drugs, and Loving Miley Cyrus Mon October 27th, 2014 For the last 30 years, the Flaming Lips have been one of the predominant torch-carriers to the psychedelic music movement of the ’60s. So it’s fitting that they’d try to tackle the Beatl... Imagine: Researchers Name New Tarantula Species After John Lennon Tue October 21st, 2014 Researchers who discovered a new species of tarantula in Western Amazonia, Brazil, named it after one of their musical heroes: John Lennon. Fernando Pérez-Miles of the University of the Republic... Bay City coffee shop doubles as Beatles shrine Mon October 20th, 2014 BAY CITY – For Brad Wilderman, it's not just coffee and specialty drinks he and his wife, Peggy, sell from their shop in downtown Bay City. Their business stands as a virtual time machine, of... The true tale of John Lennon’s mum revealed in Walton author's book Mon October 20th, 2014 KEVIN ROACH SAYS MANY DON’T KNOW THE TRUE STORY OF JULIA LENNON, AND HE HOPES HIS NEW INTERACTIVE BOOK WILL SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT Most Beatles fans know stories about John Lennon’s mother ... Inside the childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney Fri October 17th, 2014 THE LIVERPOOL ECHO IS GIVEN A GUIDED TOUR OF MENDIPS ON MENLOVE AVENUE, WHERE JOHN LENNON WAS RAISED, AND 20 FORTHLIN ROAD IN ALLERTON, THE TEENAGE HOME OF PAUL MCCARTNEY Over 50 years after the... Beatles’ unused Abbey Road photographs to be auctioned Thu October 16th, 2014 There are only so many times you can interrupt traffic to walk over a busy London road to have your picture taken before you become a public nuisance – even if you are the Beatles. Six, in fa... Take our Beatles lyrics quiz to see how well you know the Fab Four's songs Wed October 15th, 2014 It’s been 50 years since screaming fans watched The Beatles perform on Liverpool’s Town Hall balcony. When the Fab Four returned home for the northern premier of A Hard Day’s Night, thous... Tributes paid as The Undertakers’ guitarist Geoff Nugent dies aged 71 Wed October 15th, 2014 TRIBUTES have been paid to The Undertakers’ guitarist Geoff Nugent who has died. He passed away yesterday at the age of 71. The Merseycats rock ‘n’ roll charity posted Mr Nugent’s photo... PAUL McCARTNEY IS GETTING BACK 'OUT THERE' MUSIC ICON TO RETURN TO BRAZIL Tue October 14th, 2014 MONDAY 10TH NOVEMBER: ESTÁDIO KLÉBER ANDRADE – VITÓRIA SUNDAY 23RD NOVEMBER: ESTÁDIO NACIONAL – BRASILIA TUESDAY 25TH NOVEMBER: ALLIANZ PARQUE – SÃO PAULO   FANS CAN PURCHASE PRE-... Meet the Beatles again? Sun October 12th, 2014 The world is full of geeks and snobs ready to talk too much about their personal passion for wine, for scuba diving, for vampire literature. You know the type. This is nothing like that. This... Smokey Robinson & Otis Williams discuss Beatles Motown Connection Sun October 12th, 2014 Today, the 1983 Motown 25 concert, broadcast in prime time on NBC, is best remembered for Michael Jackson's moonwalk. The show, however, involved much more: Host Richard Pryor introduced label le... All My Loving: Paul McCartney gives thumbs up to St Luke's campaign Sun October 12th, 2014 A CAMPAIGN to keep St Luke's church in use as a cultural venue for the Liverpool community has received Beatle backing. Sir Paul McCartney today joined John Lennnon's widow, Yoko Ono, in calling... John Lennon Stars in Comic Book Sat October 11th, 2014 Bluewater Productions has created a biographical comic book profiling legendary musician and songwriter, John Lennon. Writer Marc Shapiro had this statement in the press release: “I approac... John Lennon's lyrics 'more important than ever' as fans celebrates Beatles legend's 74th birthday Fri October 10th, 2014  A Beatles fan said John Lennon’s lyrics were more important now than ever before, as he celebrated what would have been the star’s 74th birthday. John James Chambers, from the Liverpool ... Deborah Harry to headline John Lennon tribute concert Thu October 9th, 2014 Debbie Harry will perform at the 34th annual John Lennon charity tribute concert in New York City in December. The announcement Wednesday by the nonprofit Theatre Within came a day before what wo... John Lennon to debut in digital high definition for 74th birthday Thu October 9th, 2014 In celebration of John Lennon's 74th birthday on October 9, eight essential studio albums, two compilations, and the acclaimed John Lennon Signature Box are making their high definition digital a... In blazer and cap, Lennon aged 11: Family album image from ... Beatle with his aunt among several being auctioned next month Wed October 8th, 2014 Mr Birch is selling the photos, along with a Gretsch 6120 guitar Lennon gave him after he used it on The Beatles’ 1966 hit Paperback Writer and which could fetch up to $1million (£630,000). T... Look inside Beatles star George Harrison's childhood home before it goes under the hammer Tue October 7th, 2014 George Harrison’s childhood home is to be sold at auction for a guide price of just £100,000. The modest three bedroom mid-terrace is where George, Paul McCartney and John Lennon held some ... John Lennon’s ‘Paperback Writer’ Guitar Heading to Au...re: John Lennon's 'Paperback Writer' Guitar Heading to Auction Tue October 7th, 2014 The guitar John Lennon used on the recording of the Beatles‘ 1966 hit ‘Paperback Writer’ is going up for auction. The instrument, a Gretsch 6120, has been in the possession of Lennon’s... Lennon: Through a Glass Onion Plays Off-Broadway's Union Square Theater, Starting Tonight Mon October 6th, 2014 Lennon: Through a Glass Onion, which celebrates the genius, music and phenomenon of John Lennon, arrives in New York Oct. 3 at The Union Square Theater. Created and performed by Australian actor... Paul McCartney Recites Shakespeare, Delivers 'A Show for the Ages' in San Antonio: Concert Review Mon October 6th, 2014 Given that SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY regularly sells out arenas that seat 50,000 people, it was anyone’s guess what his production — usually filled out by giant graphics screens, pyrotechnics and ... The Beatles and Me on Tour, by Ivor Davis Sun October 5th, 2014 Stories of the Beatles’ 1964 North American tour have gone down in legend — the screaming girls, the mob scenes, transporting the group from airport to hotel, and jellybeans hurled onstage be... Your chance to record in the The Beatles' Abbey Road studios Sun October 5th, 2014 Want to follow in the footsteps of The Beatles and record in the hallowed surroundings of Abbey Road studios? The Big Music Project competition will give some budding performers the chance to do ... Street Photography exhibit, rare Beatles print Oct. 23 to help journalism students Sat October 4th, 2014 Borderzine.com, a digital publication based at UT El Paso that focuses on achieving diversity in news media, announces an exhibit of photographs by  journalism professor David Smith-Soto at the ... Beatles star George Harrison's childhood home to go under the hammer at Cavern Club Sat October 4th, 2014 A piece of Beatles history will go under the hammer at Liverpool’s world-famous Cavern Club later this month when the childhood home of George Harrison goes up for auction. The three bedroom,... $36,655 for Rare Beatles Album Fri October 3rd, 2014 WhatSellsBest.com - A bidding-war for a scarce fully-signed Beatles album on eBay has ended with a final bid price of $36,655. he record, Please Please Me, is listed as a mint-condition (PSA 9... Ray shares guitar licks with McCartney, says Paul won't soon retire Fri October 3rd, 2014 Sometimes who you know can open a door, but, without talent, that door may slam in your face faster than expected. Musician Brian Ray, despite working 14 years with Etta James in his younger ye... Go Behind ‘Venus and Mars’ and ‘At The Speed Of Sound’ Thu October 2nd, 2014 Did you know that Linda wrote 'Cook of the House' for At The Speed Of Sound while in Australia? The song is, in-part, based around a plaque she and Paul bought whilst in Niagara Falls which hung ... Julian Lennon Records New Song For Charity Thu October 2nd, 2014 Featuring poignant vocals by Lennon backed by a hypnotic Brazilian rhythm by Flavio Pimenta and the students of Meninos do Morumbi, the track includes Lennon’s longtime friend, co-writer & guit... Strawberry Field gates to return to their rightful home Wed October 1st, 2014 The iconic Strawberry Field gates are to return to their rightful home in South Liverpool. The wrought-iron gates which were put in storage for safe keeping by the Salvation Army which owns the B... Ed Sheeran - Ed Sheeran sought Paul McCartney advice Wed October 1st, 2014 Ed Sheeran sought life advice from Sir Paul McCartney. The 'Sing' hitmaker spoke to the music legend at an Oscars after-party and the Beatles singer encouraged the flame-haired star to take not... Bids Pass $25k for Rare Beatles Album Tue September 30th, 2014 WhatSellsBest.com - A bidding-war is underway for a scarce fully-signed Beatles album on eBay. Where the price has been pushed to $25,000 with 5-days remaining in the auction. The record, Plea... WINGS UNVEIL NEW VIDEO FEATURING PAUL MCCARTNEY'S PHONE NUMBER Tue September 30th, 2014 Wings have unveiled a new lyric video for single 'Call Me Back Again', which somewhat surprisingly features Paul McCartney's actual phone number. Set to feature on the forthcoming reissue of Ven... The Beatles' Abbey Road Turns 45: Classic Track-By-Track Review Mon September 29th, 2014 On Sept. 26, 1969, 45 years ago today, the Beatles' Abbey Road entered the world and closed the recording career of rock's most celebrated band. The existence of Abbey Road is practically a ... #FanArtFriday Mon September 29th, 2014 For the past year we have been regramming our favourite fan images at the 'NEW' Instagram account. We've been so impressed by all of the talent and creativity #OutThere that we've decided to crea... Watch Norah Jones Deliver Tasteful George Harrison Cover on 'Conan' Sun September 28th, 2014 Norah Jones closed out Conan's George Harrison Week on Thursday night, and the results were as soulful as expected. The jazz-pop singer – whose father, sitar master Ravi Shankar, was one of... Paul McCartney to record Christmas charity single with Jennifer Hudson Sun September 28th, 2014 The track will be released in support of Samuel L. Jackson's cancer charity One For The Boys. Other celebrities featured include Game Of Thrones actress Maisie Williams and model Daisy Lowe, wh... 40 YEARS AGO: JOHN LENNON GETS LOST AMONG THE ‘WALLS AND BRIDGES’ Sat September 27th, 2014 Like most of John Lennon‘s solo albums, his fifth, ‘Walls and Bridges,’ came with its fair share of bumps along the way. And like much of Lennon’s work starting around the time the Beat... The Beatles used Grimsby man's Yellow Submarine to promote 1960s film Sat September 27th, 2014 DIVING enthusiast Arthur Johnson beat The Beatles to the idea of a "Yellow Submarine". The sub, made in Arthur's garden in Lister Street, Grimsby, for £50, appeared at the world premier of The B... John Lennon Film Is Spain's Oscar Pick Fri September 26th, 2014 Spain's film academy has selected the movie Vivir es Facil con los Ojos Cerrados  about a Spanish man's quest to meet JOHN LENNON as its entry for best foreign language film at next year's Os... Dhani Harrison felt 'responsibility' to release dad George's music Fri September 26th, 2014 George Harrison's widow Olivia Harrison has revealed their son Dhani felt a "tremendous responsibility" to release the career retrospective his father was working on at the time of his death. Geo... Section of 'Ed Sullivan Show' set signed by The Beatles to be sold Thu September 25th, 2014 Rolling Stone reports that the backdrop – also signed by the Fab Four – will be on sale at The Fest for Beatles Fans, which takes place in Los Angeles from October 10 to 12. It is expected ... George Harrison 'Had This Way Of Looking At You,' Remembers His Wife Olivia, On Release Of 'The Apple Years' Music Thu September 25th, 2014 It’s pretty bizarre. Every time I come across someone who worked at Abbey Road in the 1960s or in the film industry in the 1980s, or journalists who’ve trod this beat longer than I, I ofte... Conan Kicks Off George Harrison Week Thu September 25th, 2014 Monday marked the start of George Harrison week on Conan. Popular music artists will be stopping in to perform their versions of songs from the former Beatle. Today, we have Beck covering the Ha... Billy Preston's Bankruptcy Case Finally Settled, Eight Years After His Death Wed September 24th, 2014 One of music's monumental figures, the legendary "fifth Beatle," Billy Preston, died eight years ago at the age of 59, but not without controversy. After a legacy of solo hits and recording cre... Iconic Liverpool Club Jacaranda set to reopen Wed September 24th, 2014 The Jacaranda, reputedly the first venue to host the Beatles, is re-opening next month after a two-year closure. Appearing as Long John & the Silver Beatles before changing their name, the Beat... Will Beatle Paul Twist & Shout For Broadway-Bound Musical About Unknown Legend Bert Berns, Tunesmith? Wed September 24th, 2014 Mention “Twist And Shout” to a Boomer and you’ll get a shake of the thinning hair or shaved scalp along with recollections of the Fab Four on The Ed Sullivan Show. The more knowing respon... Presenting Meat Free Monday’s Fifth Anniversary Video! Wed September 24th, 2014 Meat Free Monday recently invited you to pick a lyric from Paul’s song ‘Meat Free Monday’ and represent that lyric in a creative way for their fifth anniversary video. They received thousan... Ringo Starr selling £20m estate Tue September 23rd, 2014 The Beatles drummer, 74, and his wife, former Bond girl Barbara Bach, have put their 200-acre abode, Rydinghurst in Surrey, south east England, up for sale because they no longer spend enough tim... Inside the Long-Unopened Storage Locker of The Beatles' American Lawyer Tue September 23rd, 2014 I got lucky last June, just not in quite the way I'd hoped, as you'll read. But my pursuit of a long-lost audiotape eventually opened the door (literally) and allowed me to take possession of a s... Beatles' Eleanor Rigby sculpted from £1m of bank notes Mon September 22nd, 2014 A sculpture of The Beatles' song character Eleanor Rigby, made from £1m of used bank notes, will be unveiled at the Museum of Liverpool later. The 5ft 2in (1.57m) work depicts the "bag lady die... Tyler Ritter remembers dad's Beatles influence Mon September 22nd, 2014 Fact: Today marks the 30th Anniversary—to the day—that Three's Company went off the air. Crazy but true fact: John Ritter was 29 years old when he got his first series-regular gig on a TV... The Beatles biographer reveals exclusive original manuscripts of some of the best pop songs ever written Mon September 22nd, 2014 Reading the words now, and probably trying too hard to work out exactly what he is trying to say, it would seem the message is simple: work hard, bring the money home, and you will get marital b... Paul McCartney’s ‘Hope’ is confirmed for release Sun September 21st, 2014 He has written countless hit singles, orchestral scores, released electronica albums, film theme songs and changed the world with his music. Listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the Wo... #Peacerocks On International Day of Peace Sun September 21st, 2014 John Varvatos and Ringo Starr continue their #PEACEROCKS initiative with an outdoor celebration and performance on the International Day of Peace, Sunday, September 21, 2014. The celebratio... Stars Shine at Stella McCartney’s Green Carpet Collection Event Sun September 21st, 2014 Being the daughter of a Beatle certainly has its perks, and Stella McCartney had plenty of famous faces in the house as she showed off her 2014 Green Carpet range at London Fashion Week on Sund... Ringo Starr on the future of rock music: 'Bands will always come through' Sun September 21st, 2014 Ringo Starr has said he believes that bands will always be popular in music and that he has "never believed" that rock music is dying out. The former Beatles drummer tells NME in this week's ma... Meat Free Monday Pledge Sun September 21st, 2014 On Tuesday 23rd September global leaders – from government, finance, business, and civil society – will meet at the UN headquarters in New York to discuss climate change. It will be the first... Get Back To Mono: Beatles’ Recording Engineer Ken Scott On The Best Way To Hear The Fab Four Sun September 21st, 2014 For most music lovers, there can be no such thing as “too much BEATLES.” But there have been stray notes of skepticism surrounding the much-hyped Beatles In Mono vinyl box set that hit ... You've never heard The Beatles sound like this before Wed September 17th, 2014 YOU'VE NEVER HEARD THE BEATLES SOUND LIKE THIS BEFORE "If you're under 40, there's a good chance you've never heard the Beatles' music the way it sounded in the 1960s. All of their music, every ... Yoko Ono Brings the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus to Harlem Wed September 17th, 2014 "I love you and I'm so glad that I'm here today," Yoko Ono told an auditorium full of elementary schoolers, teachers, and special guests at New York City's Patrick Henry Prep this morning. The 81... "George Harrison Week" on Conan Wed September 17th, 2014 DURING THE WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 22ND, CONAN WILL FEATURE DAILY PERFORMANCES BY ARTISTS INCLUDING BECK, NORAH JONES AND DHANI HARRISON TO CELEBRATE THE MUSIC OF GEORGE HARRISON BY SINGING ONE OF HIS ... Monroe artist creates quirky illustrations depicting Beatles' tunes Mon September 15th, 2014 CENTENARY COLLEGE’S MEADOWS MUSEUM OF ART WILL OPEN A BEATLES EXHIBITION SATURDAY FEATURING ILLUSTRATIONS BY ENOCH DOYLE JETER . Jeter is artist-in-residence at the University of Louisiana at... Paul McCartney’s ‘Hope’ is confirmed for release Mon September 15th, 2014 FROM THE BIGGEST ENTERTAINMENT RELEASE OF THE YEAR ‘DESTINY’ - PAUL MCCARTNEY’S ORIGINAL TRACK, ‘HOPE’, IS CONFIRMED FOR RELEASE  He has written countless hit singles, orchestral sco... You can now watch the 'lost' Beatles cartoon series on YouTube Sat September 13th, 2014 The 1968 feature Yellow Submarine was a landmark in the popular perception of animation as a legitimate art form, but even as the Beatles were lending their likenesses to that groundbreaking w... Gimme Five: Forgotten George Harrison gems from The Apple Years Sat September 13th, 2014 News of a forthcoming multi-disc box set titled George Harrison: The Apple Years 1968-75 led to renewed praise for charttopping early-period solo moments like “My Sweet Lord” and “Give ... Big bad Beatle ballad: Here’s Destiny’s theme song from Paul McCartney Thu September 11th, 2014 Publisher Activision spent $500 million making and promoting Destiny, and you can now hear the Paul McCartney song that some of that money paid for. The former member of The Beatles worked with ... Watch Beatles fans recreating iconic album cover on Abbey Road crossing as studio launches live feed Thu September 11th, 2014 Now, 45 years later, the famous zebra crossing is not only an English Heritage site, but the studio where the LP was recorded has set up a live feed of the crossing . It has become a shrine for... Beatles expert to discuss Fab Four at Metairie event Wed September 10th, 2014 Screaming fans, packed stadiums and songs we all know by heart were part of the craze known as Beatlemania. To celebrate everything Beatles, native New Orleanian and internationally recognized Be... Beatles Photo Collection Coming to Walnut Ridge Festival Wed September 10th, 2014 WALNUT RIDGE, AR (News release) - A huge collection of Beatles photographs and images is set for display at the Beatles at the Ridge music festival Sept. 19 and 20. The Argenta Collection will be... A Hard Day's Knightsbridge! Flat shared by George and Ringo at the height of Beatlemania goes on the market for £2.5million Tue September 9th, 2014 The two bedrooms and en-suite master offer 'versatile accommodation' in an apartment building which comes with its own porter, according to the agents, but the property 'will require some updatin... Ringo Starr moving to Los Angeles Tue September 9th, 2014 The former Beatles drummer reveals he is offloading his 200-acre estate in Surrey so he and his wife Barbara Bach can make full use of their Beverly Hills mansion and embrace the clean-living Los... Musicians To Honor George Harrison At ‘George Fest’ In Los Angeles Mon September 8th, 2014 The music of “the quiet Beatle” George Harrison will be celebrated in a star-studded, one-night only event at Los Angeles’ El Rey Theatre on Sept. 28th, according to Rolling Stone. George... The Beatles Launch Mono Vinyl Box Set In Abbey Road Studios Mon September 8th, 2014 IT WAS A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME opportunity to hear The Beatles as they were intended in the hallowed space where they created their extraordinary music. To mark the launch of The Beatles In Mono v... John Lennon's 'Beatle Island' still up for sale Sun September 7th, 2014 Dorinish Island, which has a price tag of €300,000 is set in a stunning location directly below Croagh Patrick with views out across Clare Island to the Atlantic and back into Westport. There h... Behind-The-Scenes Jam From 'Early Days' Video Shoot / 'NEW' Reissue Sat September 6th, 2014 Fans can watch below an exclusive 29 minute behind-the-scenes jamming session filmed at the 'Early Days' video shoot. The official video was launched earlier this summer and the end of it sees Pa... Former Beatle Ringo Starr amongst winners at GQ awards Thu September 4th, 2014 Ringo Starr has won an award for his humanitarian work. The former Beatle attended the GQ Men of the Year Awards where he was given the award for his work with the David Lynch Foundation. The fou... Gene Simmons says The Beatles changed men’s fashion Wed September 3rd, 2014 Gene Simmons credits The Beatles for the biggest impact on fashion in the past century. The Kiss bass guitarist — while promoting the Sept. 9 Fashion Rocks at the Barclays Center (and live on C... Paul McCartney Trolled For Backing No Vote In Scottish Independence Referendum Wed September 3rd, 2014 Sir Paul McCartney has become the latest celebrity to suffer a stream of online abuse from pro-independence Scots, after he signed a letter calling for a no vote inthis month's independence refer... Scottish independence: Sir Paul McCartney urges Scots No vote Tue September 2nd, 2014 Sir Paul McCartney has become the latest celebrity to call for Scotland to stay part of the UK ahead of the independence referendum. The music legend made the declaration as the Let's Stay Togeth... ‘The Lennon Report’ – producers defend film dealing with aftermath of John Lennon’s assassination Tue September 2nd, 2014 The producers of The Lennon Report – a film examining the aftermath of John Lennon’s assassination and those who tried to save him – have defended their project from accusations of cashin... Yoko Ono set to visit First World War memorial arch opened by Prince Harry in Folkestone as Triennial arts festival opens Mon September 1st, 2014 Artist Yoko Ono is hoping to visit Folkestone next month to pay her respects at a new war memorial in Folkestone, it has been revealed today. The planned visit was announced as her work goes on s... Book chronicles Beatles' American tour Mon September 1st, 2014 Ivor Davis knows exactly where he was 50 years ago today—hanging out with The Beatles. As the West Coast bureau chief for the London Daily Express, Davis was assigned to cover the first U.S. to... The true tale of John Lennon’s mum revealed in Walton author's book Sun August 31st, 2014 Most Beatles fans know stories about John Lennon’s mother Julia, whose early death in 1958 scarred him for life and inspired his music. On his 1970 song Mother, he sang “You had me but I neve... Paul McCartney remembers his favorite family holiday Sun August 31st, 2014 We’re coming to the end of the school summer holidays here in the UK (and our unfortunately short summer!). Lots of you will have noticed the additional noise, chaos and excitement that summer ... GRAMMY Foundation, MusiCares Announce New Board Fri August 29th, 2014 The GRAMMY Foundation and MusiCares Foundation — the affiliated charities of The Recording Academy — announced that their respective Boards have elected new officers and members. The new GRAM... The Beatles historian claims Fab Four were discovered in Tuebrook - not The Cavern Fri August 29th, 2014 A Beatles historian has claimed manager Brian Epstein first spotted the Fab Four when they performed in a youth club in Tuebrook. Gerry Murphy, who was a co-founder of the Cavern City Tours, cl... Production issues delay latest Paul McCartney Archive Collection releases Thu August 28th, 2014 The reissues were originally supposed to come out on September 22 as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection, following similar reissues of 'Band On The Run', 'McCartney', 'McCartney II', '... In The Great Debate Over Beatles Vs. Elvis, Beatles are America's Favorite Band While Elvis is Musical Artist Number Two Thu August 28th, 2014 NEW YORK, N.Y. - AUGUST 27, 2014 - In 1964, four musicians from Liverpool appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. Now, fifty years after that iconic performance, John, Paul, George and Ringo, otherwis... Paul Helps to #saveElephants Wed August 27th, 2014 Paul recently signed a Martin D-28 left-handed guitar, which was put up for auction and raised an astonishing $50,000 within minutes. Bidding began in the morning on eBay with a starting bid of $... Mark David Chapman must continue to serve prison time for John Lennon's murder, parole board says Tue August 26th, 2014 Fearing he may commit more crimes, a three-person Parole Board panel announced Friday it has denied Chapman’s eighth bid for release. He won’t be eligible for parole again for another two yea... Chris Martin and Stella McCartney team up to complete their ice bucket challenge Tue August 26th, 2014 So its no surprise estranged husband Chris Martin and her fashion designer pal Stella McCartney, joined forces to complete the charity stunt, which involves being drenched in ice cold water. The ... Beatles give first Canadian concert Mon August 25th, 2014 In 1964, the Beatles released the album Something New, which is what they were to North American audiences. Their first Canadian concert took place that year at Vancouver’s Empire Stadium, whe... Cirque du Soleil takes Beatles tribute to airports Mon August 25th, 2014 LAS VEGAS (AP) — Visitors flying into Las Vegas got more than just their luggage when they stopped by baggage claim. Cast members from Cirque du Soleil danced on the carousels, did handstands o... Finally, an Algorithm to Sort Your Beatles Albums Sun August 24th, 2014 If you’re a fan of the Beatles, you no doubt know that came before . But what about or or ? You may not know which came first, but researchers from Lawrence Technological University in Mic... The 59 best internet radio stations The best internet radio stations, selected and updated by Pete Naughton Sun August 24th, 2014 There's a whole lot of good radio out there which isn't made up of soporific playlists and banal chatter but it isn't always easy to find. With this in mind, we've compiled a list of the best int... John Lennon’s first ever self portrait on sale for £3million Fri August 22nd, 2014 For many, John Lennon – along with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr – is known for starting a musical revolution with the Beatles. However, before the Beatles even began, Lenno... Paul McCartney waxwork set to be auctioned for up to £1,000 Fri August 22nd, 2014 A waxwork model of Sir Paul McCartney will take pride of place at a Beatles-themedauction in Liverpool this weekend. The mannequin could go for between £800 and £1,000, the auction’s organ... KCBS Reporter Recalls Beatles Exclusive Interview 50 Years Ago Today Ahead Of Landmark Cow Palace Concert Thu August 21st, 2014 “All of my girlfriends. We all lived on the same street. All we did, you know,we we’re the Beatle’ girlfriends every single chance we had,” Denise McKevitt Rasmussen, who was celebrating ... CLASSIC ROCKERS DOMINATE ‘RICHEST BASSISTS’ LIST Thu August 21st, 2014 They hold down the low end, but many of them are living the high life. A new list compiles the Top 10 Richest Bassists in the World, and there are many of our favorites among them. This countdown... Kanye West secretly recording with Paul McCartney Wed August 20th, 2014 Kanye West has secretly been recording tracks with SirPaul McCartney, sources exclusively tell Page Six. The rapper and the former Beatle have quietly been collaborating on a number of tracks ... Don Was Wins Emmy For "The Beatles: The Night That Changed America" Wed August 20th, 2014 DON WAS took home an Emmy on Saturday night at the Creative Arts Awards. The show, held one week before the formal Emmy telecast, presents the awards for all categories that will not be part of ... Rare Beatles photos discovered at London children's home Tue August 19th, 2014 Rare pictures of The Beatles meeting youngsters from a children's home while filming A Hard Day's Night in 1964 have been discovered by a children's charity. Staff at The Children's Society di... Married by McCartney: Phoenix couple gets married on stage Mon August 18th, 2014 PHOENIX -- When attending a concert, especially in a large arena, most of us would just be happy with a shout-out from our favorite rock star. But for one Phoenix couple, the Paul McCartney conce... He got a Ticket To Ride! Ivor Davis reveals what life was like on tour with The Beatles Mon August 18th, 2014 On August 19, 1964, I was woken up at my home in Los Angeles by the phone ringing at six in the morning. It was my editor in London calling to give me the assignment of a lifetime. He wanted me t... ABBEY ROAD MIGHT NEED A CROSSING GUARD Sun August 17th, 2014 After dealing with several decades’ worth of pedestrians clogging the crosswalk at Abbey Road, local officials are mulling over hiring a crossing guard to keep would-be Beatles from being mow... Paul McCartney reveals never-seen-before photo from The Beatles’ last ever gig Sun August 17th, 2014 Paul McCartney has revealed a previously-unseen picture of The Beatles from the band’s last ever official gig at Candlestick Park, San Francisco in 1966. The image shows the Fab Four walking ac... Rare Beatles in Seattle photos unveiled by MOHAI Sat August 16th, 2014 The Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) will present starting Friday a pop-up exhibit of nine photos taken from the Beatles' first Seattle concert in 1964. The display, which will be found ... FANS FRUSTRATED OVER TRAFFIC NIGHTMARE DURING FINAL CANDLESTICK PARK SHOW Sat August 16th, 2014 SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) --Traffic was so bad for Candlestick Park's last show that some fans heading to watch Paul McCartney actually gave up and went home without seeing him. There were people who ... Candlestick farewell: McCartney gets it done with a little help from his friends Fri August 15th, 2014 The Beatles ended their disappointingly short set on Aug. 29, 1966, at Candlestick Park with a barely-audible-above-the-screams version of "Long Tall Sally." Just before the band hopped in an ar... Unseen photos of John Lennon ready to be presented to Yoko Ono Fri August 15th, 2014 A DOCUMENTARY photographer from Faversham is ready to present his photos of John Lennon to Yoko Ono. John Stewart Farrier has now teamed up with Faversham’s Maihen Picture Framing Company, in W... Paul McCartney Collaborates on a Video Game Score Fri August 15th, 2014 Collectors of Paul McCartney’s music may have to add a new format – a version of PlayStation or Xbox — to their stacks of LPs, tapes, CDs, DVDs and digital downloads. His next major proje... Gary Wright to reveal all about George Harrison friendship in new book Thu August 14th, 2014 The Dream Weaver and Really Wanna Know You hitmaker will publish Dream Weaver: Music, Meditation, and My Friendship with George Harrison in October (14). A press release announcing the new book r... Paul McCartney's Autographed Guitar Helps Save Elephants Thu August 14th, 2014 A Martin D-28 left-handed guitar signed by Paul McCartney is up for auction, with proceeds going to the Nature Conservancy's African Elephant Initiative. Bidding began on Wednesday on eBay w... One of earliest photos of The Beatles to be auctioned Wed August 13th, 2014 One of the earliest photos of The Beatles in Liverpool’s Cavern Club is being auctioned later this month along with a series of other recently unearthed snaps taken of the the band at the b... Fab Beatles sound engineer launches new high tech company Wed August 13th, 2014 FitzPro Ltd, which supplies audio-visual solutions to help businesses save time, money and the environment, has opened its new premises on Tiverton’s Business Park. Managing Director Rich Denha... Beatles ‘Hard Day’s Night’ to Stream Exclusively on Hulu Plus Mon August 11th, 2014 Hulu has exclusive U.S. streaming rights to the pic under its recently renewed licensing agreement with the Criterion Collection. A selection of the distributor’s 800-plus arthouse films are a... Paul McCartney invited to perform at Alien Woodstock Mon August 11th, 2014 Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have been invited to perform at 'Alien Woodstock' in a bid to make extra-terrestrials reveal themselves to the planet. The two musicians - who were joined in Th... The Beatles come second in poll of most bewildering song lyrics Sun August 10th, 2014 Chart act The Killers have triumphed in the baffle of the bands - after their hit Human was judged to have the most bewildering song lyric. The track - which reached number three in the singles c... Tom Petty On Cheap Speakers And George Harrison Sun August 10th, 2014 On a recent night in San Diego, Tom Petty was doing what he's been doing for close to 40 years: leading his band The Heartbreakers on stage, playing the old hits and inaugurating new ones. He's... The night The Beatles were trapped in Dodger Stadium Fri August 8th, 2014 Paul McCartney is getting back to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Sunday for the first time since he played there with The Beatles 48 years ago. This time around, let’s hope he has a better es... What John Lennon and The Beatles can teach us about workforce engagement Thu August 7th, 2014 Inspiration, passion, enthusiasm, motivation, engagement. Call it whatever you want, but in business you need it. Without it your team or organization is roadkill. As mentioned in a previous po... George Harrison - Hindu Leader Calls For Dead George Harrison Tree To Be Replanted Thu August 7th, 2014 Hindu leaders have joined fans of late Beatles starGeorge Harrison in calling for Los Angeles City officials to replant a tree tribute to the singer/songwriter after learning the pine that bore ... Governor of Minnesota declares August 2 'Sir Paul McCartney Day' Tue August 5th, 2014 The inaugural Sir Paul McCartney Day coincided with the former Beatles member's live show at the Target Field venue yesterday. The gig was only McCartney's fourth appearance in the state since 19... Macca ex-home door up for auction Tue August 5th, 2014 It might not be made of Norwegian Wood, but Beatles fans are expected to pay out thousands of pounds for the chance to own this old front door from Sir Paul McCartney's childhood home. The door, ... 300 more tickets available for McCartney concert in Missoula Mon August 4th, 2014 An extra 300 seats have opened up for Paul McCartney’s much-anticipated performance at Washington-Grizzly Stadium. The newly available tickets are part of a block reserved by the former Beatle�... Broadway-Hopeful New Musical About John Lennon and Yoko Ono Seeking Funding Sun August 3rd, 2014 The team behind a new rock musical about John Lennon and Yoko Ono called Rock & Roll's Greatest Lovers are seeking funding for a concept album, a bigger stage production and a film version. A s... Beatles Fans Traveled Great Distances to Attend the Museum's Screening of A Hard Day's Night. Sat August 2nd, 2014 AVALON, CATALINA ISLAND - Beatlemania swept the nation in 1964 after the Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show. Those crazed and hysterical fans - now in their sixties - continue to be as pass... Luke Skywalker on the Magical Mystery Tour in Liverpool Sat August 2nd, 2014 Star Wars actor Mark Hamill enjoyed a Magical Mystery Tour while he was in Liverpool as he visited a series of The Beatles' landmarks. The actor, who plays Luke Skywalker, visited the city while ... “The Beatles and Me on Tour” British Journalist Ivor Davis speaks Aug 9 in Malibu and Aug 7 at The Grove Fri August 1st, 2014 “The Beatles and Me on Tour” British Journalist Ivor Davis speak at Malibu Film Society’s 50th Anniversary screening of “A Hard Day’s Night” Saturday, August 9 in Malibu and at The ... Sir Paul McCartney tells LIPA graduates 'go out there and be wonderful Fri August 1st, 2014 Sir Paul McCartney told students at the performing arts college he co-founded to “go out there and be wonderful” as he attended its annual graduation ceremony. The ex-Beatle spoke of his d... Bono and Lennon stand by Leo's green campaign Kirsty Blake Knox Thu July 31st, 2014 The duo performed a rendition of 'Stand By Me' before playing a few riffs. Actors Marion Cotillard, Jared Leto and Joan Collins, model Cara Delevingne and singer Robin Thicke were among VIP... Wings Reissue 'Venus and Mars' and 'At The Speed Of Sound' Thu July 31st, 2014 The GRAMMY Award-winning Paul McCartney Archive Collection Announce next release Wings to reissue classic albums Venus and Mars and At The Speed Of Sound Formats to include previously unrele... Fab Four continue to inspire youth Wed July 30th, 2014 Fifty years after The Beatles made their North American debut, their music continues to attract young audiences. “They are one of my favourite bands. They are really inspiring for people to pla... Mark McGann talks about his ongoing portrayal of John Lennon Wed July 30th, 2014 THE role set him on course for a three-decade acting career and gained him an Olivier Award nomination when he first appeared in the West End. But despite the plaudits from John Lennon’s own fa... Sir Peter: Beatles should have made LOTR movie Tue July 29th, 2014 The Beatles approached director Stanley Kubrick to make a film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings novels back in their heyday, according to moviemaker Peter Jackson. The Fab Four starred in fi... "He was the 5th Beatle – but Brian Epstein paid for success with his life" Tue July 29th, 2014 WEST End theatregoers are about to view him as The Man Who Made The Beatles, but for veteran Liverpool solicitor and ECHO columnist Rex Makin he was, first and foremost, a friend and next-door ne... Artificial intelligence identifies the musical progression of the Beatles Mon July 28th, 2014 SOUTHFIELD, Mich., July 24, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Music fans and critics know that the music of the Beatles underwent a dramatic transformation in just a few years, but until now ther... New Collection: Early Days Video Shoot Mon July 28th, 2014 Earlier this month Paul published his latest music video, 'Early Days', from the album NEW. To celebrate the release, PaulMcCartney.com has published a new photo collection bringing together sho... W Hotel exhibit showcases Beatle-mania in Minneapolis Sun July 27th, 2014 For anyone who wasn't alive in 1965, it might be hard to imagine what Beatle-mania looked like in Minneapolis -- but almost 50 years after the concert, it's back in the form of a special exhibit.... With a New Girlfriend, Sunder, the Elephant Moves Towards Recovery Sun July 27th, 2014  Big, Grey and Smiling. Sunder, the former temple elephant is an unlikely celebrity with  friends ranging from the Big B to rock legends. But his international fame had come at a horrific cost... Plugging into Phoenix Music: Working Class Hero Fri July 25th, 2014 Some people mount John Lennon tribute shows and we listen to hundreds of wannabes and nowhere men in the bargain. But rare are the people who are drafted to chew gum and sing John Lennon songs be... Paul McCartney recording with Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp and Joe Perry Fri July 25th, 2014 The Beatles legend recently headed to the U.S. to restart his postponed tour after a bout of ill health which landed him in hospital in Japan. It has now emerged McCartney has been taking part in... Stella McCartney to design British outfits for 2016 Summer Olympics Thu July 24th, 2014 Sella McCartney -- the British fashion designer and daughter of rock star Paul McCartney -- has once again been selected to design her country's Olympic uniforms, according to reports in the B... The Insider: Campaign for a new Beatles statue for either Metquarter or Liverpool One Thu July 24th, 2014 They're already immortalised with a group tribute inside Cavern Walks, albeit one not all Fab Four fans love, but now there’s a campaign for a new Beatles statue in the city centre where everyo... Two women pictured with the Beatles tracked down thanks to the ECHO Wed July 23rd, 2014 Two of the mystery Beatles fans in an early picture of the band have been tracked down thanks to the ECHO. We published the snap, which was handed to Stephen Bailey manager of the Beatles Shop... Sir Paul McCartney's teenage grandson Arthur Donald parties at the Chiltern Firehouse Wed July 23rd, 2014 Accompanied by some friends, the teen looked smart in an olive shirt and chinos as he arrived at the Marylebone hotspot. Despite previously keeping a low-profile, young Arthur's decision to go t... Help Meat Free Monday Make A NEW Video Tue July 22nd, 2014 To celebrate five years of Meat Free Monday the campaign is looking for your help to make a new fan video. If you'd like to get involved, pick a line or two from Paul's song ‘Meat Free Monday... George Harrison Memorial Tree Overrun and Killed By... Beetles Tue July 22nd, 2014 In a strange, ironic twist of fate, the pine tree planted in 2004 in memory of George Harrison in Los Angeles will need to be replanted because the original tree died as a result of insect infest... Relive Beatlemania at The Revue Cinema with band historian Mark Lewisohn Mon July 21st, 2014 Fifty years ago on Aug. 11, 1964, the first Beatles film, A Hard Day’s Night, premiered in Toronto at four packed theatres. The Revue Cinema, 400 Roncesvalles Ave., marks the half-century of th... The Open brightened by Beatles tribute Mon July 21st, 2014 As The Open Championship teed off yesterday at Hoylake so does the fun and games as Beftfair have come up with a new comedy stunt. Homage to John Lennon heads to Australia Sun July 20th, 2014 A homage to the music, mystery and memory of John Lennon is coming to the Wide Bay next month.  Paul getting Out There in Pittsburgh Sun July 20th, 2014 Happy Birthday Ringo! Paul and the band recently celebrated Ringo's birthday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Paul reminisces about when he and Ringo first took to the stage together.  Beatles wax figures travel down under Sat July 19th, 2014 There's the chance to see waxworks of The Beatles in Sydney at the moment. The city's branch of Madame Tussauds is currently home to a late 1960s themed wax version of the well-known group. FIVE-YEAR-OLD BEATLES FAN CATCHES ATTENTION OF RINGO STARR Sat July 19th, 2014 LOS BANOS, Calif. (KGO) --A 5-year-old Los Banos boy had the opportunity of a lifetime recently to meet Ringo Starr. The little boy's name is King Tobias, and he lives and breathes Beatles music... Novelist Meg Wolitzer on the Beatles' 'Penny Lane' Fri July 18th, 2014 Meg Wolitzer, 55, is the author of 10 novels, including "The Interestings" (Riverhead), now in paperback. She spoke with Marc Myers. My mother, Hilma Wolitzer, published her first short story in... Paul McCartney on when he'll retire: 'When I feel like it, but that's not today' Fri July 18th, 2014 Paul McCartney probably isn’t the first person you picture when you think Ibiza, the Spanish island known for its hard-partying ways. But when he had the chance to go on vacation thanks to doc... Paul McCartney re-releases five of his classic albums as iPad apps Thu July 17th, 2014 Paul McCartney is the latest musician to experiment with the idea of albums as apps, following in the footsteps of Björk, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z and Snoop Lion. Five of his classic albums – Band on... Ron Howard to Direct New Beatles Doc Focusing on Band's Early Years Thu July 17th, 2014 When Ron Howard was 9 years old, he was already a national television star on The Andy Griffith Show – and there was only one thing he wanted for his next birthday. "The gift that I was beggi... Macca uses first guitar in video Wed July 16th, 2014 Sir Paul McCartney has brought his first-ever guitar out of retirement for the video for his new single, Early Days. Macca can be seen in the video playing the Zenith Model 17 acoustic guitar, wh... Paper-thin writers! The Beatles have one of the smallest vocabularies in pop music Wed July 16th, 2014 The Beatles have one of the smallest vocabularies in pop music according to a new poll analysing song lyrics. The Fab Four used just 688 words in their first three albums compared to 1890 used b... I blame Beatles' old Cavern Club for hearing loss - Cilla Tue July 15th, 2014 The entertainer worked at the music venue as a coat check girl in the 1960s so she could see bands such as The Beatles. But Black (71) has been forced to have a hearing aid surgically implanted b... Kid Snaps Selfie with Paul McCartney and Warren Buffett Tue July 15th, 2014 A young man snapped one of the selfies of the year on Sunday, July 13, catching former Beatle Paul McCartney and American business tycoon Warren Buffett lounging on a bench outside an ice cream s... Still fab 50 years on: Why The Beatles still worth a fortune to Liverpool Mon July 14th, 2014 Back in the late 1970s, before the Beatles industry was even in its infancy, if you’d fancied a Fab Four tour of Liverpool it would have been a uniquely intimate experience. How to experience The Beatles in Las Vegas Sun July 13th, 2014 July has long been a big month for The Fab Four; it's the month when Ringo Starr was born in 1940, when John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met in 1957, and when the group's film A Hard Day's N... Pizza parlor owners connected to McCartney song Sun July 13th, 2014 FARGO, N.D. — The proprietors of a Fargo pizza parlor named after a Beatles song written by Paul McCartney say they can't afford to take time off to attend his concert but would love to cook f... Shows I’ll Never Forget: Paul McCartney, July 9, 2014 Sat July 12th, 2014 At the United Center, Chicago: When attending a Paul McCartney concert, there are several guarantees: He will play an abundance of Beatles and Wings material, will toss in some recent tracks, an... Famous scene of Beatles on Liverpool town hall balcony re-enacted for homecoming anniversary Sat July 12th, 2014 The famous scene of The Beatles standing on the balcony of Liverpool town hall was re-enacted on the 50th anniversary of their triumphant homecoming. The Fab Four returned to Liverpool on Jul... Beatles photography exhibition to open Fri July 11th, 2014 An exhibition of photography by war hero Terence Spencer is coming to the new Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery this summer, opening on 19th July.  With two audacious careers, first as a World War... 'The Beatles: The Night That Changed America' Scores Six Emmy Nods Fri July 11th, 2014 "The Beatles: The Night That Changed America," the CBS special that commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show," received six Emmy Awards nominations Thursda... Ringo Starr on the mystery 'train song' from 'A Hard Day's Night Thu July 10th, 2014 In writing about what's being called “the train song” in the Beatles’ film “A Hard Day’s Night,” and recent efforts to identify the musicians who recorded it, at least one reader comm... Ringo Starr fronts charity fashion campaign Thu July 10th, 2014 The former Beatles star is the face of Varvatos' 2014 Peace Rocks autumn fashion collection, and the rocker announced the news during a rally in Los Angeles on Monday (07Jul14) to mark his 74th b... Paul McCartney to perform at Petco Park Thu July 10th, 2014 SAN DIEGO — Paul McCartney will bring his “Out There” world tour to Petco Park Sept. 28 — the first time the Beatles legend has played San Diego since 1976. “We are thrilled to welcome... Ringo Starr Celebrates His Birthday In Style Wed July 9th, 2014 Here in Hollywood, where we see stars and icons every day, there are still none that touch the pantheon of The Beatles. And so the excitement was electric all morning, as it was Ringo Starr’s ... Turning Stone launches new Hands of Fame exhibit with Ringo Starr's handprints Tue July 8th, 2014 Central New Yorkers no longer need to go all the way to Hollywood's famous Chinese Theatre to see their favorite celebrities' handprints. The Turning Stone Resort & Casino launched its new Hands ... See Paul McCartney Jam With Johnny Depp in 'Early Days' - Premiere Tue July 8th, 2014 "Early Days" is one of the highlights of Paul McCartney's most recent album, 2013's New, but its music video — which you can watch exclusively here — might never have happened if it was left... Beatles manager Brian Epstein honored with 'Blue Plaque' Mon July 7th, 2014 Brian Epstein, who managed The Beatles from 1962 until his death in 1967, was honored Sunday in London with a Blue Plaque, a historical marker linking notable figures of the past to the building... How John Lennon’s impulsive decision to play a 1969 concert in Toronto helped speed the Beatles breakup Sun July 6th, 2014 Over the next two months, more than five million foreigners will come to Canada on their summer vacation. For the rest of the summer, theNational Post presents this series on the revolutionaries... Twitter lampoons man whose hilarious John Lennon tattoo looks more like Harry Potter than Beatles star Sun July 6th, 2014 It is unlikely that the artist intended drawing the popular fictional wizard after including the word 'Imagine' and a peace sign underneath the dubious portrait. A charitable Matt McFarlane said... Paul McCartney's home disappears from Google Street View Sat July 5th, 2014 A host of stars have had images of their houses blurred on the online mapping service. The popular feature allows internet users to view street-level photographs across the country. Ex-Beatle Mc... 'Hard Day's Night' director Richard Lester says George was best Beatle actor, Paul 'tried too hard' Sat July 5th, 2014 Director RICHARD LESTER said he was given a strict deadline and low budget when making The Beatles' first film A Hard Day's Night, because the film's producers didn't think the band's popular... John Lennon lives forever Fri July 4th, 2014 Back by popular demand John Waters and Stewart D’Arrietta are going back to basics with their two-man concert, Looking Through A Glass Onion. Waters says the concert shows there is more than me... Ringo Starr Looks Back on 'A Hard Day's Night': 'It Was Mad, But It Was Incredible' Fri July 4th, 2014 "I mean, we were in a movie, man. We were making a movie!" Starr recalls to Billboard. "Four guys from Liverpool making a movie — it was so great. I loved it, and as you can tell, I loved it be... Take a trip down memory lane to the home of the Beatles Thu July 3rd, 2014 TAKE a trip back in time to the rock 'n' roll days of the Merseybeat era on this weekend break to the home of the Beatles. You will visit the homes and schools of the iconic band, discover the pl... Exclusive Footage of the Beatles’ Reaction to A Hard Day’s Night Thu July 3rd, 2014 When the film A Hard Day’s Night premiered in London on July 6, 1964, it wasn’t the first time that its stars — the Beatles — saw the film, but it was definitely better than that earl... Former Beatles' star George Harrison's home in Upton Green to be sold at auction Thu July 3rd, 2014 The former Liverpool home of Beatle George Harrison is set to be sold at auction. The house, 25 Upton Green in Speke, was home to George during the early stages ofBeatlemania – and is believ... 45 YEARS AGO: JOHN LENNON LEARNS HE’S A BAD DRIVER – THE HARD WAY Wed July 2nd, 2014 J ohn Lennon was a brilliant songwriter, but not much of a driver: He didn’t get his license until he was 24, and ended his time behind the wheel with a scary mishap that ended with a trip to ... Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band at Glastonbury 2014 review – between ludicrous and lovable Tue July 1st, 2014 Shortly after Dolly Parton finishes, another cult female legend takes to the Park stage, albeit one trickier to sing along with unless you’ve been having your vocal chords hand-stretched on a w... A Hard Day's Night 50th anniversary - The story behind the Beatles' pop masterpiece Tue July 1st, 2014 Fifty years ago US film distributors fancied making a quick buck exploiting a British band they dismissed as a passing fad. They wanted a low-budget film about The Beatles to be thrown together... SEAN LENNON SHARES KIDNAPPING FEARS Mon June 30th, 2014 In some ways, growing up with John Lennon‘s for a dad must have been pretty cool — but in others, it could be fairly nerve-wracking, as Sean Lennon explained in a recent chat with Mojo. Chi... Beatles slept at Seattle's Edgewater Hotel 50 years ago; so can you Mon June 30th, 2014 In 1964, the Beatles arrived in Seattle on Aug. 21 to play the Seattle Coliseum. Most hotels wouldn't house the moptops because they couldn't protect them from their ever-present hysterial fans, ... Monty Python were The Beatles Mon June 30th, 2014 They were the surreal comedy troupe who took television by storm, made millions howl with laughter at their bizarre sketches and inspired a new generation of alternative humour. And now, thanks... Macca in row over plan to fell trees on Mull of Kintyre farm Sun June 29th, 2014 He wants to remove 300 lorry loads of timber a year for the next few years from his Scottish hideaway on the peninsula of Kintyre. But residents say the increase in the number of heavy lorries us... Canongate to republish Lennon classics Sun June 29th, 2014 Canongate will publish facsimile editions of John Lennon's two books, In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works this December. First published in 1964 and 1965 respectively, the books com... UNC-Chapel Hill gives Ringo Starr a plaque—and a hat Sat June 28th, 2014 On Sunday, Mark Katz, the chairman of UNC-Chapel Hill's music department, helped secure a Carolina-blue mortarboard to the head of the man who sang “Yellow Submarine.” Ringo Starr, in town t... 50 Years After the Beatles' Hollywood Bowl Concert Sat June 28th, 2014 When they visited Los Angeles for the first time in the summer of 1964, the Beatles went to the Whiskey A Go Go, where George Harrison hurled a glass full of water at an annoying photographer a... How ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ Saved the Rock ‘n’ Roll Movie Fri June 27th, 2014 The uniquely discordant strum of a guitar introduces the now-iconic image of the Fab Four careening down a London-as-Liverpool street, chased by a horde of screaming young fans. George attempts ... Yoko Ono (81) thinks she crazy for agreeing.... Fri June 27th, 2014 The annual music festival, one of the most popular dates in the British music calendar, kicks off properly on Friday and has a varied and diverse line-up of artists including Dolly Parton, Meta... Rain can't dampen Ringo and his All-Starrs Fri June 27th, 2014 Niagara Gazette — Greatest Tuesday in the Park show ever? It’s up for debate, but making the case for Ringo and his 12th All Starr Band as the greatest show in the 40-year history of Artpark ... Ringo Starr's letters to teenage girlfriend about his 'new group' The Beatles sell for £16,250 Thu June 26th, 2014 -Doreen Speight met the future Beatle at a Butlin's holiday camp when he was with his old band Rory Storm and the Hurricanes Love letters from Ringo Starr to a teenage girlfriend sold today for �... THE BEATLES INSTITUTE Thu June 26th, 2014 Explore the dynamic decade of the 1960s at “ground zero for peace and love,” the historic site of the 1969 Woodstock festival. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts and National Council for the So... PAUL McCARTNEY'S FIRST EVER GREENSBORO (NC) DATE ADDED TO 'OUT THERE' TOUR Wed June 25th, 2014 Paul McCartney has added another date to summer's hottest ticket: The 'Out There' world tour will touch down at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina—marking Paul’s historic... Microphone used by The Beatles in Hull fetches £7,500 at Christie's auction Wed June 25th, 2014 A MICROPHONE used by The Beatles when they played live in Hull in 1964 has been sold for £7,500. An imitation tortoiseshell plectrum used by John Lennon at the same concert fetched £4,000. The ... Ringo Starr Gives Update On Paul McCartney’s Health: He’s ‘Getting Ready To Rock’ Wed June 25th, 2014 Paul McCartney uploaded a video to his YouTube page this afternoon (June 24th) with an update on how he’s feeling and details on rescheduled tour dates.  The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger Tue June 24th, 2014 It’s hard not to go into a show like The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger without just a little bit of apprehension and a whole lot of awe.  The apprehension comes from the fact that this might be... Sir Paul McCartney, 72, enjoys relaxing Ibiza getaway with wife Nancy Shevell Tue June 24th, 2014 He has been in recovery after being struck down with a mystery illness during his tour of the Far East in May. So it’s no surprise Sir Paul McCartney opted to get away on a sunshine break as h... Lennon at the Royal Court, Liverpool Mon June 23rd, 2014 Any show that starts with Liverpool's favourite Beatles song was always going to be onto a winner. In My Life has topped each of our readers’  polls of favourite Beatles songs in the last few ... Catalina Island Museum event celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Beatles' Mon June 23rd, 2014 Catalina Island Museum event celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" We are screening the film in the historic Avalon Theatre on Catalina Island on Sunday, July 6 ... Brazilian newspaper mocks England Beatles style after World Cup loss Sun June 22nd, 2014 Following England's hard day's night against Uruguay, members of the Three Lions squad have amusingly been mocked up as The Beatles on the front page of Brazilian newspaper Lance. ‘Save Us’ Fan Video Sun June 22nd, 2014 We recently asked you to pick a line from Paul’s song ‘Save Us’ then represent that lyric in a creative way. We received thousands of entries! Though we expected a big response we were stil... WANT TO MEET PAUL McCARTNEY? - attend soundcheck, take photos with, watch concert at Candlestick! Proceeds to Haiti. Sat June 21st, 2014 The last time Paul McCartney played Candlestick Park he was a Beatle.  That concert turned out to be their last together as a band.  Fittingly, Paul’s concert in August at The Stick will be... Here comes the music of George Fri June 20th, 2014 He was known as The Quiet One, but a night in his honour should prove to be anything but. In an evening dubbed All Things Must Pass, a 10-piece band will be celebrating the music of George Harri... Paul McCartney bounces back from illness for birthday dinner Fri June 20th, 2014 The Beatles legend cancelled the Asian leg of his world tour in May (14) after he was hospitalised in Japan with a virus. He flew home to London a week later to recover and was subsequently pictu... Inquiry told historic Welsh Streets can't be saved simply because 'Ringo may have walked there once' Fri June 20th, 2014 An inquiry was told Liverpool’s historic Welsh Streets can’t simply be saved because “Ringo may have walked there once.” Keeping half of Madryn Street, where Beatles drummer Ringo Starr... Fan's 50-year-old cake for Paul McCartney Thu June 19th, 2014 Well, he's got older but he doesn't seem to be losing his hair, and he's well past the age of 64. While Paul McCartney turns 72 on Wednesday, one fan revealed a piece of cake they kept from the ... She Loves Him! Paul McCartney walks arm-in-arm with wife Nancy on 72nd birthday stroll Thu June 19th, 2014 The Beatles star, who turns 72 today, took a stroll with his wife Nancy through their local area of north London. Wearing matching hoodies, the couple looked perfectly in sync as they strolled al... Comeback concert for ELO frontman Wed June 18th, 2014 ELO frontman Jeff Lynne is teaming up with the BBC Concert Orchestra to play some of the band's greatest hits at a comeback concert in Hyde Park. Queen's birthday honours: Hunter Davies says wife was far from impressed with award Wed June 18th, 2014 Hunter Davies, the writer and Beatles biographer, said his wife was far from impressed with the news he is to receive an OBE for services to literature. Mr Davies, who wrote the only authorised... The McCartney's Meat Free Monday Campaign Celebrates Five Years Wed June 18th, 2014 London – As the Meat Free Monday campaign celebrates its fifth year, the campaign, headed by Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney, looks forward to reaching new audiences. Candid photographs of George Harrison, John Lennon and Yoko Ono at landmark Bangladesh benefit gig to fetch thousands Wed June 18th, 2014 A set of candid photographs featuring George Harrison, John Lennon and Yoko Ono ahead of the Concert for Bangladesh have emerged for sale and are expected to sell for thousands at auction. In th... Epic Rights Secures John Lennon Licensing Wed June 18th, 2014 John Lennon is the latest iconic personality to secure a worldwide licensing, global branding and rightsmanagement agreement with Epic Rights. Yoko Ono has pacted with Epic Rights CEO Dell F... BEATLES TV SERIES BEING DEVELOPED BY NBC Tue June 17th, 2014 With ‘Mad Men’ set to end its acclaimed run on AMC next year, there will undoubtedly be a void in ’60s-set programming that needs to be filled. Enter NBC, who are reportedly in talks to cre... 'The Beatles in Mono' to Get Lavish Vinyl Release This Fall Tue June 17th, 2014 Five years to the day after the release of The Beatles in Mono, a box set of the group's monaurally mixed catalog through 1968, the band is issuing a vinyl version of the box set. Although th... Ringo Starr to Unveil Self Portraits at Soho Contemporary Art, 6/19 Fri June 13th, 2014 Ringo Starr, who is currently on tour with his All Starr Band, is also bringing his artwork to New York City. What started merely as a diversion to pass the time, has since developed into an ico... Paul McCartney's Tour Postponement Has Ripple Effect Through Industry Fri June 13th, 2014 Paul McCartney's postponed Out There tour dates left thousands of disappointed fans and promoters scrambling to adjust their schedules. And while the long-term costs of his recent viral infect... Todd Rundgren Says Playing in Ringo's All Starr Band Is "the Best Gig You Could Have" Thu June 12th, 2014 Ringo Starr is once again ready to get by with a little help from his musical friends, as the rock legend kicks off a brand-new North American tour with his All Starr Band tonight in Rama, Can... Meet Jimmy Nicol, the forgotten Beatle, stand-in drummer for Ringo Thu June 12th, 2014 Jimmy Nicol, the stand-in drummer for Ringo Starr at the start of The Beatles’ 1964 world tour, sitting all alone at the departure lounge at Essendon Airport, waiting for his flight home to Eng... Les Paul gala auction to feature Paul McCartney signed guitar Thu June 12th, 2014 The Mahwah Museum will host the Les Paul 99th Birthday Gala 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Trustees Pavilion at Ramapo College. A live and silent auction will be held, offering an array of special gui... U.S. Congress updating music copyright laws as world goes digital Wed June 11th, 2014 The U.S. Congress is working to update laws on who gets paid for recorded music, in a possible omnibus bill, as old CDs pile up at yard sales and music lovers increasingly shift to streaming serv... The Beatles Are Back and the Servers Are Crashing! Wed June 11th, 2014 The new single, "The High Road" from Brent Bourgeois and Julian Lennon (the auditory clone of his father, John Lennon) is fooling listeners into believing there is a newly unearthed gem from the ... Paul McCartney Postpones June U.S. Dates Due to Illness Tue June 10th, 2014 Paul McCartney has rescheduled the U.S. tour dates he had originally scheduled to begin in mid-June for October. His Out There tour will now resume in Albany on July 5th. The former Beatle is sti... New book ‘Man on the Run’ reveals Paul McCartney’s struggle with drugs, alcohol after Beatles breakup Tue June 10th, 2014 Paul McCartney began the ’70s in an alcoholic haze and ended them in a Japanese jail. The decade in between was one long and winding road. A new book, “Man on the Run: Paul McCartney in the 1... Previously unheard Beatles interview published by NFSA Tue June 10th, 2014 Beatles fans will be able to hear, for the first time ever, the unedited version of an interview that John, George and Ringo gave to Melbourne radio personality Binny Lum ahead of their Aus... Vox Continental Recreated In Software Mon June 9th, 2014 As a high-end software recreation of the Sixties-vintage VOX Continental 300 transistor-based combo organ, VOX Continental-V is the latest addition to Arturia's acclaimed Analog Classics lineup w... How the Beatles music changed Australia Mon June 9th, 2014 Fifty years ago, on Thursday, June 11, 1964, four lads from Liverpool, England, arrived in Australia on their first world tour – John, Paul, George … and Jimmy. A fifth, Ringo, newly recovere... Update Abused elephant Sunder on road to rescue centre in Bangalore Sun June 8th, 2014 NAVI MUMBAI: Young Sunder was on Thursday morning placed onto a truck by experts who travelled to Kolhapur to work with the Maharashtra forest department, and is on his way to a 49ha forested car... The Science of Rock 'N' Roll Exhibition Sun June 8th, 2014 Music lovers listen up! The Science of Rock 'N' Roll Exhibition opens June 11th at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto and features all kinds of hands-on exhibits that are sure to get your fe... Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band kick off tour in Canada Sat June 7th, 2014 Ever the musician, Ringo Starr still loves playing gigs and hitting the road for fresh tours. The former Beatle kicks off a new series of concert dates with his All-Starr Band on Friday in Rama, ... Catching Ringo Starr and The All Starr Band for the first time Sat June 7th, 2014 June 6, 2014 will be one of those dates I will never forget! For that is the time I have ever seen any of The Fab Four! We had amazng seats and I watched Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band perfor... Ringo Starr Producing His New Album; Talks Tour, Beatles & His 'Incredible Year' Fri June 6th, 2014 Ringo Starr has had a ball celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' arrival in America this year as well as some of his own honors. But, he says, it's put a bit of a crimp in plans for hi... John Lennon microphone used by The Beatles at 1964 concert in Hull to be auctioned at Christie's Fri June 6th, 2014 A MICROPHONE used by The Beatles when they played live in Hull in 1964 is set to fetch about £6,000 at auction. The microphone was owned and used by The Beatles in the early 1960s. It was given ... Campaign to save birthplace of Ringo Starr needs help of fans Fri June 6th, 2014 I have been involved for the last few years in a campaign to save the birthplace of Ringo Starr at 9, Madryn Street in the Dingle. The campaign also includes all of the “Welsh” Streets that i... Ringo Starr and his All-Star Band coming to Palace Theatre Thu June 5th, 2014 ALBANY >> The first of the two living Beatles will play the area Tuesday, when Ringo Starr will be at the Palace Theatre in Albany with his All-Star Band. Sir Paul McCartney will be at the Times ... John Lennon's books and manuscripts fetch high price at auction in New York Thu June 5th, 2014 Original manuscripts and drawings by former Beatle John Lennon, produced for two acclaimed books he wrote in the mid-1960s, sold for $2.9m (£1.73m) on Wednesday, more than double the pre-sale e... Harry Benson's Photos of The Beatles to (Briefly) Return to The George V Hotel in Paris Wed June 4th, 2014 We've long known that the Four Seasons, George V Hotel in Paris has hosted many distinguished celebrities over the years (and some reality stars too) but did you know about their Beatles conn... Memorabilia from The Beatles 1964 Australian tour for sale Wed June 4th, 2014 It's nearly 50 years since B-Day, when The Beatles landed in Sydney to launch their 1964 Australian concert tour. Their arrival on June 11 sparked the phenomenon known as Beatlemania, which peake... A peace of history: Professor Green and Millie Mackintosh recreate iconic John Lennon and Yoko Ono protest for charity Tue June 3rd, 2014 Millie Mackintosh and Professor Green may divide opinion based on their music or marriage. But the two will add further Marmite appeal after they recreated the iconic image of John Lennon and Yo... Search for Beatles fans in Liverpool snap taken over 50 years ago Tue June 3rd, 2014 The search is on for six early fans of the Beatles captured in a photograph more than 50 years ago. The six girls were pictured with the fab four at St John’s Hall in Tuebrook, Liverpool in 196... Newly Discovered 40-Year-Old Interview with George Harrison Tue June 3rd, 2014 It happened late one night with a phone call into Houston’s KLOL-FM, which led to a trip to the radio station itself, and then turned into a rarely heard and raw interview with The Beatles grea... On This Day: The Beatles release Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band Mon June 2nd, 2014 JUNE 1, 1967: The Beatles released their most critically acclaimed album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on this day in 1967.  The LP, in which the Liverpudlian band showcased a revoluti... Yoko Ono honoured in Bilbao Mon June 2nd, 2014 CONCEPTUAL artist Yoko Ono’s 60-year career is being honoured in a major Spanish art exhibition. The Guggenheim Bilbao is hosting a retrospective of the pioneering 81-year-old’s work. Sir Paul Mccartney - Sir Paul Mccartney 'Doing Fine' After Health Drama Sun June 1st, 2014 Sir Paul Mccartney was "extremely moved" by his fans' messages of support after his hospitalisation in Japan and is now "doing fine" following his return to London, according to a representative... John Lennon's song 'Imagine' now in a comic strip Sun June 1st, 2014 In an email interview with Fiona Fernandez, Pablo Stanley, the San Diego-based creator of the comic strip, Imagine pays tribute to John Lennon’s iconic song. The Beatles historic Australian footage released Sat May 31st, 2014 Highlights of The Beatles 1964 Australian tour has been released by EMI Records. It was 50 years ago when The Beatles were invited to Australia. They touched down in Sydney on June 11, 1964 and ... Andrew Lancel in Blue Plaque unveiling party for Brian Epstein Sat May 31st, 2014 ANDREW Lancel will be among the unveiling party when a Blue Plaque is unveiled to Brian Epstein in London next month. The Liverpool actor is set to reprise his role as the late Beatles manager on... Ocean Galleries Hosts “The Art of Ringo Starr” Fri May 30th, 2014 “The Art of Ringo Starr” on display at Ocean Galleries (9618 Third Avenue, Stone Harbor, NJ) Fri, June 13 thru Sun, June 15, 2014 - receptions 7PM-10PM on Fri, June 13 & Sat, June 14; & 1PM-4... John Lennon's 'gibberish' poems and childlike doodles set to fetch $800,000 at auction Fri May 30th, 2014 The largest private collection of doodles, comic drawings and nonsensical poems by the Beatles singer John Lennon will be sold by Sotheby's in New York next Wednesday. Book Review: Paul McCartney: Recording Sessions (1969-2013) by Luca Perasi Thu May 29th, 2014 Essential reading for any serious Paul McCartney fan, Luca Perasi’s Paul McCartney: Recording Sessions (1969-2013) covers everything from theMcCartney album (released in 1970) right through�... Paul McCartney spotted looking frail in London Thu May 29th, 2014 The Beatles legend looked frail and pale-faced as he walked arm-in-arm with his wife Nancy Shevell in the rain on Tuesday (27May14), but managed to give a wave and a 'thumbs-up' to photographers. A Day in the Life event inspired by packaging innovation and The Beatles’ album Wed May 28th, 2014 The Fab Four’s landmark “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album is rechanneled toward packaging with PAC Packaging Consortium’s outside-the-box “A Day in the Life” Symposium t... Update! Paul McCartney Reportedly Leaves Japan After Being Treated for Virus Wed May 28th, 2014 It looks like Paul McCartney is on the road to recovery.  The organizers of the rock legend’s tour of Japan have issued a statement announcing that the former Beatle left the country on Mo... Yoko Ono drops lawsuit against co-op board after selling West Village penthouse for $8.3M Tue May 27th, 2014 Yoko Ono is giving peace a chance. The artist and widow of John Lennon withdrew her $6.7 million lawsuit against a West Village co-op board last month, a day after she sold her apartment there fo... Books Review: Guitar With Wings by Laurence Juber Tue May 27th, 2014 Guitar With Wings makes clear that Laurence Juber, during a sideman stint that lasted some three years, learned things large and small from Paul McCartney. He spends this sumptuous photo book ce... Luxury Parisian hotel traces link to the Beatles in photo exhibit Tue May 27th, 2014 Beatles fans who are Paris-bound this summer may want to add the Four Seasons Hotel Georges V to their itinerary, as the luxury landmark -- where the band wrote one of their most iconic songs -- ... Yellow Dubmarine to brings reggae Beatles tribute to Avalon Mon May 26th, 2014 EASTON — Do you have the feeling that you want to be at the beach this weekend but will end up relaxing in Easton instead? Ever wonder what Beatlemania might have sounded like with Bob Marley a... George Harrison’s Last-Ever Letter Was to Mike Myers Sun May 25th, 2014 On Nov. 29, 2001, George Harrison died at the age of 58 after a long struggle with cancer. In a new interview, actor Mike Myers reveals that, earlier that day, he received a piece of fan mail... How The Beatles came on tour to Australia nearly 50 years ago Sun May 25th, 2014 IT was 50 years ago next month that The Beatles arrived in Australia for their first and only tour. But how did the biggest band there ever was end up in our then far-flung corner of the globe a... SEAN ONO LENNON'S BAND VAN BURGLARIZED IN SF Sat May 24th, 2014 SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) --A smash-and-grab burglary occurred in San Francisco this week involving the son of a former Beatle.  Sean Ono Lennon posted a picture on Instagram showing the broken wind... Fans keep vigil for Macca in Tokyo as he battles serious viral infection Sat May 24th, 2014 Anxious fans tonight kept vigil outside a Tokyo hospital  as Sir Paul McCartney battled a serious viral infection. Macca, 72 next month, was admitted after his recent symptoms failed to improv... Musicians, kids come together to celebrate Beatles Fri May 23rd, 2014 It was 50 years ago in June that Sgt Pepper taught the band to play. And to celebrate, hundreds of New Zealand musicians are teaming up to bring Beatlemania back to Auckland. The Rutles spreading a little silliness along the way Fri May 23rd, 2014 NEIL Innes is convinced that too many people involved in the music business are far too serious. And for more than 40 years he’s been on a mission to bring some fun back, both as a solo artist ... Update! Paul McCartney expected to make 'complete recovery' Thu May 22nd, 2014 Paul McCartney is on the mend, his spokeswoman says. A virus infection forced the former Beatle to cancel his Japan tour and South Korea concert. TheSankei Sports newspaper reports that McC... Paul McCartney has canceled his concert in South Korea next week due to the virus-caused illness Wed May 21st, 2014 SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Paul McCartney has canceled his concert in South Korea next week due to the virus-caused illness that forced him to call off his entire Japan tour, organizers said Wed... 35 Years Ago: Beatles Stage Partial Reunion For Eric Clapton’s Wedding Wed May 21st, 2014 She was the impetus for two of rock music’s most identifiable love songs in the Beatles‘ ‘Something‘ and Derek and the Dominoes‘ ‘Layla.’ Pattie Boyd was also the catalyst for the... 13-Year-Old Elephant Sunder's Release May Be Delayed Wed May 21st, 2014 The walk to freedom for Sunder, a 13-year-old elephant who has been in captivity, could be delayed further. MLA Vinay Kore, who has been resisting Sunder's release, has now filed an appeal agains... PAUL McCARTNEY CANCELS REST OF JAPAN TOUR DUE TO ILLNESS Tue May 20th, 2014 TOKYO (AP) — The bug Paul McCartney caught last week has squashed the final dates of his Japan tour. His reps say the singer isn't well enough to do any of the remaining shows in Japan — beca... An electric guitar owned by The Beatles' George Harrison sold at auction for almost £400,000 Tue May 20th, 2014 An electric guitar played by The Beatles' George Harrison has sold for almost £400,000  at an auction in New York. The former Beatle played the 1962 Rickenbacker 425 guitar on British TV show... Tokyo National Stadium shows to be postponed 18th & 19th May Mon May 19th, 2014 Tokyo National Stadium shows to be postponed 18th & 19th May Doctors have ordered Paul complete rest and he has been doing all he can to get better. Paul has only ever had to reschedule a handful... THE WHITE ALBUM CONCERT Shows Announced for Canberra & Wollongong, July 13-26 Mon May 19th, 2014 With seven shows around the country already announced and selling fast, two new cities have been added to the White Album Concert National Tour, with performances in Canberra on 22 July and in Wo... The Flaming Lips announce release date for 'Sgt. Pepper's' cover album, 'With A Little Help From My Friends! Mon May 19th, 2014 It was basically music's worst-kept secret, but now it's official... The Flaming Lips are releasing a full cover album of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band. According to Stereog... Beatles show Let It Be to return to the West End Sun May 18th, 2014 Beatles show Let It Be is to return to the West End for an 11-week run. The show originally ran in the West End in September 2012 at the Prince of Wales, before moving to the Savoy Theatre in Jan... Beatles themed cafe makes 7000 calorie tower sandwich Sun May 18th, 2014 A Beatles-themed cafe has created an epic 7000 calorie snack sandwich and has challenged fans to consume it. Sean Lennon, Charlotte Kemp Muhl share 'an invisible problem' Sun May 18th, 2014 At 38, Sean Lennon is already deep into a long and idiosyncratic career in pop music, following his creative whims as singer, sideman, bandleader and producer. His current band, the Ghost of a Sa... Neil Innes talks Bonzos, Beatles, Rutles and more Sat May 17th, 2014 He's been a Bonzo and a Rutle, appeared on film alongside Pythons and Beatles, written everything from kid's TV shows to hit singles, and kept a sense of humour throughout it all. Neil Innes has... NEW Video: 'Appreciate' Sat May 17th, 2014 Paul McCartney has collaborated with some of the biggest names in the world. In recent years his videos have featured a stellar line up of guests including Meryl Streep, Johnny Depp, Kate Moss, J... Ricky Wilson treasures Paul McCartney ukulele Fri May 16th, 2014 The Kaiser Chiefs frontman was thrilled when the veteran musician gave him the unique present and he had a cabinet specially made so he could show off the instrument in his home. John Lennon Pan Am flight bag auctioned Fri May 16th, 2014 A flight bag belonging to John Lennon has been auctioned for £4,700. The Pan Am Airways bag was given to the musician during the Beatles' first trip to America in 1964. It was auctioned, along w... Paul McCartney's wife helps ex-Beatle land top five spot on rich list Fri May 16th, 2014 Shevell's estimated £150 million fortune helps rocket the 71 year old up the Music Millionaires List to number four, behind Zomba Group boss Clive Calder, Sir Cameron Mackintosh and Warner Music... 'Beverly Hills Pawn' Star Yossi Dina Secures Rare 1962 Beatles Contract Thu May 15th, 2014 LOS ANGELES, May 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ Yossi Dina, star of The ReelZ Channel's hit reality show, "Beverly Hills Pawn" and owner of The Dina Collection in Beverly Hills has added an extremely r... Cavern Club takes on Hard Rock Cafe in courtroom battle over using its world-famous name Thu May 15th, 2014 Liverpool's Cavern Club is taking American restaurant chain the Hard Rock Cafe to court in a battle over who owns the rights to the famous name. Trademark battles between the Mathew Street club a... GRAMMY Museum in LA is set to premiere a new exhibition in Liverpool Thu May 15th, 2014 The GRAMMY Museum in LA is set to premiere a new exhibition in Liverpool. The British Invasion: How 1960s Beat Groups Conquered America will open at the Beatles Story’s Pier Head site in Octo... Stella McCartney - Saving Sheep, One Herd At A Time Wed May 14th, 2014 Stella McCartney has become a pretty big name. And not just because of her famous father. Or her activist mother. But her of her own fame. And her own activism. That's right, Stella McCartney, d... The Beatles Art Show and Sale Returns to the Hamptons to Celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Duck Walk Vineyards Wed May 14th, 2014 Beginning Friday May 30th and running through Sunday June 1st The Beatles Art Show and Sale returns to Duck Walk Vineyards Water Mill location for the first time in seven years. The show featurin... Metallica unplug to cover the Beatles' In My Life Wed May 14th, 2014 What do you get when you pair one of the all-time best metal bands with one of the all-time best songs? Metallica covering the Beatles' "In My Life," naturally.  4 Life Lessons from the Beatles Tue May 13th, 2014 I've been doing a lot of research into The Beatles over the past two years, reading many books about 'the boys' and interviewing people who were friends back when things got cooking for them. The... Cilla Black, Friend of The Beatles and an Early Contemporary, to Receive Career Honor in London Tue May 13th, 2014 Cilla Black, who early in her career shared a manager with The Beatles and recorded songs written byJohn Lennon and Paul McCartney, is being honored for her outstanding contribution to enter... Update! Paul McCartney Hints at Ringo Starr Joining Him On Stage Tue May 13th, 2014 If you’re one of the thousands of people who snapped up tickets to see Paul McCartney at Dodger Stadium on August 10, you may be in for a bit of history. McCartney may have hinted that he mig... 45 YEARS AGO: THE BEATLES LAUNCH EXPERIMENTAL ZAPPLE RECORDS Mon May 12th, 2014 In the summer of 1968, the Beatles issued their first release on their own Apple imprint with the single ‘Hey Jude.’ A few months later, the idea for a side label, existing solely for the ... Pop legend Frank Ifield at Liverpool's Epstein Mon May 12th, 2014 Experience music history at its best as one of the finest gentlemen of the music world and 60’s icon, Frank Ifield heads to the Epstein Theatre. In an “in conversation” event he narrates h... Paul Gets Back #OutThere At The Budokan! Sun May 11th, 2014 On the eve of the new leg of Paul’s massive worldwide ‘Out There’ tour, due to commence in Tokyo on 17th May with two massive sold out shows at Tokyo’s National Stadium, Paul has announce... Former Beatle George Harrison's guitar up for auction Sat May 10th, 2014 A guitar owned by George Harrison is heading to auction along with other Beatles and rock memorabilia. The Julien's Auctions sale is May 17 at the Hard Rock Cafe in Manhattan. The 1962 Rickenback... MACCA'S NIRVANA REUNION SURPRISE Sat May 10th, 2014 Paul McCartney has admitted he didn't realise he'd fired up a Nirvana reunion until he, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear had been jamming for more than an hour. The former Beatle had be... Lakewood man turns his house into a shrine of The Beatles, pop culture Fri May 9th, 2014 The home of Johnny Jones is quiet and plain from the outside. The only movement on this spring day comes from leaves skittering on the long and winding road that leads to the Tudor-style house. Sean Lennon - Sean Lennon Baffled By Plan To Clone Beatles Star Fri May 9th, 2014 Sean Lennon has branded plans to clone his father John Lennon from Dna extracted from the late rocker's teeth as "bizarre, futuristic and dystopian". Last year (13) Canadian dentist Michael ... What would you ask Macca about his Fab Four days? Fri May 9th, 2014 Ever wondered what you should talk about if you bumped into Sir Paul McCartney, doing a spot of supermarket shopping in Heswall maybe? The answer is ... The Beatles. And don’t be shy about it e... Paul McCartney treats fans and LIPA students to his Elvis impression Thu May 8th, 2014 Sir Paul McCartney treated fans and students to an impromptu Elvis style dance sequence as he visited the city yesterday. The former Beatle, who was back in his hometown to surprise students at h... Candid photographs of The Beatles go on display in new London exhibition Thu May 8th, 2014 Back in the Sixties, a British photographer made it his business to capture the life of The Beatles at a time of great change. Robert Whitaker, who died three years ago, was with the world's most... Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band Debuts Trailer for Upcoming North American Tour Thu May 8th, 2014 Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band will be heading out on a new North American tour in just about a month, and a new video trailer promoting the forthcoming trek has just debuted online.  Th... One Track Mind: Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger, “Long Gone” (2014) Wed May 7th, 2014 Charlotte Kemp Muhl and Sean Lennon’s Ghost of A Saber Tooth Tiger guested on WNYC’s Spinning On Air last month and played some songs from the newly-released Midnight Sun album, but perh... Update! Paul McCartney Tix Stay Nation’s Top Picks Wed May 7th, 2014 Paul McCartney tickets have continued to top the U.S charts since the storied singer/songwriter released seats to the 2014 North American leg of his global Out There Tour, said Marta Ault on BuyA... Paul McCartney Tickets Dodger Stadium: Ticket Down Slashes ...or Paul McCartney at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California Tue May 6th, 2014 Ticket Down is a reliable source for cheap Paul McCartney tickets at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, CA. The “Out There” world tour featuring the iconic Paul McCartney will be heading to Lo... UK could earn extra £4bn from music heritage tourism - report Tue May 6th, 2014 The UK could earn an extra £4bn every year in music heritage tourism, according to a recent report from UK Music. Titled Imagine, the study's findings take the example of Liverpool, where the he... ‘Imagine’ the ‘Band on the Run’ – Lennon, McCartney Classics Mashed Together Mon May 5th, 2014 First, you speed up a classic instrumental solo track by John Lennon. Then, you slow down an accapella version of another solo Paul McCartney smash. Result: Fresh Beatle-y goodness. Update! The Beatles A Hard Days Night re-release trailer Mon May 5th, 2014 If you are a fan of The Beatles, you might remember A Hard Days Night, a comedy movie that portrays a couple of days in the lives of the group. A Hard Days Night was first released way back in 19... Owner of ‘Abbey Road’ Plans Major Expansion Sun May 4th, 2014 The owner of iconic Abbey Road Studios is planning a major expansion and upgrade of the facility, the Journal’s Bruce Orwall reports. As any self-respecting Beatles fan knows, Abbey Road i... Sneak Peek: New song featuring Ringo Starr Sun May 4th, 2014 Ringo Starr is, of course, most famous for having played with a certain British Invasion group. But he’s not without his rootsy credentials, having sat in with no less a Chess legend that Howli... Rare unseen John Lennon shots go on public display Sat May 3rd, 2014 Twelve previously unseen photographers of John Lennon before he hit the big time in The Beatles, have gone on show at a top London gallery. The collection were taken more than 45 years ago by Joh... Update! Tickets for McCartney's Candlestick show to go on sale Monday Sat May 3rd, 2014 The Beatles concluded their performing career on Aug. 29, 1966, at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, Paul McCartney, one of the world-changing British band's two surviving members, concludes th... Update! A Hard Day's Night UK Blu-ray Release Detailed Fri May 2nd, 2014 British distributors Second Sight Films have detailed their upcoming Blu-ray release of director Richard Lester's A Hard Day's Night. The release will be available for purchase online and in sto... 50 Years Ago: First Series Of Beatles Trading Cards Issued Fri May 2nd, 2014 You know you’ve made it in America when you get your image on a bubblegum card. In May 1964, as all things Beatles were taking hold over the youth of the world, Topps got in on the game, issu... Abbey Road, Beatles Icon, Opens Its Doors--Briefly Fri May 2nd, 2014 At Abbey Road Studios, four visitors are summoned to a corner of the cavernous Studio Two to recreate an iconic sound made 47 years ago by another quartet: the Beatles. PAUL MCCARTNEY LOGO RECREATED ON ECUADORIAN MOUNTAIN Thu May 1st, 2014 After all these years, it’s difficult to believe there’s a nation on Earth that Paul McCartney hasn’t played, but he’s still checking off spots on the map — and they’re awfully exci... New book offers Definitive Guide to the Music of the Beatles Thu May 1st, 2014 While Beatles books continue to flood the market, few focus on specific musical details. Who played what instrument? How did producer George Martin contribute to the group’s sound? Finally, and... Update! Imagine that! John Lennon's coat sells for $31,250 in online auction Thu May 1st, 2014 A coat previously owned by John Lennon has sold for $31,250 in an online auction. The blue coat, designed by Great Coat Fireman, is believed to have been worn on the back cover of Lennon and Y... The John Lennon Museum Remembering Yoko Ono’s millennium project, 2000-2010 Wed April 30th, 2014 Living in Japan is often a magical mystery tour. Many things are counter-intuitive: the most popular attraction in a nation with 17 World Heritage Sites is Tokyo Disney Land; and theHakone Ope... Paul McCartney Releases New Lyric Video for the Wings Classic ‘Band on the Run’ Wed April 30th, 2014 Forty years ago this month, Wings‘ Band on the Run was released as a single. To mark the occasion, Sir Paul McCartney has debuted a new lyric video for the song, produced and directed by i... Paul McCartney plays first ever show in Ecuador Wed April 30th, 2014 Sir Paul McCartney played his first ever show in Ecuador last night (28.04.14). The former Beatles star took to the stage at the Estadio De Liga in Quito, 2,800 metres above sea level, making it ... $800K signed stage wall from Beatles' 1964 Ed Sullivan appearance fails to sell at NYC auction Tue April 29th, 2014 A large piece of stage backdrop signed by the Beatles during their first live U.S. concert 50 years ago has failed to sell at a New York City auction. Heritage Auctions spokesman Noah Fleisher sa... Beatles’ ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ Restored, Set for July 4 Release Tue April 29th, 2014 A new restoration of the Beatles’ 1964 film “A Hard Day’s Night” has been set to play in more than 50 cities nationwide over July 4 weekend. Janus Films announced that the music movie ha... Learning about the fifth Beatle Mon April 28th, 2014 Vivek J. Tiwary is the writer of the graphic novel, “The Fifth Beatle,” and a producer of many successful plays and musicals including “American Idiot” and “The Producers.” He will be... Update! Two Rutles, Neil Innes and John Halsey, will get back to the backbeat in Swansea Mon April 28th, 2014 The Beatles reunion can never happen, but two Rutles, Neil Innes and John Halsey will get back to the backbeat at Swansea's Garage on May 25. Kate Clarke talks to Neil, aka Ron Nasty, about being... Liverpool striker Suarez interviews music legend Paul McCartney Sun April 27th, 2014 Liverpool striker Luis Suarez turned interviewer as he quizzed one of the city's favourite sons, Sir Paul McCartney. The pair conducted a video chat before the former Beatle was due to play in S... Miami home that ‘The Beatles’ visited during first trip to US to be demolished Sun April 27th, 2014 A home in Miami, Fla., "The Beatles" visited on their first trip to America in 1964 is to be demolished. According to Curbed, papers commissioning total demolition of the Melvin Grossman-design... The Who's Roger Daltrey Honored for His Charity Work at UK Awards Event Sun April 27th, 2014 Roger Daltrey received a special honor for his work with the Teenage Cancer Trust at the U.K.’s 2014 Music Week Awards, held Thursday night in London.  The BBC reports that The Who sin... Paul McCartney Tickets Top U.S. Charts Yet Again Sat April 26th, 2014 Paul McCartney just released more tickets to his 2014 North American Out There tour and sales are topping the charts around the country, said Marta Ault on BuyAnySeat.com. The former Beatle, now ... John Lennon's fireman coat up for auction Sat April 26th, 2014 A fireman-style jacket once owned by John Lennon is to go on sale at auction. The blue coat is believed to be the same garment the iconic musician sported on the back cover of his and Yoko Ono's ... McCartney concert tickets sell out in 1 hour Sat April 26th, 2014 The Paul McCartney concert scheduled for June 14 in Lubbock is now sold out. Select-a-Seat sold all remaining tickets in an hour after they went on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Friday mo... Business of the Beatles conference to be held during the International Festival for Business Fri April 25th, 2014 Liverpool tourist attraction The Beatles Story is to host a free conference on “The Business of the Beatles”. The two-day symposium on June 26 and 27 has been organised as part of the city’... Update on story! McCartney signature on guitar challenged Fri April 25th, 2014 BETHEL -- Someone is striking a chord of disharmony. A music industry autograph expert is challenging the authenticity of Paul McCartney's signature on a guitar being offered for auction next m... Paul McCartney to play Candlestick's final show Fri April 25th, 2014 Paul McCartney will headline the final concert at Candlestick Park in August, the former Beatle and San Francisco officials said Thursday, ending a back-and-forth drama that had the city competi... Back in the USSR? Paul McCartney might boycott Russia because of human rights abuses Thu April 24th, 2014 Sir Paul McCartney has secretly met up with Pussy Riot – amid speculation he could become the biggest-name star to snub Russia because of their human rights record. The music legend held a summ... John Lennon Educational Tour Bus rocks through Pomona Thu April 24th, 2014 POMONA >> Sumara Sevilla was hooked once she heard the thumping upright bass at an Imelda May rockabilly concert two years ago. That inspiration still drives the 10-year-old Kingsley Elementary S... McCartney guitar tops Bethel auction Thu April 24th, 2014 BETHEL -- A new electric guitar autographed byPaul McCartney tops the offerings at this year's St. Thomas Episcopal Church benefit auction. The ivory Fender Squier guitar wasn't played by McCar... Sean Lennon's new album Midnight Sun Wed April 23rd, 2014 When your father was a member of the Beatles and your mother an acclaimed avant-garde/noise artist, you're allowed to take some creative liberties. Just ask Sean Lennon (son of John Lennon and ... When the Beatles Blew Their Big Chance Wed April 23rd, 2014 The much-maligned Decca Records will forever be known in the annals of rock history as the label that rejected the Beatles — an epic, billion-dollar blunder considered by many to be one of hist... United Supermarkets will not sell Paul McCartney tickets Wed April 23rd, 2014 The United Supermarkets “family,” which also includes Amigo’s Supermarket and Market Street, will not be Select-A-Seat outlets when tickets for Paul McCartney’s June 14 concert go on sale... Paul McCartney Postpones Concert in Santiago, Chile; Announces Five New US Tour Dates Tue April 22nd, 2014 Paul McCartney just kicked off a new Latin American leg of his Out There Tour over the weekend, and the road trip already has hit a speed bump.  The legendary Beatle has postponed the trek�... Sir Paul McCartney sells 52ft fishing boat Barnaby Rudge he bought with first wife Linda Tue April 22nd, 2014 Compared to the multi-million pound super-yachts favoured by the likes of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and F1 presenter Eddie Jordan, this humble fishing vessel may not look like much.However f... Beyonce gym buddies with Paul McCartney Tue April 22nd, 2014 Beyonce and Paul McCartney have apparently been hitting the gym together during their downtime in California. The US pop star and Beatles legend have both been in southern California recently, w... British band The Vamps give nod to Beatles with first album Mon April 21st, 2014 It’s no coincidence that the quartet’s debut Meet The Vamps – out today – echoes the title of the second album The Beatles released. Singer Bradley Simpson told me: “We realised the Be... Former Beatles venue to be developed into landmark building Mon April 21st, 2014 Businessman Terry Riley  is  behind a  multi -million pound  plan  to transform Southport’s  once legendary Kingsway  Casino site into a landmark  building. The Visiter can now  exclus... Pandora Sued by Major Labels Over Pre-1972 Copyrights Mon April 21st, 2014 Pandora Media Inc., the biggest Internet radio service, was sued by major record labels for failing to pay for using music recorded before 1972. The companies, including Capitol Records LLC and S... Reading the Beatles Sun April 20th, 2014 At the pressconference at JFK airport, on virgin soil, they do their by-now fully developed thing: four mouths in a row, four bobbing heads, four sets of speculative-aggressive eyes. Unnerving p... Beatles album cover artist to appear at Mumbles festival Sun April 20th, 2014 A POP art legend will help Mumbles celebrate a four-day festival of art, music and literature next month. Sir Peter Blake, best known for designing the iconic sleeve to the Beatles album Sgt Pepp... Brand on the run are back on the road Sat April 19th, 2014 The Rutles are back with their unique blend of music and humour. The irreverent songwriter and satirist Neil Innes talks to Chris Bond. THE RUTLES have probably had more comebacks than the great... I should have been a Beatle, too: Macca's little brother re... first drummer - until a Scout camp accident wrecked his dream Sat April 19th, 2014 We’re talking about life’s ‘if onlys’ when Mike McCartney drops his astonishing bombshell. He hates the word ‘if’. ‘It’s the most stupid, little two-letter word in the world,’ ... A Trove of Old Film Footage, Now Online Sat April 19th, 2014 In days of yore – or at any rate, from the dawn of cinema into the 1960s or so – going to the movies was more than just settling into a plush seat with nearly a gallon of soda and a truckload... It’s getting batter all the time! Sir Paul McCartney urges people to try vegetarian this Good Friday Fri April 18th, 2014 Sir Paul McCartney is encouraging people to try a vegetarian meal rather than the traditional fish option this Good Friday. The former Beatle, who is wearing an "Eat No Fish" t-shirt for the cam... Yoko Ono's Village Horse Stable-Turned-Home Sells For $8.3M Fri April 18th, 2014 It was about six months ago when the former horse stable Yoko Ono bought for son Sean Lennon, who only briefly occupied the joint, appeared on the market for $6.5 million. After entering cont... John Lennon audio interviews surface on 'I'm Not the Beatles' Fri April 18th, 2014 "I'm Not the Beatles: The John & Yoko Interviews" is now on CD, six radio interviews conducted with John Lennon and Yoko Ono from 1969-72. Beatles fans have had an embarrassment of riches compet... For those Long And Winding Roads! Sir Paul McCartney takes his blue Chevy Corvette for a spin in Beverly Hills Thu April 17th, 2014 If there’s one car the people of California will see Sir Paul McCartney in when he’s hanging out Stateside, it’ll be his blue Chevy Corvette convertible. The legendary rocker always drives... George Harrison's sister says Liverpool Legends are Beatles at heart Thu April 17th, 2014 Louise Harrison remembers The Beatles as kind and sincere young men who loved their music and their fans. So the late George Harrison's sister tried to find musicians with similar values when she... EXTRA SHOWS ADDED! Paul Gets Back #OutThere In The U.S.! Thu April 17th, 2014 Following an incredible 2013 which saw Paul McCartney’s universally acclaimed 'Out There' tour launch in Brazil and visit 23 cities across South America, Europe, North America and Japan, Paul h... Hard Days Night Hotel to be official hotel headquarters of BT Rock 'n Roll Liverpool Marathon Wed April 16th, 2014 The BT Rock'n'Roll Liverpool Marathon & ½ Marathon has named the Hard Days Night Hotel at its official hotel headquarters. As a community partner of the Rock 'n' Roll Liverpool Marathon, the Be... Cunard Line to host Beatles cruise Wed April 16th, 2014 Beatles fans, take note: The U.K.-based Cunard Line has announced plans for a Beatles-themed cruise for later this year. Billed as a commemoration of the British band's first crossing of the Atla... Paul McCartney Asking Fans to Submit Photos for Use in "Save Us" Video Tue April 15th, 2014 How would you like to appear in Paul McCartney‘s next video?  The ex-Beatles legend is putting together a new promotional clip for “Save Us,” a song from his latest album, NEW, and he�... Paul McCartney concert: Let it be at new stadium, 49ers say Tue April 15th, 2014 The 49ers are in talks with Paul McCartney to perform the opening concert at their new Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara - a move that would effectively yank the rug out from under San Francisco's ... Photos featuring The Beatles in Dallas are about to hit the auction block Tue April 15th, 2014 Photojournalist John Mazziotta wouldn’t take his daughter along to the 1964 Beatles concert in Dallas, so he did the next best thing: He gave her his pictures and negatives. Jan Howes, who was... Ten Things You May Not Know About the Gretsch Guitar Mon April 14th, 2014 Rock ‘n’ roll as we know it wouldn’t exist without the guitar – particularly the electric guitar. Originally imagined as a way of expanding the sound of contemporary jazz music, the elect... Stones, Beatles Managers Oldham, Epstein Inducted Into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Mon April 14th, 2014 After an introduction by Jann Wenner — during which it was revealed that, unsurprisingly, the Brooklyn, New York Barclays Center is full of E Street Band and Kiss fans — the 2014 Rock and... Preview The Flaming Lips and Miley Cyrus’ cover of The Beatles’ “A Day in the Life” Sun April 13th, 2014 The time is near: as Wayne Coyne just reported on Instagram, The Flaming Lips and Miley Cyrus’ cover of  The Beatles cover is almost ready for release. Coyne wrote: “Woke up ..fell out ... Let It Be, Reconsidered Sun April 13th, 2014 It was a dark time for the group. The Beatles lost their manager and good friend Brian Epstein to a barbiturate overdose in the fall of 1967. To forget their sorrows, John Lennon, Paul McCartney,... Business lessons from rock: Not everyone can be the Beatles Sun April 13th, 2014 What do you do when there’s a singular talent in your field that is SO demonstrably superlative that no one can EVER hope to compete with it? This is “the Mozart problem,” according to Bo... New Gospel album includes Beatles and John Lennon covers Sat April 12th, 2014 Harlem Records announces its first full-length album release. The Harlem-based independent record label that previously released the Cissy Houston EP "Walk on By Faith" in May 2012, and the Gos... Sheridan Smith spotted filming Cilla Black biopic in Liverpool Sat April 12th, 2014 Filming for the new three-part ITV drama about Cilla Black, starring Sheridan Smith (Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps) is well underway in Liverpool. The ‘60s-set drama will tell ... Why 'Mad Men' Paid $250,000 To Use One Beatles Song Sat April 12th, 2014 Music has always been one of the most important aspects of AMC's "Mad Men." Which is why, when creator Matthew Weiner wanted to use a Beatles song in season 5's "Lady Lazarus" episode, he refuse... The Beatles supported me...and I'm still touring 50 years later Fri April 11th, 2014 WHILE most people remember Joe Brown as one of Britain's first pop stars, my early memories of the original chirpy Cockney are slightly different. Throughout my '80s childhood, the 72-year-old... Martin Lewis: The Birth Of 'Beatlemania' Fri April 11th, 2014 He was just a small record store owner who went to hear a popular little local band and decided he could make them stars. They had no record deal and no real prospects. He had no experience as a ... Beatles Fans Scramble to Book Seats at McCartney Concert Fri April 11th, 2014 Hyundai Card suffered a system crash on Tuesday as fans scrambled to book tickets for the Seoul concert of former Beatle Paul McCartney. The credit card company started to sell advance tickets o... 'Beethoven to The Beatles' celebrates musical innovations Thu April 10th, 2014 Composer Ludwig van Beethoven may not seem to have much in common with four musicians named John, Paul, George and Ringo, but a concert on Saturday will bring them all together for a fun musical ... 17-year-old plays side two of Abbey Road with various instruments Thu April 10th, 2014 17-year-old Dylan Gardner says: "In honor of the Beatles breakup on April 10, 1970, I decided to cover the entire second side of their last album, Abbey Road, with different instruments for 1... Sunder is saved! Bombay High Court orders the release of abused temple elephant Thu April 10th, 2014 The Bombay High Court has ordered the release of elephant Sunder who was held captive and beaten up mercilessly at the Jyotiba temple in Kolhapur. As Mail Today reported in January 2014, the ele... The True (Forgotten) Story of Havana’s John Lennon Park Wed April 9th, 2014 HAVANA TIMES — In December of 1990, I took part in one of the most beautiful music events I can recall. I am referring to the first, great concert held as tribute to John Lennon in Havana, at t... Only Let It Be LP signed by all four Beatles to be auctioned Wed April 9th, 2014 Beatles Signed Let It Be US Stereo LP Cover (Apple AR-34001, 1970) in a Framed Display, the Only Example Known to Exist Bearing all Four Signatures. The Beatles 12th studio album, a soundtrack... Paul Gets Back #OutThere In The U.S.! Wed April 9th, 2014 Following an incredible 2013 which saw Paul’s universally acclaimed ‘Out There’ tour launch in Brazil and visit 23 cities across South America, Europe, North America and Japan, today Paul c... ‘Dude, I’ll make time!’: Richard Marx is back for another song on Ringo Starr’s forthcoming album Tue April 8th, 2014 Richard Marx’s second songwriting intersection with Ringo Starr, following the 2010 track “Mystery of the Night,” has allowed him far more latitude in creating with the former Beatles sta... ‘I was so wiped out’: Micky Dolenz on how a Beatles song got into the final Monkees TV show Tue April 8th, 2014 Monkees fans will remember that “Good Morning, Good Morning,” from the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, appears as part of the Micky Dolenz-directed final episode of thei... Chris Brady: Beatles re-releases - I just can't help myself Tue April 8th, 2014 In London, at the office of Apple Corps, a little man sits at his desk day and night, working out yet more ways to fleece money out of a totally suspecting but totally addicted group of sad, agei... ‘He is definitely alive’: Yoko Ono denies long-held rumor about death of Beatles’ Paul McCartney Mon April 7th, 2014 Each week, Yoko Ono opens the floor for fan questions of any stripe, from her philosophy on art and outlook on life, to her music career and that of her husband John Lennon — both solo and with... Paul McCartney and wife Nancy Shevell engage in some PDA for the kiss cam during LA Lakers game Mon April 7th, 2014 When it comes to Sir Paul McCartney showing his affection for his wife, he certainly isn't shy about it. Paul took the opportunity to plant a kiss on his wife, Nancy Shevell, for the Kiss Cam at... Session legends: Billy Preston Sun April 6th, 2014 Depending on who you ask, Billy Preston is either the fifth Beatle (one of many pretenders to that particular title, but arguably one of the few with a genuine claim), one of the greatest Rolling... 'It was viral before there was viral': Revisiting the 'Paul is dead' hoax Sun April 6th, 2014 RAINBOW CITY, Alabama -- It was no April fool's prank – in the autumn of 1969, much of America wondered if Paul McCartney, one fourth of the Beatles, was actually alive. And this weekend, one o... Mike McCartney Shares His Photos and Memories of The Beatles, Hendrix and Bo Diddley at Swansea's Grand Theatre Sat April 5th, 2014 Dubbed Flash Harry by Brian Epstein, Mike McCartney shares some of his favourite photos of The Beatles, Liverpool and the architects of rock 'n roll at Swansea's Grand Theatre on April 25 How the Fab Four high-fived the Hot 100 Sat April 5th, 2014 In one magical decade, The Beatles made records built to last an eternity. The same might be said for the band's chart records. Friday marks the 50th anniversary of the Fab Four's remarkable B... LOOK: Eraserheads recreate iconic Beatles album cover Sat April 5th, 2014 MANILA -- Here's a rare sight: reunited members of the Eraserheads on Thursday crossed Abbey Road in London, recreating the iconic album cover of their idols The Beatles. Interview: John Lennon tribute artist Tim Piper Sat April 5th, 2014 Musician, actor and songwriter Tim Piper has traveled the world performing music made famous bythe Beatles, distinguishing himself as the preeminent John Lennon with roles in the CBS production T... Rare audio, images augment Beatles history Fri April 4th, 2014 The last track on "Revolver" is a one-chord song with the inscrutable title "Tomorrow Never Knows." Released in 1966, the album announced that The Beatles were not just a pop sensation but ambiti... Scott Rodger - Sir Paul Mccartney's Sidekick Named Manager Of The Year Fri April 4th, 2014 Scott Rodger, the man behind Sir Paul Mccartney's current success, was named Manager of the Year at the Artist and Manager Awards in London on Thursday night (03Apr14). JOHN LENNON’S INFAMOUS ‘LOST WEEKEND’ REVISITED Fri April 4th, 2014 By the summer of 1973, John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s marriage was on the rocks. As an unusual remedy, Ono suggested that Lennon embark on an affair with their assistant, May Pang. That decision... Brian Epstein made rock 'n' roll history behind the scenes, earning place in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Inductee profile Fri April 4th, 2014 CLEVELAND, Ohio – He never wrote a song, fronted a band or played a concert, but Brian Epstein is one of the important men in the history of rock 'n' roll. "Without his initial guidance, insig... McCartney to hold concert in Seoul in May Thu April 3rd, 2014 Paul McCartney, a former member of the legendary British band The Beatles, will hold his first-ever concert in South Korea next month, organizers said Thursday. The show is part of his Out Ther... Musical biography of Beatles comes to Temecula Thu April 3rd, 2014 Most people know that The Beatles are one of the most acclaimed bands in rock and roll history, because their music has the hypnotic qualities that make teenage girls scream and artists today and... Inside Abbey Road With Beatles Engineer Ken Scott Thu April 3rd, 2014 BEATLES FANS WHO’VE MADE the pilgrimage to Abbey Road Studio 2 will attest to the experience of eerie communion with the mighty music captured there. Now there’s a new reason to set foot on h... Rock Hall of Fame induction will be full of no-shows Thu April 3rd, 2014 Next week’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame show looks like it’s going to be a mess. Many of the inductees are fighting, some aren’t coming, and many aren’t playing. THE BEATLES FIRST TOUR TO US VOTED UK'S GREATEST DEPARTURE Wed April 2nd, 2014 Heathrow says the public’s choice of the most iconic departure from the UK over the last century by aircraft, train, boat or car is The Beatle’s first tour of the US in 1964. Paul Backs New '#IAm' Campaign for Everyone Matters Wed April 2nd, 2014 People around the world have been uploading “I Am!” selfies to express pride in identity for today’s 2014 Everyone Matters day, a campaign Paul has supported since it launched in 2012. 'The Beatles: Part II' arrives Wed April 2nd, 2014 Hear the music of the Beatles while watching news and film clips about the group's “Sgt. Pepper’s” years at “The Beatles: Part II,” a concert and rockumentary by Justin Ploof and the Th... 40 Years Ago: Ringo Starr and Harry Nilsson Release ‘Son of Dracula’ Wed April 2nd, 2014 Two of the biggest rock stars of the ’70s filming a comedy inspired by the legend of Dracula. What could go wrong? Quite a bit, as it turned out. But on paper, having Harry Nilsson team up wi... Lennon’s visit remembered in Chelsea Flower Show Tue April 1st, 2014 John Lennon’s visit to the Island in 1980 will be a feature of this year’s famous Chelsea Flower Show by way of a “Bermuda Double Fantasy Garden” exhibit. Double Fantasy was the name of L... Beatles Story reports record-breaking visitor numbers for 2013/14 Tue April 1st, 2014 Liverpool’s Beatles Story attraction has broken through the 250,000 visitors-in-a-year mark for the first time. The Albert Dock attraction says it welcomed 254,451 visitors through its doors in... Beatlemania on display at Bethel Woods Tue April 1st, 2014 So just how did Jeffersonville's Rod Mandeville get those original Beatles' bobblehead dolls? They're from 1964, with John, Paul and George holding guitars and Ringo cradling a drum. Simple. Fift... Bob Gruen’s Iconic Rock ‘n’ Roll Portraits of John Lennon, Ramones, and Tina Turner Tue April 1st, 2014 Even the most casual consumers of rock ‘n’ roll iconography have seen Bob Gruen’s iconic images. He’s shot album covers, photographs that ended up as posters and postcards, and portraits ... Ecuador to Award Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney Tue April 1st, 2014 Quito, March 29 (Prensa Latina) The British singer and song-writer Paul McCartney will be awarded by the Ecuadorian government next month during a visit to this South American country, informed s... 50 YEARS AGO TODAY: Beatles Break up the first time AFTER JOHN THROWS PIE AT PAUL IN LOCAL CAFE Tue April 1st, 2014 50 YEARS AGO TODAY: BEATLES BREAK UP THE FIRST TIME AFTER JOHN THROWS PIE AT PAUL IN LOCAL CAFE John Lennon's UFO-inspired Art Fetches Big Bucks Mon March 31st, 2014 In 1967, when John Lennon wrote his classic Beatles hit, "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds," everyone assumed the psychedelic song was about drugs. Few would have guessed that several years later, a... Paul McCartney jokes about what keeps him going Mon March 31st, 2014 2014 is shaping up to be as busy as ever with Paul announcing a string of new live dates in South America and Japan. Here at PaulMcCartney.com we use a variety of tactics to keep our energy lev... Aqueous covers 11 Beatles songs in Buffalo Mon March 31st, 2014 Last month upstate New York jam act Aqueous played a weekly residency at Nietzsche's in their hometown of Buffalo. For the final show of the residency, which was billed as "Mystery Artist Night... 50 YEARS AGO: THE BEATLES GET WAXED Mon March 31st, 2014 On March 28, 1964, the Beatles were immortalized in wax at the Madame Tussauds Museum in London. For over 200 years, the London-based Madame Tussauds, who currently have over a dozen locations... 40 YEARS AGO: JOHN LENNON AND PAUL MCCARTNEY REUNITE FOR ONLY POST-BEATLES SESSION Sun March 30th, 2014 The Beatles had partial studio reunions on official releases into the ’80s, but never with more than three members present — and never with Paul McCartney and John Lennon on the same se... John Lennon letter to Keith Moon and Harry Nilsson fetches £53,000 Sun March 30th, 2014 A LETTER written by John Lennon blaming rockers Keith Moon and Harry Nilsson for urinating on a console at a recording studio has sold almost £53,000. The former Beatle was frustrated by the he... Luxury London penthouses to overlook Abbey Road crossing Sat March 29th, 2014 Derek Cunnington gazed out over the low-slung London skyline from atop an eight-story apartment building and liked what he saw. “When you’re up here, you can see lots of opportunities,” sai... Visiting Ringo Starr at the Grammy Museum in LA Sat March 29th, 2014 Upon my insistence, my cousins Gina Furman and Carmencita Purugganan brought me to The Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles. I had read of the exhibit of Ringo Starr’s memorabilia at the Gramm... Hofner changes Violin Bass names Sat March 29th, 2014 Hofner has redesignated the model names of its famous Violin Bass to reflect the iconic bass's Beatles lineage. The three German-made models have been the cause of some confusion among McCartney ... EPSTEIN: THE MAN WHO MADE THE BEATLES to Run July 30-Sept 6 at Leicester Square Fri March 28th, 2014 The cast and producers of Epstein: The Man Who Made The Beatles - the long-awaited play about the legendary music manager Brian Epstein - visited London's Leicester Square Theatre last week to of... Rock star paintings go on display at Liverpool's View Two Gallery Fri March 28th, 2014 Paul McCartney and John Lennon are among 40 paintings of rock heroes by graphic designer Paul Terence Madden going on display in Liverpool on Friday. He said, "This endless exhibition is a true h... A night in the life of a busy Beatles tribute band Fri March 28th, 2014 Every once in a long while, the members of Yesterday and Today get a request they can’t bring themselves to play. It’s not for lack of knowledge or enthusiasm. The six members of the Beatles ... Boy embraces all things Beatles Fri March 28th, 2014 John Leszczynski is a 5-year-old coping with a level of autism that has delayed his verbal and sensory processing skills. That means he doesn't talk. He isn't ready to read. His idea of play is a... Paul is Getting Back #OutThere in Japan! Thu March 27th, 2014 Following an incredible 2013 which saw Paul’s critically acclaimed ‘Out There’ tour launch in Brazil and visit 23 cities across South America, Europe, North America and end here in Japan, t... Paul McCartney's technique for making decisions Thu March 27th, 2014 Each direction could work, you think. But you’re stuck trying to decide which one. Well, you might try a simple technique that worked for Paul McCartney when he was trying to finish a song fo... Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band part of Artpark's Tuesday series Thu March 27th, 2014 Artpark announced Wednesday that Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band will be a part of the First Niagara presents Tuesday in the Park concert series on June 24.   Malaya Watson wows with jazzy take on Beatles song Thu March 27th, 2014 Filipino-American singer Malaya Watson wowed the “American Idol” judges anew as she performed a jazzy rendition of The Beatles’ “Long and Winding Road” on Wednesday night (Thursday morn... Warren Haynes, Joe Walsh, Ringo Starr and More Guest on New Kenny Wayne Shepherd Album Wed March 26th, 2014 Kenny Wayne Shepherd will release his Concord Records debut,Goin’ Home, on May 20. The album—which was recorded in 11 days in Shepherd’s hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana—will feature fel... Fight Over Money From Beatles Tribute Tour Wed March 26th, 2014 Two companies behind a Beatles musical revue claim in court that proceeds from the "Rain - A Tribute" tour should not be "held hostage" by their partners because of a separate copyright dispute.�... Celebration of George Harrison songs Wed March 26th, 2014 All Things Must Pass – celebrating The Music Of George Harrison - comes to the Under Ground Theatre in Eastbourne. A powerful 10-piece band, recruited by some of the finest and most experience... Sir Paul Mccartney - Paul Sir Paul Mccartney's Campaign Elephant Still In Captivity Tue March 25th, 2014 An abused elephant is still living in horrendous conditions in captivity almost two years after Sir Paul Mccartney spearheaded an apparently successful campaign to save it. Yoko Ono joins more than 18,000 people in backing 'save Bombed Out Church' campaign Tue March 25th, 2014 More than 18,000 people – including Yoko Ono – are backing a campaign to save the ‘bombed out church’ from being handed over to a private company. John Lennon drawing recalls frightening Palm Springs tram ride Tue March 25th, 2014 A rare drawing by John Lennon which sold Friday in a celebrity auction brings to mind a hair-raising story of when the ex-Beatle took a ride on the famous Palm Springs aerial tramway in Califor... Largest private collection of poems, doodles and drawings b...nnon to fetch more than $800,000 when it goes under the hammer Tue March 25th, 2014 The largest private collection of John Lennon's artwork could fetch more than $800,000 (£500,000) at auction later this year. The works, featuring poems, doodles and drawings, were created by t... Simpsons episode reveals Beatles attraction in Springfield Mon March 24th, 2014 On Sunday's episode of The Simpsons, all the bullies in town took the subway to the Bully Summit, giving us a look at Springfield's mass transit system (and sort of Vignelli-esque map... or is i... East Grinstead busker reaches two million YouTube hits singing everything from Beatles to James Blunt Mon March 24th, 2014 YOU may well have hummed along to one of his songs. Perhaps you have dropped a few coins into his guitar case. But you probably haven't realised just how popular busker Danny McEvoy is. A regular... Savoretti gets tips from McCartney Sun March 23rd, 2014 Jack Savoretti was given career advice by Sir Paul McCartney after starring in his video for the track 'Queenie Eye'. Jack Savoretti was given career advice by Sir Paul McCartney. The 30-year-o... 50 Years Of Beatle Mania - Legendary Photographer Harry Benson On The Fab Four Sun March 23rd, 2014 In January 1964 the Beatles toured Europe, having just become a sensation with the release of their debut album the year before. While playing a series of concerts in France, they stayed at the G... How Beatles artist signed to help Bristol charity bookshop Sat March 22nd, 2014 When a rare Beatles record was dropped off at a charity bookshop, it looked like the donation was going to raise a healthy £50. But for one keen employee at Amnesty Bookshop on Gloucester Road, ... McCartneys swing through Chandler on ‘Magical History Tour’ Sat March 22nd, 2014 Angie McCartney and daughter Ruth have been Beatles insiders from 1964 onwards, when Angie married Sir Paul McCartney’s father, Jim, in November of that year. Angie and Ruth McCartney are comin... Beatles jackets worn during the filming of Help! sell for £115,000 Fri March 21st, 2014 Rare jackets worn by George Harrison and Ringo Starr during the making of the 1965 Beatles' film Help! sold for more than £50,000 apiece on Thursday. A piano used in the movie – which Sir Paul... Sir Paul McCartney's legal bid on Beatles auction Fri March 21st, 2014 Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney prevents the family of his late nanny selling off his old clothes in Liverpool amid a dispute over ownership. Sir Paul McCartney has ordered lawyers to halt an a... Rockhampton sisters have proof they really met The Beatles Thu March 20th, 2014 FOR nearly 50 years, Amy Lester and her two younger sisters have been sharing stories about the day they met The Beatles in Brisbane. The Rockhampton women have vivid memories of the monumental e... Unseen John Lennon letter complains about Keith Moon's rock'n'roll behaviour Thu March 20th, 2014 A letter written by John Lennon blaming rockers Keith Moon and Harry Nilsson for urinating on a console at a recording studio is up for sale. The former Beatle was frustrated by the hellraising p... Peter Frampton to Be Featured on Next Ringo Starr Album Wed March 19th, 2014 Peter Frampton has gotten to join Ringo Starr on stage several times in recent months, and now fans will be able to hear the veteran guitar whiz on the ex-Beatles drummer’s upcoming album.�... John Lennon & Yoko Ono Bed-In For Peace Commemorated At Muhammad Ali Museum Wed March 19th, 2014 John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their two “bed-ins” for peace 45 years ago, starting this month. Also starting this month, the Muhammad Ali Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, will host an exhib... Rare Guitar Owned by Late Beatle George Harrison to Be Auctioned in May Tue March 18th, 2014 A rare Rickenbacker guitar once owned by George Harrison and also played by John Lennon is among the Beatles-themed items that will be up for bids at a music memorabilia auction scheduled to... Ringo Starr highlights Toledo Zoo concert series Tue March 18th, 2014 A Beatle, a country music legend, and a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer headline this summer's Circle K Concert Series at the Toledo Zoo. The series kicks-off at 7:30 p.m. July 1 with Ringo Starr and... Gene Simmons Explains How The Beatles Inspired His Music Career Mon March 17th, 2014 From a young Israel-born immigrant to recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, Gene Simmons has overcome enormous obstacles to become one of the most successful rockers of all time. This morni... Jane Asher to launch budget bakeware range with Poundland Mon March 17th, 2014 Budget chain Poundland is bracing itself for a bun fight when it launches an exclusive bakeware range by top class cookery queen Jane Asher. For the £1-a-piece products are expected to sell lik... Paul McCartney Adds Three Latin American Concerts to His 2014 Tour Schedule Sun March 16th, 2014 Paul McCartney will be spending some more quality time in Latin America this spring.  After announcing an April 21 show at Santiago, Chile’s Movistar Arena earlier this week, the ex-BeatleS... The Beatles' 'A Hard Day's Night' to get re-release Sun March 16th, 2014 The 1964 film , which follows a day in the life of the band as Beatlemania is in full swing, has been fully restored and will be in cinemas and available to download on July 4. A limited edition ... McGear McCartney mania at The Plough Sat March 15th, 2014 THE sharpest of Liverpudlian wit, live music and perhaps the odd reference to a somewhat well known older relative will all feature as Mike McGear McCartney brings his first solo tour in 42 years... Plans to open Strawberry Field site to public Sat March 15th, 2014 A former children's home in Liverpool made famous by the Beatles is set to be opened to the public. The Salvation Army, which owns the Strawberry Field site in Woolton, plan to reopen it as a tra... ELO legend Jeff Lynne: I would not have liked being in The Beatles Fri March 14th, 2014 “Would I have liked to have been a Beatle?” Jeff Lynne pauses for thought before slowly shaking his head. “I don’t know. It wasn’t all beer and skittles being a Beatle. “To have bee... 'Mad Men' Creator Likens Final Season Arc to Beatles' 'Abbey Road' Fri March 14th, 2014 Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner discussed his love of the Beatles' Abbey Road and even used it in a metaphor for the end of his series, which begins its seventh and final season April 13th, in... Cunard Line Commemorates The Beatles' First Crossing of the Atlantic Thu March 13th, 2014 As celebrations continue marking the 50th anniversary of The Beatles' American debut, Cunard Line will help commemorate the group’s first crossing of the Atlantic with The Beatles Experience... Hi-tech manufacturing site has echoes of Beatles and Hendrix Thu March 13th, 2014 A DERELICT complex of buildings in west London, where the records of Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Jimi Hendrix were pressed, is ready to rediscover its historical role as a centre for advanced ... Beatles collectibles up for auction in Croydon Wed March 12th, 2014 BEATLES memorabilia and a handbag signed by astronaut Neil Armstrong are to go on auction in Croydon. The sale includes a 1964 NEMS record player, which is one of the earliest pieces of Beatles m... Grace Acquires Rights to the Beatles’ Music Catalog Wed March 12th, 2014 Filmmaker Josh Wakely’s production company, Grace, has acquired the worldwide rights to the Beatles’ music catalog in an agreement with Sony/ATV Music Publishing. Grace will have the rights... Hollywood Restaurant Makes Special Meal for Sir Paul McCartney Tue March 11th, 2014 Former Beatle, Sir Paul McCartney was treated like royalty recently while dining at Hollywood restaurant, Il Piccolino. The chef made a special meal just for him. McCartney was having dinner ... New Film Based on John Lennon Interviews to Premiere at SXSW Festival Tue March 11th, 2014 A new theatrical film based on two famous interviews that John Lennon gave a decade apart is set to get its world premiere this week at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Texas.�... Yoko responds to Elbow name-check Mon March 10th, 2014 Yoko Ono has penned an open letter to Elbow after they name-checked her in their new song ‘New York Morning’. The Elbow lyric goes “Oh, my giddy aunt, New York can talk / It’s the modern ... Beatles Help! Piano To Be Auctioned Mon March 10th, 2014 On Thursday Beatles Help! Piano To Be Auctioned was a top story. Here is the recap: (hennemusic) A piano that was used by John Lennon and Paul McCartney during the filming of The Beatles' 1965 fi... Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell travel in style as they head back to the UK Sun March 9th, 2014 It’s already been a jet-setting start to the year for Paul McCartney and his wife Nancy Shevell who have ticked off France and America as destinations. And on Thursday the couple added to thei... Lichfield Museum hosts Swinging Sixties exhibition Sun March 9th, 2014 A groovy Swinging Sixties exhibition is taking place at Lichfield Museum at St Mary’s in the Market Square. The exhibition features memorabilia from the 1960s – the decade associated with The... Exhibition celebrates 50 years since Beatlemania hit Australia Sat March 8th, 2014 It's 50 years since Australia was rocked by the music phenomenon that was Beatlemania. Now the Fab Four are being celebrated in a Melbourne exhibition, to celebrate the anniversary of their Austr... Paul McCartney Gets By With Help From KCSN Radio Sat March 8th, 2014 As legendary as Paul McCartney is, he's not above picking up the phone and personally thanking a radio programmer for playing songs from his latest album, "New." NUTOPIANS CELEBRATE THE MUSIC OF JOHN LENNON AND THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY YEAR OF THE BEATLES 1964 U.S. ARRIVAL Fri March 7th, 2014  On Friday, April 4th, The Nutopians, the award-winning seven-piece musical ensemble, will celebrate the artistry and genius of the late John Lennon with a special performance at the YMCA Boult... Paul On The Cover Of This Week's NME Fri March 7th, 2014 Paul features on the cover of this week's NME Magazine. The current issue takes the reader behind-the-scenes at the publication's recent awards night where Paul was presented with the 'Songwrit... Visit Abbey Road's legendary Studio Two Thu March 6th, 2014 We are pleased to announce ‘The Sound of Abbey Road Studios’, unique talks taking place in April and May featuring special guest former Abbey Road Studios Engineer Ken Scott. Ringo Starr begins work on a new studio album, with Toto’s Steve Lukather on board Thu March 6th, 2014 Ringo Starr is at work on his first studio project since the aptly named Ringo 2012, with Steve Lukather again at his side. The Toto guitarist, a current member of the All Starr Band, tells us... While everyone’s at the Dolby Theatre… Sir Paul McCartney and Dave Grohl take wives on double date during Oscars night Wed March 5th, 2014 It was a night when all the big names in Hollywood were at the Dolby Theatre… except for two. Sir Paul McCartney and Dave Grohl decided against joining the Oscars' festivities to enjoy an even... A Hard Day’s Night with Special Guest Pattie Boyd Wed March 5th, 2014 The year 1964 was one of the busiest and most creative in the history of the Beatles. In July of that year, they released A Hard Day’s Night, a movie that has been called one of the 100 best f... Beatles collector specializes in 'offbeat' memorabilia Tue March 4th, 2014 Some people like The Beatles. Some people love The Beatles. Some people have a room full of Beatles memorabilia. Jim Cushman falls into that last category. Cushman, a Mattapoisett resident and na... Sir Paul McCartney backs All Cannings' Rock Against Cancer concert Tue March 4th, 2014 Three of Britain’s biggest rock stars – Sir Paul McCartney, Brian May and Sir Bob Geldof - are backing the third Rock Against Cancer concert in All Cannings. The legends are helping to promot... Happy to Help! Man charges tourists £4 to take their picture at Abbey Road zebra crossing made famous by The Beatles Mon March 3rd, 2014 Ever wanted to take your picture at a landmark, but you've been at a loss for anybody to help you? That's no longer the case on one of Britain's most photographed streets, but it will cost you f... Duffy Power obituary Mon March 3rd, 2014 When Duffy Power, who has died aged 72, recorded I Saw Her Standing There on 20 February 1963, he was only the second artist to cover Lennon/McCartney on record. At that time Paul McCartney and... Gimme Five: Alan White, Joey Molland and Tony Levin remember the Beatles’ John Lennon Sun March 2nd, 2014 Turns out, John Lennon was just as mercurially intriguing to those who shared studio time with the late Beatles star as he was to those who simply purchased the music. Lennon remains an enigma, d... Morrissey: 'The Beatles only wrote 4 good songs' Sun March 2nd, 2014 In a new interview with Billboard magazine, the outspoken singer and animal rights campaigner says the band's back catalogue contained four 'magnificent' tracks, but no more. "I thought four of t... Oscar whiz Harvey Weinstein reveals plans to get Macca, Ringo and Julian Lennon to star in sequel to hit animation movie Sat March 1st, 2014 Movie honcho Harvey Weinstein has revealed plans to turn the remaining Beatles into aliens in a sequel to his hit animation movie, Escape from Planet Earth. John Lennon 'nonsense' lyrics about parrots and pancakes fail to sell at auction Sat March 1st, 2014 As the genius behind songs like Imagine and Working Class Hero, John Lennon's lyrics are the stuff of legend. Even legends can have their off-days it seems, as a garbled bunch of lyrics by the S... Paul McCartney: 'The Beatles used to plant false stories in NME' Fri February 28th, 2014 Collecting his Songwriter's Songwriter award at the NME Awards 2014 with Austin, Texas yesterday (February 26), Sir Paul McCartney confessed on stage to sneaking false stories into NME – incl... Photos put visitors in room with John, Yoko Fri February 28th, 2014 If you are old enough to remember the 1960s, “Give Peace a Chance” could melt your heart or cause youthful memories to tumble into consciousness. Walking in the gallery door, there’s the st... Snow problem! Sir Paul McCartney hones his skiing skills in the French Alps while on holiday with wife Nancy Shevell Thu February 27th, 2014 He's known for being hugely successful as a singer. And at the age of 71 Sir Paul McCartney has been perfecting another one of his many talents by taking to the French Alps with a personal instr... Lennon Bermuda nominated for music app award Thu February 27th, 2014 John Lennon: the Bermuda Tapes app has been shortlisted for an SXSW Interactive Award. The app was launched late last year and chronicles John Lennon’s trip to Bermuda, where he was inspired to... Music More Than 100 John Lennon Manuscripts Heading To Auction Thu February 27th, 2014 Sotheby’s in Manhattan is holding an auction on June 4 where over 100 items produced by John Lennon will be up for sale, ranging in expected prices from $500 to $70,000. Paul McCartney admits he has 'no idea' how he wrote Beatles classics Thu February 27th, 2014 Sir Paul McCartney collected an honorary prize at the NME Awards for his songwriting skills - and admitted he had no idea how he did it. He was being honoured with an award as the "songwriters' ... Mike Love of the Beach Boys Honors George Harrison with Unreleased Song ‘Pisces Brothers’ Wed February 26th, 2014 Mike Love of the Beach Boys was a close friend and colleague of the late George Harrison, and to honor Harrison’s birthday today (February 25) a previously-unheard recording has been premiered.... The Beatles Song "Back in the USSR" Connects Hispanic and Ex-Soviet Artists Wed February 26th, 2014 When Darin Reyes, a 21-year-old graphic designer and artist in Los Angeles, learned that Carter Sexton in Valley Village, California was going to do a show celebrating the 50th anniversary of the... The Rutles announce UK Tour Tue February 25th, 2014 The Legend that will last a lunch time The Pre - Fab Four The Ruttles have announced a tour of the Uk this May.  ‘I was just being myself’: Yoko Ono on letting loose at the Beatles’ Grammy shows Tue February 25th, 2014 Yoko Ono, in a Q&A with fans, addresses a couple of questions involving recent Beatles-related events she attended, including the 56th annual Grammy awards and the star-flecked 50th anniversa... Paul attends Linda McCartney Retrospective In Montpellier Tue February 25th, 2014 Last night, Paul and his family attended the opening reception of the Linda McCartney retrospective photography exhibition in the city of Montpellier, France. The exhibition will run from 21st Fe... Bid on a Chance to Meet Paul McCartney to Benefit MusiCares Mon February 24th, 2014 Hey! You! Wanna meet Paul McCartney, only the greatest living songwriter? Well, Charitybuzz's Beatlemania Charity Auction, featuring the chance to meet Sir Paul McCartney, is here!  Beatles Boom on SoundScan Chart After 50th Anniversary Special Mon February 24th, 2014 The rebirth of Beatlemania and the fourth studio album from country singer Eric Church supplied some much-needed lift to the U.S. album chart last week. Mitch Benn to perform 'The 37th Beatle' in Stafford Gatehouse Theatre Sun February 23rd, 2014 Comedian Mitch Benn will be returning to Stafford in April with his latest show The 37th Beatle. Here, he talks to us about the show. When you think about it, a Scouse comedian/musician touring w... John Lennon 'nonsense list' up for sale Sun February 23rd, 2014 A unique “nonsense” list by former Beatle John Lennon is being sold by its Anglesey owner. Michael Poynter Adams has the original, 1969 printer’s proof of the list, which has 26 letters a... Racing boat that roughed up Beatles is restored Sat February 22nd, 2014 Fifty years ago this week four boys from Britain took a boat ride in Miami. They had appeared on television the night before, a program called The Ed Sullivan Show, and they wanted to cut loose.... Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Jim Morrison to Appear on Postage Stamps Sat February 22nd, 2014 Philatelists rejoice: The U.S. Postal Service will unravel several lines of celebrity-adorned stamps over the next two years, with subjects ranging from Apple founder Steve Jobs to gay rights act... John Lennon Songwriting Contest finds a winner in Detroit; listen to 18-year-old Olivia Millerschin's hit Fri February 21st, 2014 A teenager from Metro Detroit won this month the John Lennon Songwriting Contest's "LOVE, LOVE, LOVE" Valentine's Day competition. "LOVE, LOVE LOVE" is part of the annual contest named for The Be... Harford Library celebrates the four British lads who changed America Fri February 21st, 2014 "One, two, three, FOUR!" Never has a foreign invasion of a country's culture been announced in such a way. But so it was when American disc jockeys began playing the B-side of a 45 rpm record by ... Love Them Do: The Story of the Beatles' Biggest Fans Fri February 21st, 2014 She came in through the bathroom window. No. Really. She did. Emma Eldredge, a 63-year-old retired nurse from Gloucester, England, is remembering the time she broke into Paul McCartney's London ... Mills wins legal battle against publicist Thu February 20th, 2014 Michele Blanchard agreed to accept a reduced fee to represent the former model in 2007 after Mills told her she could no longer afford to pay her $5,000 (£3,100)-a-month fee, but when her client... Yoko Ono exemplifies staying hip at any age Thu February 20th, 2014 If you watched the Beatles' 50th anniversary special last week, you couldn't miss Yoko Ono. John Lennon's widow sat in the front row at the live tribute alongside her son, Sean, and she seemed to... Mark Rivera, Longtime Billy Joel and Ringo Starr Collaborator, Releases Debut Album on Tuesday Thu February 20th, 2014 He may not be a household name, but over the last few decades Mark Rivera has toured and recorded with some of the biggest stars in music. Since 1982, the multitalented musician has been the sa... Sir Paul McCartney to be celebrated with special one-off prize at NME Awards Wed February 19th, 2014 Sir Paul McCartney is being celebrated by fellow songwriters with a special one-off prize at the NME Awards recognising his contribution to music over the past half century. The music weekly has... Paul McCartney is dyed - Beatles legend falls out with his barber over hair colour Wed February 19th, 2014 An exclusive hair salon has fallen out with Sir Paul McCartney over its secret formula for his hair dye. The Beatle , 71, started visiting Guy Thomas in New York in 2004 after his then-wife Hea... $16,488 for Rare 1964 Beatles Ticket Tue February 18th, 2014 In an ironic twist. A snowstorm which happened in Washington D.C. fifty-years-ago, has helped to fetch a once disappointed Beatles fan $16,488 for their ($3) unused concert ticket, on eBay. Collector's Edition of "Wonderwall," 1968 Tue February 18th, 2014 A new Collector’s Edition of Wonderwall, a 1968 psychedelic film that features a score composed by George Harrison, will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 25.  The movie focuses on... The Beatles Gain After CBS Special Mon February 17th, 2014 This week on the Billboard 200 albums chart, the new "Now 49" compilation took over at No. 1, bumping the "Frozen" soundtrack down to No. 2 after four nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1. The "Now 49"... Raft of broadcasters buy Beatles special Mon February 17th, 2014 A raft of international broadcasters have acquired The Beatles: The Night that Changed America – A Grammy Salute, a two and half hour special celebrating the 50th anniversary of the band’s a... Great new photo of the Beatles' 1964 LA party Sun February 16th, 2014 Photos and video of the charity fundraising party held in Brentwood during the Beatles first trip to Los Angeles in August 1964 have been slowly emerging. Now Alison Martino has posted perhaps t... Local recall first time they ‘met’ the Beatles Sun February 16th, 2014 > It was 50 years ago this month when the Beatles first came to > America; and their impact, much more than just musical, is still > felt a half century later — a... Beatles Fans Wait In Line For Ringo Starr Tickets Sat February 15th, 2014 Beatlemania continues in our area in the wake of the 50th anniversary of the Fab Four’s appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. Ringo Starr’s tour will make a stop this summer in Williamsport. Th... Beatles Help! jackets to be auctioned Sat February 15th, 2014 Jackets worn by George Harrison and Ringo Starr in The Beatles' 1965 film Help! are being put up for sale. The jackets also appear on the iconic album cover of the film's soundtrack. The comedy d... 'Fifth Beatle' Brian Epstein's Bentley at aucton Fri February 14th, 2014 Too much of The Beatles isn't enough, apparently. After the hoopla in the U.S. celebrating the 50th anniversary of the band's first performance in the U.S., comes word from auction house Coys tha... Harry Benson's best photograph: the Beatles pillow-fighting Fri February 14th, 2014 I was meant to be going to Uganda to do a big news story for the Daily Express but, at the last minute, the paper called and said they wanted me to shoot the Beatles in Paris instead. I consid... Remembering the John Lennon who showed up for a fight Fri February 14th, 2014 Having changed the world once with The Beatles, at the beginning of the 1970s John Lennon wanted to do it all over again. But, this time, in line with his personal vision of global concord. Why Julian Lennon stayed away from the Beatles anniversary blitz Thu February 13th, 2014 As the long period of celebrations in honor of the Beatles’ stateside arrival 50 years ago wrapped on this week, we’d seen Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon, Olivia and... Grohl: The Beatles are the reason I’m a musician Wed February 12th, 2014 Dave Grohl has never hidden his admiration for the Fab Four – and after playing The Beatles’Hey Bulldog during a TV special for the band the Foo Fighters frontman claims he wouldn’t even b... Watch Paul Rehearse 'Queenie Eye' With Ringo Starr Wed February 12th, 2014 Recently, as the world saw, Ringo Starr joined Paul on stage at the GRAMMYs for a performance of 'Queenie Eye'. PaulMcCartney.com is publishing an exclusive look behind-the-scenes shot at the re... All hail Ringo, for 50 years the unsung Beatle Wed February 12th, 2014 Dear Ringo, Congratulations on the 50th anniversary of your appearance with the lads on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” I know you’re aware of the media din surrounding Sunday night’s CBS special... Kris Kristofferson, Nile Rodgers, Berry Gordy Remember Beatles Debut Tue February 11th, 2014 On Sunday CBS aired a tribute to arguably the most influential rock and roll band of all time, titled The Night That Changed America: A GRAMMY Salute To The Beatles. That night, of course, was Fe... This photographer's editors thought The Beatles were a 'fad' Tue February 11th, 2014 On a frigid February night 50 years ago, a cavernous sports arena in Washington D.C. became sacred ground. Two days before, the Beatles had performed on the “Ed Sullivan Show,” inaugurating o... What the critics wrote about the Beatles in 1964 Tue February 11th, 2014 Today, the Beatles hold an exalted place in the history of rock 'n' roll. But 50 years ago, when they first crossed the Atlantic to perform in the United States, the reaction was decidedly mixed.... John Lennon's historic guitar goes on display at Rock Hall Tue February 11th, 2014 The British Invasion began 50 years ago on Friday, Feb. 7, 1964, when the Beatles landed at New York's Kennedy Airport. Two days later, on Sunday, Feb. 9, more than 70 million people watched as J... Peter Frampton on Beatles Tribute: 'A Lot of Not-So-Dry Eyes' Mon February 10th, 2014 Guitarist participated as part of house band for "The Night That Changed America," premiering Sunday Just six weeks into the new year, Peter Frampton can say he's already had a pretty good 2014. Being a Beatles baby: Julian Lennon reflects on big Beatles anniversary Mon February 10th, 2014 Fifty years, ago, when Julian Lennon was just a baby, his father, John, and the rest of the Beatles— Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—packed their bags and boarded a plane head... Audio: Lost John Lennon interview from 1968 Sun February 9th, 2014 In 1968, Maurice Hindle sent an ambitious letter to a Beatles fanzine requesting an interview with John Lennon. It was always going to be a long-shot; Hindle was a student at Keele University in ... Tommy Roe, musician who opened for The Beatles, discusses his DC concert experience Sun February 9th, 2014 WASHINGTON - In just a few days, we will mark the 50th anniversary of The Beatles first U.S. concert. The Fab Four played right here in D.C. at the Washington Coliseum. Tommy Roe was as close to... Flaming Lips and Sean Lennon Visit 'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds' Sat February 8th, 2014 The modern day's most popular psychedelic surrealists, the Flaming Lips, covered the Sixties' most popular psychedelic song, "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," as part of The Late Show With Dav... Beatles Memories and Sounds Fill New Lincoln Center Exhibit Sat February 8th, 2014 A new exhibit at the New York Public Library shows how Beatle mania swept the country when the Fab Four stepped off a plane at JFK and onto the stage of the Ed Sullivan Show. It's hard to believ... Meet the girl who rescued George Harrison for Ed Sullivan Fri February 7th, 2014 Of course there were the thousands of screaming teenage girls who loved them — yeah, yeah, yeah. But when the four Beatles first landed in New York in early February 1964 — here for “The Ed... Beatles-signed stage wall to make $1m in Dallas auction? Fri February 7th, 2014 A section of stage wall from the Beatles' February 9, 1964 appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show is valued at $800,000-1m ahead of a sale at Heritage Auctions in Dallas on April 26. How Paul McCartney Ended Up In A Nirvana Reunion Thu February 6th, 2014 If it hadn’t been for Johnny Depp, Paul McCartney might never have won a Grammy for Best Rock Song with the surviving members of Nirvana. That’s precisely what happened a little over a week... Author addresses the sociological impact of The Beatles on their fans and the world Thu February 6th, 2014 Feb. 5, 2014 - Candice “Candy” Leonard is a first-generation Beatle fan with a PhD in Sociology.  So not only does she still carry the Beatles in her heart, but she can explain what she c... Chairs From First U.S. Beatles Concert to Be Raffled Wed February 5th, 2014 As the District prepares for the 50th anniversary celebration of the Beatles’ first concert in the United States, which happened to be right up the street from CQ Roll Call HQ at Uline Arena, ... Unseen Beatles photos from first U.S. concert on display Feb. 9 Wed February 5th, 2014 The Beatles were photographed by National Geographic photographer Fred Ward during their first U.S. concert on Feb. 11, 1964, at the Washington Coliseum in D.C. Ward's Beatles photos, including r... A Son's Tribute to the Beatles Tue February 4th, 2014 On Thursday, the Morrison Hotel Gallery on Prince Street in SoHo will open a photography show celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Beatles coming to the U.S. What separates this exhibit from o... John still most Popular Beatle after 50 Years Tue February 4th, 2014 50 years after the Beatles first came to America John still appears to be the most Popular Beatle, an online survey over the past 3 years of real Beatles Fans at eCommerce site Fan Four Store  ... Box Set Featuring Audio Interviews with John Lennon & Yoko Ono Due Out in April Mon February 3rd, 2014 A new eight-CD box set gathering together five lengthy conversations John Lennon and Yoko Ono had withVillage Voice journalist and New York radio personality Howard Smith will be released ... Lost Beatles photographs found Mon February 3rd, 2014 This piece by Adrienne Aurichio is part of a series of essays to mark the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' first American television appearance on CBS's "The Ed Sullivan Show." It culminates with... ‘Ed Sullivan’ staffer recalls stint as honorary Beatle Sun February 2nd, 2014 Vince Calandra had never even held a guitar before. But, even back in February of 1964, he had a pretty good sense that he shouldn’t drop this one. Calandra, a self-described “street kid from... JFK Airport to Celebrate 50th Anniversary of Beatles NYC Trip Sun February 2nd, 2014 JFK Airport will host a celebration and dedicate a historical marker 50 years to the day the Beatles arrived there to screaming fans for their first trip to the U.S. On Feb. 7, the Port Authority... Famous Queenstown Road coffee stall visited by Rolling Stones and The Beatles saved from closure Sat February 1st, 2014 A coffee stall once frequented by the Rolling Stones and The Beatles has been saved from losing its license. The future of Chelsea Bridge Coffee Stall, in Queenstown Road, was uncertain following... Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr Returning to Ed Sullivan Theater Sat February 1st, 2014 Paul McCartney is scheduled to be in New York for the Super Bowl and if all goes according to schedule, he and Ringo Starr will make their way early next week to the Ed Sullivan Theater, where th... GRAMMY Beatles Special To Air Feb. 9, 2014 Fri January 31st, 2014 To commemorate the 50th anniversary of one of the most historic moments in music and television, The Recording Academy, AEG Ehrlich Ventures and CBS will present "The Night That Changed America: ... Ringo Starr and his band add more dates to U.S. tour Fri January 31st, 2014 Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band are gearing up for another round of performances. They'll kick off on June 6 in Ontario and wrap up on July 19 in Los Angeles with stops in Chicago, Dallas... Ringo Starr Talks Paul, Meditation and Why He Loves L.A. Thu January 30th, 2014 Fifty years after helping lead the British invasion in America and transforming pop culture, the most underappreciated Beatle has arguably become the most beloved. Ringo Starr is no longer mobb... When the Beatles Came to Washington Thu January 30th, 2014 “We always tried to get out of those crap things, but that time we got caught,” George Harrison recalled, referring to the Beatles’ visit to the British Embassy after their first US conce... Anniversary upgrade for rail station The Beatles made famous Wed January 29th, 2014 IT was 50 years ago that The Beatles filmed sequences of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ on the West Somerset Railway ... and the anniversary is to be marked. Crowcombe Heathfield Station, where Rin... Stars line up to pay tribute to The Beatles Wed January 29th, 2014 LOS ANGELES — There's an easy way to give pop music's most performance-hardened stars a case of the butterflies: Ask them to perform in front of The Beatles. Many of today's top artists gather... What if The Beatles never were? Ringo Starr almost moved to U.S. at 18 Tue January 28th, 2014 Almost 50 years ago, Beatlemania kicked off in America and changed the face of rock 'n' roll. But the whole Beatles phenomenon as we know it — with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison ... Beatles Receive Lifetime Achievement Grammy Tue January 28th, 2014 The Beatles were honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award Saturday at a pre-Grammy event in Los Angeles. Ringo Starr was joined by George Harrison's widow, Olivia, and John Lennon's widow, Yoko ... Beatles' historic arrival in New York City 50 years ago gave Big Apple unforgettable lift Mon January 27th, 2014 On Feb 7, 1964, just 77 days after the JFK assassination, the Fab Four stepped off of Pan Am Flight 101 at the newly-minted Kennedy Airport. The city and the Beatles would never be the same. They... Grammys 2014: Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo reunite on stage Mon January 27th, 2014 The Beatles superstars performed Sir Paul's song Queenie Eye to a rapturous crowd including Yoko Ono at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles. Sir Paul also proved members of the Fab Four can still... Beatles Photos Rediscovered In Time For 50th Anniversary of First DC Concert Sun January 26th, 2014 When Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr play the Grammys Sunday night, it will transport a lot of us back to a watershed time in America when everything seemed possible. It takes Mike Mitchell back ... With a little help from his friends! Ringo Starr hangs out with Yoko Ono before Beatles receive Lifetime Achievement Award Sun January 26th, 2014 She was once blamed for the break-up of The Beatles and it was said that Yoko Ono was resented by her former husband John Lennon's bandmates. But nowadays, Yoko is rather chummy with the likes o... NAMM 2014: Artificial Double Tracking Like The Beatles Sat January 25th, 2014 Waves Audio has debuted Waves: Abbey Road Reel ADT, which they describe as the first plugin to successfully emulate Abbey Road Studios' pioneering process of Artificial Double Tracking. Here's ... Paul, Ringo and Cirque's 'LOVE' to cap Beatles tribute Sat January 25th, 2014 Less than 24 hours after the curtain falls on the Grammy Awards, organizers will be ushering music's brightest stars under the spotlight for another really big show. The Beatles Team With Vans for 'Yellow Submarine' Shoes Fri January 24th, 2014 One month after the Beatles receive the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys, another institution is honoring them: Vans will be releasing its first-ever footwear collabo... Drug Use Belied Beatles’ Squeaky-Clean Image Fri January 24th, 2014 The Beatles never really were the squeaky-clean boy band many Americans embraced 50 years ago on their debut tour of the United States, but their continued sampling and open use of drugs througho... Lithographer Doyle Jeter Unveils Please Please Me series at Penn State Beatles Conference Fri January 24th, 2014 Famous Louisiana lithographer – Enoch Doyle Jeter will be having a one man art show at PSU Altoona’s Beatles Conference of his 14 lithographs created for new Beatles book. Caroline Kennedy, Yoko Ono Speak Out Against Japan's Dolphin Cull in Taiji Cove Thu January 23rd, 2014 The US Ambassador to Japan and Yoko Ono, the wife of legendary Beatles frontman John Lennon, have added their names to the growing list of high-profile opposition to Japan's annual dolphin cull i... The Walrus & The Elephants: John Lennon's Years of Revolution Thu January 23rd, 2014 Having changed the world once with The Beatles, at the beginning of the 1970s John Lennon wanted to do it all over again, but this time in line with his personal vision of global concord. Despera... Beatles 50: CBS Special Could Be 3 Hours with Paul, Ringo, Guest Stars Thu January 23rd, 2014 Beatles 50 is getting a big push this week. Sources tell that CBS’s special scheduled for February 9th–and being taped this Monday at the Los Angeles Convention Center– could end up being t... The Ticket to Write playwriting contest Wed January 22nd, 2014 The Ticket to Write playwriting contest – launched as a Beatles-themed Festival – is  now open for entries for the third year when the selected plays will be performed at Liverpool’s Unit... Ringo Starr has gotten an honor in Los Angeles Wed January 22nd, 2014 Ringo Starr has gotten an honor in Los Angeles — less than a week before The Beatles get a tribute at the Grammys. Starr was given the Lifetime of Peace and Love award from the David Lynch Foun... WONDERWALL BLU-RAY Tue January 21st, 2014 Shout Factory has announced the upcoming Blu-ray release of Joe Massot'sWonderwall (1968), starring Jane Birkin and Jack MacGowran. The film was released on by Rhino on DVD in 2002 (with hand... How John Lennon Buried His Mother in Song Tue January 21st, 2014 Few events in John Lennon’s brief life were as traumatic and painful than the death of his mother, Julia, when he was 17. Although Julia had abandoned John to be brought up by her sister, Mimi... 50 Years Ago Today: The Beatles Make First Billboard Hot 100 Appearance Tue January 21st, 2014 On Jan. 18, 1964, the Fab Four graced the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time, as 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' entered the Hot 100 at No. 45. Music, and our charts, would never be the same. ... Connor Kennedy performs George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass at Bearsville Mon January 20th, 2014 After declaring the end of the Beatles, Paul McCartney retired to a studio-equipped farm in Scotland and released two modest, true solo efforts as if to deflect all the expectations: the charming... Institute for Popular Music Celebrates 50th Anniversary of the Beatles in America Mon January 20th, 2014 The University of Rochester Institute for Popular Music will continue its "In Performance" Series with a concert and lecture series celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' first U.S. p... Legal ‘disappearing act’ extends Beatles’ copyright protection for Bootleg album Sun January 19th, 2014 Beatles’ fans have will have an unnamed lawyer to blame for their disappointment over the possible non-release of The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963. Paul is First Musician to Reach 10 Million Followers on LINE Sat January 18th, 2014 Paul has become the first musician in the world to reach 10 million followers on the Japanese-based social network LINE. Paul's account - now his most popular social network – is available in ... Ringo Starr's Custom 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Up for Auction Sat January 18th, 2014 In fact, what you're about to see below is probably one of the coolest custom cars ever built. The four-wheeled masterpiece you're looking at was built by George Barris (aka the King of the Kusto... Rare Beatles album sells for $175,000 Fri January 17th, 2014 It's been called the greatest album of all time, but you won't find it on iTunes. At least, you won't find the first-issue mono pressing of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band gatefold LP o... Paul Nominated for NME Award Fri January 17th, 2014 Paul has been nominated for 'Best Solo Artist' at this year's NME Awards. The shortlist for the category, announced earlier this week, also includes David Bowie, Lily Allen, Kanye West, Jake Bug... Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks keeps photo of George Harrison nearby Thu January 16th, 2014 For years, Stevie Nicks has kept a treasured 1970-era photograph framed and with her on the road, getting untold moments of inspiration while touring both as a solo artist and with Fleetwood Mac.... New Illustrated Book "It Was 50 Years Ago Today: Thu January 16th, 2014 Music historian and author Harvey Kubernik first thought of the concept for this book at George Harrison's 1974 Beverly Wilshire Hotel press conference on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, whe... Linda McCartney: Retrospective, 1965-1997 Wed January 15th, 2014 Le Pavillon Populaire, a space dedicated to photography in the city of Montpellier, will showcase the first retrospective in France of the work of photographer Linda McCartney, from 21st February... Yoko Ono’s Sydney Exhibition Draws Crowds Wed January 15th, 2014 “Yoko is the world’s most famous unknown artist: Everybody knows her name, but nobody knows what she does,” the late John Lennon once said of his then-wife, Yoko Ono. A major retrospective ... Tame Impala's Kevin Parker 'sounds like John Lennon', according to Sean Lennon Wed January 15th, 2014 Tame Impala could be forgiven for being sick of Beatles comparisons, but when they come from John Lennon's son it's got to be taken as a compliment. "I was speaking to Sean Lennon and he told me ... Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Taylor Swift to Perform at Grammy Awards Wed January 15th, 2014 A pair of Fab rock legends will perform at the 56th annual Grammy Awards. It was announced today that Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, who with the Beatles are this year's recipients of the Record... John Power set to return to Liverpool stage as John Lennon Tue January 14th, 2014 John Power set to return to Liverpool stage as John Lennon. The La’s and Cast star won acclaim for his portrayal of the late Beatle when he made his acting  debut in Lennon at the Royal Court... Permission problems for Beatles stamp Tue January 14th, 2014 Guernsey Post have been forced to cancel plans to produce a stamp featuring The Beatles because of permission problems. The July issue was due to commemorate 50 years since the hit group's perfo... Paul McCartney And Ringo Starr May Stage Beatles Reunion On 'Late Show With David Letterman' Mon January 13th, 2014 Fifty years after an iconic performance at the Ed Sullivan Theater, the surviving members of The Beatles could stage a reunion in the same venue where the magic began. Paul McCartney and Ringo... The Beatles' U.S. Albums Set For Release (A Top Story) Mon January 13th, 2014 On Thursday The Beatles' U.S. Albums Set For Release was a top story. Here is the recap: Apple Corps Ltd. and Capitol Records have announced that they will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of ... Powderpuffs art director on working with Ringo Sun January 12th, 2014 If your vibe is 1960s Fab icons and cool animation, tune in to Cartoon Network on January 20th for a special Powerpuff Girls event featuring Ringo Starr! The Beatles drummer will appear as a ... Yoko Ono Fort Myers Art Exhibit Invites Collaboration Sun January 12th, 2014 A few months after first meeting her, John Lennon tried to commission Yoko Ono to build a "light house" in his garden. "Oh, that was conceptual," Ono demurred, referring to a structure she'd buil... Tommy Roe recreating iconic Beatles concert for 50th anniversary of American debut Sat January 11th, 2014 Pop veteran Tommy Roe is set to relive the night he supported The Beatles at their very first concert in America by recreating the event for its 50th anniversary with a Fab Four tribute band. Beatles fan spends eight years travelling England to photograph 131 namesake signs of the famous London address Fri January 10th, 2014 A Beatles fan travelled across the country for eight years taking photographs of all 131 Abbey Road street signs in England. From rural lanes to inner-city estates and motorway sidings, Bryan Ec... Both Paul & Ringo make top 10 most valuable living autorgraphs list Fri January 10th, 2014 On the list of the top 10 most valuable living autographs, Ringo Starr comes in on the list at number 9, with a value of $750, the least valuable of the four Beatles, yet rising at a rapid pace, ... Paul Remembers Musician Phil Everly Thu January 9th, 2014 Paul remembers musician Phil Everly who passed away last week: "Phil Everly was one of my great heroes. With his brother Don, they were one of the major influences on The Beatles. ‘I’m deeply honored’: Toto’s Steve Lukather to join Ringo Starr for Grammys Wed January 8th, 2014 To paraphrase a Fab Four favorite, it’s getting better all the time for Beatles nut Steve Lukather. He’s already performed with Paul McCartney, George Harrison and (most recently) Ringo Star... Fundraising single to help campaign for Brian Epstein statue Wed January 8th, 2014 Campaigners hoping to erect a statue in honour of Beatles manager Brian Epstein are recruiting a host of Merseyside celebrities to help. Bob Pitt, a presenter on community radio station Mersey ... Eurythmics uniting at Beatles tribute Tue January 7th, 2014 The Recording Academy announced Monday that Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart will perform as a duo for "The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles." The event will be taped at th... Phil Everly dead: World mourns younger of US rock and roll duo The Everly Brothers Tue January 7th, 2014 The world is mourning US rock and country musician Phil Everly, the younger of The Everly Brothers, who has died in California aged 74. His wife Patti told The Los Angeles Times her husband ha... Where Beatles first performed classic ‘Yesterday’ Mon January 6th, 2014 In the second of two Memory Lane specials we publish more extracts from The Blackpool Hippodrome/ABC Story, a fascinating new book from show business historian Barry Band which can be viewed in t... Liverpool's iconic pub The Jacaranda to reopen in 2014 Mon January 6th, 2014 Iconic city centre pub The Jacaranda reveals new look in video and pictures, ahead of 2014 reopening. The Jacaranda, the iconic Liverpool bar, best known for being the first venue to host The Be... Jamie Bowman talks to Beatles expert Spencer Leigh about his new book ‘The Beatles in America’ Sun January 5th, 2014 FEW people can claim to know as much about The Beatles as Ainsdale author Spencer Leigh. His On The Beat music programme has been a fixture on BBC Radio Merseyside since 1985 and over that time, ... Newly released recordings reveal Beatles before they inspired mania Sun January 5th, 2014 Before the Beatles took America by storm, Paul, John, Ringo and George were featured on BBC radio programs 53 times. Those Beatles performances, recorded between 1962 and 1965, have now been rele... Pattie Boyd Muse or Magical Mystery Woman? Sat January 4th, 2014 Pattie Boyd shot to international fame when she married George Harrison in the 1960s. Although Boyd had sparked interest and admiration during her modeling heyday in the early 60s it was her m... Former Redruth telegram boy delivered messages to Beatle George Harrison Fri January 3rd, 2014 A REDRUTH man who was one of Britain’s last telegram boys is recording the story of his life, with fond memories of special deliveries to the rich and famous – including Beatle George Harriso... Mayor of Liverpool demands apology from Boris Johnson over Beatles comments Fri January 3rd, 2014 The mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, has branded Boris Johnson a "fool" over comments the Mayor of London made about The Beatles. Mayor of London Boris Johnson claimed that it was the capital... ‘Oh, it’s not going to end!’: The Beatles’ Ringo Starr completes a busy year with his All-Starr Band Thu January 2nd, 2014 Ringo Starr said he hoped to power down the All-Starr Band caravan for a bit in 2013, taking a rare summer off. But he ended up touring from February through March and then from October through N... How the Beatles Took America: Inside the New Issue of Rolling Stone Thu January 2nd, 2014 Fifty years ago, the Beatles landed in the U.S., generating the biggest explosion rock & roll has ever seen. In the new issue of Rolling Stone (on stands Friday, January 3rd), contributing edit... Journalist Larry Kane set to talk Beatles at Huntingdon Valley Library anniversary Wed January 1st, 2014 Before the throngs of screaming fans, before selling billions of records, before creating chart-topping hit after hit, before becoming musical icons and before they were known as the Beatles, Joh... Beck covers John Lennon 'Love' for Starbucks compilation Wed January 1st, 2014 Christmas has just come and gone, so obviously that means that Valentine's Day is right around the corner (for retailers, at least). Starbucks is readying the release of its Sweetheart 2014 com... Signed Beatles Record Fetches $13,350 Tue December 31st, 2013 According to the Beatles memorabilia dealer who sold the album, this is; "One of the most historic signed records there is! A fully signed 1962 first issue "Love Me Do / P.S. I Love You" 45 signe... Ukrainian Protesters Play Lennon's “Imagine” Live to Riot Police Tue December 31st, 2013 On December 18, 2013, American musician and composer Sean Lennon (son ofJohn Lennon and Yoko Ono) shared a photo on his Facebook wall, depicting a pianist playing John Lennon's famous song ... Band on the Run: The Harrowing Story Behind Wings’ Classic Album Mon December 30th, 2013 Making an album – even a classic album – sometimes can be an exercise in overcoming adversity. Still, the monumental troubles that Paul McCartney and Wings had to surmount to record Band on t... Paul McCartney wanted a free Brooklyn Nets T-shirt more than anything Mon December 30th, 2013 As a member of the most famous band in music history, Sir Paul McCartney has sold over 100 million albums and singles. He’s constantly feted across the globe, honored with knighthoods and lifet... A Jewish perspective of The Beatles Sun December 29th, 2013 Just as Judaism is an ethical and spiritual lighthouse, so too were The Beatles. Most religions have their roots in spiritual awakening. The Beatles had a powerful appeal to a generation in calli... McCartney Tops Hot Tours With $40M Gross From Japan Shows; Kanye Lands in Runner-Up Slot at $25M Sun December 29th, 2013 Paul McCartney dominates the final Hot Tours tally of the year, earning the No. 1 spot on the weekly recap with more than $40.6 million in ticket sales from the final leg of his Out There! tour. ... 'The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963' Reaches Billboard 200 despite $40 price tag Sat December 28th, 2013 Society always celebrates the records that top the Billboard 200 album chart. Back of The Billboards is a Music Times weekly segment that looks at the opposite end: the new record that finished c... Paul McCartney still hungry for success Sat December 28th, 2013 Paul McCartney is still hungry for success after remaining at the top of the music industry for 50 years. The former Beatles singer said stars should always think about somebody who might be bet... Beatles' Paul McCartney Was Approached To Score SILVER SURFER Movie That Never Was Fri December 27th, 2013 A year ago, Sean Howe, author of "Marvel Comics: The Untold Story," revealed concept art from a Silver Surfer film that was pitched in 1980 by Hollywood producer Lee Kramer. What you may not kn... Paul McCartney Eyes $13M 4BR Condo On Fifth Avenue Fri December 27th, 2013 A four-bedroom condo on Museum Mile that's been sitting on the market for more than a year got some Christmas love from former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney. ‘Didn’t know you could do that’: David Crosby never got over early preview of the Beatles’ ‘Day in the Life’ Thu December 26th, 2013 Throughout 1965-66, David Crosby and the Byrds were running neck and neck with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones commercially. And then, Crosby says, the Fab Four did something that blew him awa... Hello, Goodbye - Ringo Sells Out in Record Time Thu December 26th, 2013 Thank you to all pre-ordering Ringo Starr's forthcoming book, PHOTOGRAPH. Ringo's limited edition is now fully subscribed, making it our fastest selling edition ever.  ‘Take it to the next level’: Julian Lennon’s SXSW appearance could spark 2014 U.S. tour Wed December 25th, 2013 Next year could bring a U.S. tour for Julian Lennon, keyed to a just-announced appearance at South by Southwest in Austin. Talks are apparently on-going. Lennon, who dove headlong into photogra... Dec. 28 marathon concert helps feed Beatle-mania Wed December 25th, 2013 Joe Peppercorn attributes his annual Beatles Marathon show to a quote from Ernest Hemingway -- "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk." A few years back, the local musician was sharing a d... Beatles guitarist George Harrison 'turned down' OBE before his death Tue December 24th, 2013 The Beatles’ guitarist George Harrison turned down an OBE before his death, it has been revealed. According to the Mail on Sunday, Cabinet Office papers obtained under the Freedom of Informati... Paul McCartney & Madonna Surprise on ‘SNL’ with Justin Timberlake & Jimmy Fallon Tue December 24th, 2013 This weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live brought out all the surprises — Macca, Madge and more — with Jimmy Fallon as host and Justin Timberlake as musical guest. 'Live and Let Die' on 'American Hustle' OST Mon December 23rd, 2013 The Wings classic 'Live and Let Die' is featured on the original motion picture soundtrack of the forthcoming 'American Hustle'. Originally written for the 1973 James Bond film of the same name. ... VIVEK TIWARY SCORED PERSONAL BEATLES TOUR FOR EPSTEIN RESEARCH Mon December 23rd, 2013 Broadway producer Vivek Tiwary landed his very own, custom tour of The Beatles's native Liverpool, England as he researched the life of Fab Four manager Brian Epstein for a planned biopic. You Never Give Me Your Money: How Allen Klein played The Beatles and The Stones Sun December 22nd, 2013 In 1967, the Beatles spent the last weekend in August in North Wales, attending a conference on “spiritual regeneration” hosted by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Their entourage – wives, assist... What Role Did Walt Disney World Play in the Breakup of the Beatles? Sun December 22nd, 2013 Thousands of people spend their Christmas vacation at Walt Disney World each year. Nearly 40 years ago, one of those vacationers was John Lennon – and that trip included a historic event. Interview: Julian Lennon on Documentary "Through the Picture Window" Sat December 21st, 2013 The only child of John Lennon and Cynthia Powell (his father's first wife) Julian Lennon needs little introduction. Having just released an expanded version of his sixth album Everything Chang... John Lennon, 9 others honored with Mercury craters Sat December 21st, 2013 Imagine that. John Lennon is getting a tribute on Mercury. The late Beatles legend is among 10 famous people who are having craters on the planet closest to the sun named after them by the Intern... 'Cut Me Some Slack' Makes Oscar Longlist Fri December 20th, 2013 'Cut Me Some Slack' - by the band unofficially dubbed Sirvana on Twitter – has been confirmed as a contender for the nominations in the 'Original Song' category at the 2014 Oscars. Paul McCartney’s ex-wife allegedly abused Paralympic official, according to report Fri December 20th, 2013 The former wife of Beatles star Paul McCartney was accused on Thursday of allegedly abusing a Paralympic official earlier this week after failing to qualify for the British Paralympic ski team. One last Paul McCartney gig at Candlestick Park? Thu December 19th, 2013 Paul McCartney's long and winding road might lead him back to Candlestick Park. Park officials remained hopeful Tuesday that Sir Paul would sing the 'Stick's swan song before the wrecking ball st... Tom Petty And Ringo Starr Play On Benmont Tench Solo Track Thu December 19th, 2013 Tom Petty and Ringo Starr contributed to "Blonde Girl, Blue Dress," a track from Benmont Tench's debut album, You Should Be So Lucky. Tench has been the keyboardist for Petty's Heartbreaker... The case of iTunes and the missing Beatles tracks Wed December 18th, 2013 Apple records, via the Universal Music Group, were widely rumoured to be reluctantly releasing a cache of rare Beatle tracks via iTunes today in order to comply with copyright law. But scour th... $19,999 for Epstein's Beatles 'Butcher' Wed December 18th, 2013 According to the Beatles memorabilia dealer who sold the album; "This is easily the most important copy of any album i've ever offered to date. It is an original 1966 U.S. first state stereo Butc... The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney among highest grossing tours of 2013 Tue December 17th, 2013 Veterans The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen have all enjoyed some of the highest grossing tours of 2013, reports Billboard. Ringo Starr Set As Guest Voice For New Powerpuff Girls Special Tue December 17th, 2013 If you have missed the Powerpuff Girls, the animated series about three young girls with superpowers, then we have good news for you; the show is coming back for a special event. Cartoon Network ... Foo Fighters cover The Beatles and Pink Floyd at massive comeback gig Mon December 16th, 2013 Foo Fighters made their official live return in Mexico last night (December 11), performing a huge open air concert during which they covered The Beatles, Pink Floyd and Tom Petty And The Heartbr... The Beatles: ‘RUBBISH’, Says 1968 BBC Audience Research Mon December 16th, 2013 THE BEATLES: THE BBC ARCHIVES 1962-1970 is a lavish 336-page tome by notable Beatle expert Kevin Howlett that documents the close but sometimes fractious relationship between the rock’n’roll ... Celebrities sing holiday or Beatle songs at benefit for Toys for Tots Sun December 15th, 2013 Everyone loves Christmas and everyone loves the Beatles. Why not put them together? On Saturday in Las Vegas, artists including Pia Zadora, Adrian Zmed, Paul Shortino, Skye D. Miles and the Deser... Rock Rewind: John Lennon's Happy Xmas (War Is Over) Sun December 15th, 2013 A Christmas song that has turned into a modern classic is John Lennon's Happy Xmas (War Is Over), first released in 1971. Lennon wrote it in 1969 at the height of his peace activism days, it refe... Interview with cast from Let It Be Sat December 14th, 2013 LET IT BE is currently celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the world’s most successful rock’n’roll band, The Beatles. LET IT BE is a spectacular theatrical concert with forty of The Beat... Beatles US Album Reissues Mark 50 Years Of Their US Invasion Sat December 14th, 2013 THE BEATLES’ IMPACT ON AMERICA is to be celebrated on the 50th anniversary of their culture-changing Ed Sullivan show appearance of February 9, 1964, and subsequent assault on US culture in to... Bermuda Museum Honors John Lennon with Sculpture Fri December 13th, 2013 More than three decades after John Lennon‘s untimely death, a Bermuda museum remembers him with a stylized sculpture. The picturesque island of Bermuda is a long way and a far cry from the he... Lennon Fest gets back to where it’s long belonged Fri December 13th, 2013 Everyone's favorite local Beatles' cover song festival, The Lennon Fest, returns this Saturday for its 14th year. Local bands will perform classic Beatles' songs in the Public House of Jackie O'... 50 Years of Beatles: Christmas time is here again Thu December 12th, 2013 Between 1962 and 1970, the Beatles recorded one musical masterwork after another, amassing some 27 No. 1 hits in the United States and the United Kingdom, while producing such timeless albums as ... ‘He plays so musically’: All-Starr Band-mate Gregg Bissonette on the magic of Ringo Starr Thu December 12th, 2013 Many have tried to untangle the mysteries of Ringo Starr’s drumming — why it works when it looks so ungainly, how he remains so definitively in the pocket with so little effort. Beatles wax figures on world tour Wed December 11th, 2013 The wax figures of 1960s British band Beatles are set to stroll from London's Abbey Road to Madame Tussauds here. To celebrate the 50th anniversary release of the band's first album. Boris Johnson claims LONDON not Liverpool propelled The Beatles to worldwide stardom Wed December 11th, 2013 Boris Johnson has controversially claimed it was London, not Liverpool, that propelled The Beatles to worldwide fame. The Tory Mayor of London, who already has a chequered history with Merseysid... PAUL MCCARTNEY Receives Across the Board Grammy Nominations Tue December 10th, 2013 Paul McCartney has appeared in possibly his most diverse spread ever of Grammy nominations. "Cut Me Some Slack," Paul's volcanic collaboration with Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear from... Paul McCartney's DJ Shares His Beatles Mix Tue December 10th, 2013 Chris Holmes has been touring as Paul McCartney's opening DJ act for four years. He recently shared with fans a collection of his favorite remixes that he made over his tenure traveling with the... Lennon Statue In Havana Now Has A 95-Year-Old Guardian Mon December 9th, 2013 John Lennon needed help. At least his statue did. A bronze likeness of the Beatle, who was assassinated 33 years ago Sunday, was inaugurated in a leafy Havana park 13 years ago. But souvenir-seek... Julian Lennon Explains Real Meaning Behind 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' Mon December 9th, 2013 Tune in alert as Julian Lennon talks with Billy Bush and Kit Hoover on Access Hollywood Live on Tuesday, December 3 about his recent collaboration with Steven Tyler on his new album, “Everythin... 1980: John Lennon shot dead Sun December 8th, 2013 Former Beatle John Lennon has been shot dead by an unknown gunman who opened fire outside the musician's New York apartment. The 40-year-old was shot several times as he entered the Dakota, his ... John Lennon impersonator brings Beatles icon back to life Sun December 8th, 2013 Dec. 06--In 1977, a young musician named Tim Piper discovered "Beatlemania" on Broadway. It was an epiphanous moment.  "So," he remembers, "you can make a living doing the Beatles?"  Yoko Ono doesn't want her son compared to John Sat December 7th, 2013 The 80-year-old artist - who enjoyed an 11-year marriage to the 'Imagine' hit-maker before he was shot dead in 1980 - feared their son, Sean, would find the pressure of being compared to The Beat... Unpublished snaps of John Lennon relaxing at Ibiza holiday home auctioned Sat December 7th, 2013 Unpublished photographs of John Lennon relaxing at his holiday home in Ibiza are going up for auction today. The two candid shots of the late Beatles star will be sold off to raise funds for an a... Sir Paul McCartney: Israelis and Palestinians deserve peace Fri December 6th, 2013 Paul McCartney is pledging to support a Middle East peace initiative because "Israelis and Palestinians deserve peace," he said. McCartney announced on his Twitter feed that all donations made ... Macca hires Fab Four tribute band? Fri December 6th, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney hired a Beatles tribute band to perform at his wife's 54th birthday party, according to reports.The Parrots, Japan's top copycat act who sing almost 200 Beatles tracks, took to... Previously unpublished self-portrait by John Lennon. Auction at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury Thu December 5th, 2013 Previously unpublished self-portrait by John Lennon. Auction at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury in London. On the 28th November 2013. Dating from 1970 a previously unpublished self-portrait by John Lenn... Paul McCartney Promises 'Something New' for High-Def TV Special Thu December 5th, 2013 Paul McCartney reminded us that his friends are more famous than ours with the star-studded video for "Queenie Eye," but now Macca wants to let us deeper into his creative life with the one-hou... The Nutopians: A John Lennon Experience - Beatles and Solo years Wed December 4th, 2013 The Nutopians, an elegant award-winning seven-piece ensemble celebrates Lennon’s genius and artistry. Tom Dean and Alana MacDonald, New Hampshire natives and members of the distinguished folk/r... 'NEW' Voted Fourth Best Album of 2013 by Rolling Stone Magazine Wed December 4th, 2013 The sound of a 71-year-old Beatle getting back in the ring. McCartney plays to his strengths: Wings-like glam rock, Little Richard howls and, yep, some remarkably Beatlesque pop tunes and Geo... New app chronicles Lennon's sailing trip Tue December 3rd, 2013 Six months before he died, John Lennon set sail from Newport, R.I., on an ocean adventure to Bermuda that awakened his desire to make music again and now is being chronicled in an electronic form... Ringo Starr autographed jackets to benefit WaterAid on #GivingTuesday Tue December 3rd, 2013   Rock and roll icon and artist Ringo Starr joined today in the national #GivingTuesday movement by donating twenty-five autographed jackets to be sold on eBay in support of WaterAid beginnin... New Happy Birthday Brother Beatles Cards: Mon December 2nd, 2013 Beatles Greetings Cards! Great for any occasion....Birthdays, Anniversary, Retirement, Christmas or just to say "Thinking About You" All Greetings Cards feature the Fab Four and come in many diff... 'Light-bulb moment' ink sketch by Beatle John Lennon could sell for more than £10,000 in online auction Mon December 2nd, 2013 An ink sketch by Beatle John Lennon - drawn in a 'light-bulb moment' - is expected to sell for thousands of pounds in an online auction next month. The drawing has officially been valued at betw... Come Together: The Night Lennon and McCartney Reunited Mon December 2nd, 2013 “Valiant Paul McCartney, I presume?” said John Lennon. “Sir Jasper Lennon, I presume,” responded Paul McCartney. Such was the manner in which the two former Beatles greeted one another w... Gordon's magical mystery tour: fan tells the story of meeting The Beatles Sun December 1st, 2013 When Gordon McIntosh and his wife honeymooned in Torquay, little did they know that they would come face to face with The Beatles.  Gordon's wife had seen The Beatles when they appeared in Hull ... Rare footage of The Beatles to be screened for first time in 40 years Sun December 1st, 2013 For more than four decades, a canister of film lay in a damp London garage, unopened and forgotten. Stacked among 64 other unmarked cans, it sat for decades gathering dust, without anyone suspec... My George Harrison Interview On The 12th Anniversary On His Passing Sat November 30th, 2013 George Harrison didn’t write ‘Something’ for his former wife Patti,learn where to freeze frame Monty Python’s Life of Brian to see him and who ended up winning the My Sweet Lord case? Geo... SEAN LENNON RELEASE Sat November 30th, 2013 If your vibe is psychedelic free-jazz grooves set to experimental live movie projections, Sean Ono Lennon has your ticket to boogie with a limited-edition record from his new project called Myst... Exhibition of Rarely Seen Beatles Photographs at David Anth...4 is 50th Anniversary of the Fab Four's First Visit to America Fri November 29th, 2013 Mike Mitchell's photographs of the Beatles 1964 first U.S. concert in an exhibition entitled "Heading for the Light," are now on view and on sale in Taos, New Mexico, throughout 2014. These photo... Take Two: Yoko Ono Sells Downing Street Co-Op for Nearly $9 M. Fri November 29th, 2013 Most famous for her relationship with John Lennon, YOKO ONO has a considerable—if unusual—oeuvre of her own. In 1964, she performed Cut Piece, in which she appeared on stage draped with fa... New Beatles Coming? It’s “Top Secret” Thu November 28th, 2013 The Beatles archive collection On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2 is just out. But there may be even more Fabs music in the vaults. “There are no plans at the moment,” says Kevin Howlett of ... At The BBC, The Beatles Shocked An Institution Thu November 28th, 2013 England got a lot more of The Beatles  than Americans did during the group's formative years. Between 1962 and 1965, The Beatles were featured on 53 BBC radio programs, including their own ser... Sister of late Beatle George Harrison, 82, lives broke and ...million will and stopped the allowance he paid to support her' Wed November 27th, 2013 George Harrison was worth more than $300 million when he died in 2001, but the music legend's 82-year-old sister Louise Harrison now struggles to get by - living in a pre-fabricated home in small... Rebekah Brooks is accused of saying Sir Paul McCartney's phone was 'easy' to hack Wed November 27th, 2013 FORMER newspaper editor Rebekah Brooks confessed to hacking Sir Paul McCartney's phone, the Old Bailey was told yesterday. The ex-boss of The Sun and now defunct News Of The World made the admis... Ringo Starr reunited with Beatles fans he photographed Tue November 26th, 2013 Five Beatles fans who were photographed by Ringo Starr during the band's first US tour, finally met their idol almost 50 years later last weekend in Las Vegas. The friends were reunited last mont... New album uses hit songs to aid Philippines Tue November 26th, 2013 Isn't it nice when everyone bands together for a cause? This time around, it's big-time artists and their labels, who are joining forces to raise money for the Philippine Red Cross in the after... Beatles almost didn’t happen Mon November 25th, 2013 Are some people destined for success, or is the whole idea of destiny a myth, a comforting tale that we tell ourselves? When artists or political leaders become household names, are they just luc... Going Underground: Paul McCartney, The Beatles and The U.K. Counterculture (Pride) Mon November 25th, 2013 This documentary explores the evolution of the Beat Generation to the ʼ60s counterculture in England—an underground revolution sparked by LSD and led by Paul McCartney and the Beatles. "My dad interviewed John Lennon in bed" Sun November 24th, 2013 It’s 50 years since the Fab Four first played in our capital. Nathan Bevan talks to one fan who is keeping the rock ‘n’ roll spirit going. This year marks a half century since The Beatles ... Beatles bidder wins two pieces of Fab Four history Sun November 24th, 2013 Beatles memorabilia worth more than £2,500 have been bought by a colourful former councillor and pirate radio DJ. Colin Dale, 74, successfully bid for a gold disc commemorating one million sing... Beatles book autographed by Fab Four sells at Wareham auction for £3k Sat November 23rd, 2013 A BOOK autographed by The Beatles has been sold at an auction in Wareham for more than £3,000. Previously owned by a young fan who met the fab four backstage during a recording of Thank Your L... The Beatles, JFK and Nov. 22, 1963 Sat November 23rd, 2013 The connection between the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the eruption of Beatlemania in the U.S. a little more than two months later when the group showed up on “The Ed Sull... The Beatles top Official Record Store Chart Fri November 22nd, 2013 The album beat off competition from Keane and Wooden Shjips to land the top spot. The album beat off competition from Keane and Wooden Shjips to land the top spot.The Official Record Store C... Julian Lennon appears on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Fri November 22nd, 2013 Julian Lennon appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Thursday November 21, 2013. Debuting his new album "Everything Changes" Beatles expert calls for halt on sale of John Lennon's detention records Fri November 22nd, 2013 A Beatles expert has called for the auction of the John Lennon school detention records to be called-off until ownership rights can be properly established. George Harrison Townlands Hospital memorial planned Thu November 21st, 2013 Plans for a permanent memorial to George Harrison at a community hospital in Oxfordshire are under way. Townlands Hospital in Henley-on-Thames is undergoing an £8.7m upgrade after campaigners fo... The John Lennon Museum Remembering Yoko Ono’s millennium project, Thu November 21st, 2013 Living in Japan is often a magical mystery tour. Many things are counter-intuitive: the most popular attraction in a nation with 17 World Heritage Sites is Tokyo Disney Land; and the Hakone O... Report: Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr to Join Young Stars on CBS’ 50th Anniversary Beatles Salute Wed November 20th, 2013 A new report has emerged that reveals some of the stars who will be featured on the recently-announced CBS special celebrating the 50th anniversary of the night The Beatles first performed on t... Paul McCartney invites nuclear disaster victims to Tokyo concert Wed November 20th, 2013 Around 300,000 residents were evacuated from the area around the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in March, 2011 after a deadly earthquake and tsunami caused equipment failures at the site and led t... Yoko Ono - Yoko Ono Sued Over John Lennon-branded Collection Tue November 19th, 2013 Yoko Ono has been slapped with a breach of contract lawsuit from a disgruntled designer amid allegations she blocked a licensing deal for JOHN LENNON-branded products. With a little help! A new Beatles video clip is released of band's cover of Buddy Holly's Words of Love Tue November 19th, 2013 It’s been over forty years since the Beatles recorded their last music video. But a previously unseen clip of a cover of Words of Love by Buddy Holly is set to delight and intrigue fans. The v... Book recounts N.Y. family's Beatles magical mystery tour Mon November 18th, 2013 Some families form a special bond through a common interest  --  whether it's over a meal, a sport or a hobby. In the case of Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Jere Hester and his family, their bond is a lo... Yoko Ono launches her 'War Is Over! (if you want it)' exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Mon November 18th, 2013 YOKO Ono has invited Sydney to collaborate with her on eight art works, starting today. "I would like you to join me and show your creative power in these works," the artist, activist and widow ... Harry Benson's photos of the Beatles sparked career Sun November 17th, 2013 Photographer Harry Benson’s career spans six decades with work that includes some of the most influential figures in popular culture and politics, but it was a nearly missed chance to shoot the... Paul McCartney urges Putin to release Arctic 30 Sun November 17th, 2013 The former Beatle has published a letter written in October to the Russian president about the Greenpeace protesters. Paul McCartney has posted a letter he has written to Vladimir Putinonline,... Orchestra concert features songs from The Beatles Sat November 16th, 2013 Top off your Thanksgiving weekend with a concert by the Everett Philharmonic Orchestra for “kids from 3 to 103.” “IMAGINE!”, led by director Paul-Elliott Cobbs, will be at 3 p.m. on Sunda... 'Hi, my name is John Lennon' Self portrait of Beatles legend to be sold at auction Sat November 16th, 2013 The picture, made up of a few wavy lines drawn in a childlike manner, was created for his wife Yoko Ono's conceptual art book Grapefruit. The Imagine singer also drew a picture of his partner fo... Daft Punk, Paul McCartney up for Art Vinyl prize for best artwork Fri November 15th, 2013 The Art Vinyl prize recognises the year's best music artwork, with The Temper Trap, Keane and Muse triumphing in 2012. Fashion designer Vanessa Da Silva is nominated for her cover for Turbines�... Grammys to Salute the Beatles With Two-Hour Fri November 15th, 2013 The Grammy Awards will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' landmark performance on The Ed Sullivan Show with a two-hour special that will air on CBS. The program, titled The Nigh... British Library Obtains Lennon Lyrics and Letters Thu November 14th, 2013 The British Library has been given letters and lyrics by John Lennon under a program that accepts donations of art and cultural artifacts in place of tax. Producer Hints at “Top Secret” Beatles Project Thu November 14th, 2013 The Beatles’ highly anticipated new collection of BBC recordings has only been out for one day, but one of the producers of On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2 is already hinting at a new “se... Beatles named and dated Wed November 13th, 2013 A BEATLES fan has solved the mystery of the band’s change of name. Ken Harrison – no relation to George – says he foundout when the Silver Beetles changed their name to become the Beatles. ... Former Beatle Ringo Starr to Perform with His All-Starr Band in Mexico Wed November 13th, 2013 Ex-Beatle Ringo Starr will return to Mexico with his All-Starr Band to give three concerts in the Mexican capital on Nov. 13, 14 and 19, the National Auditorium said Saturday. “This is the s... Beatlemania is alive and well! Paul McCartney mobbed by hundreds of fans as he arrives in Japan...wearing a kimono Tue November 12th, 2013 Aside from selling millions of records, the success of The Beatles was often defined by the hordes of fanatical fans who would follow them around the world. Fast-forward fifty years on and littl... Beatles' legacy at BBC spotlighted in new book, CDs Tue November 12th, 2013 When Paul McCartney put out a solo album titled “Memory Almost Full” in 2007, veteran British Broadcasting Corp.producer Kevin Howlett might well have smiled. Hanging out with the Beatles Mon November 11th, 2013 Go back in time with photographer Henry Grossman, profiled on 60 Minutes this week. Grossman became a friend of the Beatles and was invited to document their lives. In the four videos below, Gr... Beatle John Lennon school detention sheets put up for sale Mon November 11th, 2013 Detention sheets describing Beatle John Lennon's schoolboy misdemeanours are being put up for sale. Teachers from Liverpool's Quarry Bank High School for Boys wrote that 15-year-old Lennon was p... Paul McCartney Looks Back At Beatles White Album In The Studio Sun November 10th, 2013 (ITS) Syndicated radio show InTheStudio: The Stories Behind History's Greatest Rock Bands concludes its two week look at The Beatles' 1968 White Album with the second part of the special going li... Beatles for sale...£125k tag put on Yellow Submarine film sketches Sun November 10th, 2013 ORIGINAL drawings for the Beatles’ psychedelic animation film Yellow Submarine are being auctioned for £125,000. The collection boasts hand-painted scenes from the 1968 adventure in which the... Gerry Harrison discusses friendship with the Beatles Sat November 9th, 2013 Gerry Harrison, assistant director of the legendary Beatles’ film Magical Mystery Tour, looks back on his time with the group as a period of “great fun”. The assistant film director who li... Schoolboy cashes in on Beatles gig Sat November 9th, 2013 Chris Hill was one of those who has vivid memories of the Fab Four’s concert in the Ritz Cinema 50 years ago today – memories which are immortalised thanks to an east European camera which he... The Beatles top most-pirated list Fri November 8th, 2013 The Beatles have topped a list of artists whose music is not being taken down from file-sharing websites (or at least not effectively) which has been complied by anti-piracy service MUSO. Look! It’s George Harrison as a child on O’Connell Street… Fri November 8th, 2013 THE BEATLES PLAYED their first and only Irish concerts fifty years ago this week; whipping up mass hysteria as they whistled through a series of short-sharp shows in Belfast and Dublin. Library Exhibition to Celebrate the Beatles’ Time in New York Thu November 7th, 2013 To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ first visit to New York, and the “Ed Sullivan Show” appearances that lit the fuse on Beatlemania in America, the New York Public Library ... Lennon in Bermuda app delayed (update) Thu November 7th, 2013 The highly anticipated John Lennon: The Bermuda Tapes app will be available on November 14 in Apple's App Store.  It was originally supposed to be released this week but the launch date had to ... Paul McCartney discusses secret sound for dogs hidden on Sgt Pepper album Wed November 6th, 2013 Paul McCartney has revealed a bizarre fact about The Beatles' icon Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album - a sound only dogs can hear features on track 'A Day in the Life'. Car on iconic Beatles album cover for sale Wed November 6th, 2013 The light blue 1967 Triumph Herald which was parked just metres from the Beatles as they walked across a Zebra crossing on their iconic 'Abbey Road' album cover is for sale – and it's right her... Rare Beatles 'Butcher' Fetches $15,300 Tue November 5th, 2013 The Beatles memorabilia dealer who sold the album, stated (in their **eBay listing) it was; "A simply stunning truly near mint mono original first state butcher cover version of the LP 'Yesterday... Beatles pianist session musician dies at 75 Tue November 5th, 2013 My father, Mike O'Neill, a piano player and songwriter who enjoyed his heyday in the 1960s, has died of cancer aged 75. Born in Lowton, Lancashire (now in Greater Manchester), the oldest of four ... Preview of 'The Beatles Live at The BBC: Volume 2' album streams online – listen Tue November 5th, 2013 A preview of the second volume of The Beatles 'Live At The BBC' collection is being streamed online – The original collection of recordings was released in 1994, hitting Number One in the UK... Royal Mail launches first TV ad in six years Mon November 4th, 2013 Newly privatised Royal Mail is launching its first TV ad in six years to promote the dedication of its postmen and women in the build-up to Christmas. The campaign features a version of The Beat... ‘The best Ringo has ever had’: Ringo Starr returns for more dates with close-knit All-Starr Band Mon November 4th, 2013 The debate over whether this is the greatest All-Starr Band that Ringo Starr has ever assembled can be put off for another time. There is no question, however, that it’s one of the most closely... Graphic novel colours in life of Beatles manager Brian Epstein Sun November 3rd, 2013 Broadway director Vivek Tiwary reveals his admiration for the man and talks about his plans for a landmark Beatles film. He was so influential in the success of John, Paul, George and Ringo that ... For Sale in L.A.: Rumored Rental Home of Beatles, David Hockney Sun November 3rd, 2013 In Los Angeles, real estate often stays in the celebrity family. If one celeb lives in a home, chances are another will follow suit. Such seems the case with an English-style home at 1385 Miller... Rare photos of The Beatles in Huddersfield will be displayed 50 years after they were taken Sat November 2nd, 2013 Music fans have a new date for their diary. Fifty years to the day that The Beatles played in Huddersfield, rare photographs of the band will go on display. Paul McCartney's phone hacked by tabloid for years, court told Sat November 2nd, 2013 SIR PAUL McCARTNEY's cell phone was hacked into "for years" by a private detective working on behalf of disgraced tabloid the News of the World, a court heard on Friday (01Nov13). BBC drama to re-imagine The Beatles story Fri November 1st, 2013 Andrew Knott, best known for appearing in The History Boys both on stage and screen, is to star in a BBC drama that imagines what would have happened if The Beatles had been turned down by George... McCartney fights to save Primrose Hill yoga centre Fri November 1st, 2013 The former Beatles star said getting rid of the Triyoga Centre, which is used by a host of celebrities including actress Sadie Frost and TV chef Jamie Oliver and his wife Jools, would be an "unfo... The Beatles Get 1st Feature in Encyclopedia Britannica in 50 Years Thu October 31st, 2013 The Beatles are getting their first mention in Encyclopedia Britannica in 50 years. Next February 2014, also the 50th anniversary of the group’s arrival in America, the EB has a feature on the ... Twinkle Twinkle Little Rock Star: Lullaby Versions of John Lennon (2013) Thu October 31st, 2013 Reviewing an album of lullabies may seem unusual for us at Something Else! Reviews. However, music fans who are also parents can agree on two things: one, it’s important to introduce your baby ... Beatles fans reunite to recreate Ringo Starr's famous 1964 photograph Wed October 30th, 2013 Five friends who were photographed by Ringo Starr during The Beatles' first trip to the US almost 50 years ago are to finally meet their idol, after being reunited and recreating the drummer's sn... Going, going, John....Lennon's house sells for £480,000 Wed October 30th, 2013 John Lennon's first home was sold to a US buyer for nearly half a million pounds. The red-bricked terrace house,  in Wavertree , where the former Beatle lived with his parents and grandparent... McCartney stuns café chef Tue October 29th, 2013 The Beatles legend, and well-known vegetarian, had finished filming British music show Later… with Jools Holland Monday when he stopped into the Fortify Café in Maidstone,Kent. Fair Lawn's 'Kids in the Car' to meet Ringo Starr Tue October 29th, 2013 It looks like Fair Lawn’s now famous “Kids in the Car” are going to get to meet Ringo Starr after all. “How great that they found these people!” The Beatles legend said in a statement ... THE FIFTH BEATLE COMIC BOOK TO LAUNCH IN ITALY Mon October 28th, 2013 A new graphic novel about the life of Beatles manager Brian Epstein will debut in Italy as part of the 10th anniversary of the country's Rolling Stone magazine. Vivek J. Tiwary, Andrew C. Robinso... McCartney 'still perfecting' Beatles classics Mon October 28th, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney never tires of performing Beatles hits like Yesterday and Blackbird - because he always wants to perfect them and understand what was going on in his mind when he wrote the son... Photographer Paul brings The Beatles back to Saltaire in exhibition Mon October 28th, 2013 In July 1968 Paul McCartney spent a morning in Victoria Hall, Saltaire, recording with the Black Dyke Mills brass band. Now, he can be seen back in Saltaire – along with John, George and Ringo... EXCLUSIVE: The Beatles Set for 2014 Grammy Awards Tribute, All-Star 50th Anniverary Concert Sun October 27th, 2013  The Grammy Awards will come earlier than usual in 2014, and will have something extra special. Ringo Starr confirmed for me tonight that The Beatles will likely be celebrated twice–once durin... Paul McCartney Can't Slow Down: Inside Rolling Stone's New Cover Story Sun October 27th, 2013 Paul McCartney has never dwelled in yesterday, even if he remembers it quite well. At 71, he's just released his 24th post-Beatles album, New, and is generating music at a pace that puts artist... 'Tune In:' A Long and Winding Book About The Beatles Sat October 26th, 2013 In a photograph in the new biography of the Beatles, "Tune In" by historian Mark Lewisohn, John Lennon stands in a Hamburg street in his underwear in the middle of the night, reading a copy of th... EXCLUSIVE: The Beatles Set for 2014 Grammy Awards Tribute, All-Star 50th Anniverary Concert Sat October 26th, 2013 EXCLUSIVE The Grammy Awards will come earlier than usual in 2014, and will have something extra special. Ringo Starr confirmed for me tonight that The Beatles will likely be celebrated twice–o... Ringo Starr, Vegas lounge singer? Fri October 25th, 2013 Former Beatle Ringo Starr may be the latest music legend headed toward a residency in Sin City. The 73-year-old drummer-turned-frontman hinted at the possibility Tuesday at a press conference in ... Paul McCartney’s ‘New’ album reaches Japan top 10, first for any musician over 70 Fri October 25th, 2013 Who says Japanese people listen only to young, stylish J-pop and K-pop superstars? Former Beatle and rock legend Paul McCartney has made it into the Japanese hit charts with his first album in ... Beatles fever hits small Swedish town Thu October 24th, 2013 A small Swedish town set the stage for the Beatles' first ever gig outside the UK, a fact celebrated half a century later, despite local press at the time dubbing it an "amateur jig". Help! I need somebody! Ringo Starr's search for teenagers he photographed 50 years ago (...so do YOU recognise them?) Thu October 24th, 2013 Ringo Starr needs a little Help! finding five teenage fans that he photographed during The Beatles’ first tour of America in 1964. The group were snapped by Starr in Miami Beach, Florida, afte... Yoko Ono 'Very Thankful' Paul McCartney Doesn't Blame Her For The Beatles' Breakup Wed October 23rd, 2013 Yoko Ono has been saying for years that she wasn't responsible for The Beatles' 1970 breakup. Now, the 80-year-old singer and artist is expressing gratitude for the clearance given to her by a Be... George Harrison's Musical Legacy Will Be Celebrated at Beacon Theatre by The Fab Faux Wed October 23rd, 2013 George Harrison's extraordinary musical career will be feted this coming Saturday at New York City's Beacon Theatre by the Fab Faux, dubbed "the greatest Beatles cover band" by Rolling Stone seni... Ringo Starr Releases 'Photograph' Book in Lavish Deluxe Edition Tue October 22nd, 2013 A few months ago, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr collected some of his personal pictures for the e-book Photograph. Now, that book is being printed in a limited edition physical version, but it... Theatre Within's Annual John Lennon Tribute Set for December 6 in NYC Tue October 22nd, 2013 John Lennon's life is celebrated again! Theatre Within, the grassroots non-profit behind the annual celebration of John Lennon in NYC, announced the line-up for the 33rd Annual John Lennon Tribut... ‘He’d never seemed that interested’: Paul McCartney still marvels at George Harrison’s songwriting growth Mon October 21st, 2013 For Paul McCartney, the decision to fill most of the Beatles’ albums with songs composed alongside John Lennon — rather than those of George Harrison and Ringo Starr — came down to producti... The Beatles' seminal song turns 50 this week Mon October 21st, 2013 Some revolutions have been hatched in neighborhood pubs; others in the streets. Fifty years ago this week, in a downstairs basement in London, Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote "I Want... Brian Wilson - Brian Wilson: Paul McCartney is 'gifted' musician Sun October 20th, 2013 Brian Wilson thinks Paul McCartney is the best musician around today and branded the musician as the most ''gifted'' singer he's ever listened to. The Beach Boys singer branded the former Beatle... Yoko Ono awarded prestigious German peace prize Sun October 20th, 2013 Berlin - "For her lasting artistic and peace-promoting political work," Yoko Ono, Japanese artist and widow of John Lennon, has won a prestigious German peace prize — the Theodor Wanner Lifetim... Ringo Starr turns Octopus's Garden into a colourful children's book - complete with never-before-heard rendition of the song Sat October 19th, 2013 It is one of those popular Beatles songs that appeals across generations. Octopus's Garden, like Maxwell's Silver Hammer or Yellow Submarine, have the sort of merry tunes and simple lyrics that p... Paul McCartney plays impromptu concert in Covent Garden Sat October 19th, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney has given an impromptu gig in Covent Garden during the lunchtime rush. "Good afternoon," he told that assembled crowd of more than 2,000 fans. "Welcome to Covent Garden." "We'r... Beatles fan offers rare set for autographs for auction Fri October 18th, 2013 A RARE set of Beatles autographs, featuring all of the Fab Four, will go under the hammer at a Wareham auction next month, it has been announced. The autographs, collected by a fan after the band... Paul McCartney agrees to play pub gig for £1 million Fri October 18th, 2013 The former Beatle was put on the spot during a phone chat with the host on Wednesday (16Oct13) as he launched a series of intimate concerts at the BBC's tiny Maida Vale studios in London, and agr... John Lennon - Hologram Museum To Open In London Thu October 17th, 2013 Rock fans will get the chance to perform 'live' with dead heroes including John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Freddie Mercury and Kurt Cobain when a hologram museum opens in London. Bosses of the Music H... Mid-performance autograph plea stuns McCartney Thu October 17th, 2013 An avid autograph hunter picked an unusual time to ask for Sir Paul McCartney's signature - in the middle of a live performance being broadcast by the BBC. The fan was in the audience of only aro... Critics praise Paul McCartney's "New" album Wed October 16th, 2013 Paul McCartney has been rolling out quite a bit of press for his latest album, "New," which is out now. The former Beatle exchanged accents with Jimmy Fallon and even did an i mpromptu performanc... Iconic tracks comprise 'A Very Special Christmas: ICON' Wed October 16th, 2013 A Very Special Christmas, the prestigious holiday music series that benefits Special Olympics, will celebrate its 26th season with a collection of really big chestnuts. A Very Special Christmas: ... L.A. Film Critics Assn. to honor director Richard Lester Tue October 15th, 2013 The Los Angeles Film Critics Assn. announced Saturday afternoon that director Richard Lester, who helmed the influential classic Beatles' film musicals, 1964's "A Hard Day's Night" and 1965's "He... Macca Defends Miley Over Twerk Dance Moves Tue October 15th, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney has told Sky News there was nothing wrong with Miley Cyrus' bump and grind moves at the MTV awards, saying: "Come on, we've seen worse than that!" The former Beatle told Sky p... Elton John and John Lennon hid from Andy Warhol during cocaine binge Mon October 14th, 2013 Elton John has discussed his former drug use, revealed how he once hid from legendary artist Andy Warhol during a cocaine binge with Beatles icon, John Lennon. The 'Rocket Man' star has spoken op... Review: Paul McCartney sounds revitalized in 'New' Mon October 14th, 2013 71-year-old Paul McCartney comes off effortlessly contemporary as well as hummably Beatle-esque when it suits him in this well-crafted new album. Great, just what the world needs: more enthusias... Amazing Cover Songs To Celebrate John Lennon's 'Imagine' Turning 42 Sun October 13th, 2013 On Oct. 11, 1971, John Lennon released "Imagine," which would go on to become one of the most performed songs of the 20th century. The single rose to the top of the Billboard 100 in both the Unit... Sing it! Paul McCartney could only tell Nancy he loved her in a song Sun October 13th, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney has revealed that when he started dating the woman who is now his wife, he was too timid to say those three little words.The legendary former Beatle admitted he was a little sh... Theatre Within’s 33rd Annual John Lennon Tribute Sat October 12th, 2013 October 10, 2013 (New York, NY) – Theatre Within, the grassroots non-profit behind the annual celebration of John Lennon in NYC, today announced the line-up for the 33rd Annual John Lennon Trib... Stockton Globe Theatre restoration gets £4m HLF boost Sat October 12th, 2013 Stockton’s Globe Theatre is to receive a grant of nearly £4 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund to help re-open the venue. The grade-II listed art deco theatre in Stockton-on-Tees will be r... Paul McCartney accuses The Rolling Stones of copying The Beatles Sat October 12th, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney has accused The Rolling Stones for copying The Beatles during their ascent to success in the sixties. The unstoppable star has been quoted as saying that The Beatles' former ri... Quarrymen records 'most costly' Fri October 11th, 2013 Punk idols The Sex Pistols are more costly for vinyl buff devotees than The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, according to new research. Experts at Record Collector magazine have calculated the cos... Yoko Ono given top Iceland honor Fri October 11th, 2013 JOHN LENNON's widow YOKO ONO has been made an honorary citizen of Reykjavik, Iceland in recognition of her tireless efforts for world peace. The artist/singer was presented with the award by the ... Paul McCartney spent his second wedding anniversary on Wedn...rming for around 400 high school students in Queens, New York. Thu October 10th, 2013 Paul McCartney spent his second wedding anniversary on Wednesday afternoon performing for around 400 high school students in Queens, New York. The kids at the FRANK SINATRA School of the Arts gat... Yoko Ono shares John Lennon’s drawings to help the vulnerable in the city he loved Wed October 9th, 2013 An exhibit of drawings by John Lennon will be up in Soho from Oct. 9 to Oct. 14 to raise money for Citymeals-on-Wheels, a local emergency food provider that delivered 64,000 meals to homebound se... Love me don't: National Trust won't bid for John Lennon's childhood home Wed October 9th, 2013 The National Trust has revealed that it will not be bidding for John Lennon’s childhood home when it goes up for auction at Liverpool’s famous Cavern Club on 29th October. Happy ending: John Lennon's star ready to go for birthday after graffiti removed Tue October 8th, 2013 John Lennon's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which was desecrated by vandals over the weekend with writing and drawings, is back to its original state Oct. 7 after workers, first from Capito... Macca sacks estate caretakers after 20 years’ service Tue October 8th, 2013 Paul McCartney has fired a loyal caretaker from his Scottish estate after twenty years of service. Jimmy Paterson is said to be shocked at being given three months notice by the musician to vacat... John Lennon's Hollywood Walk of Fame star defaced Tue October 8th, 2013 John Lennon’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was defaced with graffiti and other markings over the weekend, just days before what would have been his 73rd birthday on Wednesday. US Beatles fan flies in to donate original Fab Four albums to museum Mon October 7th, 2013 Please Please Me, With the Beatles and Beatles for Sale return to Liverpool after being sent from Crease's Music Store 50 years ago. A Beatles fan from across the Atlantic donated her prized coll... Brian Epstein Movie To Feature Beatles Songs Mon October 7th, 2013 The Fifth Beatle, the upcoming BRIAN EPSTEIN biopic, will include songs from the BEATLES' catalog—the first time a dramatization about the Fab Four has done so. The film, set for release someti... Book review: All These Years: The Beatles Tune In Sun October 6th, 2013 Thirty-three years ago, when he was writing the mournful epilogue to the book that still stands as a benchmark, Philip Norman tried to communicate how it felt: a world after the Beatles. He pictu... George Harrison 'hated being pushed around by Paul McCartney' Sun October 6th, 2013 An upcoming book about George Harrison's life will reveal darker secrets about the late Beatles guitarist, including rifts with Paul McCartney and how being in the band nearly sent him spiralling... LIFE magazine photographer Bill Eppridge dead at 75 Sat October 5th, 2013 LIFE magazine photographer Bill Eppridge, who chronicled The Beatles arrival in the U.S. and the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, died on Wednesday at a Danbury, Conn., hospital. He was 75. McCartney reveals how happiness inspired his new album Sat October 5th, 2013 As Sir Paul McCartney prepares to release his first solo album in six years he tells of how his happiness with his wife Nancy Shevell has inspired his writing, how he struggles not to repeat the ... Probe into Merseytravel's £1.7m Beatles black hole Fri October 4th, 2013 An investigation is under way into why £2m of Merseyside taxpayers’ money was spent on Beatles memorabilia that turned out to be worth only £300,000. Paul McCartney hopes to duet with Radiohead star Thom Yorke, Bob Dylan Fri October 4th, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney has revealed that he has been urged to collaborate with Thom Yorke. The music icon's daughter Stella McCartney is said to have advised him to work with the Radiohead frontman, ... Baby, you can drive his car: Ringo Starr's ultra-rare Frenc... was the world's fastest four-seater set to sell for £350,000 Fri October 4th, 2013 Ringo Starr's ultra-rare French touring car - once dubbed 'the world's fastest four-seater' - is set to sell for a staggering £350,000. 34th Annual John Lennon Birthday Party continues at Enoch’s in Monroe, LA Fri October 4th, 2013 The 34th Annual John Lennon Birthday Party at Enoch’s Pub is recognized as the longest-running Lennon birthday party in the United States and continues the celebration again this year. Paul McCartney fans in New York & LA will hear his "New " Album a week early Thu October 3rd, 2013 PAUL MCCARTNEY fans in New York and Los Angeles will get to hear his new album, New, a little more than a week before it’s released. It’s Beatles for sale as treasures go for £5,020 Thu October 3rd, 2013 It was 50 years ago today... give or take six months or so. A concert programme signed by all four Beatles at their first Sheffield show has been uncovered – selling at auction for £4,200. The... John Lennon Slept In This Hollywood Hills Home (PHOTOS) Thu October 3rd, 2013 While this isn't one of the places where the late-music icon John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono staged one of their famous bed-ins for peace or posed naked for the cover of their 1968 album "Unfinishe... Drums Ringo Starr Played at Beatles' Shea Stadium Shows on Display at NYC Bloomingdale's Store Wed October 2nd, 2013 A drum kit featuring various drums that RINGO STARR used when THE BEATLES played their historic Shea Stadium concerts in 1965 and 1966 currently is on display for a limited time at the Bloomingda... Paul McCartney to Answer 'New' Questions on Twitter Wed October 2nd, 2013 Paul McCartney will answer questions from fans Thursday in his first-ever Twitter Q&A to celebrate the launch of his upcoming album New. Where Does Paul McCartney Rank on Our 100 Greatest Singer... New John Lennon Biography to be Released for Beatles 50th Anniversary Tue October 1st, 2013 Beatles expert and author Jude Southerland Kessler has announced that the upcoming release of her third book has been delayed to coincide with Beatles anniversary. The much anticipated third boo... Rest Easy, Paul McCartney’s Talking Squirrel Movie Is Finally Getting Made Tue October 1st, 2013 It’s a good day to be a squirrel. First comes the trailer for The Nut Job, and now the news that the squirrel-centric children’s book “High in the Clouds” is being adapted into a feature ... John Lennon lauds Canada’s good ‘vibrations,’ predicts Beatles’ breakup in long-lost Mississauga interview Mon September 30th, 2013 A reel-to-reel radio relic that preserves a long-lost Canadian interview with John Lennon, discovered recently in a former New York broadcaster’s attic is set to be auctioned Thursday. We ended... Beatlemania: 'the screamers' and other tales of fandom Mon September 30th, 2013 Fifty years ago, Beatlemania shocked the world, drawing hostility and pity from press and public alike. But the screamers were neither the first nor the last to be starstruck… The first time Sc... Signed With the Beatles album makes $41,000 at RR Auction Sun September 29th, 2013 A signed copy of With the Beatles has seen some of the highest bids in RR Auction's online sale, which closed on September 26. The album, signed by all four members of the band and in superb cond... John Lennon's first home is up for sale and you can own it Sun September 29th, 2013 The home where John Lennon began his life after his birth in 1940 at 9 Newcastle Road in Liverpool is up for auction and Donna Jackson of the British Beatles Fan Club said in an interview Sept. 2... The Beatles: the making of Lennon Sun September 29th, 2013 As part of our exclusive coverage of Mark Lewisohn's new Beatles biography, the author shares an extract exposing the uncomfortable truth about John Lennon's relationship with the irreverent, uni... Paul McCartney swaps singing for acting as he takes to the stage with Tom Hanks at star-studded Shakespeare charity reading Sun September 29th, 2013 He is famous for his singing and song-writing skills. But Sir Paul McCartney appears to have caught the acting bug.  The 71-year-old took part in the Simply Shakespeare event in Los Angeles on W... In long-lost interview, Lennon dishes on meeting Trudeau Fri September 27th, 2013 A reel-to-reel radio relic that preserves a long-lost Canadian interview with John Lennon, discovered recently in a former New York broadcaster's attic and set to be auctioned Thursday in the U.S... Paul McCartney: 'I realise now that 'Yesterday' is about my mum' Fri September 27th, 2013 Paul McCartney has discussed the meaning behind some of his most famous songs including 'Yesterday' in a candid interview. The music legend told Mojo that the inspiration behind the melancholy 'Y... “Beatles vs. Stones”: What fueled rock’s greatest rivalry Thu September 26th, 2013 THE GREATEST RIVALRY IN THE HISTORY OF ROCK AND ROLL takes a scholarly and engaging turn in John McMillian’s parallel biography: Beatles vs. Stones. Most readers will already know that the Bea... France honors Beatles drummer Ringo Starr Thu September 26th, 2013 MONACO (AFP) - Beatles drummer Ringo Starr has joined one of the art world's most exclusive clubs after being appointed a Commander of France's Order of Arts and Letters. John Lennon’s 1980 Trip to Bermuda to Be Chronicled in New App Benefiting WhyHunger Charity Wed September 25th, 2013 A new app focusing on the creatively fruitful trip JOHN LENNON took to Bermuda in 1980 will be released later this fall.  John Lennon: The Bermuda Tapeswill go on sale November 5 exclusively via... New Lennon and McCartney picture reveals Beatles legends a year before hitting the big time Wed September 25th, 2013 Friends John Lennon and Paul McCartney pose on the streets of Liverpool before fame and moptop hairstyles take hold, in a previously unpublished photograph. The songwriting duo are seen in the su... Singer Jackie Lomax dies in England at 69 Tue September 24th, 2013 LONDON — Jackie Lomax, a singer-songwriter who worked with The Beatles and enjoyed a long solo career, has died at age 69. Lomax died Sunday in the Wirral, near Liverpool in northwest England, ... Pete Martin: Fixing a hole in Beatles history Tue September 24th, 2013 Much has been written about the Fab Four, but a new book reveals that the friendship between Lennon and McCartney was more complex than we knew, writes Pete Martin. In Paul McCartney’s house in... New - Album Artwork Revealed And Deluxe Tracklisting Tue September 24th, 2013 October 14th (15th in the US) will see the release of Paul’s first album of brand NEW solo material in six years. Today, Monday 23rd September, Paul reveals NEW artwork as well as tracklisting ... DHANI HARRISON SINGLE Mon September 23rd, 2013 Dhani Harrison has recorded one of his father's songs, For You Blue, and released it today on iTunes for charity. From the George Harrison website: "Dhani Harrison’s version of his father’s s... Two schoolgirls record message for The Beatles..and get a reply from Macca 50 years later Sun September 22nd, 2013 It was exactly 50 years ago when Barbara Bezant and Lyn Jeffries got together to record a message for the Fab Four. They stuck it in the post but didn't hear anything back - until now.  Death of John Lennon's mother at hands of policeman hardened his anti-establishment views, new book claims Sun September 22nd, 2013 Julia Lennon was killed when she was knocked over by a car as she crossed the road in 1958.Although she had given Lennon up age five, at the time of her death the pair had reconciled, leading Len... Paul McCartney: Only WE Know What Happened In The Beatles Sat September 21st, 2013 PREVIEWING HIS FORTHCOMING 24th solo studio album – entitled New – in the latest MOJO magazine, Paul McCartney pricks the bubble of received wisdom that surrounds his former, quite-well-known... McCartney to play for 6 Music Sat September 21st, 2013 Paul McCartney is to perform at BBC Maida Vale as part of a 6 Music event. The forrmer Beatle, whose forthcoming album New is released by Hear Music/Universal on October 14, will play at the BBC ... Elvis ring, George Harrison banjo, Tiffany Civil War flag to lead Ahlers & Ogletree Oct. 6 auction Fri September 20th, 2013 A star ruby and diamond spiritual ring owned and worn by Elvis Presley, a four-string banjo owned and played by George Harrison and a Civil War 36-star flag made by Tiffany & Co. will be sold Oct... Take a tour of Abbey Road Studios Thu September 19th, 2013 On a recent trip to London, I got a chance to tour storied speaker company B&W's factory. They asked if I'd also like to tour Abbey Road Studios. Yes. Yes I would. And I did. It was awesome and I... Carrie Underwood to perform at Emmys tribute to The Beatles Thu September 19th, 2013 The section will honor all the television milestones that took place in 1963. It will include the assassination coverage of President John F. Kennedy on November 22 and the first appearance of Th... Paul McCartney sets sights on Candlestick's last bow Wed September 18th, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney has tossed up the possibility of headlining one last concert at Candlestick Park - where the Beatles played their final gig for a paying crowd in 1966 - before the stadium's da... BBC Radio 4 to create documentary on Lennon and Bermuda Wed September 18th, 2013 As organizers prepare to host the 2nd Annual John Lennon Double Fantasy Bermuda Tribute Concert this weekend, the Island is set to receive a special visit from BBC Radio 4 who will be dedicating... Timberlake and McCartney for free? Jimmy Kimmel can hook you up Wed September 18th, 2013 The production crew of "Jimmy Kimmel Live" is planning to shut down part of Hollywood Boulevard for two nights next week, but before you get too up in arms about the traffic inconvenience, know t... McCartney returns to 'boring' EMI Tue September 17th, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney's new album will see him return to an EMI record label - six years after he left the company and branded it "boring". The musician will issue his next release, called New, nex... Yoko Ono: John Lennon Would Have Loved Twitter Tue September 17th, 2013 Yoko Ono is 80 years old, but on Sunday night, she was just a rockstar sashaying her way around the stage at Bowery Ballroom, one of New York's smaller yet still venerable concert venues. Creepy Beatles top 10 for Friday the 13th Mon September 16th, 2013 It's Friday the 13th so to mark the occasion we asked people who follow the Echo's twitter account to give The Beatles songs a spooky makeover - with brilliant results. Photo Flashback: Beatles Ordered Off Stage in Cleveland in 1964 Mon September 16th, 2013 The Cleveland Public Hall just couldn’t stand the heat of Beatlemania. Above is a photo of Carl Bear (great name by the way) of the Cleveland police ordering the Beatles to leave the stage. 3 Tales That Tell How Little Lennon & McCartney Cared About “I Wanna Be Your Man” Sun September 15th, 2013 John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote so many brilliant Beatles songs in the 1960s, some they simply gave away. That’s exactly the case for one of their earliest singles, “I Wanna Be Your Man... Woodbridge: Rare copy of The Beatles’ album Please, Please Me donated to British Red Cross charity shop Sun September 15th, 2013 When charity shop worker Merriam Keeble took delivery of a donation of 200 LPs she was in for a pleasant surprise. For, hidden away among the records featuring the likes of The Rolling Stones, Ma... Insightful biography of George Harrison, the ‘recovering’ Beatle Sat September 14th, 2013 Like Under the Ivy, his much-acclaimed study of Kate Bush, the title of the latest music biography by the Edinburgh-based writer Graeme Thomson promises revelation. Alston illegal copied Beatles album seller jailed Sat September 14th, 2013 A Cumbrian man who sold bootleg albums of Beatles music has been jailed. Paul Parkin was charged after police and trading standards officers raided his home in West View, Alston, following a tip-... Paul Reveals Tracklisting For NEW Album Fri September 13th, 2013 October 14th (15th in the US) will see the release of Paul’s first album of brand NEW solo material in six years. Today the tracklisting has been revealed: Piece of wood featuring John Lennon's lyrics to 'Sexy Sadie' up for auction Fri September 13th, 2013 A piece of wood with John Lennon's original lyrics to 'Sexy Sadie' is being sold at auction. Lennon originally wrote the song in 1968 to attack Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the guru who had introduced ... Another Set of Beatles’ BBC Recordings Is On the Way Fri September 13th, 2013 When Capitol Records released “The Beatles Live at the BBC” to great fanfare in 1994, Beatles collectors lamented that the two-disc set barely scratched the surface of the vast trove of recor... Documentary, art exhibit to reflect on life of John Lennon, Yoko Ono Thu September 12th, 2013 John Lennon and Yoko Ono are making their way to campus — in art form that is. Not only will Virginia Tech be screening “The U.S. vs. John Lennon,” on campus, but “My Mommy is Beautiful,�... Watch Paul McCartney Dazzle in Acoustic Version of ‘New’ Thu September 12th, 2013 In case you were wondering if Paul McCartney, Beatle, has still got it, there’s this video of him just a-messin’ around with his new song, “New.” The video was posted on McCartney’s You... Lennon Royal Court theatre, Liverpool Wed September 11th, 2013 I feel I am back in the 60s, in a packed Batley Variety Club, tucking into the ubiquitous chicken in a basket, watching the stars of the day. But no, this is 2013 and I’m at Liverpool’s Royal... New Paul McCartney Single to Be Featured in CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 Wed September 11th, 2013 As inventor Flint Lockwood returns to the island of Swallow Falls to save the world again! he'll be doing it to the brand "new" beat from Paul McCartney as his single, "New," will be featured in ... 'Good Ol' Freda' Explores The History Of The Beatles' Unheralded Secretary, Freda Kelly Tue September 10th, 2013 Only the most hardcore Beatles fans probably know the name Freda Kelly. They may have even received a letter from her. From the early 1960s through the band's dissolution in 1970, Kelly served as... Doncaster’s crumbling St James’ pool to stay closed Tue September 10th, 2013 Doncaster’s crumbling St James’ Leisure Centre is to shut for good - unless £2 million can be found to make it safe. Leisure bosses have announced today that the doors of the Grade II listed... Rare Autographed John Lennon Book Sells On EBay Mon September 9th, 2013 A rare photo book signed by Beatles legend John Lennon has reportedly sold on eBay. The book, a copy of Lennon's book In His Own Write, appeared on the auction site earlier this month and quickly... Paul Remembers Sir David Frost Mon September 9th, 2013 "I was very sad to hear that my good friend David Frost passed away recently. I have known David for many years. "We first met when he was doing a stand up comedy routine in the London night club... Rare Beatles Artwork to be Unveiled during the Toronto Film Festival Sun September 8th, 2013 John Brower, a promoter of The Toronto Rock and Roll Revival held at Varsity Stadium on September 13, 1969, brings to Toronto a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see the only authorized physical ... The F-Stop: Beatlemania At The Leica Gallery Sun September 8th, 2013 You could call us a band of brothers, or maybe a sisterhood. What's a name for a group of men and women who have all been through the trenches together? Co-commiserators? Whatever you want to cal... John Lennon says recording The Beatles' 'Let It Be' was 'hell' in decades-old lost interview Sat September 7th, 2013 A lost, decades-old interview with John Lennon sees the singer reveal that recording the final Beatles' album 'Let It Be' was "hell". As the Telegraph reports, the audio interview – with Vill... Julian Lennon revels in finding his 'own' art form at last Sat September 7th, 2013 The musician son of the late Beatle John Lennon is unveiling his first photography exhibition in London - and said it is good to find an artform he can call his own.Julian Lennon, 50, said he had... The Beatles to Be Saluted by "Glee" on Two Season-Opening Episodes; Album Available Sept. 24 Fri September 6th, 2013 The music of THE BEATLES will be showcased on the first two episodes of the fifth season of Glee, which will air September 26 and October 3, respectively, on Fox.  The shows will feature a total... Hear now: Beatles vocals-only tracks highlight harmonies, passion Fri September 6th, 2013 Just when you thought it wasn't possible to experience the Beatles' work with fresh ears, there arrives a reminder of their power, focus and vocal skill. As the fantastic website Dangerous Minds ... George Harrison Inducted Into the Ultimate Classic Rock Hall of Fame Fri September 6th, 2013 With nearly 56 percent of the vote, George Harrison becomes the first double inductee into the Ultimate Classic Rock Hall of Fame. Harrison was inducted earlier this year as a member of the Beatl... Beatles tour guide restores famous Strawberry Field gates to original red Fri September 6th, 2013 A Beatles tour guide took matters into his own hands after the city’s famous Strawberry Field gates were painted yellow. Joey Lyons, who runs the popular Hard Day’s Night taxi tours, seized t... Beatles and Rolling Stones negatives go under the hammer Thu September 5th, 2013 A group of original negatives featuring some of the world's greatest pop and rock icons is to be auctioned at Addison's Autumn Catalogue Sale on Saturday 7 September. Dating from the 1960s and 19... Julian Lennon recreates Imagine shoot Thu September 5th, 2013 JULIAN LENNON has recreated his father John's iconic image in the promo for classic track IMAGINE by posing for photographs at a white grand piano. The musician/artist invited his close pal, soc... Paul McCartney says wife Linda saved him from nervous breakdown during Beatles split Tue September 3rd, 2013 Paul McCartney has revealed that his wife Linda "saved" him from a nervous breakdown during the demise of The Beatles in 1969. The revelation comes in a forthcoming biography titled Man On The ... Beatles albums finally go platinum Tue September 3rd, 2013 Classic Beatles albums including Revolver have finally gone platinum after the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) changed its sales award rules.Gold or platinum status has become synonymous with... Lennon infidelity led to split: Ono Mon September 2nd, 2013 John Lennon’s former wife Yoko Ono has revealed that the reason behind the couple’s split in 1970s was because of the former Beatles’ one night fling with another woman. Sold for £10.2m - flats in Beatles' old HQ Mon September 2nd, 2013 Five flats in the former HQ of The Beatles’ Apple Records label in Baker Street have been sold to Middle Eastern investors just four weeks after the launch, for £10.2 million. Retirement? No, "Everything's New Baby" - Paul McCartney's In Good Spirits Sun September 1st, 2013 It's all new for Paul. To be Paul McCartney right now is to be a happy man; new album in the pipe and a new single – both called 'New'. The former Beatles man seems to have a newfound zest abou... Lost Beatles recordings to be released Sun September 1st, 2013 Lost radio recordings of The Beatles are to be released on the follow-up to the band's 1994 album On Air - Live at the BBC. Fans were asked to delve into their personal archives to find taped rec... Remembering my friend Sid Bernstein Sat August 31st, 2013 You meet a Sid Bernstein once in a lifetime, if you are lucky. Toward the end of his funeral last Friday, a service that included much laughter, music, and a standing ovation mixed in with the te... Mark Ronson Almost Missed A Career-Changing Phone Call From Paul McCartney Sat August 31st, 2013 Mark Ronson, who has produced for musicians like Adele, Lil Wayne, Nas, Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse, lent his producing talents to Paul McCartney's new, very Beatles-esque single "New," which dr... 3 Ways Brian Epstein Made The Beatles Fri August 30th, 2013 Behind every great band or artist is a person or team of people who, one way or another, help guide them to the greatness they inevitably achieved. Even The Beatles can’t escape this distinctio... Yesterday and today: Amazing digital trickery puts the Beatles - and their fans - into the heart of modern Liverpool Fri August 30th, 2013 Growing up in 1960s Liverpool and it would have been hard not to get swept up in Beatlemania. But now a digital image expert has brought the Fab Four up to date by superimposing them into today i... Sir Paul McCartney reveals new single and album Thu August 29th, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney has announced details of a new solo album and shared a track from the record called New. He told BBC 6 Music's Matt Everitt: "It's catchy, it's summery, it's a love song. I th... Legendary Beatles Strawberry Field gates painted yellow Thu August 29th, 2013 Iconic gates made famous by a  Beatles song were painted yellow  by a mysterious “artist”. Merseyside Police were making  enquiries after tourists arrived at  the entrance to former child... They should have known better: no blue plaque for ‘Fifth Beatle’ Brian Epstein Thu August 29th, 2013 He may have discovered the Beatles, but even with a little help from his friends, Brian Epstein’s legacy is being overlooked.For the past six years Geoffrey Ellis — an old friend who worked w... Beatles carved in iconic Mount Rushmore pose Wed August 28th, 2013 A Mount Rushmore–style sculpture  with The Beatles in place of the four US  presidents has taken centre stage in an  exhibition. Titled Tomorrow Never Knows, the  display is made up of four... Ringo Starr's children's book to include previously unheard version of 'Octopus's Garden' Wed August 28th, 2013 A previously unheard version of Ringo Starr singing 'Octopus's Garden' will be released along with a children's book of the same title this October. Earlier this year, Starr gave permission to pu... GILBERT TAYLOR Tue August 27th, 2013 Every filmmaker hopes their viewers will be left with indelible images, which will play over and over in the mind like a narrative transfusion. The great cinematographers achieve this gift of ima... Warhol snap shots Tue August 27th, 2013 These never-before-seen photographs of celebrities captured by Andy Warhol are about to become and exhibition. This 1979 picture shows John Lennon and the boyfriend of fashion designer Roy Halsto... Famous Writers' Typewriters On Exhibit At Northeastern Tue August 27th, 2013 Gallery 360,Northeastern University's on-campus art gallery, is hosting a collection of typewriters from famous writers, such as Ray Bradbury, John Lennon and Ernest Hemingway. Harrison historical marker to be unveiled Tue August 27th, 2013 BENTON — Plans are being finalized for the celebration marking the 50th anniversary of “the first Beatle in America.” George Harrison’s 1963 visit to Benton will be remembered during the ... Paul McCartney Tour Tops Pollster's Ranking Of Highest-Grossing Concerts Mon August 26th, 2013 The Top 20 Concert Tours ranks artists by average box office gross per city and includes the average ticket price for shows in North America. The previous week's ranking is in parentheses. The li... How our reporter got rocker to change his tune on Beatles story Mon August 26th, 2013 LAKE GENEVA, Wis. — Yes, the Lake Geneva dateline is a bit beside the point, but I was so excited about a story Josh Stockinger wrote in Friday's editions I felt compelled to add my 2 cents whi... Sid Bernstein: Concert impresario launched Beatles' invasion of America Mon August 26th, 2013 Sid Bernstein made musical history in 1964 when he took an unknown British pop group – the Beatles – to America and started the "British Invasion" there. He booked the Beatles to play at Carn... Doctor Robert Goes to Liverpool Sun August 25th, 2013 Beatles Radio is at the Mathew Street Festival - International Beatle Week Liverpool. So much to do and see from taking a Magical Mystery Tour Bus ride for two hours for around $22.00 or 15.00 qu... Exclusive interview: Author Kevin Roach delves into George Harrison's past Sun August 25th, 2013 Author Kevin Roach, who has penned an excellent book on the family of Paul McCartney and is co-author of another on the Beatles, has now authored “George Harrison: That's the Way God Planned It... Elmhurst man admits lying about opening for Beatles Sat August 24th, 2013 This is the story of aging rock musician Gary Goldberg, The Beatles and a lie that, in the end, came to haunt him. Goldberg took the podium last week at the Elmhurst Historical Museum to tell a f... Website about random meetings with The Beatles to become a book Sat August 24th, 2013 A WEBSITE devoted to random meetings between the public and The Beatles over the years is set to become a book. The Facebook page, called The Beatles And Me, was set up “for a bit of a laugh”... Beatle's ex-wife claims silver medal Fri August 23rd, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney's ex-wife Heather Mills has taken out second place in the women's adaptive slalom event at the New Zealand Winter Games. Mills, who is ranked 28th in the world in the event, cl... John Lennon’s tooth unlikely to help resurrect Beatle, expert says Fri August 23rd, 2013 The Alberta dentist who bought John Lennon's tooth has sent it to the U.S. for DNA sequencing in the hopes the former Beatles may one day be cloned. With a little help from an Alberta dentist and... Beatles travel tips: 20 top historical landmarks in Liverpool and London Thu August 22nd, 2013 If you want to discover the rich history of the Beatles, and walk in their footsteps, you will be buying a plane ticket to England. You will head to Liverpool where they grew up, seeing their chi... Visionary Beatles promoter Sid Bernstein dies at 95 Thu August 22nd, 2013 Sid Bernstein, the visionary music promoter and producer who booked The Beatles to play Carnegie Hall and Shea Stadium in the 1960s, has died at the age of 95. During his career, Bernstein also b... New Book Sheds Light on Last Moments of John Lennon Wed August 21st, 2013 The Broadway engagement of Let It Be will conclude Sunday, September 1st at the St. James Theatre (246 West 44th Street) following 46 performances and 9 previews. At the time of closing, the Br... Liverpool, home of the Fab Four, finds all you need is love Wed August 21st, 2013 After decades of industrial decline, the northern English city of Liverpool's cry of Help!is being heard as tourists flock to the home of The Beatles. The recession-hit city's struggling economy ... Magical mystery of Sir Paul McCartney's door is solved Tue August 20th, 2013 The magical mystery behind a letter of authenticity for Sir Paul McCartney’s old door has led to a charity donation. The front door from the former home of the McCartney family, in Liverpool’... A biography? I don't have time to be a Paperback Writer, say Paul McCartney Tue August 20th, 2013 SIR Paul McCartney has turned down offers of up to £5million to write an autobiography, saying he is too busy touring and making music. The memoirs of the 71-year-old former Beatle have the pote... Singer clicks with Beatles pick (with Livingston Sensation finals video) Mon August 19th, 2013 Vicki Gibbons wasn’t feeling good Sunday, so she picked the Beatles “Oh! Darling” to perform in the finals of the Livingston Sensation competition. “I wanted to pick something I’m comfo... Sir Paul given Key to City Mon August 19th, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney is the latest recipient of the Key to the City. The 71-year-old Beatle received the key from Mayor Sam Katz before taking the stage at sold-out Investors Group Field on Monday ... Rare Beatles poster from 1962 found by workmen refurbishing station Sun August 18th, 2013 A rare poster promoting a performance by the Beatles before they became global superstars has been found by railway staff. The billboard picture dates back to 1962 and advertises the band as a su... 51 Years Ago: The Beatles Fire Pete Best Sun August 18th, 2013 Arguably the most ignominious firing in rock history happened on Aug. 16, 1962. Shortly before recording their debut single, the Beatles dismissed drummer Pete Best. Cloning of John Lennon: Scientists working to extract DNA from tooth Sat August 17th, 2013 “If scientists think they can clone Mammoths, then John Lennon could be next.” This is the quote from Edmonton, Alberta today, August 16, 2013, by Dr. Michael Zuk, who is collaborating with A... Fans get tied up in knots over Beatles auction Sat August 17th, 2013 A tie which used to belong to John Lennon is among the rare items set to go under the hammer at the Beatles 22nd Annual Memorabilia auction. The black knitted tie was discovered by retired civil ... The Beatles - The Beatles make £43.5m Fri August 16th, 2013 The Beatles have amassed an annual turnover of £43.5 million, landing Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, as well as John Lennon and George Harrison's widows, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, with £5... Paul McCartney Added to All-Star iHeartRadio Fest Lineup Fri August 16th, 2013 The lineup for 2013's iHeartRadio Festival in Las Vegas just got a superstar addition: Paul McCartney has joined the bill for the event, which takes place at the MGM Grand Arena on September 20th... A First Look At McCartney’s ‘Revelatory’ New Album Thu August 15th, 2013 Ethan Johns (son of former Beatles, Stones, and Who producer Glyn Johns) discloses precious little information about his collaboration with Paul McCartney on his 16th solo studio LP, due out this... Opportunity knocks for Beatles fans at auction Thu August 15th, 2013 Fab Four door goes under the hammer at Beatles memorabilia auction in Liverpool. Beatles fans could soon be  knocking on the door of Paul  McCartney’s childhood home when it  goes under the ... John Lennon's jacket goes under the hammer Wed August 14th, 2013 Imagine you had £10,000 to spare...  you could use it to bid for a rare jacket that once belonged to Beatles star John Lennon. Dating from the late 1960s the teal blue jacket, owned and worn by... McCartney crew can't eat meat while preparing for show Wed August 14th, 2013 A whole lot of burly stage workers at Mosaic Stadium are on a strict diet this week, thanks to Paul McCartney. The former Beatle and rock legend is playing an outdoor show at the stadium Wednesda... Sir Paul Mccartney - Paul McCartney hires stars for new album Tue August 13th, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney has teamed up with Giles Martin, son of The Beatles producer Sir George Martin, as well as Adele's producer Paul Epworth and Sir Tom Jones collaborator Ethan Johns for his new ... Rare Beatles Album Fetches $35,000 Tue August 13th, 2013 One of the lowest numbered Beatles albums has fetched a winning bid of $35,000 (after buyers premium) with Heritage Auctions. The White Album, which had a U.S. Pressing number of A0000001, had pr... Paul McCartney Gaining Rights to Beatles Music in 2018, 2019 Tue August 13th, 2013 Former Beatle Paul McCartney could reclaim the copyrights to a cache of his most famous tunes, but he’ll have to wait five years to do so. Copyright laws allow songwriters to regain control o... I want to SHAKE your hand! Beatles superfan compiles book containing hundreds of ordinary people's meetings with the Fab Four Mon August 12th, 2013 A Beatles superfan has created a unique book of ordinary people's chance encounters with the world’s most famous band. The Beatles and Me by Dean Johnson, which is being officially launched on ... Beatles mural projection mapped on to its old Apple building in London Mon August 12th, 2013 Projection Advertising has transformed the appearance of 94 Baker Street, the Grade II listed one-time base for Apple Records and the Apple Boutique, as part of an event to launch the new Apple A... ‘Abbey Road’ Cover Art: Strolling Back to Rock’s Most Iconic Crosswalk Sun August 11th, 2013 Prior to 1969, if you had insisted that a crosswalk would go down in history, you might have found yourself in the crosshairs of a petition for institutionalization. But a casual photo shoot on t... 'Paul McCartney's trousers' turn up in Bridlington Sun August 11th, 2013 A Bridlington man is hoping a pair of half-century old leather strides he claims once belonged to Paul McCartney could trouser him thousands of pounds. Mike Hoggard claims Beatles manager Brian E... Sir Paul McCartney, Tom Hanks And Rita Wilson Will Lead A C...akespeare Center Of Los Angeles 23rd Annual Simply Shakespeare Sat August 10th, 2013 LOS ANGELES, Aug. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles (SCLA) presents its 23rd Annual Simply Shakespeare benefit reading of "The Two Gentlemen of Verona," September 25,... Pop legend's amp to feature in Altrincham gig Sat August 10th, 2013 AN amp once owned by a pop legend will be used to perform a tribute to the most iconic band in modern music - at a gig in Altrincham. The piece of equipment, once the property of George Harrison,... Rare Beatles records to go under the hammer Sat August 10th, 2013 A rare collection of Beatles records on sale in Newcastle this week is expected to reach over $1,000 at auction as part of the University of Newcastle Book Fair. The collection is one of the show... Last-minute cheap seats for Paul McCartney show angers fan Fri August 9th, 2013 At least one Paul McCartney fan says he's angry he paid full price for tickets to the former Beatle's concert in Winnipeg next week, when much cheaper tickets have started appearing online. Ticke... Never-before-seen portrait of John Lennon discovered Fri August 9th, 2013 An never-before-seen portrait of John Lennon has been discovered as a revolutionary book based on meetings with The Beatles is launched. The photograph shows Lennon at ease with the photographer ... John Lennon Educational Tour Bus rolls into Dublin Thu August 8th, 2013 The bus, unveiled by Yoko Ono in Liverpool last May is traveling around Europe and the US offering kids the chance to develop their musical talents. The bus has three on-board engineers, young as... Rare Beatles photographs pulled from sale at 11th hour Thu August 8th, 2013 Rare photos of The Beatles, including precious images discovered on a film found inside a camera belonging to the band’s official photographer after he died, have been pulled from sale. Auction... THE BOOTLEG FILES: JAMES PAUL MCCARTNEY Wed August 7th, 2013 Back in early 1973, Paul McCartney was experiencing a new peak in his post-Beatles career. His song “My Love” reached the top of the U.S. music charts, and he was tapped to offer the first ro... Johnny Hallyday planning duets project in English Wed August 7th, 2013 French rocker JOHNNY HALLYDAY is hoping to finally crack the international markets by releasing a duets album featuring the likes of SIR PAUL McCARTNEY and STEVIE WONDER. The singer is a music ic... When Harry met... John, Paul, George and Ringo: The American Beatle's 18-month 'lost weekend' with Lennon Tue August 6th, 2013 Somewhere between three and four o’clock on a Monday morning in April 1968, the telephone rang in the little office at RCA Records in Los Angeles where an obscure singer-songwriter named Harry ... Lennon lives on in new play Tue August 6th, 2013 John Lennon is having a moment. Again. More than three decades after his untimely death in New York, the Lennon legend lives on in not one, but two plays being performed in Liverpool this month. ... Almost 5,000 fans pack Richmond County Bank Ballpark for Beatles Blast (photos, video) Mon August 5th, 2013 Staten Islanders enjoyed the music of The Beatles performed by many talented cover bands during the second annual Beatles Blast held at the Richmond County Ballpark in St. George. Close to 5,00... Rare collection Mon August 5th, 2013 This Feb. 11, 1964 image provided by the David Anthony Fine Art gallery in Taos, N.M., shows a photograph of George Harrison taken by photographer Mike Mitchell during the Beatles first live U.S.... Paul McCartney makes cancer-stricken fan wish come true Sun August 4th, 2013 Beatles legend Paul McCartney made a lifelong dream come true for a cancer-stricken fan by calling her when she was admitted in the hospital. McCartney called the terminally ill woman, who had le... Vee-Jay lost The Beatles Sun August 4th, 2013 One mistake and your reputation is shot. Dick Rowe was one of the pillars of the Decca label, but he has gone down in history as "the talent scout who turned down The Beatles." A sin of a differe... Night Cavern Club, Liverpool Sat August 3rd, 2013 After close to 300 Beatles appearances at the Cavern Club, spanning two and a half years, this was the last! The venue had played perhaps the vital role in preparing them for "The Big Time" and n... Jazz & Blues Festival offers timeless tribute to John Lennon Sat August 3rd, 2013 In 2010, a small jazz festival in Toronto decided to produce a tribute to British singer-songwriter John Lennon to commemorate the 30th anniversary of his death. The project brought some of Canad... Late Beatle Stuart Sutcliffe to Receive Art Exhibition Sat August 3rd, 2013 Stuart Sutcliffe, the late artist and early bassist for the Beatles, will receive an art showcase from Harper's Books in East Hampton, New York on August 10th (running until October 14th). The ex... NM exhibit shines light on rare Beatles photos Fri August 2nd, 2013 TAOS, N.M. (AP) — Snow and frigid temperatures didn't stop thousands of screaming teenagers from crowding into the Washington Coliseum in the nation's capital for the Beatles first live concert... John Lennon and Paul McCartney rare 1969 photograph found Fri August 2nd, 2013 A rare shot of John Lennon and Paul McCartney singing together at the time of the Beatles' demise has been found. The photograph was taken at the 1969 recording of The Ballad of John and Yoko at ... Rare Beatles autographs to go up for auction Fri August 2nd, 2013 A RARE Beatles programme emblazoned with no less than three signatures of John Lennon is to go on sale at a South Derbyshire auction house. The commemorative item, from a show in March 1963, has ... Demolition starts at Northwich Memorial Hall Thu August 1st, 2013 DEMOLITION has started at an iconic pop venue of the 1960s that has been at the heart of Northwich for decades. Northwich Memorial Hall drew crowds in their hundreds in the 1960s and ‘70s when ... Fans snap up bits of Beatles' long and winding road to stardom Thu August 1st, 2013 PIECES of a Wirral stage trodden by The Beatles – before they took the pop world by storm – are being snapped up at extraordinary prices across the globe. A Beatles fan in America has paid $3... Paul Mccartney - Paul McCartney wants to play obscure Beatles tracks Wed July 31st, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney still has a ''treasure trove'' of Beatles songs he wants to play live. The 'Paperback Writer' musician plans to continue introducing more ''hidden gems'' from his most famous b... Tony Palmer: he's with the band Wed July 31st, 2013 Tony Palmer was studying moral sciences at Cambridge University in the 1960s when a moderately famous band arrived in town. "I got a call to attend this press conference the Beatles were holding,... Vintage Beatles Guitar Collection to ‘Invade’ Babbidge Library Tue July 30th, 2013 He remembered the reaction of his older sister to the band’s appearance on television and decided he wanted to learn to play the guitar. He started taking guitar lessons near his home in Waterb... A Magical History Tour - Beatling around LA Tue July 30th, 2013 This summer, I had the pleasure of visiting California for the first time. Although it was a family vacation with my girlfriend and her daughter, I did find the time to do a little bit of "Beatli... 'When They Were Boys': A look back at the early days of The Beatles Mon July 29th, 2013 The sun’s rays, on a lucky day, are making their way through the rooftops of Liverpool. The solitary figure moves quietly over the sidewalks, dropping off the fresh milk at his appointed rounds... Come together Mon July 29th, 2013 David John Paul George Ringo Lennon changed his name by deed poll, so it's hardly surprising that the man covered in Beatles tattoos would take the opportunity to warble John Lennon's 1970 solo a... Bruce Willis: Paul McCartney would be perfect for RED 3 Sun July 28th, 2013 Bruce Willis wants Sir Paul McCartney to star in 'RED 3'. The 58-year-old actor plays retired CIA agent Frank Moses in the action comedy franchise alongside an all-star cast including Dame Helen ... Q&A: Paul McCartney Looks Back on His Latest Magical Mystery Tour Sun July 28th, 2013 Anyone who's seen Paul McCartney on this year's Out There! world tour can tell you how much he loves being onstage. From Brazil to Poland to the U.S., he's delivered epic three-hour sets full of ... Paul McCartney grants teen's wish for birthday hug Sat July 27th, 2013 A Nova Scotia teen received a once-in-a-lifetime birthday gift Tuesday at the Paul McCartney concert in Quebec City. Megane Rand says The Beatles are her all-time favourite band and it was surrea... For Sale: John Lennon's Microphone Sat July 27th, 2013 A microphone which JOHN LENNON used to record 'Imagine' has been placed on sale, with bids starting at £1500. More than 30 years after his death, John Lennon remains an instantly recognisable ic... The Beatles' "Love Me Do" Reissued on Heart-Shaped Vinyl Fri July 26th, 2013 The Beatles' first single, "Love Me Do," came out way back in 1962, and now that it's more than 50 years old, the song is currently out of copyright in the Europe. This has allowed Mischief Music... Paul McCartney says he will continue to tour Fri July 26th, 2013 NEW YORK (AP) — Paul McCartney says as long as he can walk and get about, he plans to keep performing. He tells Rolling Stone magazine he "can't imagine ever not" performing and touring. He say... BWW TV: The Beatles Are Back on Broadway! Watch Highlights from LET IT BE Thu July 25th, 2013 The Fab Four are taking Broadway by storm with Let It Be, a spectacular concert experience at Broadway's St. James Theatre. Previews are now underway, with an official opening night set for tomor... Welsh Streets regeneration plans approved - but government may call inquiry Thu July 25th, 2013 Plans for a major regeneration of the city’s derelict Welsh Streets have been approved – but the government may call a public inquiry. Dozens of people who have campaigned both for and agains... Pussy Riot campaign draws Adele, U2, Radiohead and Paul McCartney Thu July 25th, 2013 Amnesty International says that more than 100 leading musicians are calling for release of jailed members of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot. Amnesty said on Monday that Adele, U2, Madonna, Yok... Late Beatles manager's girlfriend, son fighting over artwork Thu July 25th, 2013 The longtime girlfriend of the late Beatles and Rolling Stones manager Allen Klein is in a tug of war with his son over at least $1 million in artwork she claims her beau gifted her before he die... Hat John Lennon wore at Tittenhurst photo shoot up for auction Thu July 25th, 2013 One of the most recognized iconic and historic artifacts from the final days of the Beatles is now up for auction on eBay. It is the hat worn by John Lennon for the last official Beatles photo sh... I told The Beatles to mind their language as I made their first suits Wed July 24th, 2013 It's high summer and once more tourists are making the pilgrimage to meet Walter Smith in his Liverpool city centre workshop. But the visitors, who come from all over the world, aren’t necessar... Sgt Pepper re-imagined for Blake birthday bash Wed July 24th, 2013 FAMOUS Surrey residents are featured in a reworking of British pop artist Sir Peter Blake’s most famous piece of work – the picture adorning one of the most well-known albums of all time. Sir... Beatles childhood home gets a facelift Tue July 23rd, 2013 The home where George Harrison, a former member of The Beatles, grew up is blooming with summer flowers after local organisations joined forces to give the home and surrounding area a facelift. New video footage of Paul and Linda McCartney from 1992 revealed (Video) Tue July 23rd, 2013 A previously unseen video clip of Paul and Linda McCartney paying a visit to the construction site of the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA) in 1992 was revealed to Beatles Examiner on... Kodaline wish they had written Hey Jude Mon July 22nd, 2013 Kodaline wish they had written The Beatles hit 'Hey Jude'. The Irish band are ''massive fans'' of the classic pop group and vocalist Steve Garrigan said he wished he had written their classic 196... Pat O'Day recounts falling for epic Paul McCartney marriage hoax Sun July 21st, 2013 Paul McCartney's return to Seattle Friday for his highly anticipated Safeco Field show is stirring some embarrassing memories for iconic Seattle DJ and concert promoter Pat O'Day. O'Day was the p... Paul McCartney joined by remaining Nirvana members for Seattle gig Sun July 21st, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney was joined onstage by the three surviving members of Nirvana as he performed in Seattle on Friday (19 July) Former Nirvana members Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear j... Paul McCartney asks Aquino to free elephant Sat July 20th, 2013 MANILA – Singer-songwriter Paul McCartney, who gained worldwide fame as a member of The Beatles, has joined calls for the release of an elderly elephant in the Manila Zoo. According to the anim... Record sleeve with Beatles' signatures up for auction Sat July 20th, 2013 A RECORD sleeve on which an air hostess collected the autographs of all four Beatles is up for auction. Auctioneers estimate the EP cover should raise £400-£500 when it goes under the hammer on... Paul McCartney still keeps it fresh for himself, crowd Fri July 19th, 2013 Paul McCartney did not play "When I'm Sixty-Four" at a sold-out Miller Park Tuesday night. He's 71 now. He's already been there, done that. Some may wonder why he still keeps working at this poin... Marker dedicates Harrison’s visit to Southern Illinois Fri July 19th, 2013 BENTON — A historical marker of international significance will recognize Benton’s place in the history of The Beatles. The marker will be dedicated later this year during a 50th anniversary ... Lowest-numbered White Album sleeve valued at $20,000 Thu July 18th, 2013 The lowest-numbered sleeve from the Beatles' White Album will star in Heritage Auctions' August 10 Entertainment and Music Memorabilia Signature Auction in Dallas. The sleeve is numbered A0000001... Man who dressed The Beatles remains a cut above the rest Thu July 18th, 2013 ASK many people in Liverpool where the Queen Arcade is and they will probably look at you blank. But while the little alley, which cuts a right angle behind the junction of Dale Street and Castle... Ex-John Lennon Ferrari sells for £360,000 Wed July 17th, 2013 A 1965 Ferrari 330 GT owned by John Lennon sold for £360,000 in part of the highest grossing automobile auction in history. A Ferrari bought by John Lennon the month he passed his driving test s... SHELF LIFE Comic-Con 2013 'The Fifth Beatle': Brian Epstein gets his moment in new graphic novel -- EXCLUSIVE Wed July 17th, 2013 The Fab Four wouldn’t have been the Fab Four without the genius of the man Paul McCartney called the “fifth Beatle” — Brian Epstein. Epstein discovered the Beatles and guided them through... Bob Dylan Unreleased Songs With George Harrison To Surface On Bootleg 10 Wed July 17th, 2013 Bob Dylan’s 10th bootleg album will focus on the early session tapes that would become the ‘Self Portrait’ and ‘New Morning’ albums. It was at the time he was working closely with Georg... Rare Beatles Acetate of 1964 Best of Album to Be Auctioned Tue July 16th, 2013 The acetate for a rare Beatles album that never saw release will be auctioned off on August 9 by Heritage Auctions. Best of the Beatles was assembled by Capitol Records as a two-LP set in 1964 a... Can’t Buy Me Love? A Lawsuit Debates It Tue July 16th, 2013 Many Beatles fans can barely stand to watch the 1970 documentary “Let It Be,” which throws an unwelcome spotlight on the band’s members as they lecture, criticize and ignore one another whi... How The Bloody Beetroots Scored Paul McCartney For ‘Out Of Sight’ Mon July 15th, 2013 Sir Paul doesn’t just show up for anyone — let alone twice. Over the weekend, masked Italian DJs Bloody Beetroots released the music video for “Out of Sight,” their inspired collaboration... Paul McCartney Lights Up Fenway Park Mon July 15th, 2013 Paul McCartney is a member of two very exclusive fraternities in the pantheon of rock and roll. He is one of few artists in the world who can sell out any venue, in any city, whenever he wants to... Nutopians perform Lennon tribute concert at Opus 40 in Saugerties Sun July 14th, 2013 Back in 1973, John Lennon wanted to make New York City his home, but he was being treated like an illegal immigrant. Though his wife Yoko Ono already had a green card, the rabble-rousing Lennon h... Fans recall what Paul McCartney — and the Beatles — meant to them Sat July 13th, 2013 On June 18, 1942, a boy named James Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool, England. He'd grow up and meet other chaps — John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr — and together as the Beatles,... Meet The Beatles! Iconic Early Work by Astrid Kirchherr Sat July 13th, 2013 In 1960, a Hamburg art student with a flair for fashion and a passion for photography grabbed her camera and began to record intimate moments with a new group of friends, musicians from the north... Paul McCartney: My Life Was Threatened over Israel Show Fri July 12th, 2013 Paul McCartney's life was threatened by BDS (boycott, divest and sanction) anti-Israel groups prior to a concert he performed in the country in 2008, according to Adam Shay of the Jerusalem Cente... Imagine that! Lennon in oils Fri July 12th, 2013 AN artist has painted a striking portrait of Beatles legend John Lennon. Leigh-based artist Paul Karslake is currently exhibiting at Southend Central Library with a vivid Rolls Royce car door and... Five Beatles songs you might be surprised to hear Paul McCartney play live Fri July 12th, 2013 From the moment Paul McCartney, coolly holding his iconic, beat-up Hofner bass guitar, plucked the first notes of the "Out There" tour kickoff in Brazil, the audience must have recognized somethi... Paul McCartney Donates Signed Boxset To Julian Lennon Charity Thu July 11th, 2013 Julian Lennon’s White Feather Foundation charity has been gifted by a signed boxset from Paul McCartney to raise money to help people who are dying from lack of clean water and sanitation. The ... The Beatles showed us the way to get back home Thu July 11th, 2013 I remember when Paul was dead. It was the fall of 1969 — my first year at the University of Victoria — and I, like the rest of my generation, was stunned at reports that the real Paul McCartn... Concert review: Paul McCartney wows crowd at Fenway Park in Boston Thu July 11th, 2013 BOSTON – Somewhere in a musty attic in Liverpool there has to be a portrait of an aging Paul McCartney because the guy who rocked out Fenway Park Tuesday night sure didn’t act like a 71-year-... How Paul McCartney invented the hipster look and indie pop Wed July 10th, 2013 When Paul McCartney left The Beatles in 1970 he decided to drop out of public life for a while. Taking his wife and children Macca headed off to his newly bought farm house in the Mull of Kintrye... Limelight at last for the man at The Beatles' birth Wed July 10th, 2013 Half a century after they had their first hit and four decades after they split up there remains an insatiable appetite for tales about The Beatles. And amazingly, even now they keep on coming. Fenway Converted to Concert Venue for Paul McCartney, Jason Aldean This Week Tue July 9th, 2013 Tim Piper returns to Los Angeles with JUST IMAGINE, an extraordinary rock 'n' roll celebration of the life and music of John Lennon . Backed by rock band Working Class Hero (Greg Piper on bass; D... Ageless Paul McCartney plans to cement his place in pop history Tue July 9th, 2013 In early December 1961, Brian Epstein drew up a contract that bound The Beatles to him for five years. Only Paul McCartney was hesitant about signing it. McCartney told Epstein that he hoped The ... New Yoko Ono Album with Plastic Ono Band Set for September Release Mon July 8th, 2013 John Lennon‘s widow, Yoko Ono, may be 80 years old, but she remains as creative and active as ever.  The avant-garde artist and the latest incarnation of her Plastic Ono Band have recorded a f... Sir Paul, where art thou? Mon July 8th, 2013 OTTAWA — Fifty-six years to the day after Sir Paul McCartney met his former Beatles bandmate John Lennon in a church hall in a suburb of Liverpool, England, the legendary rocker was in Ottawa p... Shakespeare and Beatles combine for school play Sun July 7th, 2013 ARTISTIC culture separated by hundreds of years will be coming together during a performance at Gosden House School next month. Pupils at the Bramley special educational needs school will be pe... Ottawa's biggest Beatles fan is ready for Paul McCartney Sat July 6th, 2013 Fans of the Beatles have always been a passionate bunch. But few can rival Ottawa’s Yvan Tessier. He bought his first Beatles album, Yellow Submarine, in 1968. Since then he’s amassed one of ... Keeping the beat for Sir Paul Sat July 6th, 2013 Paul McCartney has carried more tunes in his day than a pallet full of iPods. Music, says drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., is in “every fiber” of McCartney’s being: “Even if he’s making a litt... The WZLX Beatles Art Show Returns This Weekend Fri July 5th, 2013 Hand-signed memorabilia from the Beatles, particularly the late John Lennon and George Harrison, get more and more rare every year. That only makes events featuring them more and more special. From Grapefruit to Acorn: Yoko Ono publishes book of 'instructional poems' Fri July 5th, 2013 Nearly 50 years after writing the conceptual art book Grapefruit, writer, artist and peace activist Yoko Ono has released a sequel that she hopes will inspire people and get them thinking and rea... Join Ringo On His Birthday Thu July 4th, 2013 July 7 is Ringo Starr's birthday and since 2008 the world has been celebrating with him by sharing a moment of "Peace & Love" at Noon. When Ringo is on tour during the summer we join forces with ... What the Beatles' Abbey Road Crosswalk Looks Like Today Thu July 4th, 2013 Chris Purcell's lyrical short film, Why Don’t We Do It in the Road? explores a regular old crosswalk in the St. John’s Wood district of London — the place where the Beatles took a few short... Beatles Radio Exclusive: The Story of When Former Beatle John Lennon Spent Three Days in Philadelphia Wed July 3rd, 2013 Nicholas Natalicchio professional filmmaker and graduate student at The New School has just completed an audio documentary entitled. A Helping Hand: The Story of When Former Beatle John Lennon ... How Lennon and McCartney Wrote “She Loves You” Wed July 3rd, 2013 Excerpts from Ian MacDonald’s Revolution in the Head, a thrilling song-by-song history of the Beatles’ records that Slate’s Stephen Metcalf has called “one of the best, if not the bes... Rolling Stone: Beatles a 'horrible' band name Wed July 3rd, 2013 Admittedly, there are some questionable band names out there. Nickelback. Limp Bizkit. Kajagoogoo. But The Beatles? The legendary Fab Four who shook up the music world in the 1960s like no other ... Wings Single Signed By Paul and Linda McCartney Sells for $1,200 Tue July 2nd, 2013 A copy of Wings’ 1972 single ‘Hi, Hi, Hi’ / ‘C Moon’ signed by both Paul McCartney and his wife Linda has sold for $1,205 after 16 bids on eBay. The late Linda added “Happy New Year�... Not Fade Away 1966: Tomorrow Never Knows, by The Beatles Tue July 2nd, 2013 That the brutality should come from the same source as last week’s acoustic sounds (even with the salt and vinegar of John Lennon’s voice on You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away) makes it all ... LJMU rename building in honor of former student John Lennon Tue July 2nd, 2013 The former arts college turned University where Beatles legend John Lennon studied is set to rename a building after its most famous student. Yoko Ono has been involved the development of the sit... The Beatles’ 1963 Revisited Mon July 1st, 2013 IT'S JULY 1, 1963 AND at London's Abbey Road Studios a song is recorded that will change the world, the lit fuse of the most extraordinary pop culture explosion of the 20th Century. It's called S... Paul joins Cruelty Free International call for global ban on animal tests for cosmetics Mon July 1st, 2013 Paul McCartney appeals to countries across the world to end cosmetics tests on animals Former Beatle and long-time BUAV supporter Paul McCartney has applauded the work done by the animal organi... Sir - Paul McCartney not famous in Wings Sun June 30th, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney didn't feel famous when he was in Wings. The 'Band on the Run' singer formed the rock band after being in The Beatles, and liked the fact when he started out, he wasn't treated... Exhibit promotes John Lennon's messages of love and peace through art Sun June 30th, 2013 Long before he picked up a guitar, John Lennon was a doodler. The cerebral Beatle, who spent three years at the Liverpool Art Institute before immersing himself in the music that would define his... McCartney says Vegetarian Diet and Romance Keep Him Young Sat June 29th, 2013 Want to feel and look young when you’re 71? PAUL MCCARTNEY has some tips for you. The Beatle speculated that the reason he’s looking so great can be attributed to his flesh-free diet and acti... New Video: Paul Featured In Linda Documentary For Austrian TV Sat June 29th, 2013 Paul will be playing tonight with his band at the Happel Stadium in Vienna, Austria as part of his all-new "Out There" tour. Fans travelling to the show – or even visiting Vienna in the coming ... 'You Gave Me The Answer' - Amanda in the United States asks… Sat June 29th, 2013 Each month Paul has been answering questions from his fans for the website's new feature 'You Gave Me The Answer'. This month's question comes from Amanda in the United States who asks: "What is... $10,795 for Beatles 'Please Please Me' Sat June 29th, 2013 The unsigned record, Please Please Me, was described by the seller as being in excellent/near mint condition, and worthy of being in a museum. Here's an excerpt from the sellers listing, descri... Julian Lennon talks Phil Ramone, Steven Tyler and "co-writing" with The Beatles Sat June 29th, 2013 Julian Lennon doesn't do the hard sell anymore. Nearly 30 years after his brief, mini-Beatlemania-like brush with fame sparked by the release of his debut album, Valotte, the 50-year-old singer-s... Garage find Mini expected to make £20,000 this weekend Fri June 28th, 2013 Obviously not previously owned by any Tom, Dick or Harry, this 'garage found' 1965 Austin Mini Cooper Radford was once the property of Beatles manager Brian Epstein.  The car may be the only u... John Lennon wrote Imagine to outdo Yesterday Fri June 28th, 2013 JOHN LENNON was obsessed with writing a song better than SIR PAUL McCARTNEY's YESTERDAY and hoped IMAGINE would finally replace THE BEATLES' hit as the world's most-loved song. The guitarist wa... The Beatles' 'Help!': Go Behind the Scenes Thu June 27th, 2013 The Beatles are bringing back their second feature film, Help!, on Blu-Ray with some special outtakes, interviews and trailers, as well as a 30-minute documentary on the making of the movie. In t... Photog Who Shot Beatles Concert With a Fake Press Pass Sells the Pics for $45K Thu June 27th, 2013 In 1965, amateur photographer Marc Weinstein used a fake press pass to get police to escort him stage-side at the historic Beatles concert in Shea Stadium. Now, almost 50 years later, he has sold... Fancy a ferrari? John Lennon's first car and home go on sale for £14million Thu June 27th, 2013 THE first car ever bought by John Lennon sits outside his former mansion for the first time in 50 years - and now both are up for sale for a combined total of £14million.The beautiful blue Ferra... A bitter twist on Lennon Wed June 26th, 2013 A lot of us teenage girls were a bit psycho, that way, in the psychedelic Sixties; pinning Beatles to our bedroom walls like crazed etymologists; fantasising  about John / George / Paul / Ringo ... Double Fantasy Live – review Wed June 26th, 2013 On a giant screen, John Lennon and Yoko Ono walk through a chilly Central Park, as the ex-Beatle ruminates over their just-released collaborative album Double Fantasy. "It's love and a lot of swe... Interview: Engineer Eddie Kramer on Recording The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" Wed June 26th, 2013 The Beatles made EMI’s Abbey Road Studios a household name after they titled their 1969 album for the facility. It was there that they recorded nearly all of their songs, beginning with their f... Garage Sale Beatles Interview Tape Worth $4,000+ Tue June 25th, 2013 When most of us go to garage sales, we don’t plan on picking up anything of extreme value. That definitely wasn’t the case for a lucky San Diego man, who picked up a rare Beatles interview ta... New Video: Paul's Message For Vienna Tue June 25th, 2013 Paul and his band have recorded a new video for the fans coming to see his gig at the Happel Stadium in Vienna this Thursday. The video was shot during the soundcheck for Paul's recent concert in... Sir Paul McCartney's son James gives 'excruciating' TV interview on BBC Breakfast Tue June 25th, 2013 James McCartney gave a car-crash interview on BBC Breakfast this morning as he tried to promote his new album. Presenters Bill Turnbull and Susanna Reid were forced to do most of the talking duri... Stuart Sutcliffe & The Beatles’ disintegration Mon June 24th, 2013 1962 – Stuart Sutcliffe dies of an aneurysm (brain haemorrhage) aged 21; whilst in studying in Hamburg, West Germany. He collapsed in the middle of an art class after complaining of head pains... P&G signs licensing pact with famous designer Mon June 24th, 2013 Procter & Gamble Co.'s luxury brands unit has a new deal to develop fragrances in partnership with a high-profile London fashion designer. P&G Prestige will work with Stella McCartney to make a... Meet The Band: The Quarrymen - Rod Davies Interview Sun June 23rd, 2013 ANYONE who knows anything about the history of The Beatles knows that their rise to worldwide fame didn’t come overnight. In fact, they had evolved froma skiffle group called The Quarrymen, for... Eleven Essential Paul McCartney Albums Sun June 23rd, 2013 In honor of his 71st birthday, let’s sample the best of his post-Beatles work. Paul McCartney turns 71 years old this week, with 47 albums to his credit. (You could also add his 12 albums with ... Three Newport pals recall taxi ride with Paul McCartney to Beatles gig at the Borough Theatre, Abergavenny Sat June 22nd, 2013 FIFTY years ago today The Beatles performed their only Welsh concert in Abergavenny. Three Newport friends who were lucky enough to see them play a 20-minute set at the Borough Theatre recall sha... Hard Rock Hotel offers a walk down a rock ‘n roll memory lane Sat June 22nd, 2013 With a little help from things such as instruments, clothing and even a pair of round glasses, memories can play back like favorite songs on an iPod. TAMPA — From the elaborate costume hangin... Emmys: Beatles Film vs. Stones Film - It's the Beatles by a Walrus Hair Sat June 22nd, 2013 “Magical Mystery Tour” is far more focused than "Crossfire Hurricane," zeroing in on a single year and a single project Last year, the Emmys’ Outstanding Nonfiction Special category saw a... Sometimes, it’s better to reject The Beatles… Fri June 21st, 2013 A copy of the Beatles rejected audition tape for Decca resurfaced recentlyand aside from sending shivers down the collective spines of aged record company execs who once proclaimed guitar music a... It was 50 years ago today, The Beatles came to play Fri June 21st, 2013 FRIDAY (June 21) marks the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ one and only visit to Guildford. The Fab Four headlined two concerts at the Odeon in the upper High Street on June 21 1963. John Le... Ringo’s photo book gives new insight into Beatles’ friendship Fri June 21st, 2013 Ringo Starr is releasing a book of previously unseen images of his life with the world’s biggest pop group. He shares his memories with ANDY WELCH and reveals why no one will ever know everythi... Bids Soar for Signed Beatles Dollar Thu June 20th, 2013 Bidding has soared for this 1963 U.S. Dollar Bill which was autographed by all four Beatles, early in their career. The dollar, signed prior to their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, during ... Paul McCartney's son James on life as the son of a Beatles legend Thu June 20th, 2013 It has taken 35 years for James McCartney to step out from his father’s shadow. In his 20s, the son of Beatles legend Paul McCartney shunned his father, hated his new step-mother and descended ... Carnival gets ready to celebrate the Beatles years Wed June 19th, 2013 MONTHS of detective work are finally paying off for the organisers of a nostalgia-themed Northwich Carnival. This year’s event will celebrate 50 years since the Beatles crowned the carnival que... Mighty Mac: Paul McCartney Wed June 19th, 2013 One of the most highly regarded musicians of all time, Paul was part of some small band called The Beatles (we’d never heard of them before either), but he will of course be best known for his ... 50 years on Cwmbran man recalls Beatles support slot in Abergavenny Wed June 19th, 2013 ON Saturday evening, Barrie Herbert will be among the audience at Abergavenny’s Borough Theatre, watching a Beatles tribute band. And 50 years ago, he was at the same venue, onstage and backs... Paul McCartney using birthday to raise money for charity Wed June 19th, 2013 SIR PAUL McCARTNEY is urging fans to mark his birthday by sending donations to a cancer charity. The Beatles legend turns 71 on Tuesday (18Jun13) and he decided to mark the occasion by launchin... Ringo Starr's personal photographer Rob Shanahan Tue June 18th, 2013 Ringo Starr's personal photographer Rob Shanahan posted an amazing picture of the Beatles iconic Ludwig drum kit now on display at the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. Rob's FB page is "Rob Shanahan... A rare demonstration copy of the Beatles Tue June 18th, 2013 A rare demonstration copy of the Beatles’ debut single ‘Love Me Do’has sold for a whopping $10,255.74 on eBay. The demo copy, which the seller said was from his personal collection, was... New McCartney tribute CD to benefit Women and Cancer Fund Tue June 18th, 2013 “Let Us In Americana,” a new Paul McCartney tribute album, will be released June 25 on the 46th anniversary of the worldwide television broadcast of the Beatles' “All You Need Is Love�... All The Photos Of Paul McCartney Performing At Bonnaroo You Could Ever Want Tue June 18th, 2013 "We're about to see a goddamned Beatle." You couldn't walk five feet without hearing at least one person utter that glowing refrain during night two of Bonnaroo around the What Stage (not that yo... Paul McCartney thrilled to see Linda onstage in Wings concert movie Mon June 17th, 2013 The remastered 1980 film, which features footage from four U.S. concerts in 1976, hit cinemas in the U.S. last month (May13) for a one-night-only screening prior to the DVD and Blu-Ray release, b... Paul McCartney’s son: Nancy Shevell is 'my new mother' Mon June 17th, 2013 Sir Paul’s son feels fine about his “new mother.”James McCartney — the little-known solo artist and son of Beatles legend Paul McCartney — said he’s delighted with his dad’s new wif... iHeartRadio poll: Paul McCartney is pop's coolest dad Sun June 16th, 2013 Paul McCartney is music's coolest dad, according to June's iHeartRadio survey. The ex-Beatle has five children, four with late wife Linda (he adopted her daughter Heather and the couple had Mary,... The Beatles' Defining Moment (Hint: It's Not 'Sgt. Pepper') Sun June 16th, 2013 Author Colin Fleming is an avowed superfan, but he has one deeply held opinion about the band that other fans might find heretical. in this month's issue of The Atlantic, Fleming argues that the ... First Beatles drummer declared illustrious visitor in Lima Sat June 15th, 2013 The first drummer of The Beatles, Pete Best, was declared an "illustrious visitor" by the mayor of the Lima district of San Miguel, Salvador Heresi, a lover of the legendary British band's music.... Science proves the Beatles are better than 'Crimson and Clover' and Blink-182 Sat June 15th, 2013 I remember in the olden days music was cherished one song at a time. I would hear a song on the radio, take a liking to it and then hope desperately to hear it again. Those tunes that resonated t... Imagine being a Beatle's wife Sat June 15th, 2013 Certainly, there’s been resentment in the case of some of the Beatles’ wives, but not all of them. Ringo Starr’s wife, Barbara Bach (the main Bond girl in The Spy Who Loved Me), and George ... Sir Paul Mccartney - Paul Sir Paul Mccartney Smells Weed On Stage At Bonnaroo Sat June 15th, 2013 The Beatles legend headlined the Bonnaroo music festival on Friday night and played a hit-packed 38-song set and two encores for the delighted crowd. However, the veteran musician stopped mid-w... Song Facts: The Beatles — "Something" Fri June 14th, 2013 "'Something' was written on the piano while we were making the White Album," George Harrison explained in 1980. "I had a break while Paul was doing some overdubbing, so I went into an empty studi... Let It Be, The Songs of Lennon and McCartney returns for limited shows Fri June 14th, 2013 Four of Australia’s finest vocalists – DOUG PARKINSON, JOHN PAUL YOUNG, GLENN SHORROCK and JACK JONES – will take to the stage in August for a very special series of concerts celebrating th... Ringo Starr Discusses The Beatles’ Musical Legacy, Meetin...d, Making The Beatles Movies and More from RINGO: PEACE & LOVE Fri June 14th, 2013 This week I attended the Grammy Museum’s exciting debut of RINGO: PEACE & LOVE, the first major exhibit to explore the life and extraordinary career of seven-time Grammy Award winner, Ringo Sta... Beatles engineer says their first recording session in 1962 almost ended early Thu June 13th, 2013 Ken Townsend, who assisted George Martin at the Beatles' first recording session on June 6, 1962, said in an interview published Thursday on the event's 51st anniversary that he came away from th... New Ringo Starr exhibit features legendary Beatles outfits, rare photos, letters Thu June 13th, 2013 Ringo: Peace & Love, the first major exhibit ever focusing on a rock drummer, opens today at the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles. Ringo Starr loaned many personal items for display including clothin... Sir Paul Mccartney - Paul Mccartney Struggled To Find Gigs For Wings Thu June 13th, 2013 Sir Paul Mccartney was so desperate to find success with his band Wings in the early 1970s he would drive up and down Britain hoping to find colleges where he could perform. The rocker admits h... THE BEATLES’ HELP! Coming To Blu-ray June 25 Thu June 13th, 2013 The Beatles’ second feature film, 1965’s HELP!, is on the way on Blu-ray. On June 24 (JUNE 25 in North America), Help! makes its eagerly awaited Blu-ray debut in a single-disc package pairing... Band on the rerun: Wings reissue hit-heavy 'Rockshow' Thu June 13th, 2013 Wings are on the wing again. Paul McCartney's post-Beatles enterprise, one of the most successful bands in U.K. history, is enjoying a 21st century rebound thanks most recently to the May reiss... Paul McCartney Featured on New Single by Italian Dance Artist The Bloody Beetroots Wed June 12th, 2013 Being 70 years old hasn’t stopped Paul McCartney from continuing to explore new musical sounds and styles.  Several months after collaborating with the surviving members of Nirvana on the nois... Sunderland nurse set for windfall after signed Beatle's LP goes to auction Wed June 12th, 2013 Retired nurse Jackie Marsden is on track for a windfall today when a Beatles LP she has cherished for 50 years goes up for auction. In 1963, all four members of the group signed her album With ... Lennon Peace Day concert to be sponsored by MINI Tue June 11th, 2013 Bermuda Motors is pleased to announce that MINI will be one of the sponsors of the forthcoming John Lennon Bermuda Peace Day Concert at the Botanical Gardens on September 21. The 2nd Annual con... 'Ringo: Peace & Love' show at Grammy Museum unveiled by the Starr Tue June 11th, 2013 Ringo Starr stopped into the Grammy Museum in L.A. on Tuesday to give the media a preview of the new exhibition “Ringo: Peace & Love,” which opens Wednesday. The first major exploration of t... Man’s lifetime worth of Beatles memorabilia being put up for sale Tue June 11th, 2013 Donnie Lyons, 59, of Racine, has been collecting Beatles memorabilia for close to 50 years. He has Beatles tattoos on his arms, a dozen Beatles shirts he wears daily, and memorability covers his ... Ringo Starr to publish children's picture book Tue June 11th, 2013 Ringo Starr is writing a children's picture book based on his Beatles hit Octopus's Garden. Ben Cort, the illustrator of Aliens Love Underpants and a Beatles fan, has been signed up to illustra... The Beatles, ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ – Disturbing Songs People Love Mon June 10th, 2013 Paul McCartney‘s always had a knack for catchy melodies — so much so in fact, that it’s easy to forget he’s gleefully singing about a man who murders people during ‘Maxwell’s Silver H... A NEW tourist attraction to celebrate Liverpool’s musical heritage Mon June 10th, 2013 A NEW tourist attraction to celebrate Liverpool’s musical heritage beyond the Beatles is set to be piloted in the city. Beat In The Mersey, which takes place at the Cunard Building on Sunday, h... Ringo Starr: I like to think the Beatles would have had a reunion Mon June 10th, 2013 Ringo Starr has been asked the “crazy ­question” a million times before, and he knows that it’s coming. I know he hates being interviewed because it’s always questions about the Fab Fo... Shops mark 50 years since Beatles' Abergavenny gig Sun June 9th, 2013 TO mark 50 years since The Beatles played Abergavenny Town Hall, a local shop is urging other businesses to create Beatles inspired window displays. June 22, 1963, was the day The Beatles playe... Sony, Apple Sued for Blocking Lost Beatles Concert Documentary Sun June 9th, 2013 Ace Arts filed suit against Sony and Apple Thursday in an effort to get the two media giants' lawyers off its case and let it release a Beatles documentary. The Beatles' first live U.S. concert... Abbey Road Meets... Ken Townsend Sat June 8th, 2013 Today marks the 51st anniversary of The Beatles’ first ever recording session at Abbey Road Studios, which took place on 6th June 1962. In honour of the occasion we put your questions to Ken ... ‘Rockshow’ Released Next Week. Available To Stream On Facebook This Weekend! Sat June 8th, 2013 Next week will see the release on DVD, Blu-ray and Download of 'Rockshow', the live concert film which was shot in 1976 when Paul McCartney & Wings undertook the epic ‘Wings over the World’ t... The Art of John Lennon on display in Seattle this weekend including rare pieces Fri June 7th, 2013 An exhibit featuring John Lennon’s artwork will be in Seattle, Washington this weekend at Black Rapid Studio in the Queen Anne area. The exhibit, hosted by Pacific Edge Gallery and Black Rapid,... Paul Attends Opening Of New Linda McCartney Retrospective Fri June 7th, 2013 Last night Paul attended the opening of the new Linda McCartney retrospective at the Kunst Haus Wien in Vienna, Austria. The new exhibition is the first comprehensive retrospective of Linda McCar... Song Facts: The Beatles — "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" Fri June 7th, 2013 ''While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is not only one of the best songs George Harrison wrote with the Beatles — it's also one of the greatest songs on the White Album. Whether it was jealousy, ego... Annie Leibovitz photo collection donated to Halifax gallery Thu June 6th, 2013 A collection of artwork by famed American photographer Annie Leibovitz is being donated to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia as part of a permanent exhibition, including an iconic photograph of John... Body on the line for Beatles Thu June 6th, 2013 Paula grins as proudly holds up a creased A5 sized piece of paper scribbled with four signatures. It could be her most prized possession - and her most valuable set of autographs. And rightly so,... Today is International Beatles Fan Day Thu June 6th, 2013 Today, Beatles fans from across the universe are once again showing the world that all you need is love as they celebrate the 6th Annual International Beatles Fan Day. June 6, 1962 is considered... SOB's Summer Splash Concert Cruises The Fab Faux – Cavern To The Rooftop Show! Thu June 6th, 2013 Cool new series taking place in New York this summer.  SOB's Concerts has announced the Summer Splash Concert Cruises, a season-long row of spectacular concerts and dance parties on the deck of... When John Lennon Was Simon Cowell Wed June 5th, 2013 from their first chart-topper to their final rooftop concert. 50 years ago this month, John Lennon was a panelist on the BBC show Juke Box Jury, where he rated every song a “miss.” In 1960s... Dark Horse to publish the 5th Beatle Wed June 5th, 2013 The Fifth Beatle, from M Press Books, a division of Dark Horse Comics, recounts the untold true story of Brian Epstein, the visionary manager who discovered and guided the Beatles to unprecede... Larry Kane to talk about new Beatles book on The John Lennon Hour Wed June 5th, 2013 Jun. 4, 2013 - PENNSYLVANIA, Pa. -- Jude Southerland Kessler, host of weekly The John Lennon Hour radio show, is honored to announce that Beatles expert Larry Kane will be her guest on Sunday, Ju... Historical marker to commemorate visit by Beatle Tue June 4th, 2013 BENTON — The anniversary of George Harrison’s visit to Benton will be celebrated later this year. Harrison, one of the fab four who made up The Beatles, spent several weeks in Benton at the... Song Facts: The Beatles — "Taxman" Tue June 4th, 2013 George Harrison’s withering indictment of Britain’s progressive tax system was chosen to open the Beatles’ most progressive musical effort to date. Opening with a rasping cough and a drol... 'Beatles Gear' Tracks the Fab Four's Instruments from Stage to Studio Tue June 4th, 2013 Beatles Gear is a landmark book that details exactly which guitars, drums, amplifiers and keyboards The Beatles used at key points during their career. The book was even used as the official te... Q&A with Mary McCartney: Vegetarian for the family Mon June 3rd, 2013 At a young age, Mary McCartney was introduced to the world of vegetarianism by her mother, Linda McCartney. Her father is Paul McCartney (yes, that one) and according to her recently published co... Springfield Marriott Hotel Serves Breakfast for Beatle-maniacs with New Deal Mon June 3rd, 2013 Springfield Hotel deal invites guests heading to nearby exhibit celebrating The Beatles to enjoy free breakfast. Springfield, MA (PRWEB) May 29, 2013 Guests who are tired of the usual “hell... Julian Lennon pays flying visit to Gibraltar Sun June 2nd, 2013 AS a keen photographer there was no surprise that he spent so much of his time on the Rock snapping away. But sadly Julian Lennon only had five hours to best conjure up his own image of the fas... New Collection: 'The Ocean View' From 'Wings over America' Sun June 2nd, 2013 To mark this week's reissue of Wings over America PaulMcCartney.com today publishes a new collection of images taken from 'The Ocean View', one of four new exclusive books included in the Deluxe ... The Beatles and Their Fans Inspire Four New Movies Sun June 2nd, 2013 Fifty years on from the height of Beatlemania, it continues to generate fascination — as much as, or perhaps even more so, than the Fab Four’s actual music, heretical though that sounds. Thre... Paul McCartney gives fan a sweet 17 birthday present at second show in Tulsa Sat June 1st, 2013 It's going to be hard to top the birthday present a fan named Charlotte got on her 17th birthday Thursday from Paul McCartney at his concert last night at BOK Center in Tulsa. According to the ... John Lennon inspires unique line of eyewear Sat June 1st, 2013 Decades after his death, John Lennon continues to inspire us with his music and loving spirit. A special line of eyewear takes its inspiration from Lennon's signature specs and it raises the bar ... Beatles Yellow Submarine soapbox visits Abbey Road Fri May 31st, 2013 A Beatles-themed Yellow Submarine car is set to catch the eye in the return of what's billed as the world's wackiest road race. The Red Bull Soapbox Race is back this year after a nine-year bre... Concert review: Paul McCartney amazes at Tulsa's BOK Center Fri May 31st, 2013 “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” — The Beatles, “The End” TULSA — Well before the end, it was clear that Sir Paul McCartney was taking and making p... The Fab (and funny) Four for kids Fri May 31st, 2013 Life wasn’t easy when John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr grew up. Their northern England town was “scruffy” but the lads didn’t care much; they had their music ... Richie Astall's Beatles Llandudno memorabilia auctioned Fri May 31st, 2013 Autographs of all four Beatles, collected by a man who saw them play in north Wales 50 years ago, have sold at auction for almost £20,000. Autograph hunter Richie Astall, who lived in Llandudn... Apple wins Ringo Starr Beatles iBook exclusive Thu May 30th, 2013 Ringo Starr is coming to the iBookstore, or at least his latest collection of memorabilia, ' Photograph' will be as it hits the Apple iBookstore exclusively on June 12. 'NO ONE ELSE COULD HAV... John Lennon's sunglasses, Ringo Starr's ring part of Celebrity Auction at Mecum Thu May 30th, 2013 Mecum Auctions, known for its collector car auctions, has announced its first celebrity auction taking place in July in Santa Monica. More than 2,000 items will be featured in the Mecum Celebrity... Ringo Starr Shares Never-Before-Seen Photos of The Beatles Wed May 29th, 2013 Little remains unknown about the Beatles – they're one of the world's greatest rock and roll bands and have likely been photographed more times than Bieber and Britney combined. But now Ringo... George Harrison memorial garden opens to the public Wed May 29th, 2013 The George Harrison Memorial Garden at the Bhaktivedanta Manor Estate near Watford is now open to the public. The Beatle – who passed away in 2001 – gave the site, formerly known as Piggots... Bidding war erupts for John Lennnon's gypsy caravan Wed May 29th, 2013 A BIDDING was has erupted over a piece of Beatles history. John Lennon's gypsy caravan, which was discovered in an Ascot garage, has attracted interest from prospective collectors across the wo... All Together Now Tue May 28th, 2013 Too many Beatles books? In my house there’s always room for one more, and this week’s addition is All Together Now (Matador, £9.99), an ABC of Beatles’ songs by registered Fabs geek David ... Yoko Ono at 80: 'I feel that I am starting a new life, a second life' Tue May 28th, 2013 Yoko Ono shows no signs of slowing down. In her New York home, the curator of Meltdown 2013 discusses her art, love, John Lennon and political activism. Sitting at her kitchen table, sipping gr... 'So Elvis can play in heaven': Sir Paul McCartney makes first ever visit to Presley's grave and leaves his guitar pick Tue May 28th, 2013 Paul McCartney made his first visit to Elvis Presley's grave and left one of his guitar picks behind. According to the official Twitter account of the former Beatle, McCartney said the pick was '... Sir Paul McCartney delivers awe-inspiring 3-hour set at FedExForum Mon May 27th, 2013 Paul McCartney’s weekend in Memphis began with a trip to Elvis’ home at Graceland, and ended with a visit to FedExForum, as the Beatles legend left a capacity crowd buzzing with his first per... Who's kept Beatles jottings safe? Yeah, it's the taxman Mon May 27th, 2013 Many years ago, when the world was young and vinyl ruled, I used to sit in the Abbey Road studio, watching the Beatles at work. At the end of a session, I would pick up their odd scraps of pape... John Lennon does not need any definition: Eric Clapton Sun May 26th, 2013 Eric Clapton - the musician, a living icon, talked about his music, his memories of John Lennon, his influences and a lot more in candid chat with TOI. Excerpts: WHAT INSPIRED YOU CREATIVELY TO... John Lennon and son's double-fantasy trip Sat May 25th, 2013 This is no ordinary tourist guide to Bermuda. Lennon Bermuda, by Scott Neil, tells the largely untold story of John Lennon setting sail on a 43-foot yacht from Newport, Rhode Island, to Bermuda f... Memphians recall Beatles legend McCartney as he returns to the Bluff City Sat May 25th, 2013 When Paul McCartney returns to Memphis this weekend to perform at FedExForum, the crowd will be considerably older, the females less frenzied than the first time he played here 47 years ago as a ... The Horse That Birthed the Beatles Sat May 25th, 2013 Nearly everyone of a certain age can muster memories of "The Ed Sullivan Show" on one Sunday evening in February 1964. The Beatles had arrived in New York City for this live broadcast and rendere... Chester students' appeal for help on Beatles history project Sat May 25th, 2013 IT WAS the location of one of the most significant encounters in popular music history and now a group of students from Chester is making an appeal for information that will help to tell the full... Magical mystery tour as students visit Beatles’ cavern club Fri May 24th, 2013 MUSIC students from South Tyneside College have followed The Beatles with their own tour of the famous Cavern Club in Liverpool. They gigged at the venue made legendary by the Fab Four and from... Paul McCartney writes to Russian officials in support of hunger striking Pussy Riot member Fri May 24th, 2013 Paul McCartney has written a letter in support of Pussy Riot's Maria Alyokhina, who has announced that she is going on hunger strike after being refused the right to attend her own parole hearing... Tom Jones does a cover of an obscure Paul McCartney song on his new album Fri May 24th, 2013 TOM JONES does a cover of an obscure PAUL MCCARTNEY song on his new album, Spirit in the Room -- but he almost had a huge hit years back with what would become one of THE BEATLES' biggest hits. John Lennon's gypsy caravan rediscovered in Ascot house Thu May 23rd, 2013 A KEY piece of Beatles memorabilia has been discovered in the garage of an Ascot house. John Lennon's 1967 Sgt Pepper's Gypsy Caravan has been hidden from public view for more than 40 years. ... Lennon artefacts given to nation Thu May 23rd, 2013 Handwritten lyrics to songs such as Strawberry Fields Forever by Liverpool music legend John Lennon, as well as letters from the former Beatles star, have been given to the nation. The manuscri... The Beatles' lyrics manuscripts and other Fab Four rarities donated to British Library under new scheme Wed May 22nd, 2013 The British Library has become the first institution to benefit from the Government’s new “lifetime giving” scheme after receiving manuscripts of the lyrics to The Beatles’ hit songs “S... Very special John Lennon tribute returns to Los Angeles Wed May 22nd, 2013 John Lennon returns for one last concert, and you are there! Tim Piper's very special John Lennon tribute show, "Just Imagine," returns to Los Angeles starting in June. "Just Imagine" transports... Paul McCartney lends support to free school in Liverpool Wed May 22nd, 2013 One of the Government’s flagship free schools is to be backed by former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and will have the aim of giving primary school children the chance to flourish in the performin... Paul McCartney's son stops in Hudson on music tour Tue May 21st, 2013 You most likely have heard of The Beatles’ Paul McCartney. Now, his son, James, is also getting into the music industry; and, he took some time to talk with YNN on his current tour. Our Vince G... Yoko Ono - Yoko Ono thanks Paul McCartney for defending her Tue May 21st, 2013 Yoko Ono thinks Sir Paul McCartney is ''sweet'' for saying she didn't cause The Beatles' break up. The 80-year-old widow of John Lennon thanked his former bandmate for insisting she ''could not b... Sister makes plans to honor George Harrison's first U.S. visit 50 years ago Tue May 21st, 2013 Louise Harrison says she plans to document the 50th anniversary of George Harrison's visit to the U.S. the year before Beatlemania hit. "We're thinking about making a DVD telling the story about ... Liverpool makes the most of its claims on Beatles' fame Mon May 20th, 2013 LIVERPOOL, England — When one thinks of momentous meetings that altered the course of history — Caesar and Cleopatra, Bonnie and Clyde, Hitler and Mussolini — one usually imagines them taki... Singer's George Harrison tribute almost sounds like unreleased song Mon May 20th, 2013 Mike Geraghty says his tribute to George Harrison, “Still With You (Tribute to George Harrison),” while not a George Harrison song, reflects as much of him as he could put in it. And the end ... With a little help from his pens Mon May 20th, 2013 Animator Ron Campbell, best known for directing “The Beatles” cartoon series and for working on “The Yellow Submarine” movie, will be appearing at the 102.9 WMGK Classic Rock Art Show at ... Paul McCartney still 'joyous' Sun May 19th, 2013 Fifty years ago this week, the Beatles were all abuzz about opening for Roy Orbison. It was further proof of the band's “to the toppermost of the poppermost” trajectory. Orbison, who toured w... John Lennon guitar snags $408,000 at auction Sun May 19th, 2013 A custom-made electric guitar played by the late John Lennon and George Harrison of the Beatles sold at a New York auction on Saturday for $408,000 US, said officials with the company behind the ... Beatles -themed training expert'gets back' to encore course Sun May 19th, 2013 WIRRAL management expert John MacCarfrae is encoring his unique Beatles-themed training course to deliver team building projects. His Maverick Training company pioneered the course a decade ago... The Beatles, ‘From Me to You’ – Lyrics Uncovered Sat May 18th, 2013 In Feb. 1963, John Lennon and Paul McCartney were sitting in the back of a tour bus, seeing if they could rise to the occasion. With ‘Please Please Me’ riding high on the British charts, prod... Song Facts: The Beatles — "Nowhere Man" Sat May 18th, 2013 John Lennon wrote this gentle folk-rock ballad in the autumn of 1965 at his home in Kenwood, St. George’s Hill Estate, Weybridge, Surrey. Just as "Yesterday" mysteriously came to Paul McCartn... The Beatles started a revolution back in the USSR Sat May 18th, 2013 If ever a band has been well served by the literary world it's The Beatles. Practically every aspect of that revolutionary body of work has been dealt with in book form... or so one would have th... Paul Attends VIP Premiere of 'Rockshow' At BAFTA Fri May 17th, 2013 Wednesday night saw Paul attending the VIP Premiere of 'Rockshow' at BAFTA in London with wife Nancy. The film - originally released in 1980 in the US and 1981 in the UK - has been fully restored... Beatles, Elvis autographs valued at $10,000 with Solid Ground Fri May 17th, 2013 An excellent selection of music memorabilia from composer Steve Weisberg will sell in Solid Ground Auctions' online only sale on May 19, with autographs from the Beatles and Elvis to star. Stev... Paul McCartney: Yoko Ono didn’t break up the Beatles Fri May 17th, 2013 Rumors have swirled since 1969 that Yoko Ono caused the Beatles break up. But the former wife of John Lennon may finally be off the hook. Despite decades of feuding, Sir Paul McCartney has recent... Annette Bening in Talks to Join Al Pacino in 'Imagine' Thu May 16th, 2013 Bobby Cannavale also is in talks to join the film written by Dan Fogelman, who is making his directorial debut.The directorial debut of Dan Fogelman, the writer behind Cars and Crazy, Stupid, Lov... Sir Paul McCartney Plants a Tree at the Txai Resort Itacare in Bahia, Brazil Thu May 16th, 2013 SAO PAULO, Brazil – Paul McCartney chose the heavenly Txai Resort, in Itacare, Bahia, to rest after his shows in Brazil. Paul arrived at the hotel last Tuesday (May 7) and went straight to the ... Former Plaza where Beatles played set to become new cafe bar Thu May 16th, 2013 A FORMER nightspot where the Beatles famously once played could be resurrected as a new cafe bar. The Oxford Building on Duke Street underwent a major overhaul in its centenary year and has bee... Harrison-inspired Beatles theme for Music on the Meadows Wed May 15th, 2013 The Voice contestant from Henley will be among the 12 bands and 14 musical acts performing at Music on the Meadows on Saturday, June 1 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation. ... Stop Worrying... Help! is on the Way on Blu-ray! Wed May 15th, 2013 LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Beatles’ second feature film, 1965’s Help!, is on the way on Blu-ray. On June 24 (June 25 in North America), Help! makes its eagerly awaited Blu-ray debut in a s... The Beatles more Popular than Jesus TRUE? Tue May 14th, 2013 In 1966, John Lennon, in an interview with the London Evening Standard, spoke about his belief that Christianity was dying out, saying of the Beatles, “We’re more popular than Jesus now.” A... Talking To Vivek Tiwary About Beatles Tue May 14th, 2013 I wanted to actually start off a little bit by asking you, because, you have such actually have quite a bit of history with rock music with American Idiot and everything like that.  Is there som... Beatle legend Pete Best to play gig in Cumbria Tue May 14th, 2013 MUSIC fans are in for a real treat later this month when one of the original members of The Beatles comes to Cumbria. Pete Best was the Fab Four’s original drummer and toured with John Lennon, ... Ingrid Pedersen Lennon: The true story of John Lennon's 'lost' sister Victoria Mon May 13th, 2013 The year was 1964, and the Beatles had just become internationally famous, traveling the world doing live performances. What an awful time to find out you have a ‘secret’ sister. John Lennon ... Star-studded event for new Beatles book in Liverpool Tuesday Mon May 13th, 2013 Joe Flannery's just-published book on The Beatles, “Standing in the Wings; The Beatles, Brian Epstein and Me,” will be launched Tuesday in Liverpool with an event at the Beatles Story, it was... Everton fans start petition for Sir Paul McCartney takeover? Mon May 13th, 2013 A group of Everton supporters have reportedly started an online petition in a bid to get Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney to buy the club. The supporters are thought to be keen on having the 70-y... Fab Four live on in this magical show Mon May 13th, 2013 Celebrating the 50th anniversary of their first number one single, the live concert show The Magic Of The Beatles is coming to Derby’s Assembly Rooms. In 1963, the single Please Please Me lau... Mother & Son: Yoko Ono & Sean Lennon Sun May 12th, 2013 Yoko Ono is nothing less than a cultural icon. From her early years in New York's artistic avant-garde, to her marriage and collaborations with Beatle John Lennon, to her creative activism promot... The Beatles rare pictures: Fab Four on holiday in Tenerife before they became world famous Sun May 12th, 2013 It was 50 years ago today... and three of the Fab Four were ­chilling by the pool in Tenerife. Only weeks later Beatlemania was in full swing and Paul McCartney, George ­Harrison and Ringo St... Central musicians meet the 'Beatles' Sat May 11th, 2013 MANCHESTER - When Mathew Capalario found out his bassoon playing would back up a group of professionals covering songs by the Beatles at a concert Friday night at Central High School, he said his... Jimi Hendrix Wanted to Create a Supergroup With Paul McCartney, Miles Davis Sat May 11th, 2013 LONDON (AP) - Miles and Jimi. Jimi and Miles. Fans of the late trumpet and guitar masters have long known that Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix had been making plans to record together in the year be... The Beatles Get Their Own Show Sat May 11th, 2013 Trip down memory lane. In May 1963, the Beatles were in the midst of their most grueling year of touring: They were playing a concert, TV, or radio appearance almost every day, and often they w... Photographer Henry Grossman's 'Places I Remember' captures candid times with the Beatles Fri May 10th, 2013 Henry Grossman was 27 when Time magazine hired him to shoot the Beatles during their first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" in 1964. To the lifelong opera buff, it was nothing more than anoth... Paul McCartney: Blackbird - exclusive remastered stream Fri May 10th, 2013 Listen to an exclusive remastered version of classic track Blackbird, taken from a forthcoming reissue of the album Wings Over America, by Paul McCartney and Wings. The live album Wings Over Am... John Lennon's Ferrari up for grabs again Fri May 10th, 2013 English auction house Bonhams said it will offer a 1965 Ferrari 330GT 2+2 that once belonged to the late Beatles singer and songwriter John Lennon at its auction at the Goodwood Festival of Speed... ‘I’m better than Ringo; Paul McCartney told me!’: Bev Bevan’s first meeting with the Beatles Thu May 9th, 2013 Bev Bevan, later a founding member of the Move and the Electric Light Orchestra, says a chance meeting with the Beatles years earlier provided a huge ego boost when Paul McCartney praised his dru... Song Facts: The Beatles — "I've Got A Feeling" Thu May 9th, 2013 The powerful and bluesy "I've Got A Feeling," which John Lennon jokingly called "I've Got A Fever," is a true Lennon/McCartney composition. It blends — via alternation and superimposition — t... Letters to the Editor: Concert ticket sales unfair, corporate taxes, partners in affairs Thu May 9th, 2013 Hey Hey, ticket sales unfair Being a 49-year Beatles and Paul McCartney fan, I was thrilled when McCartney announced his show is coming to Orlando. Being a member of PaulMcCartney.com, I was ... Beatles Concert Show ‘Let It Be’ Coming to Broadway Wed May 8th, 2013 For a group that split up more than four decades ago and never reunited, the Beatles are certainly finding plenty of opportunities to appear on Broadway. “Let It Be,” a popular British concer... My love for music Wed May 8th, 2013 With The Beatles, one common theme is love. And in their immortal words, love is all you need I love music. I play music. And now as I'm writing my first piece about music, it is only appropria... Paul McCartney: Beatle Swarmed By Grasshoppers Wed May 8th, 2013 Paul McCartney has swapped Beatles for grasshoppers - after a stage invasion by a swarm of the creatures. The star managed to complete his performance despite being buzzed by a cloud of the ins... Out There news: McCartney's late arrival delays Beatle's second show of tour Tue May 7th, 2013 Paul McCartney went against his tradition of making at least minor changes to the setlist for his second show at Goiânia, Brazil Monday. After the many changes of the first Out There! show in Be... Rare Beatles Guitar Expected To Fetch £150k At London Auction Tue May 7th, 2013 A rare guitar played by Beatles pair John Lennon and George Harrison worth about £150,000 will go on display in London this week. The Beatles VOX guitar, a custom prototype made in 1966 and la... Andrew Loog Oldham calls for street to be named after Beatles manager Brian Epstein Tue May 7th, 2013 Former Rolling Stones Manager Andrew Loog Oldham has called for a street in Liverpool to be named after Brian Epstein, the impresario who guided The Beatles to the top of the charts and internati... Exclusive: Wolfgang's Vault to roll out rare solo Beatles concert tapes Mon May 6th, 2013 Wolfgang's Vault, which has amassed a huge collection of vintage live shows in its Concert Vault section by a wide assortment of artists, will start digging into its archives and post more concer... Here comes the sister Mon May 6th, 2013 Beatles guitarist George Harrison’s elder sister is in Holon, spreading the love, for a Beatles festival. Fifty years ago, in March 1963, a young band from Liverpool made musical history with t... Pierce Brosnan - Pierce Brosnan Settles Legal Spat Over Beatles Painting Mon May 6th, 2013 Pierce Brosnan has revealed he settled a secret legal spat with Paul Mccartney's brother over a photo he recreated as a painting for his late wife. Michael MCCartney threatened legal action aga... The Beatles Magical Mystery tour Sun May 5th, 2013 Fifty years after the launch of the Beatles’ debut album Please Please Me in 1963, Liverpool revels in its role as the birthplace of four lads who shook the world. Carol Davis steps back into Y... Sir Paul McCartney thrills fans by playing Beatles classics on new world tour Sun May 5th, 2013 Sir Paul McCartney thrilled fans in Brazil as he opened his new world tour and gave some Beatles classics their first live outing. The star performed to 55,000 people in the city of Belo Horizo... Mary McCartney gets by with a little help from her dad Sat May 4th, 2013 Mary McCartney’s life in photographs started when she was just an infant. That baby on the cover of Paul McCartney’s first eponymous solo record, released in 1970, is her, peeking out at the ... Tony and pals 'sneaked' in and saw the Fab Four Sat May 4th, 2013 Tony McGovern didn't have a ticket to see The Beatles when they performed in North Staffordshire in the 1960s – but just three shillings secured him a once in a lifetime opportunity. The reti... Musical in Merced gives backstage view of The Beatles Fri May 3rd, 2013 MERCED -- For one night only, the award-winning Beatles musical "In My Life" will play Sunday at the Art Kamangar Center at the Merced Theatre. The musical retells The Beatles' story through th... Documentary of Paul McCartney & Wings premieres May 15 Fri May 3rd, 2013 Rockshow, a film documenting Paul McCartney and his band Wings on their 1975-76 Wings Around the World tour, will have its big-screen premiere May 15 at BAFTA in London. McCartney is scheduled to... The Beatles' chart success in rivals and numbers Thu May 2nd, 2013 The Beatles' achieved their first number one single 50 years ago – the first of 17 over the next six years. Here's the chart hits, the records broken and rivals made by the band. Although som... Beatles exhibition comes to Montreal's Vieux Port Thu May 2nd, 2013 John Lennon’s Rolls-Royce on display at the Pointe-à-Callière Museum in Montreal. The car is part of an exhibit called The Beatles in Montreal, that revisits the group’s only Montreal appea... The Beatles Inducted into the Ultimate Classic Rock Hall of Fame Thu May 2nd, 2013 By an overwhelming margin of nearly three to one, the Beatles have beaten the Doors to become the second inductees into the 100% fan-voted Ultimate Classic Rock Hall of Fame. In their brief hi... John Lennon artwork goes on display in Century City Wed May 1st, 2013 The late Beatles star's 'Bag One' collection of lithographs will be shown Friday through Sunday at Westfield Century City mall. The Beatles were getting very near the end when John Lennon, in l... Top 10 Beatles Solo Albums Wed May 1st, 2013 Some Beatles are greater than others. And some Beatles solo albums rank right up there with the band’s best records. It should come as a surprise to no one that John Lennon and Paul McCartney... Jonathan Winters was John Lennon's favorite comedian Wed May 1st, 2013 A lot of tributes were made after the death of Jonathan Winters was announced Friday, but one person who was a huge fan of the comic was John Lennon, according to May Pang, who confirmed in an em... Beatles Dingwall gig venue to be renovated Tue April 30th, 2013 EXTENSIVE repairs are to be carried out on a historic townhouse famous for hosting a doomed Beatles concert just prior to their rise to stardom. The 280-year-old Dingwall complex with have its ... Never Before Seen Beatles Photos From 1964 Tue April 30th, 2013 They’re one of the most documented bands ever, but once and a while we get to see them in a new light. Documentary filmmaker Leslie Woodhead uncovered these photos he took of the Fab Four back ... Ringo keeps beat on All Starr tour ending in Vegas Tue April 30th, 2013 On June 12, he takes center stage as the Grammy Museum launches 'Ringo: Peace & Love,' the first major exhibit focused on a drummer. Paul isn't the only Beatles alum still going strong. Ringo is ... The Beatles Songbook part five: See your picture versions of Fab Four songs (GALLERY) Mon April 29th, 2013 LIVERPOOL Echo readers have taken their cameras here, there and everywhere in response to our call for images inspired by Beatles songs. Today we bring you the fifth and final instalment of t... Ringo Starr announces fall tour dates in Latin America, Mexico, Las Vegas Mon April 29th, 2013 Ringo Starr announced early Monday he is taking his current version of the All-Starr Band with whom he just wrapped up a tour  in the Pacific Rim including dates in New Zealand, Australia and ... 'Linda McCartney – Life in Photographs' for iPad is a trip that ends too soon Mon April 29th, 2013 The new iPad book “Linda McCartney – Life in Photographs” from Taschen that became available through iTunes Thursday is more than a book but an exhibit in the way it displays the photog... Badfinger's Pete Ham: Beatle widow Olivia Harrison joins plaque tributes Sun April 28th, 2013 George Harrison's widow has joined tributes to a Swansea rock musician honoured with a blue plaque. Pete Ham, who co-wrote Without You, a hit for both Harry Nilsson and Mariah Carey, worked wit... Tickets for Paul McCartney show at Scotiabank sell out in record time Sun April 28th, 2013 OTTAWA — In what is probably the fastest-selling show in the history of Scotiabank Place, tickets to a July concert by Paul McCartney sold out in less than 10 minutes Friday. Beatles collarless jackets up for auction: A case of mistaken identity? Sat April 27th, 2013 Gotta Have It! Collectibles based in New York is offering a set of four Beatles collarless jackets in their latest online auction. The Rock and Roll Pop Culture Auction was launched on April... Tom Petty and George Harrison make history Sat April 27th, 2013 BRINGING BACK A BIT OF HISTORY When Tom Petty released his first solo album "Full Moon Fever," he relied on some heavy hitters to back him up, most notably Electric Light Orchestra mastermind Je... Widnes Vikings chairman Steve O’Connor regenerates area of Liverpool made famous by The Beatles Fri April 26th, 2013 VIKINGS chairman Steve O’Connor is stumping up a multi-million pound investment to breathe a new lease of life into one of Liverpool’s most historical locations. The Widnes businessman’s ... James McCartney joining dad on bill at Bonnaroo music fest Fri April 26th, 2013 James McCartney announced Thursday on Facebook he'll be playing at the Bonnaroo Music Festival June 15. It'll be the second time this summer that he and father Paul McCartney will be on the... Ringo Starr says happy birthday to an old friend Thu April 25th, 2013 In a video uploaded to the internet Monday,Ringo Starr says happy birthday to an old friend, Willie Nelson. You can see the video at left. “I'm getting in a cowboy mood,” Ringo says, wea... The Beatles vs. The Stock Market Thu April 25th, 2013 Autographs of The Beatles and drawings and handwritten lyrics by John Lennon have sold at auction in recent years for “very impressive amounts,” says Maureen McCarthy, director ofImagine the ... Liverpool restaurant's Beatle themed menu Thu April 25th, 2013 The award-winning Blakes Restaurant at Hard Days Night Hotel has launched its new A La Carte Spring menu entitled ‘Here Comes The Sun’. Executive Head Chef Paul Feery and his team have crea... The Beatles Return In A New Novel, Rubber Soul, By Author, Rock Star & Radio Personality Greg Kihn Wed April 24th, 2013 San Francisco, CA (Top40 Charts/ PR That Rocks ) Greg Kihn continues to pioneer the Rock and Roll thriller genre with his fifth novel, Rubber Soul, featuring The Beatles themselves. Part mur... Safety campaigners celebrate Beatles-style in Alexandra Road Kingston Wed April 24th, 2013 John, Paul, George and Ringo used a zebra crossing in 1969 for the cover of their album. So it seemed fitting parents, teachers and children who had campaigned for a right of way across Alexand... In the seats: Aspen store to feature Beatles movie Wed April 24th, 2013 ASPEN — The animation is colorful and otherworldly, the plot captures the psychedelic era's silliness, and the music represents The Beatles at their campiest. The 1968 film “Yellow Submarine... Yoko Ono Instrumental in Europe's John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Tue April 23rd, 2013 2013 marks the unveiling of a new non-profit John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, which was made possible by the generosity and support of Yoko Ono Lennon. The bus is dedicated to providing th... Magnolia Nabs Beatles Doc 'Good Ol’ Freda' Tue April 23rd, 2013 Magnolia Pictures has acquired North American rights to Good Ol’ Freda, a documentary about the Beatles’ lifelong secretary Freda Kelly. Directed by Ryan White (Pelada) and produced by... Ottawa, Winnipeg And Regina Dates Added To "Out There" Tour! Tue April 23rd, 2013 PAUL McCARTNEY RETURNS TO CANADA ON ALL-NEW 2013 "OUT THERE" TOUR July 7: Ottawa ONT - Scotiabank Place August 12: Winnipeg MB - Investors Group Field August 14: Regina SK - Mosaic Stadium at Ta... The pleasures of the Beatles Hey Jude album…..on vinyl. Mon April 22nd, 2013 Listening to the vinyl version of the Beatles’ Hey Jude album and it sounds amazing. Bought it second-hand Saturday at Aux 33 Tours for $20, but the vinyl is in top shape, and it’s like liste... The Beatles, 'Happy Birthday' on Top 10 highest-earning songs Mon April 22nd, 2013 The Beatles and The Police own the rights to songs included on the Top 10 highest-earning tracks of all time. Roy Orbison and The Righteous Brothers are among artists who have accumulated huge ... Paul McCartney Tickets: Epic Nation Tickets is Now Offering premium tickets for all Paul McCartney concerts Mon April 22nd, 2013 One of the remaining two Beatles in the world, Paul McCartney has recently announced his United States tour. The living rock music legend will be on the road in May visiting many venues for... Beatles gives Mad Men permission to use music in show Mon April 22nd, 2013 The television show Mad Men has won an army of fans for its portrayal of glamorous 1960s New York. Now The Beatles, the band which defined the decade, appears to have given the show their seal of... Let It Be - The Beatles musical reviewed Sun April 21st, 2013 Let It Be is an unashamed Beatles singalong fest at The Savoy Theatre in London. There is no awkward delay while the audience warms up with this non-stop hit machine - from the first word of the ... Jack Stokes - Beatles Filmmaker Jack Stokes Dies Sun April 21st, 2013 Jack Stokes, the brains behind The Beatles' animated films, has died at the age of 92. The animation mogul passed away on 20 March (13). No further details about his death were available as W... 'Fifth Beatle' George Martin's work performed Sat April 20th, 2013 FORMER Beatles producer George Martin brought a touch of rock 'n' roll to the Leith Hill Music Festival on Thursday evening. Sometimes referred to as the 'fifth Beatle', Martin attended the fir... Beatles’ John Lennon suit fetches $ 200,000 Sat April 20th, 2013 A grey coloured suit, worn by the famous Beatles member John Lennon in the British black-and-white comedy film ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, has gone under the hammer at the Saráchaga auction hous... John Lennon reimagined as a washed-up a shirker aged 50 Sat April 20th, 2013 They had a famously stormy relationship but what if John and Paul had never even made it to their first No 1 together? That’s the premise for a new short film which imagines what might have h... James McCartney: "When I Was 23 I Got Disillusioned By Music:" Fri April 19th, 2013 Paul McCartney's son talks about family traditions at Coachella James McCartney is a man of many family traditions. He is serious about his music and photography, and yesterday in the Southern ... Wings 1976 live album ‘Wings over America’ to be reissued in May Fri April 19th, 2013 Wings, the band Paul McCartney formed following the end of The Beatles, will reissue their 1976 live album 'Wings Across America'. The album documented the band's trip across North America and... Come Together! Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr enjoy a mini Beatles reunion at dinner Thu April 18th, 2013 They're the last two remaining members of the world's most famous band. And Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr enjoyed something of a Beatles reunion on Wednesday night as they headed out for d... Paul McCartney records message for gun control group Voices Against Violence Thu April 18th, 2013 Yoko Ono isn't the only one still trying togive peace a chance. Like John Lennon's widow, Paul McCartney has taken a stand in favor of stiffening gun laws in the United States. The Beatles great ... George Harrison - so good The Beatles suppressed him Thu April 18th, 2013 Paul McCartney and John Lennon were all very well and good, but Georgie was better. Ringo was a helluva nice guy, but the Quiet One was better. How so? Well, his Beatles works were better than al... Survey says ESL teachers use The Beatles to help students learn English Wed April 17th, 2013 A new study has found that 40 percent of surveyed ESL teachers play songs by The Beatles to help their students learn English. Research by Kaplan International Colleges, a leading provider of E... Linda McCartney and Wings Wed April 17th, 2013 Fifteen years ago today, Linda McCartney died of breast cancer, only 56 years old. We remember the activist and songwriter. Written by Linnea Crowther. Originally published April 2011. In 1969, ... A Hairy Story Wed April 17th, 2013 Moptops? What do you mean! I never noticed anything particular about John, George, Paul, Pete or Stuart's hairstyles in the early days -- apart from the fact that initially some of them sported... A collection of The Beatles up for auction with prices starting at $ 100 Tue April 16th, 2013 An opportunity for those who do not appear twice, or may be a long time until you get. A collector who wants to dispose of a significant number of exhibits, an auction house that accepts embark o... THE WHO VS. THE BEATLES – ULTIMATE CLASSIC ROCK HALL OF FAME SEMIFINALS Tue April 16th, 2013 The semifinal round of the April 2013 Ultimate Classic Rock Hall of Fame election features four awesome bands and two very tough decisions. In our first battle, the Who and the Beatles are ma... Yoko Ono scores 10th No. 1 with "Hold Me" Tue April 16th, 2013 Artist icon Yoko Ono adds another no. 1 tally to Billboard's Dance Club Play Chart with her latest single, “Hold Me,” featuring dance producer Dave Audé. This will be Ono's 10th time atop th... David Lynch Foundation Concert “Change Begins Within Mon April 15th, 2013 Residents of New York City will get the first chance to see the historic 2009 David Lynch Foundation Concert “Change Begins Within.”  The concert includes a set from Paul McCartney fea... Why Paul McCartney Isn't On The FORBES Billionaires List Mon April 15th, 2013 Paul McCartney has received many lofty titles over the course of his illustrious career. He’s been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Beatles, he’s been enshrine... Paul McCartney "Out There" Tour Comes To Indianapolis On July 14, 2013 Mon April 15th, 2013 INDIANAPOLIS, IN (TOP40 CHARTS/ BOHLSEN GROUP) Olympia Entertainment and Pacers Sports and Entertainment announced this morning, Paul McCartney will make his return to Bankers Life Fieldhouse ... Inside story on Beatles — No outside fun Sun April 14th, 2013 From the Stars and Stripes archives: Published July 4, 1966 TOKYO — The Beatles were prisoners of love during their four-day stay in Japan. The love came from thousands of well-meaning Japa... Sir Paul McCartney looks relaxed and chilled as he heads out wearing gym gear with Nancy Shevell Sun April 14th, 2013 While many of the world's top rockers were heading over to Coachella music festival to party, one was chilling out. Sir Paul McCartney decided to spend some relaxing time with his wife and frie... Tenerife marks 50th anniversary of The Beatles' first visit Sun April 14th, 2013 TENERIFE is celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Beatles' first visit to the island with a 13-day programme that will delight beatlemaniacs and music fans alike.  From 27th April to 9th May... Rare Beatles Vox Guitar on Display in Ireland April 16 - May 8 Sat April 13th, 2013 Newbridge Silverware Museum of Style Icons in partnership with Julien’s Auctions has announced an exclusive exhibition featuring a very rare Beatles guitar played by both John Lennon and George... Abbey Road: The Best Studio in the World by Alistair Lawrence with a forward by Sir George Martin Sat April 13th, 2013 Say that you have a talented young band and you want to sound like the Beatles. What could help more than to record at Abbey Road Studio in Studio 2 using some of the same microphones? It is poss... Backstage with Paul McCartney's Son James Sat April 13th, 2013 Despite growing up in the shadow of his rock star father -- former Beatle Paul McCartney -- James McCartney has mostly remained out of the limelight over the years... until now! ET recently sat... “Honey Don’t” (live at the BBC, 1963) Videos Fri April 12th, 2013 Before incessant screaming and the rigors of touring took their toll, the Beatles had become one of the most polished live bands on the road. From 1962-1965, the group performed on 52 BBC program... Tony Sheridan bio reveals his candid impressions of the early Beatles Fri April 12th, 2013 (Introduction: In this interview we conducted by email, Alan Mann talks about his newly published “The Teacher – Tony Sheridan,” a biography of Tony Sheridan. The book is the product of ex... Yoko Ono publishes poetry sequel 50 years after first book Fri April 12th, 2013 Acorn, according to publisher OR Books, is an extension of the 'intricate strands' Ono first wove in Grapefruit, published in 1964 "Poetry in action with participation," is how artist and musi... Beatle news briefs: Should Ringo raze Candlestick?; Freda visits the Hall Fri April 12th, 2013 On Thursday, well ahead of Candlestick Park in San Francisco, the site of the Beatles' final ticketed concert, being demolished next year, columnist Peter Hurtlaub of the San Francisco Chronicle... Door from Paul McCartney's childhood home sells for £5,000 Thu April 11th, 2013 The Beatles man lived at 20 Forthlin Road in Liverpool from 1955-1964 The front door from Paul McCartney's childhood home has sold for £5,000. The door from 20 Forthlin Road, Allerton, Liver... Paul McCartney ranks as Britain's wealthiest musician Thu April 11th, 2013 McCartney remains Britain's wealthiest musician, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. The newspaper estimated Thursday April 11, 2013 that the ex-Beatle shares a 680 million pound ($1.05 bill... How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin Thu April 11th, 2013 How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin tells the extraordinary and untold story of how the Beatles punctured the Iron Curtain. In a personal journey through Russia by award-winning director Leslie W... One Track Mind, Pop Music, Rock Music — April 8, 2013 at ...ck Mind: Julian Lennon with Steven Tyler, “Someday” (2013) Wed April 10th, 2013 If his last album seemed to be about coming to terms with John Lennon, both the good and the bad of their sometimes estranged relationship, Julian Lennon's new single "Someday" is about rushing t... Beatles' Breakup Anniversary Remembered On April 10 Wed April 10th, 2013 April 10 marks the 43rd anniversary of the breakup of The Beatles, one of the most beloved rock bands in history. After months of speculation from fans and industry insiders about The Beatles' ... VERY RARE ‘NO. 5′ COPY OF BEATLES’ ‘WHITE ALBUM’ SELLS FOR $5,300 Wed April 10th, 2013 A collector has paid more than $5,300 on eBay for an ultra-rare early stereo pressing of the Beatles‘ ‘White Album,’ which may — or may not — have once belonged to John Lennon. The ... Rare letters from Marilyn Monroe, John Lennon hit auction block Tue April 9th, 2013 UNDATED (CNN) -- A treasure trove of rare letters from the likes of Marilyn Monroe and John Lennon is hitting the auction block. The collection also includes a correspondence from former presiden... Does Reworking Beatles' Song 'Hey Jude' Into a Minor Key Make It Better? Tue April 9th, 2013 What if the Beatles had lived in an alternative universe, and the group's 1968 megahit "Hey Jude" was not intended to cheer up John Lennon's son Julian, but to sound like a funeral dirge? That'... Fab memories of The Beatles concert at York’s Rialto Tue April 9th, 2013 THIS picture shows the moments before a legendary York performance by The Beatles. Taken shortly before their performance at York’s Rialto concert hall in February 1963, a fresh-faced Paul Mc... April 9th is a sad day for fans of The Beatles Tue April 9th, 2013 The Fab Four were already pretty fractured at this point, but Sir Paul McCartney made it official in a written Q&A included with his debut solo album: "I do not foresee a time when the Lennon &... The Beatles, ‘Taxman’ Mon April 8th, 2013 As Harrison, who came from an impoverished background, began to make millions of pounds, he soon found out about the unfairness of these policies and lashed out about them in song. He portrayed t... Paul McCartney to play FedEx Forum in May Mon April 8th, 2013 Paul McCartney is coming to Memphis. The Beatles legend has confirmed a May 26 concert date at the FedExForum, part of his 2013 “Out There” world tour. Tickets will go on sale to the genera... Today marks the 40th anniversary of the death of artist 'Pablo Picasso'. Mon April 8th, 2013 Today marks the 40th anniversary of the death of artist 'Pablo Picasso'. In 1973, shortly after Picasso's death, Paul McCartney released his song 'Picasso's Last Words (Drink to Me)'. In an inter... Julian Lennon At 50: It’s Never ‘Much Too Late’ For Lennon Family Discord Mon April 8th, 2013 Watching not just the Beatles but the Beatles' children grow older is one surefire way to be astonished at the quick passage of time. Julian Lennon, the most famous Beatlekid of them all, turns 5... When the Beatles Met the Rolling Stones: From THR's Archives Sun April 7th, 2013 "It was a match made in heaven, rampant youth colliding," Andrew Loog Oldham, the Stones' first manager and now a Sirius XM deejay, wrote in his memoir. This story first appeared in the April 1... Preview: Wings Over America - Paul McCartney & Wings Sun April 7th, 2013 Wings Over America features McCartney’s cover of Paul Simon’s Richard Cory and his own Soily, neither of which are available on any other album. The album also featured Wings’ cover of the ... Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon to Perform the Double Fantasy Album at Meltdown Sun April 7th, 2013 Yoko is curating the festival and has recruited Boy George, Patti Smith, Iggy & The Stooges and Marianne Faithfull to perform for the 20th anniversary of the festival. Double Fantasy was John’s... Beatles fan to recreate the day the Fab Four came to Norwich Sun April 7th, 2013 Friday, May 17, 1963 was the day Beatlemania came to the city, when John, Paul, George and Ringo performed at the old Grosvenor Rooms, in Prince of Wales Road, supported by local band Ricky Lee a... "Ringo: Peace & Love" To Premier At The GRAMMY Museum June 12, 2013 Sat April 6th, 2013 The GRAMMY Museum, in cooperation with Ringo Starr, will debut a major new exhibition, Ringo: Peace & Love opening on June 12, 2013. This one-of-a-kind, limited-run exhibit will offer visitors an... Lewisohn's 'Beatles Recording Sessions' book to be reissued this fall Sat April 6th, 2013 After years of being out of print, Mark Lewisohn's “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962-1970” is returning to bookshelves in October i... Wirral Beatles book is a hit in Russia Sat April 6th, 2013 BEATLES music was denied to the youth of Russia for decades when the Soviet authorities banned it as bourgeois and subversive. But reaction to a new Beatles book, describing people’s personal... Out There news: Paul McCartney announces Boston show sellout set new record Fri April 5th, 2013 Paul McCartney's MPL Communications announced Friday that all tickets for his July 9 show at Boston's Fenway Park sold out within five minutes of going on sale this morning at 10 a.m. local time.... R.I.P. Roger Ebert: A movie fan and a Beatles fan Fri April 5th, 2013 Roger Ebert, who died Thursday at age 70 after a lengthy bout with cancer, reviewed countless movies during his long career of over 45 years of being a reviewer. But Fab Four fans couldn't h... Report: Newspaper says Paul McCartney to play Quebec in July Fri April 5th, 2013 A Canadian newspaper reported Thursday that a deal has been reached for Paul McCartney to perform in Quebec this July. Le Soleil (The Sun) said the concert will take place July 23. McCartney last... Artist carves mini John Lennon into tip of pencil Fri April 5th, 2013 Sculptor Hedley Wiggan has carved a tiny John Lennon bust into the tip of a pencil. He spends up to 60 hours crafting his microscopic masterpieces, using just an old pin and a jeweller's magnifyi... Lucky Boys Get the Beatles Cheap Fri April 5th, 2013 In January 1963, a student at the Stowe School, a private school of just a few hundred boys, wrote to Brian Epstein, and arranged for the Beatles to appear at the school for £100. Another boy sa... Beatles Photog: They Never Asked Me to Stop Thu April 4th, 2013 WASHINGTON -- The Beatles were likely the most-photographed band of all time -- so the idea of never-before-seen images of John, Paul, George, and Ringo seems impossible. "I put them in my file... New Book: Let It Be: A Novel Wed April 3rd, 2013 A new book, Let It Be: A Novel by Chad Gayle, is an extraordinary story inspired by the music of The Beatles. In the book, newly-separated Michelle Jansen longs to create a new life for herself a... Journey/Santa cofounder Gregg Rolie says Ringo's All Starrs are electric Wed April 3rd, 2013 Just back from another well-received round of shows with the All-Starr Band, Gregg Rolie continues working on a new solo release, the Santana/Journey co-founder's first since 2011. Rolie says tha... Breaking News: Let It Be... Naked makes iTunes debut with bonus content Tue April 2nd, 2013 The Beatles' acclaimed 2003 album Let It Be... Naked makes its global digital debut today exclusively on iTunes. In addition to the 11-track album, the iTunes LP features all of the original book... Portraying John Lennon on film is never an easy job Tue April 2nd, 2013 Former La's bassist John Power's certainly got a head start on most other contenders for playing John Lennon in a new musical, courtesy of a definite physical likeness and the same nasally vocals... Restored Piano Returned to Motown Museum Mon April 1st, 2013 The nine-foot 1877 Steinway grand piano that sat for years in Motown Studio B in Detroit, Michigan, was returned to Hitsville USA, and reassembled in Studio A by Steinway technicians, after a com... Rare Beatles Record Fetches $290,500 at Auction Mon April 1st, 2013 A fierce bidding-war skyrocketed the price of a rare Beatles Record to a record-breaking $290,500 today. The copy of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was signed by all four Beatles, and said... Paul McCartney Returns to Boston on July 9, 2013 Mon April 1st, 2013 On Tuesday, July 9, Paul McCartney will play Boston's Fenway Park, returning by popular demand for the first time since his August 5 and 6, 2009 shows set the record for the highest ever two-day ... Producer Phil Ramone Dies @ 79 Sun March 31st, 2013 Legendary producer Phil Ramone has died at age 79.  He produced Julian Lennon's first two albums, co-produced a Ringo album and produced several tracks for Paul. Forthlin Road Door for Sale Sat March 30th, 2013 The humble yellow door that once served as the entrance to the McCartney family home at 20 Forthlin Road in Liverpool is for sale.  Paul’s family used the door daily from 1955 to 1964, and it... Draft of Lennon Letter to McCartneys Up for Auction Sat March 30th, 2013 A draft of a letter from John Lennon to Paul and Linda McCartney around the time of the breakup of the Beatles is among hundreds of historical documents being offered in an online auction.  It... Ringo A "No Nonsense" Band Leader: Greg Lake Wed March 27th, 2013 Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake and Palmer fame says that as a member of Ringo's 2001 All-Starr Band, he learned that there was a lot more to the man than he expected. “I saw then the effect he mu... "Blue Jay Way" House Sells for $3.8 Million Wed March 27th, 2013 The Los Angeles house where George Harrison wrote “Blue Jay Way” has sold for $3.8 Million. The single-family home is spread across an area of 4116 square feet sitting on a 0.4 acre lot. Th... Paul Says Other Beatles Were "Cheesed Off" by Yoko in Studio Mon March 25th, 2013 Paul McCartney says that while his perspective has changed since, he and the other Beatles were "cheesed off" by Yoko Ono's presence at Beatles recording sessions.   "But looking back on it ... Stereo "Please Please Me" Sells Big @ Auction Mon March 25th, 2013 An original stereo copy of “Please Please Me” sold for 7,552 pounds, or $11,500 US—50 years to the day the record was released. Presented in a frame with a set of autographs on a magazine... New Lennon Musical in Liverpool Features Singer John Power Mon March 25th, 2013 Musician John Power is set to play John Lennon in a new musical.  Power – guitarist in the La's and singer in the group Cast – will make his theatrical debut in Rob Eaton's musical Lennon at... Paul Wanted "Yesterday" to Be Electronica Mon March 25th, 2013 In the April issue of Q magazine, Paul McCartney says he had wanted to make “Yesterday” an early piece of electronica. Paul says he approached electronica pioneer DELIA DERBYSHIRE from the BB... Mark Ronson Produces for Paul McCartney Fri March 22nd, 2013 Celebrated producer Mark Ronson confirms that he is working with Paul McCartney on Paul's new album. After DJing McCartney's wedding to Nancy Shevell in 2011, Ronson has now joined Paul in the... John Lennon's Bloody Glasses Fri March 22nd, 2013 The Twitter account @BarackObama  has retweeted Yoko Ono’s picture of John Lennon's bloody glasses from the day he was murdered. The arresting photo, which includes text that more than a m... Paul Announces New Tour Wed March 20th, 2013 Paul has announced his first live date of 2013, which will be part of an all new tour called ‘Out There!’. Paul will play at the National Stadium in Warsaw, Poland on the 22nd of June, and a... English Heritage Plaque @ Apple Boutique Updated to Include George Tue March 19th, 2013 An English Heritage “Blue Plaque” at the site of the Beatles’ Apple Boutique in London has been updated to honor George Harrison. John was commemorated at the address in 2003.  The new p... New Limited Edition Book of Beatles Photos Mon March 18th, 2013 Regarding his new limited edition book, “My Time with the Beatles”, photographer Henry Grossman says: “This new book is the best of my many Beatles photographs. I’m happy to share some of... Paul Adds to Gondry Film Soundtrack Mon March 18th, 2013 French director Michel Gondry directed the video for Paul McCartney’s “Dance Tonight” in 2007, and now Paul has reportedly done some work as a guest musician on the score for the director's... Ringo Working Again with Brother-in-Law Wed March 13th, 2013 Joe Walsh is working with his brother-in-law--Ringo Starr--again, along with Mick Jagger, Keb 'Mo, Jim Keltner, and super-producer Don Was. On his Facebook page, Walsh says: “Cooking up somet... Play About John's Last Night Opens in London in May Wed March 13th, 2013 'And in the End--The Death and Life of John Lennon' is set to run off London's West End from May 7th to the 1st of June.  The play takes place in John's mind on December 8, 1980, after he has be... Protecting Your Fab Four Collection Wed March 13th, 2013 Whether you just own a few of John, Paul, George and Ringo’s classic albums or you’ve invested thousands of dollars in select, limited-edition vinyls and memorabilia, it’s important to make... Could Ringo's Birthplace Be in Danger Again? Tue March 12th, 2013 The group which led the successful campaign to preserve Ringo Starr’s birthplace says it fears that Liverpool’s City Council may change its mind and demolish the block, after all. It was an... New Comic Focuses on Break Up Announcement Mon March 11th, 2013 A new comic book, “Paul McCartney: Carry That Weight”, focuses on Paul’s decision to announce the breakup of the Beatles in April 1970.  According to the publisher, the 24-page book "take... Live "Maybe I'm Amazed" EP Set for Record Store Day Mon March 11th, 2013 Paul McCartney’s contribution to Record Store Day on April 20 is a treat for fans of the 1976 WINGS OVER AMERICA triple album. On that day, look for a release of a 12-inch EP of the live “May... Apple Grants Use of Four Fab Songs in "Good Ol' Freda" Mon March 11th, 2013 One of the makers of the documentary “Good Ol’ Freda” says they were granted permission to use four Beatle songs in their film because Freda Kelly was such a loyal employee.  "Good Ol' Freda" Screened at Rock Hall in April Wed March 6th, 2013 “Good Ol’ Freda”, the documentary about Frieda Kelly--the Beatles’ former fan club president--will be presented by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 11th, as part of the Cleveland I... Abbey Road Studios Open to Public March 8-17 Wed March 6th, 2013 Abbey Road Studios will be open to the public March 8th-March 17th.  Brian Kehew – record producer, engineer, musician and author of one of the most comprehensive books on The Beatles’ time ... Photos of Beatles at Shea Up for Auction March 22nd Wed March 6th, 2013 Photos taken at the Beatles’ historic 1965 concert at New York’s Shea Stadium will be auctioned off March 22nd. The 61 pictures, taken by amateur photographer Marc Weinstein, are expected ... Paul's Schoolboy Doddle Sells at Auction Mon March 4th, 2013 A doodle drawn by Paul McCartney when he was a teenager has fetched £3,764 –or $5,650 US--at auction. The pencil sketch, from Paul’s days as a student at the Liverpool Institute High Schoo... Morrisey Says Paul Should Reject Knighthood Mon March 4th, 2013 In an interview with the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, singer Morrisey said his fellow animal advocate, Paul McCartney, should reject his ties with Britain's royals because of their treatment of animals... Paul Would Visit His Mother Fri March 1st, 2013 When asked by a Brazilian fan what he would do if he had a time machine, Paul McCartney said:  ‘Go back and spend time with my mum.’ AXS TV Kicks Off Tribute Band Series with host Katie Daryl Wed February 27th, 2013 AXS-TV has a new live series starting March 4th called "The World's Greatest Tribute Bands". It's no shock to us here at Beatles Radio that Britain's finest are being honored in the very first e... Yoko Honored by Philipine Government Tue February 26th, 2013 Yoko Ono is being honored by the Philippine government after sending $10,000 to help fund relief and rehabilitation efforts for thousands of families displaced by Typhoon Pablo. Rep. Winston Ca... Paul Songs Featured on "War Child" Anniversary Album Tue February 26th, 2013 Paul McCartney is again lending his talents to support the charity, “War Child”--which for twenty years has assisted children affected by war by providing medical care, creating safe spaces a... Bag O'Nails to Reopen Mon February 25th, 2013 The London club where Paul and Linda McCartney met—and a favorite 60’s hangout for the other Beatles, too—will reopen. The Bag O’Nails will reopen officially in April, with a “soft re... LIPA-Style School Opening in Spain Thu February 21st, 2013 The Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts--Paul McCartney’s “Fame School” created in the building where he and George Harrison were students together—is getting a sister school in S... Paul to Headline Bonnaroo Wed February 20th, 2013 Paul McCartney will headline the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival June 13-16 in Manchester, Tennessee. Others on the bill include Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Mumford & Sons, Billy Idol and Bj... Abbey Road Used in Indian Traffic Campaign Tue February 19th, 2013 Traffic police in Calcutta are making their point to India’s pedestrians by using the Beatles’ famous Abbey Road cover as an example of using crosswalks. Tony Sheridan Dead at 72 Tue February 19th, 2013 Tony Sheridan, the English singer and guitarist for whom the Beatles served as backup band in their first recordings, died February 16th at age 72.  In addition to his connection to the Beatles,... Rare Aunt Mimi Letter Up for Auction Fri February 15th, 2013 A letter written by John Lennon’s Aunt Mimi sent to a teenage Beatles fan nearly 50 years ago is going up for auction. The letter was sent in 1964 from Mendips, the house where John spent most ... Rio Celebrates the Beatles Thu February 14th, 2013 Upwards of 50,000 revelers in Rio attended the "Sargento Pimenta" ---or Sgt. Pepper in Portuguese, the language of Brazil-- street party during Carnival.  The Beatles-themed celebration is one o... Johnny Marr Speaks of Paul and George Thu February 14th, 2013 In a new interview, former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr talks about a daylong session playing with Paul McCartney and how much George Harrison influenced his own playing style. Marr tells the Aut... Scorsese, Gere Endorse New John & Yoko book Tue February 12th, 2013 Director Martin Scorsese and actor Richard Gere are lending their suppport to Jonathan Cott's new book about John and Yoko, Days That I'll Remember. Cott first interviewed the couple for Rollin... Paul Wins Grammy for Traditional Pop Vocal Album Mon February 11th, 2013 Paul McCartney took home his 15th Grammy--and his first for a solo album--for KISSES ON THE BOTTOM, his album of standards.  The award was announced before the telecast from the Staples center i... Adele Rehearsing in Former McCartney Home Mon February 11th, 2013 Multi-award winner Adele is practicing for her performance at the Oscar ceremony at Paul McCartney’s old house in India, according to the Sun UK. The 24 yr-old British singer is up for an Aca... Paul Sings to Street Car Passengers in New Orleans Thu February 7th, 2013 Paul Mc Cartney serenaded unsuspecting street car passengers in New Orleans during his Carnivale visit.  Paul, accompanied by wife Nancy and a security guard, hopped aboard a street car—where ... Ringo's 72nd Birthday Concert Coming to DVD Wed February 6th, 2013 A DVD titled Ringo at the Ryman--recorded in Nashville on Ringo's 72nd birthday last July 7th--is due March 19th. The video features Ringo’s current All Starr Band lineup, which includes TODD... Bag One First Edition for Sale Tue February 5th, 2013 A complete set of the originally not-for-sale (hors commerce) edition of John Lennon’s BAG ONE lithographs from 1970 will now be sold. No complete copy of this iteration of the first edition ha... Paul Answers Fan Questions on Website Tue February 5th, 2013 Paul McCartney’s official website is giving fans a chance to ask him questions on a regular basis.  The new feature, “You Gave Me the Answer”, is named for a Wings song, from the VENUS & M... Paul and Nancy Party in the Big Easy Mon February 4th, 2013 Paul McCartney and wife Nancy Shevell headed to New Orleans to be part of Carnivale and Super Bowl festivities.  The couple were spotted at ROLLING STONE magazine’s party. New Beatles Red Nose Shirt by Stella Mon February 4th, 2013 Stella McCartney has once again put red noses on a classic Beatles photo for the anti-poverty charity, Comic Relief.  Apple Corps Building to Become Abercrombie & Fitch? Thu January 31st, 2013 The Beatles’ former Apple Corps offices on London’s Savile Row—the site of the famous rooftop concert—nay become an Abercrombie and Fitch store. The plan to open a new store has prompte... Beatle Bassist's Lyric May Get New Life Tue January 29th, 2013 A newly-found excerpt from a song written by Stu Sutcliffe in 1959 may be incorporated into a new song by a Liverpool musician. Dean Johnson says of the lyric to “Sheila”: “The prose is ver... McCartney Men in Studio Together Mon January 28th, 2013 Proud dad Paul McCartney dropped in to help his son James in the recording studio, where James is working on a new album.  Dhani Finds Abbey Road Recording Sessions "Very Emotional" Fri January 25th, 2013 George Harrison’s son, Dhani, says it was very emotional for him to record the Beautiful Creatures movie soundtrack at Abbey Road Studios with thenewno2.  He tells Rolling Stone, "I spent my w... Sean and Yoko Continue Anti-Fracking Campaign Thu January 24th, 2013 Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon are continuing their campaign against fracking (the natural-gas drilling technology hydraulic fracturing), and the air pollution and water contamination that have alarmed... Paul Joins Turtle Campaign in Cayman Thu January 24th, 2013 Paul McCartney has joined those speaking out against the Cayman Turtle Farm, a popular tourist attraction that allegedly is raising turtles for food under inhumane conditions. The farm offers t... Yoko Plans Pastic Ono Band Concert for Her 80th Birthday Wed January 23rd, 2013 To mark her 80th birthday on February 18th, Yoko Ono will give a Plastic Ono Band concert the night before in Berlin, Germany--with son Sean as band leader--two days after a retropsective of her ... Ringo Invited to Tour Australian Train Station...Again? Mon January 21st, 2013 Forty-nine years after the Beatles toured Australia, Ringo Starr has gotten a personal invitation to return to a train station he supposedly visited back then.  National Trust volunteers who mai... Ringo & Barbara Hit Sundance Film Festival Mon January 21st, 2013 Ringo Starr and wife Barbara Bach disregarded the cold and hit the Sundance Film Festival to catch the premiere of the film, Emanuel and the Truth about Fishes. "Please Please Me" Album Being Covered in Entirety for BBC Thu January 17th, 2013 Current artists are taking up the challenge to re-record the Beatles' debut album--at the same breakneck pace in which the original was recorded. Musicians including the Stereophonics and Simply... Paul's Stepmother Writes Autobiography Thu January 17th, 2013 Paul McCartney’s little-known stepmother, Angie, has written an autobiography, My Long & Winding Road. “We lived quite a quiet life, when I think about it,” says Angie, now 83. Flash Mob Sings "Here Comes the Sun" to Unemployed in Spain Tue January 15th, 2013 Members of a Spanish orchestra created a flash mob in a Madrid unemployment office, siging a Beatles classic to cheer job seekers. One by one, they stood up in a busy waiting room and began th... Beatles & Queen Top New UK Survey Tue January 15th, 2013 UK music fans say the Beatles and Queen are the artists of whom they are most proud—at 71% each.  Bill Harry Revising "Beatles Encyclopedia" Mon January 14th, 2013 Mersey Beat founder/editor Bill Harry says he’s revising his famous reference book, “The Beatles Encyclopedia”, first published in 1992, and revised in 2000. This third edition will be expa... End to George State Campaign in Henley-on-Thames, UK Mon January 14th, 2013 The man looking to erect a George Harrison statue in Henley-on-Thames, near the Harrison estate, is ending his campaign after hearing from Olivia Harrison that she would prefer a community projec... Mash Up Combines "Whole Lotta Helter Skelter" Thu January 10th, 2013 A new mash-up successfully combines Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" with the Beatles' "Helter Skelter", in both audio and video form. Paul's Backstage Rider: Flowers...Lots of Flowers Tue January 8th, 2013 Have you ever wondered what Paul McCartney’s backstage requirements are like these days? In addition to banning leather, meat and meat byproudcts, Paul's backstage rider reportedly requires n... Rare Color Photos of The Beatles to Go up for Sale Mon January 7th, 2013 Unpublished early color photographs of The Beatles' first U.S. tour will be sold at a U.K. auction. The photos were taken during the rock band's 1964 visit to the U.S., when color film was expe... Julian Lennon Says Bono's Vision Deteriorating Sun January 6th, 2013 According to Julian Lennon, U2's Bono's vision--which the singer/activist has said is the reason he wears his trademark shades--is worsening.   Forgotten Beatles Photos Found After Nearly Half a Century Sun January 6th, 2013 37 previously unseen photographs of the Beatles have been found after being forgotten for nearly half a century. Photographer Paul Berriff captured the photographs during a Beatles tour in 1963 a... "Yesterday" Fourth "Richest" Song Ever Thu January 3rd, 2013 The Beatles’ “Yesterday” ranks fourth on the list of songs that have generated the most royalties, according to a new BBC 4 special, “The Richest Songs in the World.”  “Happy Birthda... Stella Gets OBE from Queen Wed January 2nd, 2013 Stella McCartney is being honored by Queen Elizabeth with an OBE—being made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire—for her work as a fashion designer, especially creating the British t... Rare Copy of "Please Please Me" Sells for Rejected Bid Mon December 31st, 2012 A rare copy of Please Please Me signed by all four Beatles has sold for the price rejected at auction in December.  The BBC reports that brother and sister Chris Collins and Liz Chambers initial... Beatles "Bucket List" Book Due in June Mon December 31st, 2012 Beatles fans can look forward to lots in the new year, including a book telling us 100 things to do before we die. Or to be precise, 100 THINGS BEATLES FANS SHOULD KNOW AND DO BEFORE THEY DIE, a ... Yoko: They Were Getting to be Like Paul's Band Fri December 28th, 2012 In a newly-released 1987 interview, Yoko Ono talks about the Beatles’ breakup—which she calls a “divorce”.  She told Rolling Stone’s Joe Smith: "John, in fact, was not the first who wa... Justice Collective--with Paul--Hit No. 1 in UK Thu December 27th, 2012 The Justice Collective’s cover of the Hollies’ “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother” got to the coveted spot as the UK’s Christmas number one.  The single features Paul McCartney, who ... Beatles on Ten Pound Notes? Wed December 26th, 2012 Reportedly the Fab Four are among 150 great Britons under consideration for the honor of appearing on a ten pound note as the government prepares to print new currency next year. Van Zandt Makes Deal for Use of Beatles in Movie Soundtrack Mon December 24th, 2012 Musician and actor Steven Van Zandt says he made use of his connections in the music world to get rights to use Beatles and Rolling Stones recordings in David Chase’s film, “Not Fade Away”.... Olivia Harrison Speaks @ Shankar Memorial Fri December 21st, 2012 Olivia Harrison was among hundreds of people honoring Ravi Shankar at a memoria10l in California.   Said Olivia of Ravi’s relationship with George : "They were like father and son as well as ... George's Suitcase on Display in UK Wed December 19th, 2012 A suitcase that likely belonged to George Harrison in the early 60’s is currently on display in the UK. The case was found after a Beatles appearance at the Irby Village Hall on September 7, 19... Ravi Shankar to Receive Posthumous Grammy Mon December 17th, 2012 Ravi Shankar will receive a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Grammy on Feb. 10th. Grammys spokeswoman Stephanie Schell says he was selected before his death and notified of the honor the week befo... Yoko Gets German Human Rights Award Mon December 17th, 2012 Yoko Ono has been awarded a German human rights prize for peace activism with her husband, John Lennon, as well as her more recent work championing gender and marriage equality. Ono picked up t... Jagger 1969 Letters Sold Thu December 13th, 2012 The letters Mick Jagger wrote to singer Marsha Hunt, the inspiration for the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar", have sold for £187,250 ($301,472).  Jagger wrote to Hunt from the set of the movie "N... Paul Closes 12-12-12 Concert for Sandy Relief Thu December 13th, 2012 Paul McCartney says the "real stars" of the Hurricane Sandy relief concert at New York's Madison Square Garden were the first responders. And while they didn't perform, they got themselves a curt... Ravi Shankar Dies @ 92 Wed December 12th, 2012 The man George Harrison thought of as a second father--and whom he called “the godfather of world music--Ravi  Shankar, has died at age 92. The renowned sitar player taught George to play th... Chapman Copy of "Double Fantasy" Up for Sale Mon December 10th, 2012 The copy of “Double Fantasy” John Lennon signed for his killer hours before his death is up for auction. The record John signed for Mark David Chapman on Decemeber 8, 1980 was found outside... McCullough is Reportedly Doing Much Better Wed December 5th, 2012 Former Wings guitarist Henry McCullough is reportedly doing much better after suffering a heart attack in early November.  Examiner.com reports that McCullough’s former Wings bandmate, Denny S... Paul McCartney to Fulfill Personal Ambition and Appear in 'The Dandy' Wed December 5th, 2012 Paul McCartney is set to fulfill a “personal ambition” and appear in the final print edition of British comic, The Dandy. When he learned that the comic would only be available online after... Songs After Sandy: Friends of Red Hook for Sandy Relief Wed December 5th, 2012 Ringo Starr’s website reports that he and Dhani Harrsion’s group, thenewno2, are contributing previously-unreleased tracks to a Hurricane Sandy relief effort, focused on the hard-hit communit... Yoko's Revealing Menswear Line Now Available Fri November 30th, 2012 Unconventional clothing designs by Yoko Ono--given as a wedding gift to John Lennon—have been turned into a menswear line.  Says Yoko: I was inspired to create Fashions for Men, amazed at ho... Paul to Guest on "SNL" Dec 15th Wed November 28th, 2012 Paul McCartney will make his fourth appearance as the musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" in the US on December 15th--the series' Christmas episode.  Perhaps he'll be singing his version of ... Sean Scores Another Film Tue November 27th, 2012 Sean Lennon has provided the score for another independent film—this time acting in it, as well.  In the quirky superhero romantic comedy, Alter Egos, Sean plays a super-villain called Electri... Sean Joins Aerosmith to Play "Come Together" Sun November 25th, 2012  In a pre-Thanksgiving show at New York's Madison Square Garden, Sean Lennon joined Aerosmith to play "Come Together". Paul Speaks of "Real" John Lennon Sun November 25th, 2012  In a new interview with The Independent in the UK, Paul McCartney says that John Lennon's public image as tough and sarcastic is a very incomplete picture of the man. Director Pulls Out of Yellow Submarine Update Sun November 25th, 2012 Academy Award-winning director Robert Zemeckis has dropped plans to remake Yellow Submarine in 3D--an idea reportedly in the works since 2009.  Apple Seeking Memories of the Beatles Live Sun November 25th, 2012 If you were lucky enough to see the Beatles in concert, Apple wants to hear from you about your experience.  The Beatles' company is collecting stories and personal video footage from fans aroun... Paul Plays Private Vegas Party Sun November 25th, 2012 A 70-year-old private equity big shot invited his contemporary, Paul McCartney, to play for his birthday party in Las Vegas. 1972 John & Yoko Interview Now Available in Its Entirety Sun November 25th, 2012 Counterculture reporter Howard Smith's 1972 interview with John Lennon & Yoko Ono can be heard in its entirety now on Amazon and iTunes. The conversations--with John and Yoko, and many other pr... Paul McCartney and wife '2ft away' from helicopter crash Sat November 24th, 2012 Sir Paul McCartney and his wife Nancy Shevell were just 2ft away from a helicopter crash when their pilot narrowly avoided hitting trees, it has emerged today. Hillsborough charity single featuring Paul McCartney and Robbie Williams is tipped for Christmas No 1 Sat November 24th, 2012 Sir Paul will feature alongside the likes of Robbie Williams, Melanie C, Holly Johnson and Gerry Marsden on the single which is due to be released on December 17. The acts, who are going under ... Rejected Beatles audition tape discovered Sat November 24th, 2012 The Beatles' audition tape famously rejected by a record executive in 1962 has finally been uncovered after 50 years. Beatles' manager Brian Epstein subject of two films Sat November 24th, 2012 The small but vocal group of fans who have long demanded that more attention should be paid to the achievements of BEATLES manager Brian Epstein are finally being heard. Forty-five years after ... Olivia Drops Bid for Wire Fence at Friar Park Mon November 19th, 2012 Olivia Harrison has dropped her request for a barbed wire fence around the Harrison family estate, Friar Park, where she and George were attacked back in 1999. Paul in PETA Ad for the Holidays Mon November 19th, 2012 Wearing an "Eat No Turkey" t-shirt, Paul McCartney is telling people to go vegetarian for the holidays in a new ad for PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Paul Taking Part in NYC Sandy Relief Concert Fri November 16th, 2012 Paul McCartney will take part in the 12-12-12 concert at Madison Square Garden in New York—site of the Concert for New York City he helped organize back in 2001, and benefitting the same organ... Paul Takes Tumble on Stage in St. Louis Wed November 14th, 2012 Paul McCartney took a brief spill from the stage at his concert at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, MO, while dashing down stairs during the drum solo of “The End”.  Yoko Thanks Paul for Comments Mon November 12th, 2012 Yoko Ono publicly thanked Paul McCartney for his recent comments that she did not break up the Beatles. In a profile in the UK's "Guardian", Yoko expressed her surprise that people still feel tha... Paul and Yoko to Appear on Same Movie Soundtrack Sun November 11th, 2012 In the wake of conciliatory comments from Paul McCartney that Yoko Ono didn't break up the Beatles, the two will appear on the same movie soundtrack, for  the comedy, "This is 40". Wings Guitarist Henry McCullough Ill Thu November 8th, 2012 Henry McCullough, guitarist in the original lineup of Wings, is critically ill after suffering a heart attack.   The 69-year-old McCullough suffered cardiac arrest at home in Ireland.  His sis... Beatles Top Sellers on UK Singles Chart Wed November 7th, 2012 The Beatles sit atop the UK's all-time singles chart, on its 60th anniversary, followed by Queen, Abba, the Rolling Stones and Oasis. Lennon Letter to Clapton Up for Auction Wed November 7th, 2012    John Lennon’s 1971 letter to Eric Clapton inviting him to form a band goes up for auction December 18th, and is expected to fetch $30,000 US. Yoko Backs Mobile News App Mon November 5th, 2012 Yoko Ono is among several famous folk backing the invention of a 16 yr.old London boy--an app to summarize news articles on the face of a mobile device. Epstein to Be Honored with Statue in Liverpool Sun November 4th, 2012 Beatles manager Brian Epstein will be honored in his native Liverpool with a statue sculpted by the same artist responsible for the statue at Liverpool John Lennon International Airport. Butcher Cover Up for Auction in Beverly Hils Dec. 1st Sun November 4th, 2012 On December 1st, a "pristine" copy of the Beatles' "Yesterday and Today" butcher cover album goes up for sale in Beverly Hills, CA, as part of a big music memorabilia auction. Other items in th... Lunar Mix Tape Up for Auction Includes Fab 4 Fri November 2nd, 2012 A cassette tape that took the Beatles to the moon aboard Apollo 14--along with other classic 60's artists--goes up for auction later this month in a space and avitaion-themed auction. Paul Says Don't Blame Yoko for Beatles Breakup Wed October 31st, 2012 Sir Paul McCartney tells Sir David Frost that Yoko Ono should not be blamed for breaking up the Beatles.  In an hour-long interview airing in November, Paul tells Frost: "She certainly didn't br... Lennon Tooth Touring as a Necklace...? Wed October 31st, 2012 John Lennon’s tooth is at the center of a necklace now—and a UK dental care center’s effort to fight mouth cancer. The centre is the first in the UK to host Lennon's tooth, purchased at a... John Clive, Voice of John in "Yellow Submarine", Dies Thu October 18th, 2012 The actor and author known to Beatles fans as the voice of John Lennon in "Yellow Submarine" has died. John Clive was 79. All-Starrs to Play New Zealand Wed October 17th, 2012 Ringo Starr and the 2012 edition of the All-Starr Band will play two shows in New Zealand in February 2013--marking Ringo's first performances there since the Beatles' 1964 tour. Release of "The John Lennon Letters" Gets Some Flak Sun October 14th, 2012 The release of "The John Lennon Letters", edited by official Beatles biographer Hunter Davies, is getting some flak from some who say it's a case of TMI. Music journalist Neil McCormick argues, ... Yoko Ono awards Lady Gaga peace prize in Iceland Wed October 10th, 2012 (Reuters) - Pop star Lady Gaga was awarded a peace prize by Yoko Ono in a ceremony in Iceland on Tuesday. Peace activist Ono said the LennonOno Grant for Peace, established in the name of her la... The Beatles 50 Years ago Today Oct 9th1962 Tue October 9th, 2012 The Beatles had no engagements today (John's 22nd Birthday) they stayed over in London, visiting freelance music journalists and the weekly pop/music papers to promote 'Love Me Do" The Beatles 50 Years Ago Today "October 8th 1962 " Tue October 9th, 2012 The Beatles lunchtime booking at the cavern club Oct 8th was canceled because they were headed for London for the Debut appearance on Radio Luxembourg: In the early 60s and the time a appearance... New "How I Won the War" Photos of John Published Tue September 25th, 2012 Never-before seen photos of John Lennon taken on location in Spain in 1966 have been published by the UK's Daily Mail. The photos of John, in costume as Pvt. Gripweed and wearing his soon-to-be-t... Paul and Berry Gordy Play Restored Motown Piano Thu September 20th, 2012 The 1877 Steinway grand piano used on so many classic Motown recordings has been restored to playing--and recording--quality thanks to Paul McCartney, who along with Motown founder Berry Gordy, ... Abbey Road Cover...Made of Food Sat September 15th, 2012 One of the most iconic images of rock, a mosaic of the Beatles' "Abbey Road" cover has been made of food. Paul Pays Surprise Visit to Nancy's Family Business Mon September 10th, 2012 Paul McCartney delighted workers at his wife's family business in New York State, making the rounds at the trucking company and posing for photos. Album by Ringo's First Band Coming Soon Thu September 6th, 2012 Tapes recorded 52 years ago by Ringo Starr's first band, Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, will be released as an album--the first ever from the group. Paul Gets France's Highest Honor Wed September 5th, 2012 On September 8th, Sir Paul McCartney will receive France's highest public award, the Legion of Honour, from French president Francois Hollande. Non-French entertainers such as Jerry Lewis, Liza ... MMT Comes to Blu-Ray October 8th & 9th Tue August 28th, 2012 The Beatles' third feature film, 1967's Magical Mystery Tour, comes to Blu-Ray and a restored DVD version on October 8th and 9th, featuring a remixed soundtrack. How Lennon sabotaged his dishwasher dad's bid to be a pop star Tue July 31st, 2012 Over a rollercoaster ten years, I saw Freddie’s relationship with John go through terrifying highs and lows. When times were good, they shared a home, they sang songs together and they had gre... Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band at the Greek Theatre Mon July 23rd, 2012 Wanted: Accomplished musician for touring rock band. Minimum 25 years' professional experience. Ideal candidate has at least two Top 40 hits, maximum four from the 1960s or '70s; '80s may be acc... Getting To Know: James McCartney Mon July 23rd, 2012 James McCartney’s The Complete EP Collectionis a killer assortment of tightly-crafted rock anthems. Produced by David Kahne and his famous Beatle father (Paul McCartney, you may have heard of ... The Day Paul McCartney signed my wrist Mon July 23rd, 2012 She left the gig in Norwich of 1963 with a name written on the inside of her left wrist... and although it faded away after a couple of weeks her memory of that amazing night is as vivid as ever... Book Review: Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust: Off the Record with The Beatles, Bowie, Elton and So Much More by Ken Scott Mon July 23rd, 2012 Abbey Road To Ziggy Stardust is a fascinating rock 'n roll first person account by a guy who not only engineered The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour and The Beatles ("The White Album"), but as if ... One for Beatles fans: Now we can all sleep in a Yellow Submarine in Liverpool Mon July 23rd, 2012 Fans looking for the full Beatles experience can book accommodation in the unusual hotel, which is painted to look like the vessel on the cover of their record Yellow Submarine, and floats on a ... Lennon autograph is the real deal Mon July 23rd, 2012 Back story: About 15 years ago, I did a freelance job for Ono. When I was finished, her representative called and asked how much I was going to charge her. I said, "Nothing. I'm a huge Beatles f... Profile: Ringo Starr, now 72, still finding a way to be 'useful' Mon July 23rd, 2012 Starr -- who turned 72 on July 7 -- has been far more than useful during his career, which began in 1957 when he and friend Eddie Miles formed the Eddie Clayton Skiffle Group. That band event... Dhani Harrison: 'Music is the family business' Mon July 23rd, 2012 With his band's second album about to be released, in a new interview, George Harrison's son talks about his hang-ups, fame and "blending in" in Los Angeles. "Being in LA is great, because there... Rare Beatles record fetches $14,999 on eBay Sat July 21st, 2012 A rare record album, Introducing The Beatles, recently fetched $14,999 on eBay. The 1964 album, featuring the songs Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You was stated to be in near mint condition with it... Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen silenced at London concert Tue July 17th, 2012 At the climax of his three-hour set at Hyde Park in London, Bruce Springsteen introduced Paul McCartney. After playing I Saw Her Standing There, McCartney and Springsteen segued into Twist and S... Former Capitol Records exec remembers meeting John Lennon Tue July 17th, 2012 Steve Meyer worked at Capitol Records from 1969 to 1983 14 years in National Promotion. During that time, he met all of the Beatles except Ringo Starr. His encounters with George Harrison and Pa... Ringo Starr turns 72 in Nashville with peace, love Tue July 10th, 2012 The 1960s mop top is gone, but Ringo Starr is still flashing a peace sign. The former Beatle marked his 72nd birthday in Nashville Saturday by holding a "peace and love" moment at noon. He as... Paul McCartney Is Writing Music With Bungie Tue July 10th, 2012 Paul McCartney posted over the weekend on his Facebook page about working with Bungie. The post said, "I'm really excited to be working on writing music with Bungie, the studio that made Halo." ... Happy Birthday, Ringo Starr! Here Are 12 Reasons To Show Ringo Respect Tue July 10th, 2012 Ringo's always been diminished in every historical perspective. That's not so much through his own doing, mind you -- he was, in retrospect, a damn decent drummer -- but because anyone would nat... Why Ringo Starr isn't marking 50-year Beatles milestone Tue July 10th, 2012 Ringo Starr turned 72 on Saturday. But another mile marker, 50 years since he became a Beatle, is also being celebrated this year, just not necessarily by Starr. He told CBS News he hasn't thoug... Documentary about Beatles producer George Martin coming to DVD Tue July 10th, 2012 In 2011, Sir George Martin, who signed the Beatles to his Parlophone label and produced all but one of their albums, was the subject of a BBC documentary, "Produced by George Martin." The film w... Imagine buying Beatle's island idyll for €300,000 Tue July 10th, 2012 The locals know it as "Beatle Island". It might have been where John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived out their retirement. It was not to be, but the isolated island with which John Lennon once fell in... Beatles star Sir Paul McCartney will end the Olympics openi... the stadium's 60,000 spectators to join him for a sing-along. Tue July 3rd, 2012 Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney will close out the Olympics Games opening ceremony with a performance of Hey Jude - and he'll ask the stadium's 60,000 spectators to sing along with him ...the ... Seven Reasons Ringo Starr Is the Most Badass Beatle in A Hard Day's Night Tue July 3rd, 2012 Well, there won't be any Ringo-bashing here, no sir. The 71-year-old former Beatle is still touring, and he's coming to Hard Rock Live tonight at 8. As a primer -- and a lesson for anyone who mi... Sir Paul McCartney believes in the 'healing power' of music Tue July 3rd, 2012 The Beatles legend insists song has a "powerful" effect and even claims to have cured a headache by listening to one of his favourite records. "All it is, its little vibrations reaching your h... Ringo Starr rules out The Beatles' sons forming a band Tue July 3rd, 2012 Ringo Starr has shot down reports that the sons of The Beatles are set to form a band together. Earlier this year, Paul McCartney's son James said he and the rest of the Fab Four's offspring ... Ringo Starr Is Selling His Pictures and Donating the Proceeds to Charities Tue July 3rd, 2012 The former Beatles drummer may not be a great artist, but by funneling the profits from his pictures into charities, he’s joined the cutting edge of the art world, where artists blending their... Paul McCartney Shoots Video Asking School Kids to Try Eating Less Meat Tue July 3rd, 2012 Paul McCartney has recorded a video message promoting the Meat Free Monday campaign that’s intended to convince school children to decrease how much meat they eat. The eight-plus-minute clip... 1969 Lennon, Ono, Leary interview uncovered Tue July 3rd, 2012 Students of the '60s will flip over news that Timothy Leary's biographer Michael Horowitz has uncovered and published a transcript from an interview conducted with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, by L... The Beatles 'responsible for recreational drug use increase' in Russia Tue July 3rd, 2012 The Beatles were responsible for a worldwide increase in recreational drug use which continues to harm young people, Russia's top anti-narcotics official has claimed. Beatles music was banned ... PAUL MCCARTNEY, PENELOPE CRUZ JOIN ‘ARCTIC SANCTUARY’ DRIVE Tue July 3rd, 2012 Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, actress Penelope Cruz and director Robert Redford have joined a campaign for a “global sanctuary” around the North Pole, Greenpeace announced Thursday. They are a... Beatles ticket from 1963 Norwich concert at auction Tue July 3rd, 2012 A signed Beatles ticket from a concert in Norfolk in 1963 is expected to fetch up to £2,000 at auction in London. The ticket for the Grosvenor in Norwich was bought for seven shillings and si... Victor Spinetti, actor and star of Beatles films, dies Tue June 19th, 2012 Victor Spinetti, Welsh-born star of stage and screen, has died at the age of 82. He appeared in more than 30 films, including three of the Beatles' movies. It is said George Harrison told Spin... 'We need a little help from our friends': YouTube plea to Paul McCartney to save Beatles museum in Hamburg Tue June 19th, 2012 A personal plea on YouTube has been made to Paul McCartney to save a museum in Hamburg dedicated to the Beatles. To the sound of the Fab Four songs like 'With a Little help From My Friends', '... Seven of Paul McCartney’s Most Underrated Songs Tue June 19th, 2012 Since Paul McCartney’s 70th birthday is this week, most of the major media will be focusing on his most popular moments. His iconic Beatles anthems, beloved Wings singles, and No.1 solo hits w... GEORGE HARRISON Tops the Billboard Charts and Goes Platinum With LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD DVD/Blu-ray Tue June 19th, 2012 George Harrison once again topped the charts when the 2-DVD set of Martin Scorsese's GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD debuted at No. 1 in North America in its first week of release.... The long and winding road Life of Beatles legend Macca as he hits seventy Mon June 18th, 2012 SIR Paul McCartney once sang of being washed-up and unlovable When I’m Sixty-Four. But as he reaches the even grander old age of 70, his gloomy teenage predictions seem wider of the mark than... George Harrison's Son, Dhani Harrison, Marries—and the Bride Wore Stella McCartney! Tue June 12th, 2012 Dhani Harrison, the 33-year-old son of late Beatle George Harrison and George's second wife, Olivia, secretly tied the knot with Icelandic former model Sólveig Káradóttir over the weekend in ... ‘Beatlemania’ museum in Germany to close because of lack of visitors Tue June 12th, 2012 The Beatles museum in Hamburg, Germany, is closing its doors at the end of the month amid a disappointing lack of day-trippers making visits, Britain’s NME Magazine is reporting. Despite boa... Iconic Twickenham Film Studios Is 'Saved' Tue June 12th, 2012 The iconic Twickenham film studios, which made the Beatles films, Blade Runner and War Horse, has been saved from closure following a celebrity-backed campaign. Big names in the film industry ... 50 years ago today: The start of a music revolution Tue June 12th, 2012 On the evening of Wednesday, June 6, 1962, a white panel van pulled up outside 3 Abbey Road, London. Four young guys wearing black leather coats removed their guitars, drum kit and sound equip... 50 years of Beatle mania Tue June 12th, 2012 The revolution that would change music, fashion and youth culture forever started quietly enough in a London studio on June 6, 1962, when four young Liverpudlians performed Love Me Do. The groun... Paul McCartney Will Top Olympics Opening Ceremony Tue June 5th, 2012 Sir Paul McCartney has confirmed he will end the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games on July 27. Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live he said "I've been booked," and added that he would be "... Sir Paul McCartney brings Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert to spectacular close Tue June 5th, 2012 SIR Paul McCartney brought a star studded concert in tribute to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee to a close last night. The royals all stood as he started off with a Beatles favourite Magical My... First-Ever Grammy Awards Documentary Premiering June 11 Tue June 5th, 2012 Exec producer Ken Ehrlich gives details about the behind-the-scenes film that details the 48 hours before this year's Grammys, including Paul McCartney's performance revamps and Whitney Houston'... 'I overdid it': Paul McCartney reveals he was driven to dri...unable to write songs as worried Linda begged him to 'cool it' Tue June 5th, 2012 Sir Paul said he spent time on Kintyre, Scotland, to escape the 'hassles of the corporate world' Said he had the freedom to drink whenever he fancied it and he got 'fuzzy' making it difficult ... Beatles Musical To Appear In LA Before Broadway Tue June 5th, 2012 Before The Beatles became the Fab Four as fans know them today–John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr–the band had two other members. One of these was Pete Best, the b... Paul McCartney returns to John Lennon’s old art college after it was bought by LIPA Tue June 5th, 2012 FORMER Beatle Sir Paul McCartney stepped back in time to visit bandmate John Lennon’s old art college after it was bought by his fame school. The Grade II-listed Liverpool College of Art build... Beatle George Harrison Suffered From OCD, New Book Says Tue June 5th, 2012 The bestselling book BackStage Pass VIP says George Harrison had symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Author Debra Sharon Davis says, "His need for order, extreme neatness and disciplining... Olivia Harrison: George Harrison Hologram for Beatles Reunion Never Happening Tue June 5th, 2012 Don't you wish the Beatles could reunite? So do we, but that would be impossible. However, since Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre performed alongside a projection of Tupac at the Coachella Music Festival ... Beatles fans win battle to save Ringo Starr's Liverpool birthplace Tue June 5th, 2012 After battling for three years to preserve the humble terraced house in Madryn Street, Liverpool, fans have won a battle to save the home Ringo Starr from demolition and it will be turned into a... When the World Stopped to Listen Tue June 5th, 2012 Rolling Stone recently announced its top 500 pop music albums of all time. Perched at the top of the heap is the Beatles' legendary Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Unleashed on the world ... Harrison's haunting melodies Tue May 29th, 2012 All four members of The Beatles enjoyed successful careers as solo artists outside the band, not to mention long after the band's demise. In the past six months alone, there have been releases... The Beatles' Year Of Living Dangerously Tue May 29th, 2012 With the death of Brian Epstein in August 1967 the Beatles were transformed from a well-disciplined group of loveable mop-tops to a fractured long-haired collective pursuing four different creat... Paul McCartney discusses songwriting and RAM Tue May 29th, 2012 When we were initially asked if Drowned in Sound would like to interview Paul McCartney, we knew that this would have to be done by someone who was not just a fan with an encyclopedic knowledge,... Paul and Linda McCartney: Ram Thu May 24th, 2012 Ram may be considered Paul McCartney's second solo album after the breakup of The Beatles, but it should really be considered his first album as "Paul McCartney, the ex-Beatle". Ram was original... Beatles 'backwards' Abbey Road photo sells for £16,000 Thu May 24th, 2012 A rare photograph showing The Beatles walking backwards across Abbey Road has sold for £16,000 at auction this afternoon. The snap shows the band walking right to left across the zebra crossing... Printing plates for John Lennon's first book sell for $7,600 at auction Thu May 24th, 2012 The original printing plates for John Lennon's first book have sold at auction for £4,800. The metal plates were used to print words and illustrations by the Beatle in the 1964 book John Lennon... UK John Lennon Documentary to Premiere on US Television Next Month Thu May 24th, 2012 An unfinished song by George Harrison could be completed by his former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney. Olivia Harrison said, "There is some more material. There may be a minute of something he ... George Harrison track could be finished by Paul McCartney Thu May 24th, 2012 An unfinished song by George Harrison could be completed by his former Beatles bandmate Paul McCartney. Olivia Harrison said, "There is some more material. There may be a minute of something he ... Graphic Books Best Sellers: The Relationship of an Artist and an Original Beatle Thu May 24th, 2012 New to the NY Times graphic books hardcover best-seller list this week, at No. 7, is "Baby's In Black," which chronicles the relationship between the artist Astrid Kirchherr and Stuart Sutcliffe... George Harrison's Wife and Giles Martin Discuss Scorsese Documentary, Bob Dylan and Being 'Stifled' by the Beatles Wed May 2nd, 2012 To accompany director Martin Scorsese's documentary on George Harrison, "Living in the Material World," Harrison's widow Olivia teamed up with Giles Martin -- son of legendary Beatles producer G... Paul McCartney to give huge free show in Mexico Tue May 1st, 2012 Five days after his scheduled performance in Guadalajara, Sir Paul McCartney will play a massive free concert in Mexico City on May 10. Fans may have to queue for hours to gain a decent vantage ... Paul McCartney makes surprise guest appearance on 30 Rock Tue May 1st, 2012 Paul McCartney stunned the studio audience, and possibly actor Alec Baldwin, by making a surprise walk-on appearance during a live episode of NBC's 30 Rock tonight. In the show, a character is i... PAUL MCCARTNEY PROTECTED BY 1,400 COPS DURING COLOMBIA STAY Tue May 1st, 2012 Officials in Colombia took no risks when Paul McCartney landed in the country last week as 1,400 police officers were designated to help protect the Beatles legend. Paul to South America as part... Sir Paul McCartney signs fan’s neck for tattoo Tue May 1st, 2012 Paul McCartney pulled a young woman from the crowd as he performed at a huge stadium concert in Recife, Brazil, and she asked him to sign her neck. She then rushed off to a tattoo parlor to have... George Harrison still a hero in Bangladesh Tue May 1st, 2012 Dhaka's Liberation War Museum in Bangladesh seems an unlikely place to honor the memory of George Harrison. Yet here, in a second-floor gallery is a bronze plaque dedicated to the Beatle who pre... Paramount Picks Up Ringo Starr & Dave Stewart’s ‘Hole In The Fence’ Tue May 1st, 2012 Movie studio Paramount has picked up Hole In The Fence from Ringo Starr and Dave Stewart. The coming-of-age drama is about a group of kids who form a band to escape their depressing mining town.... Demi Lovato nearly crashes into Paul McCartney Sun April 22nd, 2012 Singer Demi Lovato was left speechless after nearly driving into Sir Paul McCartney on Monday. The Skyscraper hitmaker couldn’t believe her eyes when she spotted the Beatles legend in Los A...
i don't know
Tórshavn is the capital of which island group?
Torshavn - Travel information and tourist guide Sunday 7°6° Welcome to Torshavn.com ! We are part of the Travelagents.com Network and one of over 50 Online City Guides - offering the best online travel deals from a choice of well known providers. Torshavn.com provides a variety of information on available activities and travel services around the Torshavn area. Torshavn Activities Faroese National Day The Faroese National Day celebrated on St. Ólav's Day, i.e. on 29th July, along with the Ólavsvaka midsummer festival is one of the most admirable national event of Torshavn. Preparations for the special day begin at least a week before where people from all over the country and the foreigners assemble. Island Tours Being geographically the centre of the islands, Torshavn provides first-rate opportunities for taking trips all over the islands. For this, travel connections by bus and ferry are very good that you can actually enjoy with your beloved. Search news:
Faroe Islands
Which sport is sometimes known as “the sweet science”?
Video of Tórshavn - inFaroe.com Your First Step To Faroe Islands inFaroe.com inFAROE post Video of Tórshavn Video of Tórshavn news , Video Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands, is one of the World’s smallest capitals with a population of 18,300. Nevertheless, Havnin, as Tórshavn often is called, offers all that a major city or capital does. Tórshavn has daycare centres, elementary and middle schools, high schools and a university, as well as sports facilities, a hospital and other health services. There are senior centres and retirement homes, as well as long-term care facilities. The capital offers various cultural centres, a diversity of high street shops, a vibrant business community, and hotels, restaurants and much more. Tórshavn also hosts many of the country’s governmental administrative offices and agencies. Tórshavn is thus a modern city that is continuously developing and growing. Even though the capital is a modern city, there are many living reminders of yesteryear that bring a unique energy to the more historical sections of the town. Historic homes nestled along twisting, narrow pathways, speak of a time long ago. In Tórshavn, the old and the new rub shoulders all the time, especially in the city centre where it is still easy to find yourself standing on stones tred by Viking chieftans a 1000 years ago.
i don't know
The 1953 Broadway musical Kismet is based on the works of which classical composer?
Stage 1950s I: When Broadway Ruled (The images below are thumbnails – click on them to see larger versions.) Mary Martin and Ethel Merman sing to a television audience of sixty million viewers in 1953. On June 15, 1953, the Ford Motor Company commemorated its fiftieth anniversary with an all-star television revue. The highlight was a joint performance by Ethel Merman and Mary Martin , staged by Jerome Robbins and transmitted live from Broadway's massive Center Theatre. The ladies sang trademark solos before sharing some duet medleys. The joint CBS/NBC broadcast attracted over sixty million viewers, and a live Decca recording of the Merman-Martin act sold over 100,000 copies in two days. In the 1950s, Broadway musicals were a major part of American popular culture. Every season saw new stage musicals send songs to the top of the charts. Public demand, a booming economy and abundant creative talent kept Broadway hopping. To this day, the shows of the 1950s form the core of the musical theatre repertory. The best of these musicals integrated every element, offering recognizable characters singing in stories told with wit and genuine heart – in short, they applied the Rodgers & Hammerstein formula. Working the R&H Formula Even mediocre musicals that applied Rodgers & Hammerstein's formula could make a profit. Happy Hunting (1956 - 408 performances) had a score by a Brooklyn dentist, but who cared so long as Ethel Merman was on hand to sing it? The plot was ripped (in the clumsiest way) from the headlines. A low-born Philadelphia socialite who is not invited to Grace Kelly's royal wedding in Monaco avenges herself by getting her daughter engaged to an impoverished grand duke. With inescapable musical comedy logic, mama and the nobleman soon fall for each other, while the daughter falls for a young lawyer. The catchy songs "Mutual Admiration Society" and "Gee, But It's Good to Be Here" helped, but Happy Hunting was all about Merman. Co-star Fernando Lamas generated some unwelcome publicity by having a public feud with Merman. He habitually upstaged her and on one occasion openly wiped his mouth after sharing an onstage kiss. Along with damning press coverage, Lamas earned an official sanction from Actor's Equity. Happy Hunting had no tour or film version, but its one year run made a profit. The original cast Playbill for Kismet (1953). The bearded genie-like figure represents Alfred Drake. One unusual variation on the post-Oklahoma format did well. George Forrest and Robert Wright , who had reset the melodies of Edvard Grieg for Song of Norway, now adapted themes by Alexander Borodin to create Kismet (1953 - 583 performances). This Arabian Nights-style tale (based on a popular melodrama by Edward Knoblock) talked like a musical comedy, dressed like a sexy burlesque skit and sang like an old-style operetta. New York's snootier critics were set to destroy this unusual hybrid, but a newspaper strike kept them out of print for a few crucial weeks. Audiences loved the lavish harem scenes and romantic melodies, and by the time the strike ended and the scathing reviews came, it was too late – word of mouth had made the show a major hit. Alfred Drake gave a bravura performance as Hajj, a beggar-poet who becomes Wazir of Baghdad and makes his daughter Queen of Arabia by manipulating the twists of fate, his "kismet." As the Wazir's voluptuous concubine Lalume, Joan Diener 's soprano pyrotechnics and knockout figure won raves, as did Doretta Morrow as Hajj's daughter Marsinah and Richard Kiley as her beloved Caliph. "Stranger in Paradise," (based on the Polovetsian Dance No. 2 from Borodin's Prince Igor) became a pop hit, and Kismet picked up six Tonys, including Best Musical. Rodgers & Hammerstein: Supermen Gertrude Lawrence as seen on the original Playbill for The King and I. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II remained the musical theater's most potent creative team. At one point, they had four musicals running simultaneously on Broadway -- an unprecedented accomplishment. With the 1950s film versions of Oklahoma, Carousel and South Pacific grossing millions of dollars worldwide, the two songwriters were international celebrities, so it is not surprising that the media treated each new R&H stage production as a major event. The King and I (1951 - 1,246 performances) was based on Anna Leonowens real life experiences tutoring the royal family of Siam in the 1860s. The clash of Eastern and Western cultures sets Anna and the King on a collision course, further complicated by their unspoken feelings for each other. Gertrude Lawrence , who had suggested the project, played the Welsh schoolteacher. At Mary Martin's urging, the little-known Yul Brynner was cast as the King. The score included "Whistle a Happy Tune," "Hello Young Lovers," "I Have Dreamed," and "Something Wonderful." In the show's most memorable moment, "Shall We Dance," depicted an impromptu dance lesson between Anna and the King that exploded with romantic tension. The musical theater lost one of its most luminous stars when Lawrence succumbed to cancer during the run. Brynner made a career of playing the King, appearing in the acclaimed 1956 film version and numerous revivals until his death in 1985. Me and Juliet (1953 - 358 performances) was a backstage love story featuring the sultry tango "No Other Love Have I." Only a modest success by R&H standards, it had a fine score and innovative sets (by the legendary stage designer Jo Mielziner) that allowed a swift flow of action between on and offstage scenes. Pipe Dream (1955 - 246 performances) offered a sanitized adaptation of Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday starring Metropolitan Opera diva Helen Traubel. Critics and audiences were disappointed, making this Rodgers & Hammerstein's only financial failure. But it was such an important cultural event that the characters on the top rated TV sitcom I Love Lucy schemed to get Pipe Dream tickets. Flower Drum Song (1958 - 600 performances) did better, taking a genial look at East meeting West in San Francisco's Chinatown. With direction by Gene Kelly , its score included "I Enjoy Being a Girl" and "Love Look Away." The Sound of Music (1959 - 1,443 performances) was inspired by the story of Austria's Trapp Family Singers and their escape from the Nazis in the 1930s. The score included "Do Re Mi," "Edelweiss," "My Favorite Things," and the title tune. With Mary Martin heading the cast, The Sound of Music won the Tony for Best Musical (in a rare tie vote with Fiorello). Critics who dismiss this show's sweet story have missed the real point. Amid all the sentiment, The Sound of Music offers an entertaining but devastating condemnation of those who empower evil by refusing to oppose it. The real bad guys are not the Nazis, but the so-called "decent" people who acquiesce to them. A superb and literate musical, The Sound of Music remains a beloved cultural landmark. Mary Martin leads the children in "Do Re Mi" on the cover of the original cast Playbill for The Sound of Music (1959). Oscar Hammerstein II died due to stomach cancer a few months after The Sound of Music opened, ending a career that spanned the golden age of musical theatre and film. After working with the innovative Jerome Kern and operetta master Sigmund Romberg , he did his finest work with Rodgers, and later coached young Stephen Sondheim . More than any other individual, Hammerstein had turned the once-innocuous Broadway musical into a potent dramatic form, and had turned lyrics into essential dramatic tools. He did it by being a superb storyteller and a dedicated craftsman. Even when dealing with serious issues, he always kept his focus on intriguing characters caught in remarkable situations. "If the 1950s was the decade that promised a continuation of the musical's crucial place in the culture, it was at least partly because the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution of the 1940s urged the musical to seek beyond typical fare for stories based on realistic character development: to become drama. Thus, the 1940s introduced the notion and the 1950s exploited it." - Ethan Mordden, Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 26-27. More than three decades after his death, during the 1995-96 season, four Hammerstein musicals appeared on Broadway, and his work remains popular in the 21st Century. So long as people "know how it feels to have wings on their heels" or believe their "heart will be blest by the sound of music," Hammerstein's lyrics will be part of civilization's common language. Who else was composing great shows during this amazing decade?
Alexander Borodin
Which twin-code rugby international and television commentator is nicknamed “Jiffy”?
Stage 1950s I: When Broadway Ruled (The images below are thumbnails – click on them to see larger versions.) Mary Martin and Ethel Merman sing to a television audience of sixty million viewers in 1953. On June 15, 1953, the Ford Motor Company commemorated its fiftieth anniversary with an all-star television revue. The highlight was a joint performance by Ethel Merman and Mary Martin , staged by Jerome Robbins and transmitted live from Broadway's massive Center Theatre. The ladies sang trademark solos before sharing some duet medleys. The joint CBS/NBC broadcast attracted over sixty million viewers, and a live Decca recording of the Merman-Martin act sold over 100,000 copies in two days. In the 1950s, Broadway musicals were a major part of American popular culture. Every season saw new stage musicals send songs to the top of the charts. Public demand, a booming economy and abundant creative talent kept Broadway hopping. To this day, the shows of the 1950s form the core of the musical theatre repertory. The best of these musicals integrated every element, offering recognizable characters singing in stories told with wit and genuine heart – in short, they applied the Rodgers & Hammerstein formula. Working the R&H Formula Even mediocre musicals that applied Rodgers & Hammerstein's formula could make a profit. Happy Hunting (1956 - 408 performances) had a score by a Brooklyn dentist, but who cared so long as Ethel Merman was on hand to sing it? The plot was ripped (in the clumsiest way) from the headlines. A low-born Philadelphia socialite who is not invited to Grace Kelly's royal wedding in Monaco avenges herself by getting her daughter engaged to an impoverished grand duke. With inescapable musical comedy logic, mama and the nobleman soon fall for each other, while the daughter falls for a young lawyer. The catchy songs "Mutual Admiration Society" and "Gee, But It's Good to Be Here" helped, but Happy Hunting was all about Merman. Co-star Fernando Lamas generated some unwelcome publicity by having a public feud with Merman. He habitually upstaged her and on one occasion openly wiped his mouth after sharing an onstage kiss. Along with damning press coverage, Lamas earned an official sanction from Actor's Equity. Happy Hunting had no tour or film version, but its one year run made a profit. The original cast Playbill for Kismet (1953). The bearded genie-like figure represents Alfred Drake. One unusual variation on the post-Oklahoma format did well. George Forrest and Robert Wright , who had reset the melodies of Edvard Grieg for Song of Norway, now adapted themes by Alexander Borodin to create Kismet (1953 - 583 performances). This Arabian Nights-style tale (based on a popular melodrama by Edward Knoblock) talked like a musical comedy, dressed like a sexy burlesque skit and sang like an old-style operetta. New York's snootier critics were set to destroy this unusual hybrid, but a newspaper strike kept them out of print for a few crucial weeks. Audiences loved the lavish harem scenes and romantic melodies, and by the time the strike ended and the scathing reviews came, it was too late – word of mouth had made the show a major hit. Alfred Drake gave a bravura performance as Hajj, a beggar-poet who becomes Wazir of Baghdad and makes his daughter Queen of Arabia by manipulating the twists of fate, his "kismet." As the Wazir's voluptuous concubine Lalume, Joan Diener 's soprano pyrotechnics and knockout figure won raves, as did Doretta Morrow as Hajj's daughter Marsinah and Richard Kiley as her beloved Caliph. "Stranger in Paradise," (based on the Polovetsian Dance No. 2 from Borodin's Prince Igor) became a pop hit, and Kismet picked up six Tonys, including Best Musical. Rodgers & Hammerstein: Supermen Gertrude Lawrence as seen on the original Playbill for The King and I. Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II remained the musical theater's most potent creative team. At one point, they had four musicals running simultaneously on Broadway -- an unprecedented accomplishment. With the 1950s film versions of Oklahoma, Carousel and South Pacific grossing millions of dollars worldwide, the two songwriters were international celebrities, so it is not surprising that the media treated each new R&H stage production as a major event. The King and I (1951 - 1,246 performances) was based on Anna Leonowens real life experiences tutoring the royal family of Siam in the 1860s. The clash of Eastern and Western cultures sets Anna and the King on a collision course, further complicated by their unspoken feelings for each other. Gertrude Lawrence , who had suggested the project, played the Welsh schoolteacher. At Mary Martin's urging, the little-known Yul Brynner was cast as the King. The score included "Whistle a Happy Tune," "Hello Young Lovers," "I Have Dreamed," and "Something Wonderful." In the show's most memorable moment, "Shall We Dance," depicted an impromptu dance lesson between Anna and the King that exploded with romantic tension. The musical theater lost one of its most luminous stars when Lawrence succumbed to cancer during the run. Brynner made a career of playing the King, appearing in the acclaimed 1956 film version and numerous revivals until his death in 1985. Me and Juliet (1953 - 358 performances) was a backstage love story featuring the sultry tango "No Other Love Have I." Only a modest success by R&H standards, it had a fine score and innovative sets (by the legendary stage designer Jo Mielziner) that allowed a swift flow of action between on and offstage scenes. Pipe Dream (1955 - 246 performances) offered a sanitized adaptation of Steinbeck's Sweet Thursday starring Metropolitan Opera diva Helen Traubel. Critics and audiences were disappointed, making this Rodgers & Hammerstein's only financial failure. But it was such an important cultural event that the characters on the top rated TV sitcom I Love Lucy schemed to get Pipe Dream tickets. Flower Drum Song (1958 - 600 performances) did better, taking a genial look at East meeting West in San Francisco's Chinatown. With direction by Gene Kelly , its score included "I Enjoy Being a Girl" and "Love Look Away." The Sound of Music (1959 - 1,443 performances) was inspired by the story of Austria's Trapp Family Singers and their escape from the Nazis in the 1930s. The score included "Do Re Mi," "Edelweiss," "My Favorite Things," and the title tune. With Mary Martin heading the cast, The Sound of Music won the Tony for Best Musical (in a rare tie vote with Fiorello). Critics who dismiss this show's sweet story have missed the real point. Amid all the sentiment, The Sound of Music offers an entertaining but devastating condemnation of those who empower evil by refusing to oppose it. The real bad guys are not the Nazis, but the so-called "decent" people who acquiesce to them. A superb and literate musical, The Sound of Music remains a beloved cultural landmark. Mary Martin leads the children in "Do Re Mi" on the cover of the original cast Playbill for The Sound of Music (1959). Oscar Hammerstein II died due to stomach cancer a few months after The Sound of Music opened, ending a career that spanned the golden age of musical theatre and film. After working with the innovative Jerome Kern and operetta master Sigmund Romberg , he did his finest work with Rodgers, and later coached young Stephen Sondheim . More than any other individual, Hammerstein had turned the once-innocuous Broadway musical into a potent dramatic form, and had turned lyrics into essential dramatic tools. He did it by being a superb storyteller and a dedicated craftsman. Even when dealing with serious issues, he always kept his focus on intriguing characters caught in remarkable situations. "If the 1950s was the decade that promised a continuation of the musical's crucial place in the culture, it was at least partly because the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution of the 1940s urged the musical to seek beyond typical fare for stories based on realistic character development: to become drama. Thus, the 1940s introduced the notion and the 1950s exploited it." - Ethan Mordden, Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), pp. 26-27. More than three decades after his death, during the 1995-96 season, four Hammerstein musicals appeared on Broadway, and his work remains popular in the 21st Century. So long as people "know how it feels to have wings on their heels" or believe their "heart will be blest by the sound of music," Hammerstein's lyrics will be part of civilization's common language. Who else was composing great shows during this amazing decade?
i don't know
Which famous scientist was born on the same day as Abraham Lincoln?
Born on the Same Day: 6 Things Lincoln and Darwin Had in Common | Mental Floss Born on the Same Day: 6 Things Lincoln and Darwin Had in Common Getty Images Like us on Facebook On February 12, 1809, two of the most revolutionary men of the 19th century were born. Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin had a lot more in common than a knack for growing epic beards. For example... 1. Both Men Loved Shakespeare As a young man, Darwin particularly enjoyed the Bard’s historical dramas, although he became tired of the playwright as he grew older . Lincoln, meanwhile, recited Shakespeare’s work extensively throughout his life. In an eerie coincidence, Honest Abe quoted the following line from Macbeth mere days before his assassination: “After life’s fitful fever, he sleeps well .”  2. Neither Rose to National Prominence Until Their Late Forties Talk about late bloomers! Although both men had previously enjoyed modest professional success, neither turned into a household name in their youth. For Lincoln, that all changed in 1858, when the Lincoln-Douglas debates  helped him secure nationwide recognition and, eventually, the presidency. The following year, Darwin became one of the most famous scientists in history when On the Origin of Species was published after a lengthy gestation period . 3. Both Lost Their Mothers Early In Life Susannah Wedgwood Darwin lost her battle with an unknown disease on July 15, 1817. As for Nancy Hanks Lincoln, she died of milk sickness on October 5, 1818, at the age of 34 .  4. Both Suffered Through the Death of a Very Young Child As if the grim reaper hadn’t hounded their families enough, Edward Lincoln died shortly before his fourth birthday , while Anne Elizabeth Darwin succumbed to an unknown illness at the age of ten (her devastated parents kept a box full of keepsakes which went undiscovered until 2000 ). 5. Both Loved Music, But Neither Could Sing Lincoln adored opera , while Darwin enjoyed listening to church choirs, classical concerts, and his wife’s piano-playing . Despite this affinity, the former man refused to sing around others and the latter was tone-deaf. 6. Both Were Abolitionists “If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong,” Lincoln once wrote . The “great emancipator’s” role in passing the thirteenth amendment, which officially eradicated slavery in the United States, speaks for itself, but Darwin, too, loathed the practice. While aboard the HMS Beagle (a voyage that inspired his theory of natural selection), Darwin frequently encountered “those atrocious acts which can only take place in a slave country.” He even weighed in on the American Civil War in a letter to New England botanist Asa Gray, writing “[I wish] that the North would proclaim a crusade against slavery … Great God, how I should like to see the greatest curse on earth, slavery, abolished.” And Here’s One Critical Difference:
Charles Darwin
What is the official hymn of the US Marine Corps?
10 Things You May Not Know About Charles Darwin - History in the Headlines 10 Things You May Not Know About Charles Darwin February 12, 2014 By Christopher Klein Share this: 10 Things You May Not Know About Charles Darwin Author 10 Things You May Not Know About Charles Darwin URL February 12 is Darwin Day, a global celebration of science and reason held on the anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth in 1809. To commemorate Darwin Day, check out 10 things you may not know about the famed evolutionary biologist. 1. Darwin was born on the same day as Abraham Lincoln. Both Darwin and Lincoln were born on February 12, 1809, but in much different settings. While America’s 16th president was born in a rude log cabin in the Kentucky wilderness, Darwin was born in a grand Georgian house on an estate overlooking the River Severn and the medieval market town of Shrewsbury, England. 2. He waited more than 20 years to publish his groundbreaking theory on evolution. Darwin’s five-year voyage around the world on HMS Beagle, which ended in 1836, provided him with invaluable research that contributed to the development of his theory of evolution and natural selection. Concerned, however, about the public and ecclesiastical acceptance of his deeply radical idea, he did not present his theory on evolution until 1858 when he made a joint announcement with British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who was about to go public with a similar concept to Darwin’s. The next year, Darwin published his seminal work, “The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.” 3. Darwin suffered from chronic illnesses. After returning from his trip around the world, Darwin began to suffer from exhaustion, eczema and chronic bouts of nausea, headaches and heart palpitations that would persist for the rest of his life. Some speculate that during his travels Darwin may have contracted a parasitic illness called Chagas disease that can eventually result in cardiac damage, which ultimately caused Darwin’s death. Timothy Dickinson tells us about Charles Darwin and the depth of the human past. 4. He composed a pro/con list to decide on whether to marry. Displaying a logical inclination even in matters of the heart, Darwin in 1838 composed a list with two columns delineating the upsides and downsides of marriage. In the “Marry” column: “children,” “constant companion (and friend in old age)…better than a dog anyhow” and “someone to take care of house.” In the “Not Marry” ledger: “freedom to go where one liked,” “conversation of clever men at clubs” and “loss of time.” Not on Darwin’s list, however, were family ties for he married his first cousin Emma Wedgwood in 1839. 5. He dropped out of medical school. Darwin’s father was a successful doctor who groomed his son to follow in his footsteps. After spending the summer of 1825 serving as an apprentice in his father’s practice, he entered one of Britain’s top medical schools at the University of Edinburgh. Darwin, however, hated the sight of blood and was bored with the lectures. He left medical school and dashed his father’s dreams. 6. Darwin was a divinity student. After leaving the University of Edinburgh, the man who would challenge the established religious dogma of creationism enrolled at Cambridge to study theology. “I did not then in the least doubt the strict and literal truth of every word in the Bible,” he later wrote. However, Darwin’s faith began to waver after encountering the evils of slavery on his trip around the world and following the deaths of three of his children. Darwin, though, never characterized himself as an atheist. He instead referred to himself as an agnostic. 7. He dined on exotic animals. Darwin not only studied an eclectic menagerie of animals from around the globe, he ate them as well. As a student at Cambridge, he formed the Gourmet Club, also known as the Glutton Club, for the purpose of dining on “birds and beasts, which were before unknown to human palate.” Darwin ate hawk and bittern but couldn’t choke down a brown owl that was served. While circumnavigating the globe on HMS Beagle, Darwin continued his adventurous eating by snacking on armadillo, ostrich and puma (“remarkably like veal in its taste,” he described). 8. He didn’t coin the phrase “survival of the fittest.” Although associated with Darwin’s theory of natural selection, the phrase “survival of the fittest” was actually first used by English philosopher Herbert Spencer in his 1864 “Principles of Biology” to connect his economic and sociological theories with Darwin’s biological concepts. Darwin first adopted the phrase in his fifth edition of “The Origin of Species,” published in 1869, by writing of natural selection that “the expression often used by Mr. Herbert Spencer of the survival of the fittest is more accurate, and is sometimes equally convenient.” 9. Darwin is buried inside Westminster Abbey. After Darwin passed away on April 19, 1882, his family began preparations to bury him in the village where he had spent the last 40 years of his life. However, Darwin’s friends and colleagues began a lobbying campaign to give him the high honor of burial inside London’s Westminster Abbey. After newspapers and the public joined the chorus, the Dean of Westminster gave his approval. A week after his death, Darwin was laid to rest in England’s most revered church near fellow scientists John Herschel and Isaac Newton. 10. Darwin appears on the 10-pound note. Since 2000, a portrait of a bearded Darwin has appeared on the back of the British 10-pound note along with an image of HMS Beagle, a magnifying lens and flora and fauna seen on his travels. The Bank of England announced in 2013, however, that author Jane Austen will replace Darwin on the note, likely beginning in 2017. Tags
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Ride of the Valkyries is the official quick march of which branch of the British Army?
The Parachute Regiment - YouTube The Parachute Regiment Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jun 13, 2015 The elite parachute regiment advert one of the worlds best Category
Parachute Regiment
The area now rebranded as “Cardiff Bay” was formerly known by what name?
Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom) - Wikipedia, Photos and Videos Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom) NEXT GO TO RESULTS [51 .. 100] WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE For a list of parachute regiments from other countries, see Parachute Regiment (disambiguation) . The Parachute Regiment Cap Badge of the Parachute Regiment Active Lieutenant General John Gordon Lorimer DSO MBE [4] Notable General Anthony Farrar-Hockley GBE KCB DSO MC ADC Gen General Roland Gibbs GCB CBE DSO MC ADC Gen General Mike Jackson KCB CBE DSO ADC Gen General Rupert Smith KCB DSO OBE QGM Insignia Drop zone flashes The Parachute Regiment, colloquially known as the Paras, is an elite airborne infantry regiment of the British Army . One battalion is permanently under the command of the Director Special Forces in the Special Forces Support Group . The other battalions are the parachute infantry component of the British Army's rapid response formation, 16 Air Assault Brigade . The Paras are the only line infantry regiment of the British Army that has not been amalgamated with another unit since the end of the Second World War . [5] The Parachute Regiment was formed on 22 June 1940 during the Second World War and eventually raised 17 battalions. In Europe, these battalions formed part of the 1st Airborne Division , the 6th Airborne Division and the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade Group . Another three battalions served with the British Indian Army in India and Burma . The regiment took part in six major parachute assault operations in North Africa , Italy , Greece , France , the Netherlands and Germany , often landing ahead of all other troops. At the end of the Second World War, the regiment was reduced to three regular army battalions first assigned to the 16th Parachute Brigade and later the 5th Airborne Brigade . The reserve 16th Airborne Division was formed using the regiment reserve battalions in the Territorial Army . Defence cuts gradually reduced the TA formations to a parachute brigade and then a single reserve battalion. In the same time period, the regular army battalions have taken part in operations in Suez , Cyprus , Borneo , Aden , Northern Ireland , the Falklands , the Balkans , Sierra Leone , Iraq and Afghanistan , at times being reinforced by men from the reserve battalion. Contents Organisation[ edit ] A soldier from the 3rd Battalion in Iraq in 2003, armed with an L85A2 The Parachute Regiment consists of three regular army battalions, the 1st , 2nd , and 3rd , and an Army Reserve battalion, the 4th . The 1st is based at St Athan , Wales, and is permanently attached to the Special Forces Support Group (SFSG). [6] [nb 1] They receive further training on additional weapons, communications equipment and specialist assault skills. [8] All men within the Parachute Regiment can expect to serve with the SFSG on rotation. This ensures that the advanced military skills taught to the SFSG are maintained in the other two regular battalions. [9] The 2nd and 3rd battalions are the parachute infantry component of the 16 Air Assault Brigade , the army's rapid response brigade, and are based at Colchester Garrison . [10] [11] [12] The reserve 4th Battalion has its headquarters at Pudsey and companies in Glasgow , Liverpool and London . [13] Selection[ edit ] Volunteers for the Parachute Regiment are invited to a 3-day insight course at the Parachute Regiment Assessment Course (PRAC) at Catterick Garrison . Over the three days, they have to pass a series of physical fitness assessments. All recruit training is then undertaken over a 30-week course with 2nd Infantry Training Battalion [14] at the Infantry Training Centre at Catterick. [15] P company puts recruits through a number of physical assessments designed to test fitness, stamina and teamwork skills and has been described as some of the most arduous training carried out by any army in the world. At the end of P Company, recruits take part in eight pre-parachute selection tests. Those who are successful are awarded their maroon beret . [9] Parachute training[ edit ] On completion of his basic training and entry into his battalion, recruits are posted to RAF Brize Norton for a Basic Parachute Course . [16] Since 1995, all parachute jumps are carried out from powered aircraft. Prior to 1995, the first jump in the Basic Parachute Course was undertaken from a modified Barrage balloon , but this has since been replaced with the Skyvan . Recruits must complete a minimum of five jumps in order to qualify as a military parachutist, with the last two jumps required to be from a C130 Hercules . [17] The last time a British battalion sized unit parachuted into combat was in 1956, but this is still considered a valid method of deployment. [18] Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have interfered with parachute training; however, with re-rolling of UK military into contingency operations, parachuting has come to the forefront again. Details for the 1st Battalion are not known, as the British government does not comment on special forces. [19] But it is believed that in 2010 a company group from the Special Forces Support Group (SFSG) parachuted operationally into Afghanistan. [20] Formation[ edit ] British parachute troops on exercise in Norwich 23 June 1941. Impressed by the success of German airborne operations, during the Battle of France , the British Prime Minister , Winston Churchill , directed the War Office to investigate the possibility of creating a corps of 5,000 parachute troops. [21] On 22 June 1940, No. 2 Commando was turned over to parachute duties and on 21 November, re-designated the 11th Special Air Service Battalion, with a parachute and glider wing. [22] [23] It was these men who took part in the first British airborne operation, Operation Colossus , on 10 February 1941. [24] In September, the battalion was re-designated the 1st Parachute Battalion and assigned to the 1st Parachute Brigade . [24] To fill out the brigade, the 2nd , 3rd and 4th Parachute Battalions were raised by calling for volunteers from all units in the British Army. [24] The first operation by the Parachute Regiment was Operation Biting in February 1942. The objective was to capture a Würzburg radar on the coast of France. The raid was carried out by 'C' Company, 2nd Parachute Battalion, under the command of Major John Frost . [25] The success of the raid prompted the War Office to expand the existing airborne force, setting up the Airborne Forces Depot and Battle School in Derbyshire in April 1942, and creating the Parachute Regiment as well as converting a number of infantry battalions into airborne battalions in August 1942. [26] The 2nd Parachute Brigade was then formed from the 4th Battalion, transferred from the 1st Para Brigade, and two of the converted infantry battalions, the 5th Battalion from the 7th Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders and 6th Battalion from the 10th Royal Welch Fusiliers . [24] The Army Air Corps was created as the command formation of the Parachute Regiment and the Glider Pilot Regiment . [24] With two parachute brigades now in the order of battle, the 1st Airborne Division commanded by Major-General Frederick Arthur Montague Browning was formed. [24] By the end of the war, the regiment had raised 17 battalions. [5] In India, the 50th Indian Parachute Brigade was raised on 27 October 1941, comprising 151 (British), 152 (Indian) and 153 (Gurkha) Parachute Battalions along with the brigade signals, sapper squadron and 80 Parachute Field Ambulance. 151 British Parachute Battalion moved to Egypt and then to England where it was redesignated 156 Parachute battalion and joined the 4th Parachute Brigade , 1st Airborne Division. The British battalion was composed of volunteers from the 27 infantry battalions of the British Army in India. The 2nd/7th Gurkha Battalion was converted en bloc to the airborne role and renamed 154th (Gurkha) Parachute Battalion. Later, when the formation was to expand, 14th and 77th Indian Parachute Brigades from the Chindit operations were converted and comprised one airborne battalion each of British, Indian and Gurkha troops. They were part of the 44th Indian Airborne Division . [27] [28] Training[ edit ] Parachute training (1942). Parachute training was a 12-day course carried out at the No. 1 Parachute Training School , RAF Ringway . Recruits initially jumped from a converted barrage balloon and finished with five parachute jumps from an aircraft. [29] Anyone failing to complete a parachute jump was returned to his old unit. At the end of the course, new Paras were presented with their maroon beret and parachute wings and posted to a parachute battalion. [29] [30] Parachute training was not without its dangers; three men were killed in the first 2,000 parachute jumps at Ringway. [29] Airborne soldiers were expected to fight against superior numbers of the enemy equipped with artillery and tanks. So training was designed to encourage a spirit of self-discipline, self-reliance and aggressiveness. Emphasis was given to physical fitness, marksmanship and fieldcraft . [31] A large part of the training consisted of assault courses and route marching . Military exercises included capturing and holding airborne bridgeheads, road or rail bridges and coastal fortifications. [31] At the end of most exercises, the battalion would march back to their barracks. An ability to cover long distances at speed was expected: airborne platoons were required to cover a distance of 50 miles (80 km) in 24 hours, and battalions 32 miles (51 km). [31] British paratrooper of the 8th Parachute Battalion armed with the Sten gun wearing the airborne forces steel helmet and the Denison Smock (1943). The Parachute Regiment had their own distinctive uniform: the maroon beret at first with the Army Air Corps cap badge and from May 1943 the Parachute Regiment cap badge which is still in use today. [32] Parachute wings were worn on the right shoulder above the airborne forces patch of Bellerophon riding the flying horse Pegasus . [33] [nb 2] On operations, Paras wore the airborne forces pattern steel helmet instead of the normal Brodie helmet . Initially they wore a 'jump jacket' modelled on the German Fallschirmjäger jacket. After 1942, the Denison smock was issued as the first camouflaged uniform for the British Army. [35] In 1943, a green sleeveless jacket was designed to wear over the Denison smock when parachuting. [35] British Paras did not use a reserve parachute, as the War Office considered the £60 cost a waste of money. [36] The Parachute Regiment were not issued any special weapons. Their small arms were the same as the rest of the army's: the bolt action Lee–Enfield rifle and the Enfield or Webley revolver or the M1911 pistol . For a submachine gun , they used the British Sten in Northwest Europe, which was issued in higher numbers than to a normal infantry battalion. [37] Paratroopers attached to Eighth Army used the Thompson submachine gun in the North African and Mediterranean theatre and during Operation Dragoon . [38] Each section had a Bren light machine gun and the platoon had a 2-inch mortar . The only battalion heavy weapons were eight 3-inch mortars , four Vickers machine guns and after 1943, ten PIAT anti tank weapons. [39] Post war formations and reductions[ edit ] September 1953 parachute exercise by the 16th Airborne Division . The airborne divisions were disbanded after the Second World War, with only the 2nd Parachute Brigade (1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions) remaining. In February 1948, it was renumbered the 16th Parachute Brigade and posted to the British Army on the Rhine . [40] The brigade remained in Germany until October 1949, when it relocated to Aldershot , which became the home of the Parachute Regiment for the next 50 years. [41] The Territorial Army (TA) reformed after the war and raised the 16th Airborne Division with nine parachute battalions (10th to 18th) in three parachute brigades. [42] The division was disbanded in the 1956 defence cuts, leaving the 44th Independent Parachute Brigade as the only reserve parachute formation. [42] The remaining reserve battalions were the 10th (City of London), 12th (Yorkshire), 13th (Lancashire), 15th (Scottish) and 17th (Durham Light Infantry). Further reductions resulted in the amalgamation of the 12th and 13th Battalions soon afterwards. [42] In 1967, the TA battalions were reduced again, the 12th, 13th and 17th being amalgamated to reform the 4th Battalion. The 44th Independent Parachute Brigade was disbanded in 1977, leaving the reserve parachute battalions as independent units. [43] Following the Falklands War in November 1983, the 5th Airborne Brigade was formed for out-of-area operations. The brigade consisted of two of the parachute battalions and its own parachute trained artillery, engineers, medics, signals and logistics units. [44] The Options for Change restructuring after the Cold War again reduced the number of TA battalions. The 4th and 15th Battalions were amalgamated in 1993 as the 4th Battalion, and the 10th Battalion was disbanded. [42] The 5th Airborne Brigade lasted until the 1999 Strategic Defence Review , which recommended that the 5th Airborne and 24th Airmobile Brigade be amalgamated as the 16th Air Assault Brigade. [45] North Africa[ edit ] British paratroops march away after landing at Algiers. In November 1942 the British First Army , with the 1st , 2nd and 3rd Parachute Battalions ( 1st Parachute Brigade ) attached, invaded French Morocco and Algeria ( Operation Torch ). [46] The British airborne operations in North Africa started on 12 November, when the 3rd Battalion carried out the first battalion sized parachute drop, on Bone airfield between Algiers and Tunis . [47] The remainder of the brigade arrived by sea the next day. [47] On 15 November, the 1st Battalion were ordered to parachute and capture a vital road junction at Béja 90 miles (140 km) west of Tunis. The battalion captured both Béja and Mateur after an attack on a German armoured column and an Italian tank position. [47] The 2nd Battalion, now commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Frost , carried out a parachute drop on Depienne Airfield 30 miles (48 km) south of Tunis. The airfield had been abandoned, so they marched 10 miles (16 km) to capture Oudna Airfield . [47] There, they were supposed to have been relieved by advancing British forces, but they had been held up by unexpected German resistance. Frost contacted First Army, only to be informed that, as they were trapped 50 miles (80 km) behind the lines, they had been written off. The battalion headed for the British lines, but lost 266 men under constant German attack by the time they reached safety at Medjez el Bab . [47] 2nd Battalion officers, Tunisia, 26 December 1942. In February 1943, the brigade deployed as normal infantry , serving in the front lines for the rest of the Tunisian Campaign . They fought notable actions at Bou Arada and Tamerza against their German counterparts, the Fallschirmjäger , where they earned the nickname "Die Roten Teufel" (the Red Devils). [47] Sicily[ edit ] The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions (1st Parachute Brigade) next took part in Operation Fustian . This was an airborne assault to seize and hold the Primosole Bridge over the River Simeto, south of Mount Etna on the island of Sicily , and hold until relieved by ground forces. Those that survived the flight landed on the same drop zone (DZ) chosen by the 1st Fallschirmjäger Division , which had landed moments before the British aircraft appeared. [48] The two forces engaged in a bitter fight, and the Paras failed to secure the landing ground for the following glider force of the 1st Airlanding Brigade carrying their artillery and heavy equipment. Those gliders that did land were not unloaded before the bridge was captured at 04:40. Later that day, the Germans counter-attacked with artillery support and, within hours, the Paras were driven off the bridge. [49] Italy[ edit ] In September, the 4th , 5th and 6th Battalions ( 2nd Parachute Brigade ) and the 10th , 11th and 156th Battalions ( 4th Parachute Brigade ) took part in Operation Slapstick a landing from the sea near the port of Taranto in Italy. [50] Their objective was to capture the port and several nearby airfields, and link up with the British Eighth Army , before pressing north to join the U.S. Fifth Army near Foggia . They landed unopposed on 9 September 1943, the only losses being 58 men of the 6th Battalion, lost at sea when their ship struck a mine. Pushing inland, the Paras captured the town of Castellaneta and the town and airfield of Gioia del Colle before the 4th Parachute Brigade was withdrawn from the theatre. [50] On 14 September 1943, a company of the 11th Battalion carried out a parachute drop on the island of Kos . The Italian garrison surrendered, and the company was quickly reinforced by men from the 1st Battalion, Durham Light Infantry and Royal Air Force Regiment , before being withdrawn on 25 September and in December 1943, the 11th Battalion rejoined the division in England. [50] The 2nd Parachute Brigade fought on in Italy under command of several infantry divisions, including the 2nd New Zealand Division and 8th Indian Infantry Division . In June 1944 they carried out Operation Hasty , the only parachute drop on the Italian mainland. This was a 60-man raid ahead of 2nd NZ Division's area intended to disrupt the German demolition plan during the withdrawal from the Gothic Line . 2nd Parachute Brigade took part in Operation Dragoon in southern France, then returned to Italy briefly before being sent to Greece . [51] Normandy[ edit ] Normandy 7 June 1944, men of the 6th Airborne Division guarding a road junction near Ranville . Each is armed with a Mk V Sten submachine gun . The next operation for the regiment was in Normandy , France with the 6th Airborne Division . The 8th and 9th Battalions , along with the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion , from the ( 3rd Parachute Brigade ) and the 7th , 12th and 13th Battalions of the ( 5th Parachute Brigade ) were involved. [52] The mission was Operation Tonga , capturing bridges over the River Orne and Caen Canal , and destroying the Merville Gun Battery and several other bridges to prevent the Germans reaching the landing beaches. [52] The 7th Battalion had so many missing, that by 03:00, only around 40 percent of the battalion had been accounted for. [53] They did, however, manage to reinforce the glider troops of 2nd Battalion, Oxford and Bucks Light Infantry from the 6th Airlanding Brigade that had captured the Caen and Orne bridges in Operation Deadstick and held them until relieved by the 3rd Infantry Division . [54] The 12th and 13th Battalions also had about 40 percent of their men go missing. [55] The 12th had to capture the village of Le Bas de Ranville , whilst the 13th was to take the town of Ranville . Both battalions then helped secure the area around the captured bridges until relieved. [56] Only about 150 men of the 9th Battalion had assembled when they launched their assault on the Merville Gun Battery. [57] [58] Their attack on the battery was successful, but with heavy casualties: 50 dead and 25 wounded. [59] The 8th Battalion had to destroy two bridges near Bures and a third by Troarn . All bridges were destroyed and the battalion numbering around 190 men dug in around Troarn. [60] [61] [62] The paras held the left flank of the invasion area until going onto the offensive on the night of 16/17 August. [63] In nine days, they advanced to the mouth of the River Seine , capturing over 1,000 German prisoners. [64] On 27 August, the division was withdrawn from the front line and embarked for England in September. [64] The division's casualties were 821 killed, 2,709 wounded and 927 missing. [64] [65] South of France[ edit ] Further information: 2nd Parachute Brigade in Southern France The 4th, 5th and 6th Parachute Battalions (2nd Independent Parachute Brigade) had been left in Italy when the 1st Airborne Division returned to England. On 15 August 1944, the 1st Airborne Task Force (ATF), including the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade, parachuted into the region between Fréjus and Cannes in the south of France. Their objective was to destroy all enemy positions in the area and hold until the U.S. Seventh Army came ashore. [66] The ATF was preceded at 03:30 by nine pathfinder teams; only three teams, all from the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade, landed on the correct DZs. [67] When the brigade starting landing on 04:50, the drop was dispersed. Most of the 6th Battalion, half of the 4th, and one company of the 5th landed on their DZs. Most of the rest of the Paras were scattered over a 9-mile (14 km) area, [67] but some landed 20 miles (32 km) away at Cannes . [66] The battalions achieved all their objectives apart from the town of Le Muy on the first day. The brigade remained in France until 26 August and then returned to Italy. [50] Arnhem[ edit ] Men of the 1st Battalion, day one, 17 September 1944. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Battalions (1st Parachute Brigade) and the 10th, 11th and 156th Battalions (4th Parachute Brigade) were next in action in Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands with the 1st Airborne Division. The resulting Battle of Arnhem has since become a byword for the fighting spirit of British paratroops and set a standard for the Parachute Regiment. [68] The division's mission was to capture intact the road, rail and pontoon bridges over the Lower Rhine at Arnhem and hold them until relieved, which was expected to occur two or three days later. [69] A shortage of transport aircraft hindered operations, and it would take two days for all three of the division's brigades to arrive. [70] It was decided that the 1st Parachute and the airlanding brigade would land on the first day. [71] The DZs and LZs would be secured by the airlanding brigade, whilst the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Parachute battalions would head into Arnhem and capture the bridges. [72] On the second day, the 4th Parachute Brigade would arrive. These battalions would dig in north and north-west of Arnhem. [71] On day one 17 September 1944, the 1st Parachute Brigade landed and headed towards Arnhem, but only the 2nd Battalion, largely unopposed, made it to the bridges. [73] The railway bridge was blown up as they approached and the pontoon bridge was missing a section. [74] [75] By dusk, most of the 2nd Battalion and some supporting units, including the Brigade Headquarters, numbering about 740 men, had taken the northern end of the Arnhem road bridge. [76] [77] By the second day, the 9th SS Panzer Division arrived in Arnhem, deploying to the west of the city and cutting off access to the bridge. [78] On day two attempts by the 1st and 3rd Battalions to fight through to the bridge were unsuccessful and, by 10:00, they had been halted. [79] At the bridge, the 2nd Battalion continued to hold out against German armoured and infantry attacks. [80] [81] Several hours later than expected, at 15:00, the 4th Parachute Brigade landed under fire from the Germans. [82] The 11th Battalion was sent towards Arnhem to assist in the attempt to break through to the bridge, linking up with the 1st and 3rd Battalions after dark. [83] The 10th and 156th Battalions moved to take up their planned positions north-west of Arnhem. En route, in the dark, the 156th Battalion came under fire and halted for the night. [84] In the morning of the third day, the 1st, 3rd, and 11th Battalions and the 2nd Battalion, South Staffords (1st Airlanding Brigade) tried to fight through to the bridge. [85] Crossing open ground, the 1st Battalion was engaged by heavy fire from three sides. Trapped in the open, the 1st Battalion was decimated, and the 3rd had to withdraw. [86] The 11th, which until then had not been heavily involved, were now exposed by the withdrawal and overwhelmed. [87] Unable to break through the German line, the remaining men retreated towards the main force, now at Oosterbeek . [88] In the north, the 10th and 156th Battalions were spotted as they attempted to seize the high ground in the woods north of Oosterbeek. Both battalions came under German fire and were unable to advance any further. [89] Ordered to fall back on Wolfheze and Oosterbeek, they had to fight all the way, with the Germans in close pursuit. [90] [91] At the bridge, the 2nd Battalion still held out, but short of supplies, their position was becoming untenable. The Germans, had started destroying the buildings the battalion occupied with tank, artillery and mortar fire. [92] British paratroopers in Oosterbeek, September 1944. By day four, the battered division was too weak to make any attempt to reach the bridge. Of the nine infantry battalions, only the 1st Battalion, Border Regiment , still existed as a unit; the others were just remnants and battalions in name only. [93] The division, unable to do anything for the 2nd Battalion at the bridge, dug in, forming a defensive perimeter around Oosterbeek with its base on the river. [94] The remnants of the 10th and 156th battalions at Wolfheze began to fall back, but several elements were surrounded and captured. [95] Some 150 men of 156th Battalion were pinned down just west of the Oosterbeek. [96] These men broke out in the late afternoon, with 90 of them making it into the perimeter. [97] At the bridge, Lieutenant Colonel Frost finally made radio contact with the division and was told that reinforcement was doubtful. [98] Shortly afterwards, Frost was injured by a mortar bomb, [99] and command passed to Major Frederick Gough . [100] Gough arranged a two-hour truce to evacuate his wounded (including Frost), who were taken into captivity. [101] That night, some units managed to hold out for a while and several tried to break out towards Oosterbeek, but by 05:00 on day five, all resistance at the bridge had ceased. [102] The division managed to hold on for nine days, until it was decided to withdraw back across the Rhine by rafts and boats. [103] At 10:00 on the last day, the Germans launched an assault with infantry and tanks on the south-east portion of the perimeter. [104] The assault penetrated the perimeter and threatened to cut off the division from the river. British counter-attacks, supported by artillery fire from south of the river, stopped the German assault. [105] To prevent the Germans learning about the evacuation, the plan was kept secret until the afternoon, and some men (mainly wounded) remained behind to give covering fire through the night. [106] By 05:00, 2,163 men had been rescued and the evacuation was ended. [107] The two parachute brigades had contained 3,082 men of the Parachute Regiment. Of these, 2,656 were killed or reported missing and only 426 made it to safety. [108] The only awards of the Victoria Cross to the Parachute Regiment in the war were for the Battle of Arnhem. The two recipients were Captain John Hollington Grayburn of the 2nd Battalion, and Captain Lionel Ernest Queripel of the 10th Battalion; both awards were posthumous. [109] [110] Sniper from the 6th Airborne Division, Ardennes, 14 January 1945. Ardennes[ edit ] On 16 December 1944, the German Army launched a surprise offensive against the U.S. First Army through the Ardennes the Battle of the Bulge . The 6th Airborne Division, refitting in England, was flown to Belgium on 22 December to help stop the German attack. By 26 December, the division was in the Dinant and Namur area. On 29 December, they received orders to launch a counter-attack on the leading German units. The 13th Battalion, part of the 5th Parachute Brigade, suffered the heaviest losses. Between 3–5 January, the battalion fought to capture the village of Bure . After they had taken the village, the battalion had to fight off a number of counter-attacks. By the end of the battle, their casualties were 68 dead and 121 wounded or missing. [111] Rhine crossing[ edit ] The airborne assault over the Rhine ( Operation Varsity ), was the largest single airborne operation in the history of airborne warfare and also involved the U.S. 17th Airborne Division . Five battalions of the Parachute Regiment in the 6th Airborne Division took part. The first unit to land was the 3rd Parachute Brigade (8th, 9th and 1st Canadian Battalions). [112] The brigade suffered a number of casualties as it engaged the German forces in the Diersfordter Wald, but by 11:00, the DZ was almost cleared of German forces. [113] The key town of Schnappenberg was captured by the 9th Battalion in conjunction with the 1st Canadian Battalion. [112] Despite taking casualties, the brigade cleared the area of German forces, and by 13:45, the brigade reported it had secured all of its objectives. [113] The next unit to land was the 5th Parachute Brigade (7th, 12th and 13th Battalions). The poor visibility around the DZ made it difficult for the Paras to rally. The DZ came under heavy fire from German troops stationed nearby and was subjected to shellfire and mortaring which inflicted casualties in the battalion rendezvous areas. [114] However, the 7th Battalion soon cleared the DZ of German troops, many of whom were situated in farms and houses, and the 12th and 13th secured the rest of the brigade's objectives. [114] The brigade was then ordered to move due east and clear an area near Schnappenberg, as well as to engage German forces gathered to the west of the farmhouse where the 6th Airborne Division Headquarters was established. By 15:30, the brigade had secured all of its objectives and linked up with other British airborne units. [114] By nightfall of 24 March, out of the 7,220 men of the 6th Airborne Division who had taken part in the operation, 1,400 men had been reported killed, wounded or missing. [115] Post war operations[ edit ] Far East[ edit ] Men of the 12th Battalion, search suspects in Batavia (Jakarta) December 1945 In May 1945, it was intended that the 6th Airborne Division should be deployed to the Far East. It was intended they would form an Airborne Corps with the 44th Indian Airborne Division . [116] The first unit to leave was the 5th Parachute Brigade, under the command of Kenneth Darling . The brigade consisted of the 7th, 12th and 13th Battalions, 22nd Independent Parachute Company, and support units. The brigade arrived in India in June 1945 and started jungle training, but Japan surrendered before it was completed. The Japanese surrender changed British plans and it was decided the 6th Airborne Division would become the Imperial Strategic Reserve and stay in Europe. [117] The Brigade was used on operations in Malaya , and Singapore restoring order after the Japanese occupation. [116] In December, the brigade was part of Operation Pounce , a mission to disarm the remaining Japanese forces in Java until they could be relieved by Dutch forces in April 1946. On their arrival in Batavia (Jakarta) they discovered that the Japanese had handed over their weapons to Indonesian nationalists who attacked the British force when they tried to wrest control, knowing that the British intended to return Batavia to the Dutch. [116] The brigade dispersed rioters and patrolled the city until they were moved to Semarang on the coast between Batavia and Surabaya in January 1946. [118] To prevent nationalists entering the town, the three battalions established patrols on the outskirts of the town and seized the docks and the airport. Despite a number of guerrilla attacks, the Indonesians were defeated. In April 1946, the British handed over control to the Dutch and returned to Singapore. [118] Palestine[ edit ] Weapons, ammunition, and equipment discovered at the Jewish settlement near Gaza by the Parachute Regiment in September 1946. As the Imperial reserve, the 6th Airborne Division was sent to Palestine in September 1945. The division now consisted of the 2nd Parachute Brigade (4th, 5th and 6th Battalions), 3rd Parachute Brigade (3rd, 8th and 9th Battalions) and 6th Airlanding Brigade. Their mission was to support the police in keeping the peace between the Arab and Jewish populations. [119] In November, the 3rd Parachute Brigade had to intervene during Arab-Jewish riots in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv that had persisted for a number of days. [120] The division also conducted a 48-hour search in response to the King David Hotel bombing . [120] While in Palestine, the division was subjected to numerous attacks by Jewish fighters; in one such on 25 April 1947, the Stern gang killed seven men of the 5th Battalion. [121] Palestine was a time of change for the Paras. With the reduction in the army after the war, the 1st Airborne Division had been disbanded and the 1st Parachute Brigade (1st, 2nd and 17th Battalions) joined the 6th Division on 1 April 1946 to replace the 6th Airlanding Brigade. In August, the 5th Parachute Brigade (7th, 12th and 13th Battalions) rejoined the division from the Far East, but was soon disbanded and its men reassigned to the other battalions in the division. Further reductions saw the disbandment of the 3rd Parachute Brigade in October 1947, leaving just the 1st and 2nd Brigades in the division. On 18 February 1948, news that the division was to be disbanded was received, leaving only one regular army parachute brigade, the 2nd, soon renumbered the 16th Parachute Brigade. [119] 1950s Cyprus and Suez[ edit ] Main articles: Operation Musketeer (1956) and Suez Crisis 3rd Battalion landing at El Gamil Airfield, Port Said, Suez 1956. The last British battalion sized parachute operation. For most of the next 20 years, the Parachute Regiment was involved in numerous peacekeeping and small scale operations associated with the withdrawal from empire . In 1951, the Prime Minister of Iran , Mohammad Mosaddegh , seized the oilfields in Abadan . The 16th Parachute Brigade was sent out to Cyprus in June to be ready to intervene should it be required. [122] They were soon sent to reinforce the British troops in the Suez Canal Zone in response to Egyptian nationalists threatening the bases there. [123] The brigade returned to Cyprus between January and July 1956 because of attacks on British forces by EOKA insurgents. [124] On 5 November 1956, the 3rd Battalion conducted what would become the last British battalion sized parachute assault. The objective was the El Gamil airfield in Port Said during the Suez Crisis. [125] The battalion secured the airfield and dug in to wait the arrival of the rest of the assault forces by sea. The 1st and 2nd Battalions arrived at Port Said by Landing Ship Tank , [126] the 2nd Battalion were delayed in starting to advance towards Ismailia . The battalion was supported by the tanks of the 6th Royal Tank Regiment , but due to the delay, they were still short of their objective when a ceasefire was announced. [127] On 14 November, the brigade returned to Cyprus. [117] 1960s Kuwait, Aden and Malaysia[ edit ] Main articles: Operation Vantage , Aden Emergency , Operation Vantage , Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation , and Operation Claret In a statement on 25 June 1961, President Abd al-Karim Qasim of Iraq claimed that Kuwait was part of his country and announced his intention to annexe it. On the strength of a formal defence commitment between the two countries, Kuwait appealed for help from Britain. [128] A force was assembled (Operation Vantage) which included armour, artillery, commando, and infantry battalions, one being the 2nd Battalion, based in Cyprus. The battalion was not involved in any combat and remained just long enough for the Arab League to take over from them. All British forces had withdrawn by 19 October. [129] Foot patrol by the 1st Battalion in Aden , 1956. In 1960, Britain decided to withdraw from Aden , which was then part of the Federation of South Arabia , with independence scheduled for 1968. This decision started a campaign by the local tribes against the regular army. Supported by Egypt, communist infiltration reached a head in 1963 when Britain was forced to take action in support of the local government in what was called the Aden Emergency. The British force, known as Radforce, comprised a mixture of troops including a company from the 3rd Battalion. [130] The rest of the 3rd Battalion, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony Farrar-Hockley , was also sent to Aden to conduct operations in the Radfan mountains, capturing the Bkri ridge in May 1964. [131] Farrar-Hockley was awarded the bar for his Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for this operation. The rest of the battalion were awarded two Military Crosss (MC) and one Military Medal (MM), and a number were mentioned in dispatches . [132] By 1964, the terrorist attacks had spread to Aden, south of Radfan; to protect British servicemen and their dependents, the 1st Battalion was deployed on security duties throughout the areas of Crater and Khormasker . [131] In January 1967, the 1st Battalion returned to Aden on an emergency tour to cover the final withdrawal of British troops from the region. For a series of actions in June in the Sheik Othman and Al Mansura districts of Aden, the battalion's commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Michael J. H. Walsh , was awarded the DSO. The rest of the battalion were awarded three MCs and one MM, and a number were mentioned in dispatches. [133] In 1965, the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, was sent to Singapore for jungle training in response to the threat of invasion from Indonesian President Sukarno . By March, the battalion was established along the Malaysia-Indonesia border in Borneo and conducting 10-day patrols in the jungle. On 27 April, 'B' Company's base on the hilltop village of Plamam Mapu, consisting of company headquarters, a mortar section, and one weak platoon of young soldiers, was attacked by 150 Indonesians supported by rocket launchers, mortars, rifle grenades, and machine guns from the surrounding hills. [134] The accurate fire caused several casualties amongst the defenders. The Company Sergeant Major (CSM), John Williams , was in command of the defence. He kept moving around the base, attending to the wounded, reorganising the defenders to counter each attack, and firing illumination rounds from a 2-inch mortar. The Indonesians penetrated the wire, taking out a mortar position. CSM Williams crossed the open ground under fire to man a machine gun, which he used to engage the Indonesians inside the perimeter. Covered by the machine gun, the Paras counter-attacked and forced the Indonesians back. The Indonesians had located CSM Williams' machine gun, and in a second attack, it was subjected to heavy fire at point-blank range. Wounded and blinded in one eye, CSM Williams returned fire, defeating the second attack. He then led a fighting patrol to attack two groups of Indonesians seen approaching the base. [134] For the successful defence of the base, CSM Williams was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM); in the same action, Corporal Malcolm Baughan was awarded an MM. [134] 1970s Northern Ireland[ edit ] Main articles: Operation Banner , Bloody Sunday (1972) , 1972 Aldershot Bombing , and Warrenpoint ambush Officer of the 1st Battalion Belfast December 1969. The British Army during Operation Banner spent 38 years in Northern Ireland , [135] during which the 2nd Battalion spent more time there than any other infantry battalion. [136] Between 1971 and 1996, 51 men of the Parachute Regiment were killed while serving in Northern Ireland. [137] The first was Sergeant Michael Willetts , 3rd Battalion. On 24 May 1971, he was killed during a bombing incident at the Springfield Road Police Station in Belfast. A hand-carried bomb in a suitcase was left at the front of the station. Sergeant Willetts held open a door allowing members of the public and police officers to escape and then stood in the doorway, shielding those taking cover. For his actions, he was awarded the George Cross . [138] In what has since became known as Bloody Sunday, on 30 January 1972, the 1st Battalion, stationed in Belfast, were flown to Derry to assist in policing a civil rights march demanding an end to internment. A section of the protesters began to riot and firing erupted. The Paras and other soldiers [139] killed 13 civilians and wounded another 17 (of which 1 later died of their wounds). [140] [141] [142] Although the initial inquiry into the events of the day cleared the actions of the Paras it was accused of being a whitewash and a more detailed examination of the events of the day was carried out by Lord Saville ( Bloody Sunday Inquiry ). After an exhaustive inquiry lasting over a decade he concluded that paratroopers had fired on fleeing unarmed civilians, and shot and killed one man who was already wounded. [143] He also concluded that soldiers had come under fire from several members of the Official IRA [144] [144] and that it remained unclear who had fired first. [145] It identified failures of leadership and command by the commanding officer, and individual failures by the soldiers involved; the report has been criticised by representatives of the soldiers involved for being one sided. [146] [147] Prime Minister David Cameron addressed the House of Commons in 2010 after the publication of the report stating that the actions the Paras had committed that day were "both unjustified and unjustifiable, it was wrong". [143] The 1972 Aldershot Bombing was a revenge attack for Bloody Sunday carried out by the Official IRA . On 22 February 1972, a car bomb was left outside the officers mess of the 16th Parachute Brigade in Aldershot. When the bomb exploded, a Roman Catholic priest serving in the army and five female kitchen staff were killed and 19 others were injured. [148] On 27 August 1979, 16 men of the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, and two from the Queen's Own Highlanders (QOH) were killed in the Warrenpoint ambush . The first six Paras were killed while travelling in a small convoy of three vehicles. As it passed a roadside bomb hidden in a lorry by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), the bomb exploded. [149] The PIRA had studied how the Army reacted after a bombing and correctly guessed that they would set up an incident command point in the nearby gatehouse. [150] A second bomb detonated 32 minutes later, killing 10 Paras and two men from the QOH, one being Lieutenant-Colonel David Blair, their commanding officer. After the first explosion, the soldiers, believing that they had come under attack from the IRA, began firing across the narrow maritime border with the Republic of Ireland, a distance of only 57 m (187 feet). An uninvolved civilian, Michael Hudson (an Englishman whose father was a coachman at Buckingham Palace ) was killed as a result, and his cousin Barry Hudson wounded. According to RUC researchers, the soldiers may have mistaken the sound of ammunition cooking off from the destroyed Land Rover for enemy gunfire from across the border. [151] The Paras were under orders not to pursue their attackers into the Republic to avoid causing any diplomatic incidents. The death toll in the Warrenpoint ambush is the highest suffered by the British Army in a single incident in Northern Ireland. [152] Falklands War[ edit ] Falklands campaign 1982. On 2 April 1982, the Falklands War began when Argentine forces began the invasion of the British Overseas Territories of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia . [153] British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced on 3 April that a naval task force was being sent to the South Atlantic to "restore British administration' to the Falkland Islands". On 20 April, the British war cabinet ordered the repossession of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. The force dispatched to carry this out was based on the 3 Commando Brigade , reinforced by the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, Parachute Regiment. [154] At 04:40 21 May, the 2nd Battalion was the first major unit to land in the Falklands, just south of San Carlos on the eastern side of San Carlos Water . They immediately moved south to the Sussex Mountains to cover the landings. By daylight, all troops had landed with little opposition. [155] The first battle in the campaign was the Battle of Goose Green , undertaken by the 2nd Battalion on 28 May. After a day long battle the Argentine commanders, agreed to surrender at 09:30 29 May. [156] The battle had cost the battalion 15 dead and 37 wounded. The Argentinians had lost 55 dead, about 100 wounded and 1,500 were taken prisoner. [156] Lieutenant-Colonel H. Jones was later awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, amongst other awards, were one DSO, and two DCMs. [157] Over the night 11/12 June, the 3rd Battalion fought the Battle of Mount Longdon . Longdon is a prominent feature to the north-west of the island's capital, Port Stanley , which dominates the surrounding area. During the battle Sergeant Ian McKay , was killed in a single handed attack on a machine gun position. For his actions, he was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, the second of only two such awards during the war. [157] Other members of the battalion received a DSO, two DCMs. [157] The last battle of the war was the Battle of Wireless Ridge by the 2nd Battalion. [158] The ridge was taken with minimal casualties and an Argentinian counter-attack defeated. The Argentines now had their backs to the sea, and only the capital, Stanley, remained to be liberated. [158] Later that day, 14 June 1982, General Menéndez surrendered all Argentinian forces. [159] The cost to the two battalions was 40 dead and 93 wounded. [160] Balkans[ edit ] In May 1999, the British government decided to send a force of 17,400 troops to take part in operations in Kosovo , saying that the troops would be needed to rebuild the infrastructure after the Kosovo War . [161] An additional 12,000 troops joined the force of 5,400 already stationed in the Republic of Macedonia . On 6 June, the 5th Airborne Brigade, including the 1st Battalion and other units, were flown to Macedonia. [162] On 12 June, the brigade spearheaded Operation Joint Guardian the advance into Kosovo by KFOR . The 1st Battalion and other brigade units secured the high ground above the road from Bace to Pristina . With the road covered, NATO forces could start their advance into the country. [163] On 24 June, the 1st Battalion Battle Group assumed control of Pristina , the capital of Kosovo. On that first day, they had to deal with murder, kidnapping, torture, inter-communal gun-battles, house burnings, beatings, weapon finds and looting. The number of incidents reported required all the battalion's subunits. By the afternoon, there were no reserves left. To relieve the problem, an ad-hoc patrol of headquarters staff, including the padre , was formed to assist. [164] In August 2001, the 2nd Battalion took part in NATO's intervention in the Republic of Macedonia ( Operation Essential Harvest ) to disarm the rebel National Liberation Army , with the mission planned to last 30 days. [165] Sierra Leone In May 2000, Operation Palliser was the name given to the evacuation of British, Commonwealth and European Union citizens from Sierra Leone . At the time, rebel activity was increasing and the capital city Freetown was in danger. A task force including the 1st Battalion, less 'A' Company but reinforced by 'D' Company, 2nd Battalion, and the Pathfinder Platoon, elements of the Special Air Service (SAS), the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force were dispatched to the country. [166] A forward operating base at Lungi Airport , to be used in the evacuation, was seized by 'C' Company, 1st Battalion, arriving by C-130 Hercules. [167] On 17 May, the Pathfinder Platoon in the village of Lungi Lol, 12 miles (19 km) from the airport, were attacked by the rebels. The fight lasted several hours, killing over 30 rebels without loss to the Pathfinders. [168] At the end of May, the Parachute Regiment was relieved by 42 Commando and returned to the United Kingdom. [169] The British Army agreed to provide a unit to train government forces and carry out foot and vehicle mounted patrols designed to ensure the security of areas where training bases were located. In August, this unit was based on the Royal Irish Regiment . On 25 August, a 12-man vehicle patrol in the Occra Hills was ambushed and forced to surrender by an armed rebel group known as the West Side Boys . Negotiations led to the release of six of the men. The remainder were rescued during Operation Barras by a combined team from one Company of the 1st Battalion and the SAS. [170] Iraq[ edit ] Pathfinder Platoon vehicles just before the invasion of Iraq. Further information: Operation Telic , 2003 invasion of Iraq , and List of British gallantry awards for the Iraq War In January 2003, the British government announced that the 1st Armoured Division would be sent to the Persian Gulf for potential operations in Iraq. The division units would be the 7th Armoured Brigade , 3 Commando Brigade, and the 16 Air Assault Brigade with the 1st and 3rd Battalions, Parachute Regiment and the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment. [171] The invasion began on 19 March. The battalions' first objective was to secure the Rumaylah oilfields before heading north to secure the main supply route north of Basra . By the end of the month, the 3rd Battalion had entered Basra unopposed. The other two battalions crossed the Euphrates River and occupied El Qurna . As the fighting ended, the 1st Battalion occupied Maysan province and Al Amarah , less one company sent to Baghdad to secure the British Embassy. By July, the 16 Air Assault Brigade had returned to Britain. [172] During the war, Sergeant Gordon Robertson became the first Para to be awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for service in Al-Majar on 24 June 2003. [173] Further information: Siege of Sangin and List of British gallantry awards for the War in Afghanistan 3 Para in combat in Helmand Province, Afghanistan In May 2006, as part of the 16 Air Assault Brigade, the 3rd Battalion were sent to Afghanistan for Operation Herrick . They were part of 3,300 British troops that would be deploying to Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan as a component of the NATO International Security Assistance Force. Not expecting to be involved in any fighting, they were the only infantry unit in the brigade involved. [174] In December 2006, it was announced that Corporal Bryan Budd 3rd Battalion had been awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross for two separate acts of "inspirational leadership and the greatest valour" which led to his death during actions against the Taliban in Afghanistan in July and August 2006. [175] In the same deployment, Corporal Mark Wright 3rd Battalion was awarded a posthumous George Cross. Wright was killed after entering a minefield to save a wounded colleague. [176] The brigade returned to Afghanistan from April to October 2008. This time, the three parachute battalions were reinforced by reservists from the 4th Battalion. [177] In October 2010, the 2nd and 3rd Battalions, reinforced by the 4th Battalion, 16 Air Assault Brigade, returned to Afghanistan for their third tour. [178] Post-Afghanistan[ edit ] 2 PARA and 3 PARA alternate every year to form the lead role of the Air Assault Task Force (AATF), which is ready to deploy anywhere in the world at short notice to conduct the full spectrum of military operations, from non-combatant evacuation operations to war fighting. For example, 2nd Battalion in part of the AATF, conducting Exercise Active Eagle and Exercise Blue Raider. [179] Battle honours[ edit ] In the British Army, battle honours are awarded to regiments that have seen active service in a significant engagement or campaign , generally with a victorious outcome. The Parachute Regiment has been awarded the following honours. [180] North West Europe 1942 North West Europe 1944–45 Normandy Landing
i don't know
Which tube station forms the southern terminus of the Bakerloo line?
Bakerloo line extension Bakerloo line extension The present southern terminus of the Bakerloo line at Elephant & Castle Overview Track gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) The Bakerloo line extension is a proposed southern extension of the London Underground Bakerloo line in South London from its current terminus at Elephant & Castle . An extension to Camberwell was due to be built in the late 1940s, but the project was cancelled. In the 21st century the project has been revived in one version or another, but nothing has yet been agreed. Camberwell was originally proposed as a short-range destination for a southern extension of the Bakerloo line, but it is now widely viewed that the extension will continue below ground to Lewisham railway station , and then above ground via Catford Bridge railway station to take over the Hayes Line branch. [1] Contents Background[ edit ] Most of the London Underground is north of the River Thames , while public transport in South London is generally provided by National Rail suburban networks and London Buses . Both Camberwell and neighbouring Walworth once had their own railway stations, Walworth Road [2] and Camberwell [3] on the London, Chatham and Dover Railway into Blackfriars (the present-day Thameslink route), but these stations closed in 1916. [4] As a result, this area of South London has no immediate rail or tube links: the nearest stations are Elephant & Castle , Denmark Hill , Kennington and Oval . When the Baker Street and Waterloo Railway opened between Baker Street and Elephant & Castle, several alternative schemes were already proposed for extending the line at both ends. One rejected proposal, the New Cross & Waterloo Railway Bill of 1898, had envisaged the construction of a line as far south as Old Kent Road . [5] The possibility of building a line through Camberwell first emerged in 1913, when the Lord Mayor of London announced a proposal for the Bakerloo Tube to be extended to the Crystal Palace via Camberwell Green , Dulwich and Sydenham Hill , but nothing was done. [6] In 1921, the London Electric Railway costed an extension to Camberwell, Dulwich and Sydenham, and in 1922, plans for an extension to Orpington via Loughborough Junction and Catford were considered. In 1928, a route to Rushey Green via Dulwich was suggested. Again, no action was taken, although the London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee approved an extension to Camberwell in 1926. [7] 1931 and 1947 extension proposals[ edit ] [ Walworth Camberwell In 1931, an extension to Camberwell was approved as part of the London Electric Metropolitan District and Central London Railway Companies (Works) Act, 1931. [8] [9] The route was to follow Walworth Road and Camberwell Road south from Elephant & Castle, with stations at Albany Road and under Denmark Hill at Camberwell. Elephant & Castle was also to be reconstructed with a third platform to provide the additional turn-round capacity, a new ticket hall and escalators. The need to prioritise the extension from Baker Street to Finchley Road to provide relief for the Metropolitan line , financial constraints and the outbreak of the Second World War prevented any work from being started. [7] The 1931 enabling powers were renewed by the Government in 1947 under the Special Enactments (Extension of Time) Act, 1940, [10] and the projected extension as far as Camberwell even appeared on a 1949 edition of the Underground map, but no further work was done. [11] Train indication signs showing Camberwell as a destination were created in anticipation of the southern extension and erected in some Tube stations; these signs were still visible at Warwick Avenue station until the 1990s. [12] [13] Also, the order for 1949 rolling stock - built to augment the 1938 stock fleet - included sufficient cars to provide extra trains for the Camberwell extension. Eventually the proposal faded away. Extensions and new stations were not in favour post-war, as road use increased massively. However, the problem of inadequate turn-round capacity at Elephant & Castle remained. The plan was briefly revived in the 1950s with the intermediate station now to be at Walworth and the terminus under Camberwell Green. Furthermore, Elephant & Castle would not be altered and the additional turn-round capacity would be provided by making Camberwell a three-platform terminus. The original intention to extend to Camberwell was driven by the wish to serve the area, but in the later scheme operational issues were a major consideration. By the time the Bakerloo line branches to Watford Junction and Stanmore had opened, the line was running at full capacity, limited by the need to terminate trains at Elephant & Castle. By extending to Camberwell, where there would be three platforms, the whole line would have benefited from an improved frequency. However "stepping back" [14] made the best use of the terminal capacity at Elephant & Castle, and this weakened the case for an extension from Elephant & Castle. Post-war austerity, the levelling-off of demand, and above all the disproportionately high cost of the project with a three-platform deep-level terminus and the need to purchase 14 further trains and build a new depot for them, meant that the project became unaffordable. [15]
Elephant and Castle
Who wrote the short-story collection The Dubliners, published in 1914?
Mike Heffernan - Ghosts of the London Underground - Unexplained Mysteries Ghosts of the London Underground Posted on Friday, 12 September, 2008 | 11 comments Columnist: Mike Heffernan The London Underground� over 50% of which is actually above ground� serves a large part of Greater London and neighbouring areas in Essex, Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. It is commonly known as the Underground or the Tube, the latter nick-name deriving from the shape of the system's deep-bore tunnels. It is not only the longest underground railway in the world by route length (over 250 miles) it is also the world�s oldest. The Metropolitan Railway Company opened its Metropolitan Line for business on 10th January 1863 and within months its trains were carrying over 26,000 passengers daily. Today, 145 years later, the London Underground can boast 11 lines (Bakerloo, Central, Circle, District, Hammersmith & City, Jubilee, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria and Waterloo & City). It serves 268 stations by rail and an additional 6 stations that were on the East London line (closed in 2007) are served by Underground replacement buses. 14 Underground stations are outside Greater London and 5 of those (Amersham, Chalfont & Latimer, Chesham, Chorleywood, Epping) are beyond the M25 London Orbital motorway. Of the 32 London boroughs, only 6 (Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Kingston, Sutton and Hackney) are not served by the Underground network. In 2007 a billion people travelled on the network. Ever since the first line was opened in 1863, however, one of the major headaches facing the engineers and the army of construction workers commissioned to expand and develop the network has been the presence of huge burial pits dating back to the summer of 1665 when London was ravaged by an outbreak of bubonic plague (a.k.a. the Black Death). Since no-one knew for certain how many of these plague pits were actually dug, nor where they were located with any degree of accuracy, it was inevitable that as the railway network continued to expand more and more of these 17th century plague pits would be disturbed often without any warning. This is exactly what happened when the Victoria Line was being constructed in the 1960s. A huge tunnel boring machine ploughed straight into a long-forgotten plague pit at Green Park traumatising several brawny construction workers on site. To the southern end of the London Road Depot (Bakerloo Line) there are two tunnels. One exits onto the running line between Lambeth North and Elephant & Castle stations. The other is a dead-end tunnel designed to stop runaway trains. Behind the wall, however, at the end of this particular dead-end tunnel is yet another one of London�s many plague pits. Liverpool Street Station, the London terminus of the former Great Eastern Railway, is actually built upon a plague pit as is Aldgate Station (on the Circle Line) and the Piccadilly Line between Knightsbridge and South Kensington is said to curve around "a pit so dense with human remains that it could not be tunnelled through". Setting aside the awful legacy of the plague pits for a moment, the London Underground has also witnessed its own fair share of human tragedy in the last 145 years. People have been killed building the network. People have been killed maintaining the network. People have died of natural causes on the network. People have been murdered on the network. Others have used the network to �end it all� by throwing themselves in front of a speeding train. There have been train crashes, derailments and major fires on the network that have all claimed lives. In the dark days of the Blitz on London, Adolf Hitler�s Luftwaffe scored direct hits on a number of Underground stations causing devastation, disruption and loss of life and the Underground has also been the target of terrorists on more than one occasion. The most recent terrorist attack occurred on 7th July 2005 when suicide bombers claimed the lives of scores of people. Given that the London Underground has carved its way through a veritable charnel house of decaying corpses�many of whom were interred with little or no dignity and without any funerary rights�and that it has also witnessed thousands of sudden and often very violent deaths since it first opened for business in 1863, is it any wonder that the London Underground has acquired a reputation for ghostly goings on? As someone who has, from a very early age, firmly believed that the soul survives the physical death of the body it would actually be more of a shock to me if the London Underground wasn�t haunted and what follows, therefore, is a quick trawl (in alphabetical order) through some of the Underground�s most often repeated ghost stories. I sincerely hope that the reader will enjoy reading these stories as much as I did researching them for this article. ALDGATE TUBE STATION This tube station is located at Aldgate in the City of London. On the Circle Line between Tower Hill and Liverpool Street it is the eastern terminus of the Metropolitan Line and it was opened on November 18, 1876. It was built on the site of a plague pit in which, according to the author Daniel Defoe in his �Journal of a Plague Year�, 1,000 bodies were buried in only two weeks during the plague of 1665. The station was badly damaged by German bombing during World War II. Some years ago, an electrician working at the station made what should have been his last mistake. Somehow he managed to send over 20,000 volts of electricity through his own body. By all accounts he should have been killed. Instead, however, he was just knocked unconscious and, apart from bruising his forehead, he was otherwise unharmed. His colleagues had been watching him just before the accident happened. Once he had sufficiently recovered, his colleagues all swore that, just prior to the incident that should have claimed his life, they had seen an almost transparent figure of an old lady standing alongside him gently stroking his hair. I guess the electrician wasn�t the only one who had a shock that fateful day� Phantom footsteps, that end abruptly, have also been heard coming from within the tunnel. ALDWYCH TUBE STATION This is a disused tube station on the Piccadilly Line. Opened in 1907 as Strand Station it was originally intended to be the southern terminus of the Great Northern and Strand Railway. Re-named Aldwych Station in 1917 it ended up as the terminus for a very short branch line to Holborn. This branch line was closed during World War 2 and its tunnels were used as air raid shelters and to store various national treasures from the British Museum including the Elgin Marbles. Re-opened after the War it was finally closed on 30th September 1994 when the cost of refurbishing the lifts at the station was deemed to be uneconomic. Situated at the junction of the Strand and Surrey Street, the L-shaped surface building has been largely restored to its former glory. Its well preserved interior has made it a very popular location for trendy parties, book launches & art exhibitions. The Station has also featured in a number of films including The Battle of Britain (1969), Superman IV � The Quest for Peace (1986), The Krays (1990), Patriot Games (1992), Creep (2004) and V for Vendetta (2006). The station facade was also used as a base-location in the BBC Three documentary series Spy and Firestar�s Waste a Moment video was shot here. It is also featured on Level 12 of the Tomb Raider video game. As it was built on the site of the old Royal Strand Theatre it is perhaps fitting that its resident ghost is that of an actress that once trod its boards. Over the years, numerous people have claimed to have seen her agitated ghost wandering the Station�s deserted platforms and eerie tunnels late at night. BAKERLOO LINE Over the years, a number of passengers travelling north on the Bakerloo Line have reported seeing the ghostly reflection in the carriage window of someone sitting next to them even though the seat next to them is actually empty. BANK & MONUMENT COMPLEX Bank and Monument are interlinked stations, spanning the length of King William Street in the City of London. Servicing five Underground lines, plus the Docklands Light Railway, which runs into Bank together they form the seventh busiest station on the network. Officially, the stations are known as the Bank-Monument Complex, although the separate names remain in use on station entrances, platforms and the tube map. The two stations derived their names from the nearby Bank of England and the Monument to the Great Fire of London. On January 11, 1941, during the blitz, over 50 people were killed and nearly 70 people were injured when the Central Line ticket hall took a direct hit from a German bomb. The resulting crater measured 120ft long and 100ft wide and it had to be covered with a bailey-bridge for traffic to pass over. The station was put out of action for 2 months. It is not, however, a victim of that dreadful January day that haunts Bank Station. It is the ghost of Phillip Whitehead�s sister, Sarah. Phillip Whitehead was as a cashier at the Bank of England. Arrested for forging cheques he was subsequently tried at the Old Bailey, found guilty and hanged in 1811. The tragedy drove Sarah quite mad and for the next 25 years�the rest of her life in fact�she came to the Bank every day dressed completely in black, in the forlorn hope of finding her brother. For that reason her ghostly apparition has acquired the nick-name the Black Nun. Some people believe that Sarah�s daily presence in and around the Bank was the reason why the Bank of England acquired the nick-name of the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street, a nick-name it still enjoys to this day. Sarah�s ghost has been glimpsed on numerous occasions in the Bank�s garden and on the platforms and passageways of Bank Station and there have also been reports of foul, unexplained smells and feelings of great sadness, anxiety and hopelessness in the station. BECONTREE STATION Becontree is a quiet, commuter over-ground station on the District Line in east London. Opened in 1932 it has 4 platforms but only 2 are currently in use. In 1992 a Station Supervisor, working a late shift became un-nerved when a door in his office that opened onto the national railways platform rattled three times for no apparent reason. Feeling distinctly uncomfortable he left his office to find one of his colleagues upstairs for a reassuring chat. He walked along the platform but, as he neared the staircase, he had the distinct impression that someone was walking behind him. Turning round he was confronted with the rather disturbing image of a woman in a white dress with long blond hair but with no face. There was, in his words, just a �blank� where her features should have been. The image faded away after a few seconds. When he spoke to his colleague shortly after, his colleague confirmed that he too had seen the apparition. In 1958, 10 people died in a train collision on this part of the District Line. Both trains had left Becontree Station just minutes before. BETHNAL GREEN TUBE STATION When Britain declared War on Germany in September 1939 Bethnal Green Station (on the Circle Line), as one of the few deep level stations in the east end of London, it was an obvious choice for a huge public air raid shelter. Situated in a densely populated urban area, the shelter contained 5,000 bunks and had at times held up to 7,000 people. It is particularly tragic, therefore, that the station that had saved so many lives at the height of the blitz on London (September 1940 to May 1941) became the site of Britain�s worst civilian disaster of the War. Following heavy bombing of Berlin by the RAF on 1st March, 1943 many Londoners�anticipating a retaliatory strike by the German Luftwaffe�decided in the days immediately following the Berlin raid to get into the underground shelters early i.e. to settle down for the night before the sirens actually sounded and so, at 8.17 p.m. on the night of 3rd March, 1943 when the air raid sirens across London sounded to announce another German air raid, about 500 people were already sheltering inside the station. Between 8.17 p.m. and 8.27 p.m. a further 1,500 people safely negotiated the solitary staircase into the station. It was raining outside so the steps were wet and slippery. The staircase did not have a central handrail and the only illumination for those making the treacherous descent came from a solitary 25 watt bulb. At 8.27 p.m. a terrifying explosion was heard as a newly installed anti-aircraft battery in a nearby park fired off a salvo of 60 experimental rockets into the dark night sky. The noise of the explosion was so loud and so unfamiliar to the local residents that many of those in the crowd waiting to descend into the station thought that a German bomb had exploded nearby and unease quickly turned to blind panic. As the crowd surged forward and began to press down the slippery steps, a woman carrying a baby in her arms tripped and fell as she neared the bottom. A man who had been just behind her then fell over her and others then fell over and on top of him. In less than 20 seconds, hundreds of people found themselves being crushed in the narrow and dimly lit stairwell at the foot of the staircase�and on the staircase itself �by the hundreds of people still coming down the stairs from the street above completely unaware of the tragedy that was unfolding literally beneath their feet. 173 people (27 men, 84 women and 62 children) - more than the victims of the Paddington, Moorgate and King�s Cross disasters and the 7 July bombings combined - died of asphyxiation in the stairwell of Bethnal Green Station that terrible night and the sheer horror and scale of the tragedy has, it seems, left an indelible imprint upon the very fabric of the station as the Station Supervisor in 1981 found out to his cost.. The last train had long since departed and all the staff, apart from him, had gone home for the night. Having secured the station and turned off some of the station lights he had returned to his office to catch up on some paperwork. He hadn�t been back in his office for very long, however, before he heard what sounded like young children crying and sobbing. At first, he didn�t think anything of it but the sound of the crying steadily grew louder and louder. Then he began to hear agitated female voices followed by loud, heart-rending screams and other loud noises that he couldn�t identify. This cacophony of sound�which he said sounded like �people panicking�� went on for about 10 to 15 minutes and it so un-nerved him that he left his office and went to the top of the booking hall to get away from it. He freely admitted that the experience had been very frightening and it was something that he would remember for the rest of his life. BRITISH MUSEUM TUBE STATION This abandoned tube station on the Circle Line (it closed on 25th September 1933) was said to be haunted by the spirit of a long dead Egyptian Princess whose mummified remains are in the nearby British Museum. A national newspaper once offered a reward to anyone who would dare to a night in the station on his/her own but no-one took up the challenge. COVENT GARDEN TUBE STATION Covent Garden tube station is on the corner of Long Acre and James Street and is one of the few underground stations in Central London that doesn�t have any escalators. Platform access is by stairs (195 steps) and lift only. It is on the Piccadilly Line between Leicester Square and Holborn. The station is said to be haunted by the ghost of an English actor by the name of William Terriss. Born on 20th February, 1847 William Charles James Lewin took to the stage in 1867 under the stage-name of William Terriss. He quickly established himself as a very popular actor in Victorian London in a variety of swashbuckling and heroic roles. Because of his �action man� style he gained the nick-name of �Breezy Bill�. On 16th December 1897 as he was entering the Adelphi Theatre on the Strand to prepare for the evening's performance of a play called �Secret Service�, he was stabbed to death by a deranged and disgruntled actor he had once befriended by the name of Richard Archer Prince. As he lay dying in the arms of his leading lady he is supposed to have whispered to her �I�ll be back�. Now where have I heard that line before? An employee of the London Underground who saw his ghost in the Station in 1955 �and who subsequently identified him from a photograph of the actor that was taken in his hey-day�.described him as very tall and distinguished gentleman �wearing an old-fashioned grey suit with a funny looking old-style collar and light coloured gloves�. In addition to haunting Covent Garden Station, which stands on the site of a bakery he frequently visited in life, Breezy Bill is also said to haunt the Lyceum Theatre which is just off the Strand and possibly the Adelphi Theatre where staff in the early 1950s witnessed a similar apparition to the one seen in Covent Garden Station in 1955. They called their ghostly visitor �Charlie�. The last reported sighting of Breezy Bill�s ghost at Covent Garden Station was in 1972 although members of staff have, in the intervening years, reported hearing strange noises and phantom footsteps on the platforms when no-one was there. ELEPHANT & CASTLE TUBE STATION The station is on the Bank Branch between Kennington and Borough and it is the southern terminus of the Bakerloo Line. It is also said to be haunted. Maintenance and cleaning staff working in the station late at night have reported hearing the sound of someone running along the deserted platform. The phantom runner has been heard on numerous occasions but has never been seen. In addition, strange tapping sounds have been heard on the platform and doors in the station have been known to suddenly slam for no apparent reason. A ghost that has been seen by both staff and commuters alike is that of a young woman who has been seen boarding a train at the station only to disappear completely once the train starts to pull out of the station. EMBANKMENT TUBE STATION (Pages Walk) This tube station is in central London near Trafalgar Square and Fleet Street. It is one of the network�s busiest inter-change stations serving the Bakerloo, Circle, District and Northern Lines. Over the years, many of the station staff and contractors have reported very strange feelings and unusual experiences in one of the station�s disused tunnels that runs under the River Thames. The tunnel is known as Pages Walk. Witnesses claim to have heard and seen doors in the tunnel opening and then slamming shut without any human assistance and that they have been watched by unseen eyes. They have also reported the presence of �cold spots� and that that the atmosphere inside the tunnel is oppressive and menacing. It seems that whoever haunts Pages Walk has no desire to share it with he living� FARRINGDON TUBE STATION The station is in Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington. It serves the Metropolitan, the Hammersmith & City and the Circle Lines and is said to be haunted by the ghost of a 13 year old girl named Ann or Annie Naylor, an apprentice hat maker. This unfortunate girl was brutally murdered in 1758 by the man to whom she was indentured and his wife. The murder took place in a building that was demolished to make way for the station which opened in September 1863. Many people, over the years, have heard her tormented screams and cries in the bowels of the station earning her the nick-name of �the Screaming Spectre�. HIGHGATE HIGH-LEVEL STATION & PLATFORMS Highgate high-level station & platforms (now abandoned and derelict) are situated in a cutting between two pairs of tunnels directly above today's Highgate Station on the Northern Line. Although today the station buildings and the platforms are �off limits� to the general public they can clearly be seen from various vantage points in the surrounding area. These high level platforms once served a railway line that ran from Finsbury Park to Alexandra Palace. In the late 1930s a plan was put forward to fully electrify the line and to integrate it into the Northern Line but, thanks to the Second World War, the plan was never implemented. The line continued to be used by steam trains until 1954 when it was finally closed. The actual rails, however, were not removed until the 1980s. According to local residents, however, the eerie sound of trains passing through the disused cutting, now overgrown with weeds, has been heard on numerous occasions. HYDE PARK CORNER TUBE STATION This station is on the Piccadilly Line between Knightsbridge Station and Green Park Station. It is one of the few stations on the London Underground that has no associated buildings above ground. The station is completely underground. In November 1978 a gentleman by the name of Mr. Barry Oakley was the Station Supervisor working the over-night shift at Hyde Park Corner. He had closed & emptied the station and had shut the escalators down. Having checked that he had properly removed the breakers�a piece of equipment designed to stop the escalators from moving�he and a colleague returned to the Station Supervisor�s office. At about 2.30 am there was a �commotion� in the booking hall area. When he and his colleague left the office to investigate they discovered that the escalator they had come up on was actually back-on and working. They both found that very strange because, with the breakers out, the escalator wasn�t�as far as they knew�connected to any electricity supply and to start an escalator running a special key needed to be used. It was about 3.20 am when he and his colleague got back to the Supervisor�s Office having conducted a very thorough�but fruitless �search to discover what had caused the �commotion� they had both heard in the booking hall area. Feeling more than a little un-nerved at the night�s strange events, Mr. Oakley decided to make them both a hot cup of tea. As he did so, however, a feeling that he was being watched by an invisible presence in the office grew in intensity. In addition, the temperature in the office suddenly plummeted to such an extent that he could actually see his breath as he exhaled. At that point he turned round and noticed that his colleague was leaning against a table that was up against the office wall and that he was extremely pale and clearly in a very distressed state. It took Mr. Oakley about 5 or 10 minutes to get his colleague to open-up to him about what was wrong and, when he did, he simply asked him �Did you see the face?� His colleague then told him that as he (Mr. Oakley) had been making the tea, a disembodied head had floated through the office wall and had spent some time staring at the pair of them. Shortly after, Mr. Oakley�s colleague decided he could no longer stay on duty and left the station to go home. He never returned to work on the London Underground again ICKENHAM TUBE STATION Ickenham tube station is located in Ickenham in the London Borough of Hillingdon. The station is on the Uxbridge branch of both the Metropolitan Line and the Piccadilly line between Ruislip and Hillingdon stations. First appearing in the 1950s the ghost of a woman who fell onto the track and was electrocuted is said to haunt the station. Wearing a distinctive bright red scarf she invariably appears at the end of the platform, close to where she fell to her death. She has been known to wave to other people on the platform ...as if to attract their attention�before suddenly vanishing before their very eyes. JUBILEE LINE EXTENSION (Various Stations) The Jubilee Line Extension (which begins just south of Green Park Station and terminates at Stratford Station in east London) was constructed in the 1990s and opened just before Christmas in 1999. The extension carved its way through the grounds of several old monasteries forcing the re-location of 683 exhumed graves. Ever since, numerous sightings of phantom monks on this part of the network have been reported. Just like every other line on the London Underground, every mile of the Jubilee Line is checked each night�on foot�by track-walking patrolmen who walk the dark tunnels on their own. A patrol man, with over 20 year�s experience, had a very frightening experience whilst walking the track one night between Baker Street station and St. John�s Wood station. As he sat down for a break he suddenly heard �and saw�heavy footsteps crunching down on the ballast between the railway sleepers. The ballast was being disturbed with every step. It was as if an invisible entity was physically walking down the track. As he sat there with his mouth open in a state of disbelief, the footsteps continued right past where he was sitting but then stopped about ten yards further up the tunnel. After he regained his composure he managed to complete the track-walk. In the early hours of the morning, just before his shift came to an end, he told a colleague what had happened to him on the walk. To his surprise, his colleague didn�t ridicule his account or call him crazy. On the contrary, his colleague told him that other patrol men and maintenance workers had experienced the same thing on that part of the Jubilee Line. His colleague went on to say that there used to be a patrol man who, prior to his death, used to walk that particular stretch of track on a regular basis and it was probably his ghost that he had encountered earlier in the night. Records show that at least 5 maintenance staff have been killed on that particular stretch of track. KENNINGTON LOOP A �balloon loop� is a track arrangement that allows a train to reverse direction and return to where it has come from without the need to shunt or, in some case, even stop. One such �balloon loop� exists south of Kennington Station (Northern Line) and is known as the Kennington Loop. The loop tunnel allows southbound Charing Cross Branch trains to be terminated at Kennington Station. Then, empty of passengers, they run round the loop to begin their return journey north. A least 2 train drivers, sitting alone on their empty trains waiting for permission to proceed through the loop, have reported hearing the un-nerving sound of the connecting doors between the carriages opening and closing as if someone was walking through the carriages towards the driving compartment. KING�S CROSS ST. PANCRAS TUBE STATION King's Cross St. Pancras tube station is in the London Borough of Camden and is the biggest interchange station on the London Underground, with six lines on four pairs of tracks. In May 1998 a young woman in her twenties with long brown hair, wearing jeans and a t-shirt was spotted kneeling at the side of one of the station�s entry corridors by a passer-by. She had her arms outstretched and was crying piteously. The passer-by stopped and was just about to speak to her to find out what was wrong and to offer some assistance when someone walking down the corridor from the opposite direction passed straight through the woman without breaking step. The apparition then promptly vanished. It was only then that the would-be �good Samaritan� realised that the young lady had been a phantom. On 18th November, 1987 a devastating fire at the station killed 31 people but it is impossible to say whether this apparition is in any way connected to that fire and, since I have not been able to find any other subsequent sighting reports, the sighting in May 1998 appears to be have been a �one-off� event. KING WILLIAM STREET TUNNEL This is one of the longest and oldest disused tunnels on the network. Closed in 1900 it stretches from Borough Station to the north side of London Bridge. In the 1980s a photographer, commissioned by London Transport to take pictures for a book the Company was bringing out, took a series of photographic slides in the old tunnel and was surprised to see, on one of the slides, the slightly translucent image of a man standing near the tunnel wall. A medium later went to the site where the picture was taken and claimed to have made contact with the spirit of a man who had died breaking up a fight during the tunnel�s construction. LIVERPOOL STREET STATION Liverpool Street Station (a.k.a. London Liverpool Street), with approximately 123 million visitors a year, is the UK�s third busiest station after Victoria and Waterloo. It is located in the north eastern corner of the City of London. The connected tube station is the fifth busiest tube station on the underground network with 4 lines passing through it (3 sub-surface and 1 deep level). CCTV footage from every station in London is monitored 24 hours a day by Line Controllers based in a separate location. In the summer of 2000 the Line Controller who was monitoring the footage from Liverpool Street Station noticed a man dressed in white overalls standing in the entrance of the Central Line�s eastbound tunnel. What made it so unusual was the fact that it was 2.00 am. The station had been closed for the night and there were no contractors scheduled to be working there. The Line Controller rang the Station Supervisor, a man with 23 years of experience of working on the underground, and asked to him to investigate. The Station Supervisor went down to the eastbound tunnel and looked in it and all around the immediate area but could find no trace of the man in the white overalls. Using a telephone at the foot of the escalator he rang the line controller and told him that he had conducted a thorough search of the area but hadn�t been able to find the man. The Line Controller, clearly perplexed said �But this guy was standing next to you. How could you not see him?� The Station Supervisor assured him that he had conducted a very thorough check of the area and that there was definitely no-one down there. He even asked the Line Controller whether the image of the man could have been the result of a �blip� on the CCTV system but, when he was assured that the system was in perfect working order, he agreed to conduct a second search of the area just to be absolutely certain. The Station Supervisor went and conducted another search of the area but the result was the same as the first. He could not find any trace of the man in the tunnel or in the immediate vicinity of the tunnel. He returned to the telephone at the foot of the escalator, called the Line Controller and told him that the second search had also failed to find any trace of the man in the white overalls. The Line Controller was insistent, however, that as he watched the second search of the area on his TV screen being conducted he had clearly seen the man in white overalls standing within touching distance of the Station Supervisor. Reluctantly accepting what the Station Supervisor had told him, the Line Controller thanked him for carrying out the searches and rang off. As the Station Supervisor turned and walked back onto the eastbound platform he noticed to his left a bench and on that bench was there was a pair of white paper overalls. The Station Supervisor was certain that if anyone had walked out of the tunnel whilst he had been on the telephone he would have seen them and he would also have seen anyone leaving the overalls on the platform bench. What happened that night at Liverpool Street tube station remains, therefore, yet another unsolved mystery of the London Underground. NORTHERN LINE (Between Oval & Stockwell Tube Stations) In 1984 a trainee manager was required (as part of his training programme) to walk the tunnel of the Northern Line�when all the trains had stopped running for the night�between Oval and Stockwell stations. As he trudged up the dark and silent tunnel, armed only with his battery powered torch, he came across an older man working in a wider section of the tunnel. The workman was using an old fashion Tilly lamp. These paraffin fuelled lamps had once been in common use on the London Underground but, by 1984, they had all but disappeared having been replaced by battery powered torches. The trainee manager stopped for a chat with the workman. The trainee manager made a comment about how unusual it was to see someone still using an old Tilly lamp to which the workman replied that he preferred the Tilly lamp to the new torches. The trainee manager then asked the workman whether this wider section of the tunnel had a name and was told it was called South Island Place. After saying goodnight to each other, the trainee manager set off again on up the tunnel and arrived shortly after at Stockwell Station. He then rang the station supervisor at Oval Station to inform him that he had safely completed the required track-walk and that the track appeared to be in good order. He was just about to hang up the receiver when he suddenly remembered the workman he had seen and so he told the supervisor about the workman he had seen in South Island Place. The supervisor then informed him that there was not supposed to be anyone working on that section of the line that night. A search of the track between Oval and Stockwell Stations was hastily organised to locate the workman but no trace of him was ever found. The trainee manager later found out that the ghost of a workman who had been killed by a train in the 1950s near South Island Place had been seen on numerous occasions. The workman had been operating a very noisy compressor at the time of the accident and he probably never heard the sound of the approaching train that was about to end his life. The unfortunate driver of the train that killed him reported that, at the time of the fatal collision, the man had been carrying a Tilly lamp� SOUTH KENSINGTON TUBE STATION South Kensington tube station is in Kensington, west London. It is served by the District, Circle and Piccadilly lines. On the District and Circle lines the station is between Gloucester Road and Sloane Square. On the Piccadilly Line it is between Gloucester Road and Knightsbridge. In December 1928 a passenger alighting at the station from the last westbound train of the evening was startled by the shriek of a train whistle. Suddenly an unscheduled spectral train appeared heading eastbound with a ghostly figure wearing a reefer jacket and a peaked cap hanging onto the side of the engine. The train and its unusual passenger vanished into the tunnel never to be seen again. VICTORIA LINE (Near Vauxhall Tube Station) The ghost of a very tall workman (some witnesses say that the ghost they saw was nearly seven feet tall) wearing brown overalls and a flat cap has been seen on a number of occasions in the tunnels near to Vauxhall tube station. Article Copyright� Mike Heffernan - reproduced with permission.  
i don't know
In Australia, what sort of creature is a goanna?
Australian Goannas (Australian Monitor Lizards) I also have photos of the different species ... ...and even a few videos to watch. What Do Goannas Look Like? Goannas or monitor lizards are a common sight in Australia. There are over 20 different species, adapted to different habitats, and interestingly they all look very similar. You can see that in the photos on this page and also in the videos below. But there is a big difference in their size. The largest Australian monitor lizard, the Perentie, can be over two metres long. Its tiny relative, the short-tailed monitor, reaches all of 20 cm. All goannas are dark (grey, olive or brown) and most of them show a pattern of lighter coloured (grey, white or yellow) spots, rings, blotches or stripes. Those patterns vary between the species, but also between younger monitors and adult lizards. Another common characteristic is the loose skin on a goanna's neck. It makes the neck look bigger than the head. If a monitor lizard feels threatened they can puff up those flaps so they look more dangerous. What Do Goannas Eat? Most goannas are rather large for a lizard, and they all have sharp teeth and long claws. Monitor lizards are predators. They forage and hunt for lizards, snakes, insects, birds and eggs and even small mammals, and they often dig them out of their shelters and nests. They're not fussy about what they eat, anything they can grab and overpower will do, and they also eat dead and rotting things. Like snakes the goannas can unhinge their lower jaw to help them swallow bigger prey. It's impressive to see what size meals they can swallow whole. And if the food is there they will just keep eating. Watching them makes you think they must have bottomless guts. The two videos below illustrate that very well. The first goanna video shows a baby Lace Monitor. Unfortunately you can't see very well how it catches the other lizard, but the details of how it swallows its prey are great. The second video features a fully grown Argus Monitor (Varanus panoptes), demonstrating what I said above about how they just keep eating. Watch him devour rat after rat after rat... Return to top Goanna Behaviour Monitor lizards are mostly terrestrial (except for water monitors). They live on the ground, they find their food on the ground, and they dig an unbelievable amount of holes. They dig holes when searching for food, they dig holes to lay their eggs in, and they dig huge burrows to shelter in. (Can you imagine the size of the burrow system of a four feet goanna? In your garden? One day I'll break an ankle stepping into one of their holes...) Goannas can rear up on their hind legs. Sometimes they do it to scare off attackers. They also fight in this way. But mostly I see them stand up when they hear/notice anything suspicious, to look around for threats (in those cases that would have been me...). Goannas can run very fast over short distances, sometimes using their hind legs only. They are very good tree climbers, and that is what they will often run for. You may have heard stories that if there aren't any trees the goanna will use you instead and tear shreds of you. (Aussies love to scare tourists with horror stories about what our animals might do to you.) If the goanna has room to run it'll run away from you. Of course, if you corner it or try to catch and wrestle it you might find out just how sharp these teeth and claws really are. Goannas get used to humans quickly. All my photos on this page were taken very close to my veranda. I have a few sand monitors living here, and they don't take much notice of me any more... If you travel anywhere in the Australian Outback you are highly likely to see goannas in the wild. They are most active during the day, and many goanna species like to hang around water courses and rock pools, lazing and sun basking, just like we do... Some common goanna species The Komodo Dragon The best known monitor lizard is the biggest species, the Komodo Dragon. Interestingly, there is also a dragon family of lizards in Australia (the Agamidae), but the Komodo Dragon isn't a dragon, it's a monitor (family Varanidae). You can see the Komodo Dragons in Australia, but only in zoos. They are not native to Australia. The two zoos that display Komodo Dragons are the Australia Zoo and the Taronga Zoo. The Perentie The Perentie (Varanus giganteus) is the biggest Australian monitor lizard. It can grow to over two metres. Perenties live in the dry regions of inland Australia and particularly like rocky country. Perenties look, eat and live just like I described above for goannas in general. Something I didn't mention is hibernation. Perenties (and other goannas) hibernate during the cold time of the year, from about May to August. Despite its huge the size the Perentie is a rather shy lizard, and it is not a common sight. But some people get lucky. Here is a page that has some beautiful photos of a wild Perentie . The Water Monitor Water monitors (Varanus salvator) are the second biggest lizards in the world, but they aren't native to Australia. The Australian water monitors are smaller. There are two kinds, the Mertens Water Monitor (Varanus mertensi), and the Mitchell Water Monitor (Varanus mitchelli). The Mertens Water Monitor, which is quite common, grows to 4 feet in length. The uncommon Mitchell Water Monitor is smaller, about two and a half feet (70 centimetres). Both live in northern Australia near creeks, swamps, lagoons and other bodies of water. Water monitors are excellent swimmers and can stay under water for several minutes. Most of their food comes from the water - fish, frogs, crabs, shrimps and similar - but they also find some on land, like reptile eggs and insects. Unlike other goannas a water monitor will not run, but rather slide into the water when disturbed or threatened. The Sand Monitor The Sand Monitor, sometimes called Goulds Monitor or Goulds Goanna, is the most common Australian goanna. Another name sometimes used for them is Racehorse Goanna. There are several species and subspecies, and there is some taxonomic confusion, so I'll just keep it simple and throw them all together as Sand Monitors. These large goannas are plentiful just about anywhere, except for the extreme south and south east of Australia. Sand monitors are the most terrestrial of all goannas. They only climb trees to escape trouble. Sand monitors are equipped with longer legs and bigger feet than most goannas and are particularly good diggers. They seem to get a lot of their food from below the ground. And here is an interesting tidbit of information regarding the goannas in the north. One of their favourite food sources is crocodile eggs. In fact, over 90% of crocodile eggs never hatch due to the insatiable goannas. Now that the toxic cane toads are wiping out goannas across the north the crocodile population is expected to explode. Let's see... The Lace Monitor The Lace Goanna or Lace Monitor (Varanus varius) is the second largest Australian goanna and can grow to two metres. Its range is restricted to eastern Australia, where it is found from Melbourne in the far south all the way up to Cape York in the north. If a Lace Monitor feels threatened it will definitely race for the nearest tree. They generally spend a fair bit of their time in large trees, so much so that some people call them tree goannas. They are believed to eat more birds and eggs than other goannas. But they are good runners, burrowers and swimmers as well. Like other goannas they hunt and forage for their food on the ground.
Monitor lizard
Tom Lehrer’s Elements Song is sung to which tune from a Gilbert and Sullivan opera?
Mark David | Lizard bites mdavid.com.au Lizard bite: getting more than you bargained for People say animals are stupid. But after seeing a father proudly watching his kids teasing a wild goanna, I’m thinking it’s the humans that should be smarter. Goannas and other large lizards are capable of a really nasty bite and that dad was letting his kids take a big risk. Monitor Lizard Goannas, dragons and monitor lizards are known for lots of things, but oral hygiene isn’t one of them. These amazing critters feed on all sorts of stuff, including the rotting flesh of dead animals. And they don’t floss. So their mouths develop into breeding grounds for many types of dangerous bacteria capable of causing dreadful infections if one bites you. What about feeding them? There are lots of reasons why I’m not a fan of the idea of feeding wild animals: It leads to the animals depending on you. It fills them up with an unbalanced diet. Things like bread might be poisonous to them (that surprises most people). It can make the wild animals aggressive. And it can cause the animals you’re feeding to chase other wildlife out of the area. Feeding big lizards has another risk attached to it because those big lizards are likely to think your hand is part of the food. 1: This Monitor Lizard seemed to think my camera was food  2: Frilled-neck Lizard When I was in Kakadu National Park the guide for our group told us a story. He said he once caught a frilled-neck lizard so the tourists in his group could take photos. While he was catching it the critter swung around and bit him on the leg. The bite didn’t hurt all that much, at first. But the infection that resulted from that bite became so bad the guide wasn’t able to work for two months. What are your chances of being bitten, then? Goannas and other big lizards are not likely to attack people unless you frighten them or attack them, or try to feed them. Those kids I saw teasing the goanna were grabbing it by the tail, making the goanna swish its heavy tail about. Apart from the fact that its tail can hit with enough force to knock down a small child, grabbing a goanna is a really stupid thing to do. It’s exactly the kind of thing that can get you bitten. When I explained to the father that the goanna bite is really nasty and that his kids were taking a big risk he just ignored me. Like I said, it made me think the dad was less intelligent than the goanna. Perhaps I should have also explained to the stupid dad that when a goanna gets spooked it will sometimes run up the nearest tree, and because there were no trees nearby then the goanna might run up him instead. I have heard stories of that happening. You see, just standing there watching is a great way of imitating a tree, the way a goanna sees things, and the goanna is not a fussy creature. Maybe that would have encouraged stupid dad to control his kids a bit better.
i don't know
Who was the treacherous knight of the Round Table?
Knights of the Round Table Reviews & Ratings - IMDb IMDb 30 out of 42 people found the following review useful: An Ill Fated Passion from Buffalo, New York 10 September 2005 The Arthur legend gets a grand production here, good photography and rousing battle scenes. The leads kind of go through the motions in their roles though, some of the supporting players really carry this film. Robert Taylor was never comfortable in those 'iron jockstrap' movies as he called them. But he was the most dutiful employee MGM had and like Errol Flynn with westerns, Taylor just went with the flow. Funny thing is Taylor much preferred doing westerns as he reached his forties. Was there ever a more beautiful Guinevere than Ava Gardner? I sincerely doubt it. If she never spoke a line in the film, you know this is a woman for whom you toss convention out for. Ava was in the middle of her tempestuous marriage to Frank Sinatra at the time, so I'm sure she was preoccupied. And next to Richard Burton on stage and Richard Harris on the screen Mel Ferrer looks positively colorless. Not the guy to command the loyalty the legendary king was supposed to do. But I did like the performances of Felix Aylmer as Merlin, Anne Crawford as Morgan Le Fay and Stanley Baker as Mordred. Felix Aylmer was never bad in anything he ever did, always a figure of wisdom and dignity in any role. Morgan Le Fay is quite the schemer here and Anne Crawford brings her to life. Sadly Ms. Crawford died only two years later of leukemia at age 36. American audiences probably only know her for this film, but she's fantastic. But the best performance in the film has to be Stanley Baker. He was a rugged tough man in every film he did, good guy or bad guy. His Mordred has depth and passion and he's unrelenting in his plans to topple Arthur and the Round Table. If they gave Oscars out for performances by animals than Robert Taylor's horse Varick would have won it that year. Except for Roy Rogers's Trigger, I don't think we've ever had a smarter movie horse. He's obedient and well trained and knight's horse certainly had to be back in the day. And he saves Taylor's bacon on one occasion. It's a good film, not the best from either of the stars, but I think you'll like it overall. Was the above review useful to you? 23 out of 31 people found the following review useful: Thorpe does chivalry a second time.... from Fayetteville, NC 20 May 1999 A movie filled with beautiful scenery, knights in armor, the clashing of swords, lovely damsels, and chivalry at its finest. Remind you of Camelot? It should. Adventure and romance are blended deftly in this fine retelling of Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte D'Arthur." Taylor (well-cast as Lancelot) also played the title role in "Ivanhoe", which was released a year earlier and also directed by Thorpe and scored by Rozsa. Thorpe does another excellent job as director here, and Rozsa contributes another nonpareil score that has forever marked him for the esteemed composer he is. Interestingly enough, Aylmer (who played Merlin) also played Issac of York opposite Taylor's "Ivanhoe." Not to be overlooked either are Gardner (never lovelier as Guinevere); Baker's perfect portrayal of the diabolical Mordred; and Crawford, whose chilling Morgan le Fay is very reminiscent of Milady de Winter of The Three Musketeers saga. Ferrer deserves kudos as well for bringing nobility and sensitivity to the role of Arthur. As mentioned before, the scenery is a real treat; when coupled with the music and the action, one may get the urge to strap on their armor and grab their sword! Everyone, from medieval history buffs to those who just love a good movie, should see this one. It has intrigue, adventure, and romance, but above all, it forever proves that chivalry is a virtue worth abiding by. Was the above review useful to you? 29 out of 45 people found the following review useful: Very Shakespearian Take on the Arthurian Legend from Petersburg, Vasaria 12 May 2005 For those of you with an interest in Shakespeare, you're in luck! The script is beautiful ("I am for thee, lone knight!" and "Is he a king or is he a man of straw?") and Mel Ferrer is excellent as King Arthur (he is my favorite American actor, and he speaks as though he has had some classical acting experience). Who cares if this film is accurate or not? One should just sit down, relax, and savor the vast widescreen pageantry and battle scenes, the beautiful production and music, and the great dialog (which should have been Oscar-nominated) and cast. Alas, some of the acting is wooden (Robert Taylor, as with almost all Lancelots, is miscast and it's kind of funny hearing Shakespearian dialog with a "cowboy" accent and incorrect pacing of the beautiful lines) and some scenes are slow (due to the staginess of the inexperienced widescreen crew), but these six things listed above make up for it. Ava Gardner is extremely lovely, and Stan Baker is suitably cast is the evil Modred. The film is more faithful to the legend than other film versions, but there's no supernatural elements whatsoever. It's a shame that Shakespeare films, then and now, aren't made like this, where every scene is made to make one truly sink into the action. But Shakespeare fans, like me, as well as classic movie buffs and medieval fans (especially those who love Errol Flynn's "The Adventures of Robin Hood"), will very much enjoy this film. As Mel himself says on the DVD, "Good viewing!" *** (out of four) from Front Royal, VA 3 March 2006 The legend of King Arthur has been told, and retold, by movie makers several times. This may have been one of the first tellings, using Technicolor coupled with Cinemascope and drawing heavily upon the pageantry of the days of chivalry and knighthood in England. The story is simple, relating the coming of the throne of his country by Arthur Pendragon, and his attempts to establish justice and peace in the war-torn, divided land he called England. His efforts are to no avail, as there is simply too much greed and distrust among the small kingdoms of the country to allow the rule of one person, but this film has some fun in the citing of the Arthurian legend. The cast members for 1953 read like a star-studded list from MGM. Mel Ferrer portrays King Arthur, with the lovely Ava Gardner as his queen, Guinevere. Stanley Baker plays the villain in the piece, Mordred, a knight sworn to capture the throne for himself, even if it destroys the unity of England. Playing the role of the greatest knight member of the Round Table, Lancelot, was Robert Taylor, who seemed to relish the sense of justice, decency, and moral standards as no one else of the time seemed willing to do. "Knights of the Round Table" is meant to be viewed as an enjoyable touch with the past and the days gone by. Worth a view or two. Was the above review useful to you? 20 out of 29 people found the following review useful: MGM's first film in CinemaScope and Technicolor... 20 July 1999 *** This review may contain spoilers *** Lancelot, the greatest of Arthur's knights, is destined to become part of the eternal triangle with Arthur and Guinevere... Conspirating against King Arthur and violating the rules of chivalry and morality are the malevolent Sir Modred and his vicious lover, the femme fatale Morgan Le Fay (Anne Crawford). The dramatic high moment of the film is revealed when Lancelot and Guinevere are discovered together in Lancelot's chamber by Mordred's men... Passion's fire ignited within... The film tries to present the pageantry and brilliance of the epoch like bloody combat scenes, ardent jousting tournaments, and a fierce fight to the death... But something was really missing: the strength, the force and the energy required in the potency and soundness of the Knights of the Round Table... Frustrated and monotonous sometimes, the film is far away from John Boorman's "Excalibur." Robert Taylor resists Lancelot's emotions... Ava Gardner was pleasantly cool and less affectionate and enthusiastic as a woman in love... Her passion does not ignite Guinevere's inner fire... Mel Ferrer reveals himself weak in his character instead of showing all the power, vigor and force of a great king... Stanley Baker, with his eyes upon the throne, waits for chance to catch some secret scandal... Felix Aylmer lends what substance he can to the proceedings as Merlin... Shot on location in England, "The Knights of the Round Table" is disappointingly flat, pageant like adaptation of the legends, with a few lively strands insufficiently firmly drawn together... Was the above review useful to you? 18 out of 26 people found the following review useful: MGM tackles the King Arthur myth from United Kingdom 28 November 2004 Although Robert Taylor is top-lined alongside Ava Gardner in this MGM historical romp, he plays Lancelot, not Arthur. The King himself is played by Mel Ferrer with utmost seriousness. Despite a lot of bad reviews over the years, this movie from Richard Thorpe is actually quite enjoyable. Taylor and Gardner (playing Guinevere, of course, and looking every inch the part) are particularly watchable, but there is sterling support from icy Brit Anne Crawford as Morgan Le Fay; Stanley Baker as Mo(r)dred; Felix Aylmer as Merlin; Maureen Swanson as Elaine (whose midsummer wish brings Lancelot into her life and into his first meeting with Arthur); and Niall McGinnis as the argumentative Green Knight. Sumptuous colour and some exciting swordplay keep this film bumping along - just short of two hours and, if it veers away from the legend a bit, well, it is all in the spirit of 1950s cinema. Was the above review useful to you? 13 out of 17 people found the following review useful: Mighty spectacle about the King Arthur and the famed romance in color magnificence Author: ma-cortes 24 April 2007 This MGM's first Cinemascope production from the company and producers (Pandro S Berman)that gave you ¨Quo Vadis¨ , ¨Ivanhoe¨ among others and only MGM could bring it so magnificently to the screen . The classic story of romantic adventure come to life enriched by Technicolor and with such great stars as Robert Taylor (Lanzarote) , Ava Gardner (Guinevere) , Mel Ferrer(Arthur) in the classic love triangle . Adding apparition the ¨Knights of the Round Table¨ as Percival (Woof) looking for the Holy Grail , Gaiwan( Robert Urqhuart) , the evil Modred (Stanley Baker) and Merlin (Felix Aylmer) and Morgana LeFay (Crawford) . This is an overwhelming tale with adventures , villainy , romance and heroism in the grandeur of Cinemascope although in television set loses splendor . In spite of there aren't real documents about legendary feats of King Arthur , allegedly in VI century King of Bretons , were created on XII century some writings by French notorious authors who romanticized the legend as Chretien of Troyes and Thomas Malory that wrote the Bretons series with their knights looking for the Holy Grail . Besides , Godofredo of Mormouth publicized in 1136 the ¨History Regnum Britanniae¨ and in XX century John Steinbeck wrote about the events of King Arthur . The story concerns when the Romans had withdrawn Britain and the Roman Empire dissolved into chaos , then rules the king Arthur , he achieved to maintain the Christianity and civilization in the west of England , though no exactly congruent with the VI century , time was presumed to have lived but the film is developed in a high medieval panoply . The movie displays breathtaking battles and epic confrontation with a terrific final climax for a mortal duel . The magnificent battle scenes are obviously copied from Henry V at Agincourt , brought to life a decade earlier by Laurence Olivier . Excellent production design , the castles , outdoors and tournaments or jousts are well staged . Luscious costumes and gowns specially suited by Ava Gardner . Colorful wide-screen cinematography by Freddie Young( David Lean's usual cameraman) . Spectacular , sensational musical score by the classic Miklos Rózsa . However this epic film never takes off as it should despite of pomp and circumstance showed . The motion picture is professionally directed by Richard Thorpe . Later on , other movies on the matter of legends of Arthur resulted to be : the musical ¨Camelot¨ (Joshua Logan), the fantastic ¨Excalibur¨ (John Boorman) and recently ¨King Arthur¨(Antoine Fuqua). The picture will appeal to aficionados with chivalric ideals and historic movies fans . Was the above review useful to you? 17 out of 26 people found the following review useful: A toast to Camelot from Ramsey, New Jersey 7 February 1999 Swordfighting and battle-scenes galore! This was the first armored knight movie that I saw as a child. Loved it and never forgot it. Great cast, very colorful and lots of action. Robert Taylor at his swashbuckling best all dressed in bright red as Sir Lancelot. Stanley Baker as the treacherous and dark villain, Modred. And of course, Mel Ferrer as noble King Arthur, with Ava Gardner as the beautiful and vunerable Queen Guinevere. What more could a kid want? Was the above review useful to you? 17 out of 27 people found the following review useful: Colorful Entertaining Myth from United States 25 May 2006 This is a fine example of '50's style epics. Big name cast, colorful costumes,flashy swordplay, beautiful damsels and wild inaccuracies. The great Robert Taylor, who starred in several historical movies, is the honorable Sir Lancelot, a far more noble and pure portrayal than was recorded in all the legends, Ava Gardner is the stunningly beautiful Queen Guinevere, the ever dependable Felix Aylmer is the mysterious Merlin, Mel Ferer is a somewhat subdued and less than charismatic King Arthur. See it for the spectacle, costumes, word-play filled dialog and over the top Stanley Baker as Sir Mordred. Lancelot's joust with Niall Mac Ginnis is very well done. 8 stars for pure eye filling entertainment value. Was the above review useful to you? 9 out of 12 people found the following review useful: Hooray! from United Kingdom 6 April 2012 Knights of the Round Table is directed by Richard Thorpe and adapted to screenplay by Talbot Jennings, Noel Langley & Jan Lustig from the novel Le Morte d'Arthur written by Sir Thomas Malory. It stars Robert Taylor, Ava Gardner, Mel Ferrer, Stanley Baker, Anne Crawford and Felix Aylmer. Music is scored by Miklós Rózsa and cinematography by Stephen Dade and Freddie Young. An interesting spin on the Arthurian legend for MGM, who film it in Cinemascope (first time for the studio) and dress it up grandly as the actors have a good old time in the days of yore. Here the romantic angle comes via Lancelot (Taylor) and Guinevere (Gardner) having lusty lustations for one and other that cause a tremble in the stability of Camelot. With Guinevere to marry King Arthur, and both she and the heroic Lancelot loyal to the King and his ideals for Camelot, it's not a real problem until the dastardly Modred (Baker) and the scheming Morgan le Fay (Crawford) start to throw spanners into the works that result in murder, suspicion and war. It's all very fanciful stuff, full of derring-do machismo, but the action is well staged by Thorpe (cracking finale between good and evil), the outer location photography at Tintagel in Cornwall is most pleasing, Rózsa's score sweeps in and out of the well dressed sets and the cast do their director proud by not overdoing the material to hand. Yes it inevitably hasn't aged particularly well, and modern film fans may balk at the many passages of detailed chatter in the well developed script, but this comes from a grand old time in cinema. When production value meant hard graft in front of and behind the camera . Honour and integrity is not only big within the story itself, it's also themes that apply to the film makers as well. Hooray! 7.5/10 Was the above review useful to you? Page 1 of 4:
Mordred
What sort of creature is an Alewife?
Knights of the Round Table (1953) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Knights of the Round Table ( 1953 ) Approved | King Arthur's rule is threatened by the adulterous love between Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere, a relationship the king's enemies hope to exploit. Director: a list of 26 titles created 30 May 2012 a list of 22 titles created 23 Jul 2012 a list of 27 titles created 8 months ago a list of 35 titles created 2 months ago a list of 30 titles created 1 month ago Title: Knights of the Round Table (1953) 6.3/10 Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 2 nominations. See more awards  » Videos A knight seeks to free the captive King Richard and put him back on the throne. Director: Richard Thorpe A young Viking prince strives to become a knight in King Arthur's Court and restore his exiled father to his rightful throne. Director: Henry Hathaway Technicolor and tights. In the days of King Henry IV, stalwart young Myles of Crisby Dale, and his sister Meg, have been raised as peasants, without any knowledge of their father's true ... See full summary  » Director: Rudolph Maté A fierce Roman commander becomes infatuated with a beautiful Christian hostage and begins questioning the tyrannical leadership of the despot Emperor Nero. Directors: Mervyn LeRoy, Anthony Mann Stars: Robert Taylor, Deborah Kerr, Leo Genn Trials and tribulations beset the one hundred odd settlers that journey to Virginia in 1620 including unexpectedly arriving in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Director: Clarence Brown 18th century France. A man sets out to avenge the death of his friend at the hands of a master swordsman. Director: George Sidney Writer Harry Street reflects on his life as he lies dying from an infection while on safari in the shadow of Mount Kilamanjaro. Directors: Henry King, Roy Ward Baker Stars: Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward, Ava Gardner The death of Marcus Aurelius leads to a succession crisis, in which the deceased emperor's son, Commodus, demonstrates that he is unwilling to let anything undermine his claim to the Roman Empire. Director: Anthony Mann A Scottish knight in France to facilitate a marriage between a rich and beautiful countess and his aging uncle becomes involved in court intrigue. Director: Richard Thorpe Chorus girl Eadie is determined to marry a millionaire without sacrificing her virtue. Directors: Jack Conway, Sam Wood Stars: Jean Harlow, Franchot Tone, Lionel Barrymore D'Artagnan and his musketeer comrades thwart the plans of Royal Prime Minister Richelieu to usurp the King's power. Director: George Sidney An Englishman vacationing in a Ruritarian kingdom is recruited to impersonate his cousin, the soon-to-be-crowned king when the monarch is drugged and kidnapped. Director: Richard Thorpe Edit Storyline King Arthur establishes the greatest reign England has ever seen, and along for the ride are his indispensable Knights of the Round Table, particularly Sir Lancelot. Then, Arthur finds himself a bride, the beautiful Guenivere. While she loves Arthur, she also loves Lancelot and though Lancelot repeatedly fights it, he loves her, too. Treachery is brewing as the evil Morgan le Fay and her knight Sir Modred work to trap them. So begins the decline and eventual fall of Arthur and Camelot. Written by Tommy Peter All the glory and splendor of King Arthur's court Genres: 15 January 1954 (USA) See more  » Also Known As: Los caballeros del rey Arturo See more  » Filming Locations: 4-Track Stereo (Western Electric Sound System) Color: Did You Know? Trivia Powerscourt waterfall in Co. Wicklow Ireland was also used in two other Arthurian epics, "Excalibur" and "King Arthur". See more » Goofs During the final sword fight, the long swords are clearly flimsy props. The blades bend and vibrate with each hit, one battler tried to spear his opponent and hit the rock face of the cliff behind him and the tip of the sword was crumpled like it was aluminum. See more » Quotes Mighty spectacle about the King Arthur and the famed romance in color magnificence 24 April 2007 | by ma-cortes – See all my reviews This MGM's first Cinemascope production from the company and producers (Pandro S Berman)that gave you ¨Quo Vadis¨ , ¨Ivanhoe¨ among others and only MGM could bring it so magnificently to the screen . The classic story of romantic adventure come to life enriched by Technicolor and with such great stars as Robert Taylor (Lanzarote) , Ava Gardner (Guinevere) , Mel Ferrer(Arthur) in the classic love triangle . Adding apparition the ¨Knights of the Round Table¨ as Percival (Woof) looking for the Holy Grail , Gaiwan( Robert Urqhuart) , the evil Modred (Stanley Baker) and Merlin (Felix Aylmer) and Morgana LeFay (Crawford) . This is an overwhelming tale with adventures , villainy , romance and heroism in the grandeur of Cinemascope although in television set loses splendor . In spite of there aren't real documents about legendary feats of King Arthur , allegedly in VI century King of Bretons , were created on XII century some writings by French notorious authors who romanticized the legend as Chretien of Troyes and Thomas Malory that wrote the Bretons series with their knights looking for the Holy Grail . Besides , Godofredo of Mormouth publicized in 1136 the ¨History Regnum Britanniae¨ and in XX century John Steinbeck wrote about the events of King Arthur . The story concerns when the Romans had withdrawn Britain and the Roman Empire dissolved into chaos , then rules the king Arthur , he achieved to maintain the Christianity and civilization in the west of England , though no exactly congruent with the VI century , time was presumed to have lived but the film is developed in a high medieval panoply . The movie displays breathtaking battles and epic confrontation with a terrific final climax for a mortal duel . The magnificent battle scenes are obviously copied from Henry V at Agincourt , brought to life a decade earlier by Laurence Olivier . Excellent production design , the castles , outdoors and tournaments or jousts are well staged . Luscious costumes and gowns specially suited by Ava Gardner . Colorful wide-screen cinematography by Freddie Young( David Lean's usual cameraman) . Spectacular , sensational musical score by the classic Miklos Rózsa . However this epic film never takes off as it should despite of pomp and circumstance showed . The motion picture is professionally directed by Richard Thorpe . Later on , other movies on the matter of legends of Arthur resulted to be : the musical ¨Camelot¨ (Joshua Logan), the fantastic ¨Excalibur¨ (John Boorman) and recently ¨King Arthur¨(Antoine Fuqua). The picture will appeal to aficionados with chivalric ideals and historic movies fans . 13 of 17 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you? Yes
i don't know
Which singer had a backing group called the Pips?
Why Did Gladys Knight’s Background Singers Call Themselves The Pips? Why Did Gladys Knight’s Background Singers Call Themselves The Pips? Billy Johnson, Jr. Pin it Share Bubba Knight, an original member of Gladys Knight and The Pips, sang Al Green's "Love and Happiness" and The Beatles' "Yesterday" Wednesday and Friday night during a segment of his sister's set on the "Soul Train Cruise." In an exclusive interview with Yahoo Music, the talented singer, who incorporated a number of comedic bits in his performance, explained why the group was called The Pips. After a seven year old Gladys won the televised singing competition Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour TV show in 1952, she later formed a singing group with her siblings and cousins. "After she won Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour that's when we had a party in my backyard, and that's when Gladys Knight and The Pips performed because this guy took his record player home and we decided to give a talent show with everybody that was left," Bubba said. "And, we decided to sing, my two cousins and my older sister Brenda." When their mother heard them sing together she suggested that they form a group. "The name Pip came from my first cousin," he said at the 6:02 mark in the above video interview. "His name is James Woods, but he was a man around town and his nickname was Pip. He bought our wardrobe. He took us around to different spots. He was instrumental in getting us into different contests that we eventually won, and when we got ready to go even further with our careers we decided to name the group The Pips after James Woods, in honor of him." Though Gladys Knight and The Pips released their last album in 1987 and Gladys left the group in 1988, Bubba remained an instrumental part of his sister's career, helping her determine which songs to perform during concerts and helping her select songs for her albums. Bubba, 71, said he is finally ready to pursue a solo career. "I feel that I've done as much as I could do to get Gladys' career off the ground," he said with a laugh. "Now, it's time for her to stand on her own two feet." Bubba wants his solo material to reach the masses. He wants to record "music that will appeal to a broad variety of people, like young and old," he said. "I don't want to lose my senior citizens because I'm a representative of the senior citizens." Though Bubba released his first album with Gladys Knight and The Pips more than 50 years ago, there's still one honor he hopes to achieve. "One of my aspirations is I want to get a Grammy," he said. "I want a Grammy for the Best New Artist." Follow me on Facebook , Twitter . Reblog
Gladys Knight
Who was the only female competitor not to be given a sex test at the 1976 Olympics?
Edward Patten Spectropop remembers EDWARD PATTEN (1939 - 2005) Edward Patten of Gladys Knight & the Pips, who had lived in Detroit since 1964 when the outfit joined Motown Records, died recently at St. Mary Hospital in Livonia. He was 65 and had been in ill health since a series of strokes beginning in 1995 left him unable to sing. Besides singing bass and then tenor - his voice had incredible range - on harmonies backing up the Pips' lead singer, Gladys Knight, Edward Patten also served as one of the group's choreographers as well as the treasurer who made sure that promoters paid and that the travel and accommodation plans were set. "When Edward and Langston George became part of the group, we danced a whole 'nother way," said William Guest, one of the original Pips. "He was that type of guy. He made sure that we did things right. We called him Daddy Patten. He was no more than two to three years older than me and a year older than Langston, but we respected him." Patten, Guest and Knight are cousins. Renee Ivory Patten said she met her husband to be in 1965 at Bishop College in Dallas where she was a student. She was helping to set up for a concert that night and the Pips came through to do a sound check. "He, Bubba (Knight's brother Merald) and William walked through the auditorium," she said. "Edward told them, 'That's going to be my wife - don't go near her.' He was persistent." The two married in 1968 and bought a home in Detroit's Sherwood Forest neighborhood, where they raised their three children and frequently hosted his other four children from an earlier marriage and relationships. The Pips formed in Atlanta during the early 1950s with three women and two men, Guest said. The group became Gladys Knight & the Pips after a promoter in Atlanta released a recording of their song "Every Beat Of My Heart" without having a contract with the Pips. Another record company that also wanted to release the song said the group had to change its name. The group became a prominent part of the Motown music scene into the 1970s with hits such as "Neither One Of Us (Wants To Be The First To Say Goodbye)" and "Midnight Train To Georgia". Their string of pop soul hits from 1967 to 1971 also included "Everybody Needs Love", "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", "It Should Have Been Me" and "Friendship Train". Gladys Knight & the Pips won four Grammys and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996. Besides his wife, Edward Patten is survived by three daughters; Stephanie, Sonya and Renee Ishanta Patten; sons Stephen, Elliott and Edward Patten II and Darrin Skinner; and seven grandchildren. His funeral took place at the New Prospect Baptist Church in Detroit. Jack Kreksnak - Detroit Free Press Edward Patten, singer: born August 2nd, 1939 - died February 25th, 2005.  
i don't know
Who co-produced the album Thriller with Michael Jackson?
Michael Jackson - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Your continued donations keep Wikipedia running!     Michael Jackson For other persons named Michael Jackson, see Michael Jackson (disambiguation) . Michael Jackson Michael Jackson on May 14 , 1984 . Background information Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29 , 1958 ) is an American musician and entertainer whose successful music career and controversial personal life have been at the forefront of pop culture for the last quarter-century. Jackson began his musical career at the age of seven as the lead singer of The Jackson 5 and released his first solo recording, Got to Be There in 1971, while remaining a member of the group. [2] He began a full-fledged solo career in 1979 and formally parted with his siblings in 1984. [3] In his solo career, Jackson recorded and co-produced the best-selling album of all time , Thriller , which was named as the world's best-selling album at the 2006 World Music Awards . It has worldwide sales exceeding that of 104 million. [4] Michael Jackson has received thirteen Grammy awards [5] and charted thirteen number-one singles in the United States . Throughout his four-decade career, Michael Jackson has been awarded numerous honors including the World Music Award 's Best-Selling Pop Male Artist of the Millennium, American Music Award 's Artist of the Century Award [6] and the Bambi Award 's Pop Artist of the Millennium Award. [7] He is a double-inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (once as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1997, and as a solo artist in 2001) [8] and an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame . [9] Raymone Bain , Jackson's PR , claims that Jackson has sold over 750 million units worldwide. [10] From 1988 to 2005, Jackson lived on his Neverland Ranch property, on which he built an amusement park and private zoo for economically disadvantaged and terminally ill children. His frequently held sleepover parties received disparaging media coverage after it was revealed that children frequently shared his bed or bedroom. These first came to light when he was accused of child sexual abuse in 1993 . His sleepover parties were brought into the spotlight again in 2003 during the TV documentary Living with Michael Jackson . This resulted in Jackson being tried, and later acquitted , of more child molestation allegations and several other charges in 2005. Contents The cover to Michael Jackson's 1971's Got to Be There . Michael Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana . He is the second-youngest brother of seven and the eighth of ten children of Joseph and Katherine Jackson . In 1966, after taking co-lead singing duties with brother Jermaine , the group's name changed from The Jackson Brothers to The Jackson 5 . The group played at local clubs and bars, building up a following and eventually signing a contract with Motown Records in 1968. [11] The group hit stardom, with their first four singles which charted at number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 . As a solo artist, Jackson released Got to Be There in 1971 and Ben in 1972. These were released as part of the Jackson 5 franchise and produced successful singles such as " Got to Be There ", " Ben ", and a remake of Bobby Day 's " Rockin' Robin ". The group's sales declined after 1973, and the group chafed under Motown's strict refusal to allow the Jacksons creative control or input. In 1976, the group signed a new contract with CBS Records (first joining the Philadelphia International division and then Epic Records ). [12] When this became apparent to Motown Records , they sued the group for breach of contract. As a result of the legal proceedings, which were complicated further by the fact that Jermaine Jackson was married to the daughter of Motown president ( Berry Gordy ), the Jacksons lost the rights to use the "Jackson 5" name and logo and also Jermaine, who wanted to stay at Motown. [13] They changed their name to "The Jacksons", featuring youngest brother Randy in Jermaine's place, and continued their successful career, touring internationally and releasing six more albums between 1976 and 1984, with Jermaine eventually re-joining in 1983, making them a sextet. In 1978, Jackson starred as the scarecrow in The Wiz with former-label mate Diana Ross playing Dorothy. [14] The songs for the musical were arranged by Quincy Jones , who established a partnership with Jackson during the film's production and agreed to produce his first solo album in four years. Off the Wall , released in 1979, was a worldwide hit, and became the first album in history to spawn four top-ten hits, including " Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough " and " Rock With You ". [2] In January 1980, Jackson won his first awards for his solo efforts at the American Music Awards. He won "Favorite Soul/R&B Album" (for Off The Wall), "Favorite Male Soul/R&B Artist" and Favorite Soul/R&B Single (for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough"). [2] Later that month, he also won two Billboard Awards (for "Top Black Artist" and "Top Black Album"). [2] On February 27 , 1980 , Jackson won a Grammy Award for "Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male" (for "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough"). [2] 1982–1986: The Thriller era Main articles: Thriller (album) , We Are The World , and Captain EO The original album cover to 1982's Thriller . In November 1982, the storybook for E.T.: The Extra-terrestrial was released. It included Jackson reading the story as well as one original song ("Someone in the Dark"). The album later won a Grammy for "Best Album for Children". In December 1982, Jackson released his second Epic album, Thriller, which became the best-selling album in music history. The album spawned seven hit singles, including " Billie Jean " (which was the first music video by a black artist to receive regular airplay on MTV ), " Beat It " and the album's title track which was accompanied by a revolutionary music video . The thirteen-minute " Thriller " was critically acclaimed, and massive airplay lead to it being packaged with the featurette "Making Michael Jackson's "Thriller" on VHS , where it became the best-selling music home video ever. [15] Thriller spent 37 weeks at number-one and remained on the Billboard album chart for 122 weeks. It was eventually certified 27x Platinum in the United States . [16] Jackson with the Reagans in 1984. In 1983, whilst performing "Billie Jean" at the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever concert Jackson debuted what can be regarded as his signature move: the moonwalk . [15] In 1983, he started a sponsorship deal with Pepsi-Cola , and, as part of the deal, he agreed to star in a commercial. While filming a Pepsi commercial with his brothers in 1984, before a live audience, his hair caught on fire when a pyrotechnic effect went wrong. Jackson suffered serious burns on his scalp, which required skin grafts . [17] In February 1984, Jackson is nominated for twelve Grammy awards and wins eight, [15] breaking the record for the most Grammy awards won in a single year. [18] Seven were for the critically acclaimed Thriller and the other for the E.T.: The Extra-terrestrial storybook. In 1984, he also won eight American Music Awards and the "Special Award of Merit" and three MTV Video Music Awards. After reuniting with his brothers, he then helped to write the Victory album. He then performed and starred in the successful Victory Tour which started on July 6 , 1984 and lasted for five months. [15] In 1985 , Jackson was invited to the White House and was personally thanked by then-President Ronald Reagan at a White House ceremony for donating the song " Beat It " for use in drunk driving prevention television and radio public service announcements . [19] Jackson continued his charity work in 1985 by co-writing, with Lionel Richie , the hit single " We Are the World ". The charity single helped to raise money and awareness for the famine in East Africa and was one of the first instances where Jackson was seen as a humanitarian . The song also won a Grammy Award for "Song of the Year". [15] Jackson in the video for " Beat It ". Controversy began when Jackson purchased shares in the ATV Music Publishing (a company which owned the rights to most of the Beatles ' songs), making himself the majority shareholder . This move angered close friend and songwriter Paul McCartney , who had also made a bid for the company. Ironically, it was McCartney who advised Jackson on the merits of song ownership. [20] Their creative co-writing ended after this event. Following this controversial business deal, tabloid stories of Jackson sleeping in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to stall the aging-process, and an allegation claiming Jackson attempted to purchase the bones of the Elephant Man inspired the pejorative nickname "Wacko Jacko". The name "Wacko Jacko" would come to be detested by Jackson. [21] In 1986, Jackson starred in the George Lucas -produced, Francis Ford Coppola -directed 3-D film Captain EO . The film lasted 17 minutes but had costs estimated at $ 17 million. [22] At the time, it was the most expensive film ever produced on a per-minute basis. In the USA, the Disney theme parks hosted Captain EO. Disneyland featured the film in tomorrow-land from September 18 , 1986 until April 7 , 1997 . It was also featured in Walt Disney World in Epcot from September 12 , 1986 until July 6 , 1994 . 1987–1990: Bad and controversies Main articles: Bad (album) and Physical appearance of Michael Jackson Michael Jackson in February, 1988 aged 29. In 1987, Jackson released Bad ; his third album for the Epic record label, and final album with producer Quincy Jones . [15] He initially wanted to make the album 30 tracks long, but Jones cut this down to 10. According to Jones, Jackson wanted the title track to be a duet with Prince who later declined the duet. Jones said the reason given by Prince was that he thought the song would be a hit whether he was in it or not. [23] In comparison to Thriller, Bad had lower sales but it was still a huge commercial success. It spawned seven hit singles, [15] of which five went to number-one, those being: " I Just Can't Stop Loving You ", " Bad ", " The Way You Make Me Feel ", " Man in the Mirror ", and " Dirty Diana ". The album went onto sell 29 million copies worldwide; the RIAA eventually certified Bad at 8x Platinum. [24] In September 1987, he embarked upon his first solo world tour, the Bad World Tour . The tour lasted sixteen months, in which Jackson performed at 123 concerts, to over 4.4 million fans worldwide. Jackson insisted on a personal bus, plane and helicopter to be available to him all at the same time. [25] Jackson hired film director Martin Scorsese to direct the video for the album's title track. [26] When the 18-minute music video debuted on TV, it sparked a great deal of controversy as it became apparent that Jackson's appearance had changed dramatically. [27] Although Jackson's skin color was a medium-brown color for the entire duration of his youth, his skin had been becoming paler gradually since 1982, and had become a light brown color. This change became so noticeable that it gained widespread media coverage with some tabloid's claiming that it was due to Jackson bleaching his skin. Another significant reason for the change in appearance was the use of plastic surgery . Despite a number of surgeons' claims that Jackson had undergone multiple nasal surgeries as well as a forehead lift, thinned lips and cheekbone surgery, [28] Jackson wrote in his 1988 autobiography Moon Walk that he only had two rhinoplastic surgeries and the surgical creation of a cleft in his chin, while attributing puberty and diet to the noticeable change in the structure of his face. [29] The success Jackson achieved during this period in his career led to him to be dubbed the "King of Pop", a nickname which he continues to be referred to by fans. There are various conflicting reports as to the origin of the nickname. According to Jackson, it was conceived by actress and long-term friend Elizabeth Taylor when she presented Jackson with an "Artist of the Decade" award in 1989, proclaiming him "the true king of pop , rock and soul ". Additionally, this period saw Jackson enjoy "a level of superstardom previously known only to Elvis Presley , the Beatles and Frank Sinatra ". [8] 1991–1994: Dangerous and further career Main articles: Dangerous (album) , 1993 child molestation allegations against Michael Jackson , and Michael Jackson marriages and children In November 1991, Michael Jackson released Dangerous . The major hit from Dangerous was " Black or White ". The single was accompanied by a controversial video which featured scenes of a sexual nature as well as violence and racism . The video was banned on most music-television channels until these scenes were removed. [30] On February 10 , 1992 , MTV kicked off its first global sweepstakes with "My Dinner with Michael". Winners from around the world attended a dinner party hosted by Michael Jackson on the set of his music video " In the Closet ". Later that year, a biopic, The Jacksons: An American Dream debuted on ABC based on the true story of the rise of The Jackson 5. Jackson founded the "Heal the World Foundation" (named after his humanitarian single " Heal the World ") in 1992. The charity organization brought underprivileged children to Jackson's Neverland Ranch , located outside Santa Ynez, California , to go on theme park rides which Jackson had built on the property after he purchased it in 1988. In January 1993, Michael Jackson performed during the halftime show at Super Bowl XXVII . It drew one of the largest viewing audience in the history of American television. [31] On the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1993, Jackson claimed that the change in his skin color was due to vitiligo . [32] In the interview, Jackson stated that his skin was, at first, black with white spots which he used make-up to cover. But later, some time after Thriller, his skin became increasingly white with black spots; he then used white make-up to cover the black spots. Oprah Winfrey speaking with Michael Jackson on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 1993. Jackson was reported to be inviting or allowing children to sleepover at Neverland. This practice came under much media and public scrutiny in 1993 when allegations of child molestation were brought against Jackson by a child who had stayed with him on several occasions. That year, Jordan Chandler , the son of former Beverly Hills dentist Evan Chandler, represented by civil lawyer Larry Feldman, accused Jackson of child sexual abuse . On December 22 Jackson responded to the allegations via satellite from his Neverland compound, and claimed to be "totally innocent of any wrongdoing". On January 25 , 1994 , Jackson settled out of court with the accuser for an undisclosed sum, reported to be $ 20 million, and was not charged. [33] After the allegations were settled in 1994, Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley , the daughter of Elvis Presley . Despite some comments questioning the validity of this union, Presley maintained during their marriage that they both shared a married couple's life and were sexually active. [34] They divorced less than two years later. 1995–2000: HIStory and Blood on the Dance Floor Jackson in the video for " They Don't Care About Us ". In June 1995, Jackson released HIStory: Past, Present And Future - Book I . [35] The first disc, HIStory Begins, was a fifteen-track greatest hits album (this disc was later released as Greatest Hits - HIStory Vol. I in 2001), while the second disc, HIStory Continues, contained fifteen new songs. The first single released from HIStory was " Scream ". The single reached the top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video for "Scream" is currently the most expensive music video ever made . [36] On September 7, 1995 at the MTV Video Music Awards, Jackson and Janet Jackson won three awards for the song "Scream", from HIStory. At the awards show, Jackson also performed a medley, "Billie Jean", "Dangerous" and "You Are Not Alone". "They Don't Care About Us" was the fourth single released from HIStory, and caused controversy over anti-Semitic lyrics. The song contained the lyrics "Jew me, sue me" and "kick me, kike me". After significant pressure from the Jewish community, later releases changed the verse to the same-sounding "do me, sue me" and "kick me, hike me" or censored it with a thumping sound. To promote the album, Jackson embarked on the successful HIStory World Tour . [35] On November 14 , 1996 , during the Australian leg of the tour, Jackson married his dermatologist's nurse Deborah Jeanne Rowe , with whom he fathered a son, Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr. (also known as "Prince"), and a daughter, Paris Katherine Jackson. Jackson and Rowe divorced in 1999. Jackson later said that Rowe wanted him to have the children as a "gift". [37] The paternity of Michael Jackson's children has been heavily debated by the public. Jackson has always maintained that his first two children were conceived naturally. However the The Sun made two controversial claims about Jackson's parentage: first, that Jackson conceived his first child via artificial insemination using his own sperm and, second, that the second child, Paris, was conceived in and named after Paris, France, where Jackson had gone to console Rowe for his having taken her first child, and all parental rights from Rowe. Jackson at the Brit Awards in 1996. At the 1996 Brit Awards , Jackson performed the track " Earth Song ", dressed in white and surrounded by children and an actor portraying a Rabbi. In an attempt to recreate a scene from the video - where he is spreading his arms between two trees - it seemed that Jackson was making Christ-like poses whilst being lifted into the air by a crane with a wind machine blowing back his hair. Pulp lead singer Jarvis Cocker and his friend Peter Mansell mounted a stage invasion in protest. Cocker leapt onstage, pretended to expose his rear, danced and sat back down. In response to the ensuing media scrutiny of the action, Cocker responded, "My actions were a form of protest at the way Michael Jackson sees himself as some kind of Christ-like figure with the power of healing... I just ran on the stage and showed off... All I was trying to do was make a point and do something that lots of other people would have loved to have done if only they'd dared". [38] Cocker received vocal support from the British press: the March 2 , 1996 edition of Melody Maker , for example, suggested Cocker should be knighted, while Noel Gallagher claimed "Jarvis Cocker is a star and he should be given MBE ". Gallagher said of Jackson's behavior: "for Michael Jackson to come over to this country after what's all gone on - and I think we all know what I'm talking about here - to dress in a white robe, right, thinking he's the Messiah - I mean who does he think he is? Me?" [39] The cover of Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix . In 1997, Jackson released an album of new material with remixes of hit singles from HIStory titled Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix . [35] The album's five original songs were named " Blood On The Dance Floor ", "Is It Scary?", "Ghosts", "Superfly Sister" and "Morphine". Of the new songs, three were released globally: the title track, "Ghosts", and "Is It Scary?". The title track reached number-one in the UK. The singles "Ghosts" and "Is It Scary" were based on a film created by Jackson called " Ghosts ". [40] The short film, written by Michael Jackson and Stephen King and directed by Stan Winston, features many special effects and dance moves choreographed to original music written by Michael Jackson. [41] The music video for "Ghosts" is over 35 minutes long and is currently the Worlds Longest Music Video. [42] Jackson dedicated the album to Elton John , who reportedly helped him through his addiction to painkillers , notably morphine . In 1998 Jackson reached an out-of-court settlement with the Daily Mirror , which apologized for having described his face as "hideously disfigured and scarred". Steven Hoefflin, a high-profile Hollywood plastic surgeon alleged to have operated on Jackson's nose was, according to the press, also advising him against further surgery. [25] 2001–2003: Invincible, Berlin and Martin Bashir Main articles: Invincible (album) and Living with Michael Jackson In October 2001, Invincible was released [43] and debuted at number-one in thirteen countries. [31] The singles released from the album include " You Rock My World ", " Cry ", and " Butterflies ". Jackson and 35 other artists recorded a charity benefit single entitled " What More Can I Give " which was never released. Just before the release of Invincible, Jackson informed the head of Sony Music Entertainment, Tommy Mottola , that he was not going to renew his contract; [44] the contract was about to expire in terms of supplying the label with albums of full-new material for release through Epic Records / SME . In 2002, all singles releases, video shootings and promotions concerning the Invincible album were cancelled. As a result of this, Jackson made allegations about Mottola not supporting its African-American artists. [44] Jackson referred to Mottola as a "devil" and a "racist" who used black artists for his own personal gain. [44] He cited that Mottola called Jackson's colleague Irv Gotti a "fat nigger ". [45] [46] Sony issued a statement stating that they found the allegations strange, since Mottola was once married to biracial pop star Mariah Carey . Carey herself seemed nonchalant about Jackson's claims when asked about them by Larry King on Larry King Live . [47] On September 7 and September 10 , 2001 , Jackson organised a special 30th Anniversary celebration at Madison Square Garden for his 30th year of being a solo artist. Later, the show aired on November 13 , 2001 . [43] It featured performances by Mýa , Usher , Whitney Houston , Billy Gilman , Shaggy , Rayvon , Rikrok , Destiny's Child , Monica , Deborah Cox , Rah Digga , Tamia , James Ingram , Gloria Estefan , 98 Degrees , Luther Vandross , Liza Minnelli , Lil' Romeo , Master P , 'N Sync , the Jacksons and Slash . [48] In late 2002, Jackson's Heal the World Foundation had net assets of just $ 3,542 and reported $2,585 in expenses, mostly for "management fees". The foundation has been suspended in California since April 2002 for failing to file annual statements required of tax-exempt organizations, said John Barrett, spokesman for the state Franchise Tax Board. [49] Michael Jackson holding his youngest son over a balcony railing. In November 2002, Jackson travelled to Berlin to accept an award for his humanitarian efforts. He was surrounded by fans outside his room at the Hotel Adlon who were chanting in approval of the singer. According to the pop star, they also called out to see his baby. In response, Jackson brought his son onto the balcony, holding him in his right arm with a towel over the baby's head, apparently to protect his identity. Jackson briefly extended the baby over the railing of the balcony. This raised concern as some perceived his actions as child endangerment . Jackson quickly returned the child to the room. After watching media coverage of the Berlin event, a California attorney and radio talk show host, Gloria Allred , wrote a letter to California's Child Protective Services, asking for an investigation into the safety of Jackson's children. She also spoke on CNN about the subject. Child Protective Services does not make their investigations public, so it is not known whether any action was taken as a result of Allred's letter. When a reporter asked Jackson what he thought of Allred's complaints, he remarked "Ah, tell her to go to hell". [50] In the documentary Living with Michael Jackson, Jackson said that the media was wrong in their comments about him being irresponsible with his children, "I love my children", he explained. "I was holding my son tight. Why would I throw a baby off the balcony? That's the dumbest, stupidest story I ever heard". In February 2003, a controversial documentary titled Living with Michael Jackson aired in the UK (on the 3rd) and in the US (on the 6th). The documentary included interviews with Jackson which included information on his private life. [51] British journalist Martin Bashir and his film crew filmed Jackson for 18 months, also capturing his controversial behavior in Berlin . One particular part of the documentary, which stirred controversy and raised a significant level of concern, showed Jackson holding hands with a then 13-year-old cancer victim Gavin Arviso, and admitting to sharing his bedroom with him (but not in the same bed) as well as sharing his bed (non-sexually) with other children. Jackson felt betrayed by Bashir and complained that the film gives a distorted picture. [52] In response to the media scrutiny, two specials were aired: Michael Jackson: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See and Michael Jackson's Private Home Movies. [53] Michael Jackson: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See which aired later in February showed uncut footage of the Living with Michael Jackson documentary. The Michael Jackson's Private Home Movies aired in April was a 2-hour special with footage of Michael Jackson's home videos and included commentary by Jackson. In June 2003, Jackson's friend, actor Marlon Brando , signed a half-acre plot of land on his island Tetiaroa to Jackson, in gratitude for Jackson hosting a party for Brando's daughter, Nina, then aged 13. [54] 2003–2006: Trial, acquittal and the aftermath Main articles: People v. Jackson , Michael Jackson post trial lawsuits , and I Have This Dream In November 2003, Michael Jackson and Sony Records released a compilation of his number-one hits on CD and DVD titled Number Ones . The compilation has sold over six million copies worldwide. [55] On the album's scheduled release date, while Michael Jackson was in Las Vegas filming the video for " One More Chance " (the only new song included in the Number Ones compilation), the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department searched the Neverland Ranch and issued an arrest warrant for Jackson on charges of new child molestation. [56] Jackson was accused of sexual abuse by Gavin Arviso, who appeared in the Living with Michael Jackson documentary earlier that year. The allegations later led to a trial in which Jackson was found not guilty of all charges. [57] Jackson converted to the Nation of Islam on December 17 , 2003 . [58] Later in 2005, because of his links with the Bahrain Royal Family, he converted to Sunni Islam . [59] Jackson in 2003 , during his arrest on child molestation charges Marlon Brando , who was a frequent user of the Internet , [60] informed Jackson on February 8 , 2004 that the declarations made by Jordy Chandler relating to the 1993 child molestation allegations had been published on the internet site The Smoking Gun . This happened when Jackson was about to start an interview with journalist Ed Bradley for 60 Minutes . Jackson immediately left the studio and did not conduct the interview. [61] Jackson also attended Brando's memorial service in 2004 along with Sean Penn , Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty . Also on August 6, 2004 , Man In The Mirror: The Michael Jackson Story debuted on VH1 starring Flex Alexander as Michael Jackson. [62] Rapper Eminem parodied new allegations raised against Jackson by Gavin Arviso in his music video for " Just Lose It " in 2004. The clip caused controversy and fueled Jackson to make a statement. The People v. Jackson trial began in Santa Maria, California on January 31 , 2005 and lasted less than a month. On June 10 , Jackson's PR, Raymone Bain was reportedly fired. [63] Jackson's now-defunct website cited that "MJJ Productions regretfully announces the termination of Raymone Bain and Davis, Bain and Associates. We thank you for your services". Bain later told the Associated Press that she had not been fired and that only Michael Jackson, not his production company (operated at the time by his brother, Randy Jackson ), could fire her. [64] Bain continues releasing press statements and answering media enquiries on behalf of Michael Jackson, and was named general manager of The Michael Jackson Company, Inc. on June 27, 2006. [65] On June 13 , Jackson was acquitted of all ten charges, including four additional lesser ones. CNN later reported that one of the jurors, Ray Hultman, believed he had committed child sex crimes in the past but there was not enough evidence to prove it, [66] and he and another juror announced impending books on their experiences in the trial. In September 2005, it was reported that Ray Hultman, one of the jurors, took legal action against the publisher of his book about experiences in the trial, claiming heavy portions were plagiarized from a Vanity Fair article. Hultman also stated he felt "threatened" by the jury foreman Paul Rodriguez and regretted acquitting Jackson. [67] After being acquitted of the child molestation charges, Jackson relocated to the Gulf island of Bahrain , where he reportedly bought a house formerly owned by a Bahrain MP. [68] Jackson allegedly spent his time in the Gulf writing new music, including a charity single dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina entitled, " I Have This Dream ". Ciara , Snoop Dogg , R. Kelly , Keyshia Cole , James Ingram , Michael Jackson's brother Jermaine , Shanice , the Reverend Shirley Caesar and The O'Jays all reportedly lent their voices to the charity song. After many delays, the single was not released, despite being announced on September 13 , 2005 . At the time, Jackson's spokesperson, Raymone Bain, said the list included Mary J. Blige , Missy Elliott , Jay-Z , James Brown and Lenny Kravitz . It later appeared that these artists were no longer participating. [69] The charity single remains unreleased. In 2006, allegations of sexual assault were made against Jackson by a man who claims Michael Jackson molested him, intoxicated him with drugs and alcohol, and forced him to undergo unnecessary cosmetic surgery. Michael Jackson's lawyer Thomas Mesereau , who successfully defended him against allegations of child molestation in 2005, said "the charges are ridiculous on their face. They will be vigorously defended". [70] 2006–present: Visionary, Tokyo and the World Music Awards In February 2006, Jackson's label released Visionary - The Video Singles , a box set made up of twenty of his biggest hit singles, each of which were issued individually week by week over a five-month period. [71] The Visionary box set. An appeals court ruled on February 15 , that a lower court improperly terminated Deborah Rowe 's parental rights to her two children with pop star Michael Jackson, opening the door to a possible custody battle between the singer and his ex-wife. [72] The retired judge, Steven M. Lachs, acknowledged in 2004 that he failed to have state officials do an independent investigation into what was in the best interests of the children. [73] [74] As of September 29 , 2006 , the case has reportedly been settled according to the lawyers representing each party. On March 9 , 2006 , California state labor officials closed the singer's Neverland Ranch and fined him $ 69,000 for failure to provide employment insurance. The state "stop order" bars Jackson from "using any employee labor" until he secured required workers' compensation insurance. In addition to being fined $1,000 for each of his 69 workers, Jackson is liable for up to 10 days pay for those employees who now are no longer allowed to report to Neverland for work. [75] Thirty Neverland employees have also sued Jackson for $306,000 in unpaid wages. [76] Soon after this payment, Jackson's spokesperson announced on March 16 , 2006 that Jackson was closing his house at Neverland and had laid off some of the employees but added that reports of the closing of the entire ranch were inaccurate. [77] There have been many reports of a possible sale of Neverland, but nothing tangible has been reported yet. Michael Jackson with his daughter Paris Katherine at Disneyland Paris , June 18 , 2006 . In a move named by Jackson's advisors as "refinancing", it was announced on April 14 , 2006 that Jackson had struck a deal with Sony and Fortress Investments. In the deal Sony may be allowed to take control of half of Jackson's 50% stake in Sony/ATV Music Publishing (worth an estimated $1 billion) which Jackson co-owns. Jackson would be left with 25% of the catalogue, with the rest belonging to Sony. In exchange, Sony negotiated with a loans company on behalf of Jackson. Jackson's $200m in loans were due in December 2005 and were secured on the catalogue. Jackson failed to pay and the Bank of America sold them to Fortress Investments, a company dealing in distressed loans. However, Jackson hasn't as yet sold any of the remainder of his stake. The possible purchase by Sony of 25% of Sony/ATV Music Publishing is a conditional option; it is assumed the singer will try to avoid having to sell part of the catalogue of songs including material by other artists such as Bob Dylan and Destiny's Child. As another part of the deal Jackson was given a new $300 million loan, and a lower interest rate on the old loan to match the original Bank of America rate. When the loan was sold to Fortress Investments they increased the interest rate to 20%. [78] None of the details are officially confirmed. An advisor to Jackson, however, did publicly announce he had "restructured his finances with the assistance of Sony". [79] On April 18 , 2006 , Michael Jackson signed a management deal with English music producer Guy Holmes. Holmes is the recently appointed CEO of Two Seas Records , with whom Jackson has signed a recording contract for one album. The album is set for a fall 2007 release. [80] On May 27 , 2006 , Michael Jackson accepted a Legend Award at MTV Japan's VMA Awards in Tokyo . It was his first major public appearance since being found not guilty in his child molestation trial almost a year earlier. The award honors his influence and impact on music videos in the last 25 years. Following the award ceremony, Jackson also made an appearance on SMAPxSMAP . [81] In 2006 F. Marc Schaffel, a former associate of Jackson, filed a suit for millions of dollars allegedly owed to him after working with Jackson on an unreleased charity record named " What More Can I Give " and documentaries. Florida businessman Alvin Malnik, who had advised Jackson, appeared in court and stated that Jackson appeared to be bewildered by financial matters. Schaffel claimed to have made frequent loans to the singer totaling between $7 million and $10 million. Schaffel had received an urgent plea from Jackson for $1 million so that Jackson could buy jewelry for Elizabeth Taylor so that she would agree to sign a release for her involvement in a Fox special. [82] These court proceedings also brought to light unsuccessful projects planned with the actor Marlon Brando , including a dual interview at the actor's private island near Tahiti , and a DVD on acting. [82] Brando's son Miko Brando, a long time bodyguard and assistant to Jackson stated "The last time my father left his house to go anywhere, to spend any kind of time... was with Michael Jackson". "He loved it... [He] had a 24-hour chef, 24-hour security, 24-hour help, 24-hour kitchen, 24-hour maid service". [83] Michael Jackson with his children, Paris Katherine (center) and Prince Michael II (right) at Disneyland Paris , June 18 , 2006 . On July 14 , 2006 , the jury awarded Schaffel $900,000 of the original $3.8 million he sued Jackson for, which Schaffel later reduced to $1.6 million, and finally to $1.4 million. [84] The jury also awarded Jackson $200,000 plus interest of the $660,000 that Jackson claimed he was owed by Schaffel. The trial revealed that Schaffel had been dismissed after Jackson learnt of his past work as a director of gay pornography. Schaffel claimed that Jackson "once wanted him to go to Brazil to find boys for him to adopt. He later modified that statement to "children" to expand Jackson's family". [85] Jackson's lawyer Thomas Mundell said that he had never heard the allegation during the pre-trial investigation and that "it was an effort to smear Mr Jackson with a remark that could be interpreted to hurt him in light of the case against him last year". [86] On July 31 , 2006 , a federal judge allowed a $48 million claim against Jackson and one of Jackson's trusts for unpaid fees and breach of contract. All parties were ordered to reappear in court in September. [87] On November 2 and November 3 , 2006 , Access Hollywood aired a special Michael Jackson in Ireland which showed Jackson and will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas in the process of recording Jackson's new album. [88] On November 14 , 2006 , Sony officially released the Visionary box set. [89] He also visited the London office of the Guinness World Records. There, he received eight awards: "Most Successful Entertainer of All Time", "Youngest Vocalist to Top the US Singles Charts" (at the age of 11 as part of the Jackson Five ), "First Vocalist to Enter the US Singles Chart at Number One" (for " You Are Not Alone "), "First Entertainer to Earn More Than 100 million Dollars in a Year", "Highest Paid Entertainer of All Time" ($125 in 1989), "First Entertainer to Sell More Than 100 Million Albums Outside the US", "Most Weeks at the Top of the US Albums Chart" (for the album Thriller ) and "Most Successful Music Video" (for the music video Thriller ). [90] On November 15 , 2006 , Michael Jackson received the Diamond Award , for selling over 100 million albums, at the World Music Awards . This was his second public appearance at an awards show since the trial of 2005. [91] Despite substantial publicity prior to the event, [92] [93] [94] he did not perform "Thriller", limiting his performance to "one verse and one chorus" of "We are the World". [95] Coverage of the event noted that Jackson "looked uncomfortable at times" and called the appearance "an unhappy return to the London stage". [96] According to the head of public relations for the World Music Awards (Julius Just), the sound was cut due to a noise curfew. Officials at Earl's Court, the arena where the event was held, have said that this was not the case and that they had "accommodated the show and the show's organisers by obtaining an extension to our licence in order to allow the show to run to eleven o'clock". [97] Discography
Quincy Jones
In 1918, who wrote the song God Bless America?
Michael Jackson on Apple Music To preview a song, mouse over the title and click Play. Open iTunes to buy and download music. Biography Michael Jackson wasn't merely the biggest pop star of his era, shaping the sound and style of the '70s and '80s; he was one of the defining stars of the 20th century, a musician who changed the contours of American culture. A preternaturally gifted singer and dancer, Jackson first rose to stardom in 1969 as the 11-year-old frontman for his family's band, the Jackson 5. As remarkable a run as the Jackson 5 had -- at the dawn of the '70s, each of their first four singles went to number one and they stayed near the top of the charts for the next five years -- it all served as a preamble to Jackson's solo career. Off the Wall, the dazzling 1979 album co-produced by Quincy Jones, announced Jackson as a mature talent, and the singles "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" and "Rock with You" turned it into a blockbuster. Despite its success, Jackson believed Off the Wall was pigeonholed as an R&B record. Determined to break through this glass ceiling, he reunited with Jones to create Thriller, the 1982 album that shattered every music record on the books. Thriller was designed to appeal to every audience and its diversity was evident by its guests: he enlisted Eddie Van Halen to play guitar on the hard rock of "Beat It" while inviting Paul McCartney to duet on the chipper soft pop tune "The Girl Is Mine." Jackson also expanded the horizons of soul and dance music, producing pioneering masterpieces like "Billie Jean." This single provided Thriller with its 1983 breakthrough, thanks in part to its groundbreaking music video, which became the first clip from a black artist to enter steady rotation on the fledgling MTV. Jackson's smashing of the network's racial barriers was only one aspect of Thriller's unprecedented crossover. Seven of its nine songs were Top 10 hits, it earned eight Grammy awards, and topped the Billboard charts for 37 weeks, matching its American success internationally to become the biggest-selling album of all time, earning 32 platinum certifications in the US and moving over 100 million albums worldwide. Such a phenomenal triumph pushed Jackson into the stratosphere and Bad -- the eagerly-anticipated 1987 sequel to Thriller, co-produced once again with Quincy Jones -- kept him there, generating five number one singles on the Billboard charts and selling 30 million copies internationally, two thirds of which were outside of the US. Jackson parted ways with Jones for 1991's Dangerous, another global blockbuster. HIStory, a 1995 double-disc set that paired a disc of hits with a new album, produced a couple of international number one singles. Invincible, his 2001 album, turned out to be his last. Health problems culminated in his untimely death in the summer of 2009, but at that point Jackson's legend was safe: he stood alongside Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Hank Williams, Elvis Presley, Miles Davis, and Bob Dylan as one of the musicians that created the sound of America in the 20th century. Such heights came from modest beginnings. Michael was born in Gary, Indiana on August 29, 1958, the fifth son of Katherine and Joe Jackson. His mother was a Jehovah's Witness and his father a former boxer-turned-steelworker who played guitar on the side. Harboring aspirations of musical stardom, Joe shepherded his sons into a musical act around 1962. At that point, it was just the three eldest children -- Tito, Jackie, and Jermaine -- but Michael joined them in 1964 and soon dominated the group. Stealing moves from James Brown and Jackie Wilson, Michael became the epicenter of the Jackson 5 as they earned accolades at local talent shows and went on to play soul clubs throughout the Midwest, working their way toward the east coast in 1967 where they won an amateur contest at the Apollo Theater. Returning to Gary, the group cut a pair of singles for the local imprint Steeltown in 1968 -- "(I'm A) Big Boy," "We Don't Have to Be Over 21" -- but their big break arrived when they opened for Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers at Chicago's Regal Theater. Impressed, Taylor brought them to the attention of Berry Gordy, Jr., who signed the group to Motown in March of 1969 and then sent them out to Los Angeles, where he helped mastermind their national launch. "I Want You Back," a song written and produced by Motown's new crew the Corporation, saw release in October 1968 when Michael Jackson was just 11 years old. By January 1970, "I Want You Back" rocketed to number one on both the pop and R&B charts, and the Jackson 5 became a sensation, crossing over from R&B to AM pop radio with ease. Two more hits followed --" ABC" and "The Love You Save," both exuberant bubblegum soul -- before "I'll Be There" revealed Michael's facility with ballads. All three of these sequels went to number one and, striking while the iron was hot, Motown spun Michael off into a solo act. His first solo single, "Got to Be There," arrived at the end of 1971, reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100, and then a cover of Bobby Day's chestnut "Rockin' Robin" peaked at two in early 1972. Later that year, "Ben," the title theme ballad to an exploitation movie about a killer rat, earned Jackson his first Oscar nomination for Best Original Song (he would lose). Not long afterward, the careers of both Michael and the Jackson 5 slowed, victims of shifting tastes, adolescence, and creative battles with their label. One last hit for Motown arrived in 1974 -- "Dancing Machine," a single that brought the group in line with the disco explosion -- before the group departed Motown for Epic in 1975. With the new label came a new name, along with a slight lineup change: Jermaine stayed at Motown to pursue a solo career and younger brother Randy took his place. Following a pair of albums produced by Philly soul mainstays Gamble & Huff, Michael emerged as the group's creative director on 1978's Destiny, co-writing their 1979 smash "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" with Randy. By that point, Michael had already made a considerable solo impression by starring as the Scarecrow in The Wiz, Sidney Lumet's 1978 musical adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. Working on the soundtrack -- a record highlighted by his duet with Diana Ross on "Ease on Down the Road" -- he met producer Quincy Jones, a titan of jazz and pop in the '50s and '60s who had yet to score a smash in the '70s. The pair hit it off and decided to work on Jackson's next solo endeavor, but first the Jackson 5 released Destiny, which raised the profile of both the band and Michael himself. All this was preamble to Off the Wall, the 1979 album that definitively established Michael Jackson as a force of his own. Collaborating with producer Jones and songwriter Rod Temperton, Jackson consciously attempted to appeal to multiple audiences with Off the Wall, turning the album into a dazzling showcase of all his different sounds and skills. Anchored by a pair of number one hits -- the incandescent "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" and "Rock with You" -- the record turned into a smash, peaking at four on the Billboard 200, selling millions of copies as it raked in awards, but losing the grand prize of Album of the Year at the Grammys, leaving Jackson with the lingering impression that he needed to cross over into the pop mainstream with greater force. Before he could do that, he had to complete one more Jackson 5 album: 1980's Triumph, a record with three hit singles ("Lovely One," "This Place Hotel," "Can You Feel It") whose title seemed to allude to Michael's solo success and certainly benefitted from his heightened stardom. After Triumph, Jackson reunited with producer Jones and songwriter Temperton to create the sequel to Off the Wall, crafting a record that deliberately hit every mark in the musical mainstream. Paul McCartney was brought in to underscore Michael's soft rock leanings, Eddie Van Halen pushed Jackson into metallic hard rock, and the remainder of the album glided from disco to pop to soul in an effortless display of his range. "The Girl Is Mine," the first single from Thriller, didn't suggest its adventure -- Jackson played it safe by releasing the McCartney duet as the album's lead -- but the second single, "Billie Jean," forged ahead into new, unnamable territory. "Billie Jean" was a pop explosion, topping the charts in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Canada. Some of its success can no doubt be credited to its striking music video, the first to break the fledgling MTV's then-unspoken racial barrier; after Jackson, the network began playing more black acts. Some of the single's success is due to his sensational performance on Motown's 25th Anniversary Special in 1983, a performance aired on May 16, 1983 where Jackson unveiled his signature moonwalk dance -- a move that made it appear as if he was gliding backward -- and announced himself to the world as a mature talent. "Beat It," accompanied by an equally cinematic video, turned into an equally huge smash on MTV and helped push Thriller into the stratosphere. "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'," "Human Nature," and "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" kept Thriller at number one and its last single was an extravaganza, with Jackson letting director John Landis turn the song into a short musical horror film. By the time the album wrapped up its two-year run on the charts, it had racked up 37 weeks at number one and sold 29 million copies, becoming the biggest-selling album ever. Even as Thriller was something of a pop perpetual motion machine, selling records of its own accord, Jackson worked hard. He once again teamed with Paul McCartney, singing "Say Say Say" for McCartney's 1983 album Pipes of Peace, and he reunited with the Jackson 5 for 1984's Victory, supporting the album with an international tour. Prior to its launch, Jackson suffered a serious accident while filming a Pepsi commercial designed to accompany the tour. During the shoot, pyrotechnics burned Jackson's head, sending him to the hospital with second degree burns to his scalp; as he recovered, he started using pain killers for the first time. Jackson earned accolades for his philanthropic work, especially his collaboration with Lionel Richie on the 1985 charity single "We Are the World," but along with these positive notes, wild stories began to circulate in the tabloids. Some further bad press accompanied his acquisition of the Lennon and McCartney songwriting catalog in 1985, a move that severed his partnership with Paul McCartney. Jackson also flirted with becoming a movie star, working with George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola on the 3D film Captain Eo, shown only at Disney's IMAX theaters starting in 1986. Once this appeared, he started work on the task of following up Thriller. Working once again with Quincy Jones, Jackson refined the Thriller template for 1987's Bad. Like Thriller, the first single was an adult contemporary number -- "I Just Can't Stop Loving You," a duet with then unknown Siedah Garrett -- before it cranked out hits: "Bad," "The Way You Make Me Feel," "Man in the Mirror," and "Dirty Diana" all reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1987 and 1988, with "Another Part of Me" just missing the Top 10 and "Smooth Criminal" peaking at seven. Bad didn't dominate the charts in other countries but its singles reached the Top 10 internationally with some regularity, aided in part with a globe-spanning tour -- the first solo tour of Michael Jackson's career. The Bad World Tour broke records across the globe and in its wake, he started calling himself "The King of Pop," a nickname that was something of a retort to Elvis Presley being known as "The King of Rock & Roll." Once the tour wrapped up, Jackson returned to his new home -- a Santa Ynez ranch that he purchased in March of 1988 and renamed Neverland, playing up his Peter Pan fixation Jackson renewed his deal with Sony -- the corporation that purchased Epic/CBS -- in 1991 and then set to work on his next album. This time, he decided to part ways with Quincy Jones, choosing to work with a variety of collaborators, chief among them Teddy Riley, who helped usher Michael into the realm of New Jack Swing. "Black or White," the album's first video, caused some controversy, which helped generate initial press and sales and sent the single to number one. "Remember the Time" and "In the Closet" also made it into the Billboard Top 10 in early 1992, but subsequent singles "Jam" and "Heal the World" stalled in the low 20s, while "Who Is It" made it to 14. Jackson's period of massive success was starting to end and, as it did, Jackson entered a rough personal period. In 1993, a 13-year-old boy accused Jackson of molestation. Over the next two years, the case played out in public and in the justice system, eventually settling out of court for undisclosed terms in 1995; no charges were ever filed. During all this, Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in May of 1994; their marriage lasted just 19 months. Jackson rebooted his career in 1995 with HIStory: Past, Present & Future, Book 1, a double-disc set divided into an album of hits and an album of new material. Preceded by a double-A-sided single containing the ballad "Childhood" and "Scream," a duet with his sister Janet, the album underperformed compared to its predecessors but still generated big hits, highlighted by "You Are Not Alone," the first single to debut at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The subsequent singles "They Don't Care About Us" and "Stranger in Moscow" underperformed in the U.S. but were Top 10 singles in the U.K., and HIStory also did well in other global international markets, aided in part by the lengthy accompanying global tour. In 1997, Jackson followed HIStory with Blood on the Dance Floor, an album that topped the U.K. charts but only reached 24 in the U.S. By that point, Jackson had married his nurse, Debbie Rowe, who would soon become to the mother of two children: Prince Michael Jackson, Jr. and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson. Over the next couple of years, Jackson raised his family and performed at charitable events, starting work on a comeback planned for 2001. He was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo act that year (the Jackson 5 had previously been inducted) and he staged two major 30th Anniversary concerts in September 2001 to kick off the promo campaign for his new album, Invincible. Produced in large part by Rodney Jerkins, Invincible consciously evoked Off the Wall with its single "You Rock My World," which reached 10 prior to the album's October release. Invincible entered the charts at number one in the U.S. and U.K., but it didn't have staying power and never generated another hit single. Soon, music took a backseat to Jackson's personal life. He had a third child, Prince Michael Jackson II in 2002, but the birth was overshadowed by erratic public appearances and legal problems, including an arrest in November 2003 for child molestation; in June of 2005 he was acquitted on all counts. As the case played out, Sony released the first-ever single-disc collection of Jackson's peak, Number Ones, in 2003; it had a new song, "One More Chance." Over the next few years, many catalog releases materialized: the 2004 box set The Ultimate Collection, the 2006 double-disc set The Essential Michael Jackson, a collectors box called Visionary in 2006, and his catalog saw deluxe reissues in 2008. Jackson planned a major comeback for 2009 with a major tour called This Is It featuring a long run of shows at London's O2 Arena. As he was in the midst of rehearsals in Los Angeles, he collapsed at home on the afternoon of June 25, 2009. Rushed to the UCLA Medical Center, Jackson was pronounced dead of a cardiac arrest at the age of 50. An extensive investigation later named his death a homicide due to prescription drugs; Dr. Conrad Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. It didn't take long for posthumous releases to begin to hit the shelves. Motown released The Remix Suite in October of 2009, and then a film documenting the 2009 concert rehearsals was released as This Is It, along with a soundtrack. Next came a DVD set called Vision, and 2010 brought Michael, a collection of outtakes, most dating from Invincible. In 2012, the 25th anniversary of Bad brought an expanded reissue of the 1987 album. Epic released Xscape in 2014, a record where L.A. Reid and Timbaland reworked demos recorded between Thriller and Invincible. Preceded by the single "Love Never Felt So Good" -- an electronic duet with Justin Timberlake that went to The Top 10 -- Xscape earned Gold certification. In 2016, Off the Wall received a deluxe reissue highlighted by an accompanying documentary directed by Spike Lee. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Top Albums
i don't know
In which opera does Lily the Strawberry Woman appear?
Review/Opera - 'Porgy and Bess' - Catfish Row at the Met - NYTimes.com Review/Opera; 'Porgy and Bess': Catfish Row at the Met By DONAL HENAHAN Published: September 29, 1989 The contemporary world does not often intrude on the Metropolitan Opera, but there it all was on Wednesday evening: a hurricane battering Charleston, S.C.; a cocaine dealer plying his trade on the street; racially biased police officers; sex, violence and evangelism flourishing side by side . . . but, of course, you have guessed that the opera was ''Porgy and Bess,'' Gershwin's tuneful investigation of the folkways of Catfish Row in the 1930's. First produced by the company in 1985, ''Porgy'' has returned in a restaging by Arvin Brown, artistic director of the Long Wharf Theater. Mr. Brown, making his Metropolitan debut with a cast that included 10 singers as new to the house as he, makes extensive revisions in the original Nathaniel Merrill production. The hurricane scene, for instance, shifts from a shack on the beach back to its proper site, Serena's room. It is one of many differences that make no difference. The total effect remains as before: this uncut ''Porgy,'' which exhumes virtually every scrap of music that the composer wrote for the work, continues to look and sound as overblown as ever. The affecting simplicity and directness of the famous songs (''Summertime,'' ''Bess, You Is My Woman,'' and the rest) still is smothered under the blanket of grand-opera pretensions. Part of the problem traces to Gershwin himself. His large-orchestra version of the score does singers no favors, regularly blotting them out when comprehension of words and clarity of vocal melodies should be uppermost. Very little of the text could be made out at Wednesday's performance. In this first ''Porgy'' of the season, that basic difficulty of comprehension was compounded by James Levine's insistence on thrusting the orchestration into prominence at just those moments when voices and text should have taken precedence. His conducting, which generally pays attention to such matters, was bluff, unidiomatic and insensitive. Strange to say, however, considering the composing source, not many of the voices in this performance sounded good enough to deserve more sympathetic treatment. The Porgy, Michael Smartt, seemed vocally out of sorts, as if suffering from a cold. Though a reasonably adept actor, he swallowed or crooned many notes and rarely projected a tone out into the large house. As the bootlegger and dope pusher Sportin' Life, Ben Holt danced athletically and strutted in the appropriately raffish fashion, but his vocal inadequacies were hard to overlook even in a largely declamatory version of ''It Ain't Necessarily So.'' The community's female bulwarks (Camellia Johnson as Serena, Marjorie Wharton as Maria and Karla Burns as Lily) had little opportunity to do more than deliver accompanied recitative in a shrill, presumably humorous, style. Marvis Martin, as Clara, lent her excellent soprano to ''Summertime,'' but the song's evocative appeal was dissipated by a heavily dramatic, rather ponderous treatment. On the plus side, Priscilla Baskerville's Bess could be listened to with pleasure, though her acting was tentative when not actually awkward. As for Porgy's nemesis, the brutal stevedore Crown, it would be hard to imagine a more formidable villain than Gregg Baker, who looked like a cross between Magic Johnson and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Among the cast's more promising newcomers were Raymond Bazemore as the divorce-peddling Frazier, Gordon Hawkins as Maria's husband Jake and, in cameo appearances, Linda Thompson as the Strawberry woman and Lynn Randolph as the Crabman. The performance's flaws and virtues could be dwelled upon at more length. Such scrutiny would not change, however, the basic objection to the Metropolitan's ''Porgy'': this is a well-meaning inflation and hence distortion of a pioneering work in American musical theater. Mr. Brown, essentially a theater director, can hardly be blamed for the lingering musical misjudgments, but his restaging does little to bring the work into sharper dramatic focus. That probably will only be possible when ''Porgy'' is trimmed back to sensible proportions and performed as the durable, though minor, opera that it is, not as Wagnerian Gershwin. The Cast PORGY AND BESS, opera in three acts by George Gershwin, libretto by Du Bose Heyward, based on a play by Du Bose and Dorothy Heyward; conductor, James Levine; production by Nathaniel Merrill; stage director, Arvin Brown; sets and costumes by Robert O'Hearn; lighting by Gil Wechsler; choreography by Arthur Mitchell. At the Metropolitan Opera. Bess ... Priscilla Baskerville Clara ... Marvis Martin Porgy ... Michael Smartt Crown ... Gregg Baker Peter ... Mervyn Wallace Undertaker ... Edward White Scipio ... Carl Findlay Jasbo Brown ... Joseph Joubert Serena ... Camellia Johnson Sportin' Life ... Ben Holt Jake ... Gordon Hawkins Lily ... Karla Burns Maria ... Marjorie Wharton Strawberry Woman ... Linda Thompson Mingo ... Michael Forest Robbins ... Edward Payne Crabman ... Lynn Randolph Frazier ... Raymond Bazemore Jim ... Michael Lofton Mr. Archdale ... Jack Dabdoub Detective ... Hansford Rowe Policeman ... Andrew Murphy Coroner ... Jack Sims Photo of Priscilla Baskerville in Gershwin's ''Porgy and Bess,'' at the Metropolitan Opera. (Winnie Klotz)  
Porgy and Bess
What is the world’s single largest solid gold statue?
Porgy and Bess Porgy and Bess Please visit our sister sites: Porgy and Bess Libretto by DuBose Heyward and Ira Gershwin after the novel and play Porgy Undoubtedly the most-performed American opera of all time, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, and songs like "Summertime," have become deeply embedded in American culture. Cast of Characters Residents of Catfish Row Synopsis On Catfish Row in Charleston, South Carolina, Jasbo Brown is playing the blues for a group of dancers. Clara sings a lullaby to her child ("Summertime"). The drug dealer Sporting Life, Clara's husband Jake, and some of the other men are playing craps. Jake sings his child a lullaby of his own ("A woman is a sometime thing"). The beggar Porgy comes in to join the game; he defends Crown's woman, Bess, who the others are talking about. When Jake accuses him of being soft on her, Porgy says that he isn't soft on any woman; God made him a cripple and meant him to be lonely. Crown enters with Bess. He's drunk, and when he loses he starts a fight and kills Robbins with a cotton hook. Crown runs to hide, but tells Bess he'll be back. Sporting Life offers to take her to New York with him, but she refuses. Nobody else will give her shelter when the police arrive except Porgy. Porgy and Bess are at Robbins' funeral, where Serena is leading the mourners. The police enter and arrest Peter as a "material witness." Serena is still mourning ("My man's gone now") as she convinces the undertaker to bury Robbins for less than his usual fee, but as the scene ends, Bess leads the mourners in a spiritual. ("Oh, the train is at the station"). A few weeks later, Jake and the Fishermen are working on their nets when Porgy leans out the window and compares his life to theirs. ("I got plenty o' nuttin'"). Maria, a shopkeeper, chases Sportin' Life away from her shop when he tries to sell his 'happy dust' near her store ("I hates yo' struttin' style"). Lawyer Frazier comes in and sells Bess a divorce for a dollar; when he learns that she and Crown were never married, he raises his fee to a dollar and a half. Mr. Archdale, a well-meaning white man, comes in and offers to pay Peter's bail. The group is frightened by a low-flying buzzard. Porgy chases it away, saying that trouble is far away from him now ("Boss, dat bird mean trouble"). All leave except Bess and Sporting Life, who asks her again to come to New York with him and tries to give her more dope, which she refuses. Porgy chases him away and he and Bess sing about their new happiness. ("Bess, you is my woman now"). All except Porgy leave for the church picnic. At the picnic, Sporting Life sings about his own brand of religion ("It ain't necessarily so"). All are getting ready to leave when Crown, hidden in the bushes, calls out to Bess. She tells him she's Porgy's woman now, but he won't let her go. ("What you want wid Bess?"). He pushes her off into the thicket as the boat leaves without her. Some time later, the fishermen are getting ready to leave as Bess raves, still delirious after Crown's attack. Peter wants to send her to the hospital, but Serena would rather pray over her. The street fills with vendors, and eventually Bess emerges, and explains to Porgy that she wants to stay with him but that when Crown comes she'll have to go with him. Porgy tells her that she doesn't have to go with him ("I loves you, Porgy"). A hurricane begins to rise, and Clara, frightened for her husband, calls out his name. Everyone, gathered in Clara's room, prays for shelter from the storm. There is a knock at the door; Crown enters and tries to take Bess away; he laughs at the frightened townspeople and sings a bawdy song to counteract their prayers ("A red-headed woman"). Clara sees Jake's boat and runs out to find him. Bess calls for a man to go after her; Crown goes, after taunting Porgy and asking him why he won't go. After the storm, the women are crying for their men; Sporting Life teases them and Bess. Crown enters; he and Porgy fight, and Porgy kills him. The police and the coroner come to Catfish Row the next morning; they want to take Porgy down to identify Crown's body. Sportin' Life tells him that when he looks at him Crown't wound will begin to bleed. Telling Bess that Porgy will be locked up for sure, Sportin' Life forces some dope on her, and leaves more outside her door as he leaves. Porgy returns; while he tries to distribute the gifts he bought with the money he made playing craps in jail, he discovers Bess is gone ("Oh, Bess, oh where's my Bess"). He learns that she has gone off with Sportin' Life to New York; he gets in his goat-cart and prepares to follow her as the curtain falls. Performance History
i don't know
Who was the first woman to complete the English Grand National horse race?
Facts & Figures Facts & Figures It is illegal for anyone aged under 18 to gamble Facts & Figures Records The first race was held in 1839, but it started in inauspicious circumstances, going off two hours late after confusion over weighing procedures. The aptly named, and 5-1 favourite, Lottery came home first. The 1929 National featured the most starters in the race when 66 horses lined up. The smallest field was in 1883 when just 10 faced the starter. The fastest ever time is the 8 minutes 47.8 seconds Mr Frisk recorded in taking victory in 1990. The slowest time is the 14m 53s it took Lottery to win the first National in 1839. The smallest number of finishers was in 1928 when Tipperary Tim, a 100-1 outsider, was the first of two past the post. The greatest number of horses to finish was 23 in 1984. Hallo Dandy, ridden by Neale Doughty, was the winner. 17 completed last season. The 1997 Grand National, which was won by Lord Gyllene, was the 150th running of the race at Aintree and Sir Peter O'Sullevan's 50th and final commentary for the BBC. 2013 saw the first screening of the race by Channel 4. The shortest price winner was Poethlyn at 11-4 in 1919. The Course The first five Grand National's included one jump that was a stone wall. It was situated where the water jump now stands. Becher's Brook earned its name when a top jockey, Captain Martin Becher, took shelter in the brook after being unseated. "Water tastes disgusting without the benefits of whisky" he reflected. The Chair is the tallest fence at 5ft 2ins, and the broadest. The fence got its name as it was once alongside the seat used by the distance judge. The fences at Aintree are made up of spruce from the Lake District. The cost of the building work is tens of thousands of pounds and takes a month to complete. As well as horse racing, Aintree has also hosted a European and five British Grand Prix. Stirling Moss won his first Grand Prix in Liverpool in 1955. The change seemed to work in 2014 as no horse lost his jockey until the Canal Turn, although there were plenty of early casualties last year. Horses Red Rum is the most successful horse, having won the Grand National three times: 1973, 1974 and 1977. The oldest winning horse is Peter Simple, aged 15 (1853); the youngest winning horses were Alcibiade (1865), Regal (1876), Austerlitz (1877), Empress (1880), Lutteur III (1909), all aged 5. Abd-El-Kader was the first horse to win back-to-back Nationals, in 1850 and 1851. The Colonel, (1869 & 1870), Reynoldstown (1935 & 1936) and Red Rum (1973 & 1974) have also retained the crown. Can Many Clouds join this elite club this year? Moiffa won in 1904 - having disappeared a year earlier. On a trip to Liverpool from New Zealand, Moiffa's ship was shipwrecked. The horse was presumed lost at sea before turning up on an outcrop south of Ireland. The legendary Golden Miller won in 1934 and became the only horse to complete the Cheltenham Gold Cup-Grand National double in the same season. Garrison Savannah narrowly failed to emulate the feat in 1991. Manifesto has run in more races than any other horse. Between 1895 and 1904, he ran in eight races, winning two and coming third on three occasions. He only failed to finish once. Two Russian horses, Reljef and Grifel, competed in the 1961 Grand National, but neither finished. Horses from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Norway have also run in previous Grand Nationals, although all with similarly disappointing results. Hungarian chaser Buszke was pulled up in 1868, while Gyi Lovam, the first Czechoslovakian challenger in 1931, came to grief at Becher�s, was remounted but fell again four fences later. The Czech-trained Essex, Fraze and Quirinus all carried automatic top-weight in the 1980s and 1990s but failed to complete. The 2000 renewal saw the first Norwegian-trained runner in the shape of Trinitro, but he got no further than the first fence where he fell. Japanese thoroughbred, Fujino-O captured four consecutive renewals of the prestigious Nakayama Daishogai in his homeland before being sent to Britain to be prepared for Aintree by trainer Fulke Walwyn. The seven year-old was given the automatic top-weight of 12st and failed to get competitive under his welter burden in 1966, eventually refusing under Jeff King. Five winners were bred in France � Alcibiade (1865), Reugny (1874), Lutteur III (1909), Mon Mome (2009) and Neptune Collonges (2012). Mely Moss, who was runner-up to Papillon in the 2000 Grand National and the 1996 and 2015 runners-up Encore Un Peu and Saint Are, were also French breds. In 1998, Earth Summit, owned by a six-strong partnership, became the first winner of the Grand National who was also successful in both the Scottish and Welsh Grand Nationals. Only three greys have won the Grand National - The Lamb (1868 and 1871), Nicolaus Silver (1961) and Neptune Collonges (2012). Suny Bay finished second to Lord Gyllene in 1997 and filled the same spot behind Earth Summit in 1998. King Johns Castle was second in 2008. Thirteen mares have won the Grand National, but the most recent was Nickel Coin back in 1951. Since then, the mares Gentle Moya (2nd 1956), Tiberetta (3rd 1957 and 2nd 1958), Miss Hunter (3rd 1970), Eyecatcher (3rd 1976 and 1977), Auntie Dot (3rd 1991), Ebony Jane (4th 1994) and Dubacilla (4th 1995) have all finished in the first four. The complete list of winning mares is: Charity (1841), Miss Mowbray (1852), Anatis (1860), Jealousy (1861), Emblem (1863), Emblematic (1864), Casse Tete (1872), Empress (1880), Zoedone (1883), Frigate (1889), Shannon Lass (1902), Sheila's Cottage (1948) and Nickel Coin (1951). In 1923, Sergeant Murphy became the first US bred horse to win the race. He is also the joint-second oldest horse to win, at age 13, alongside Why Not (1884). The US bred Battleship, son of the famous Man o' War, became the first (and so far only) horse to have won both the Grand National (in 1938) and the American Grand National (which he won four years earlier). 1991 was the seventh and final year that the Grand National was sponsored by Seagram. Aptly, the race was won by a horse named Seagram, bred in New Zealand. 1997 saw another New Zealand-bred winner in Lord Gyllene. Jockeys Tony McCoy is the most experienced jockey in the history of the National - his final ride in 2015 was his 20th National. McCoy won his only National on Don't Push It in 2010. He took the record from Tom Olliver who rode in 19 Nationals - winning three - despite spending time behind bars in a debtor's prison. In 2016 Richard Johnson will ride in the National for the 20th consecutive year since Celtic Abbey became his first mount in 1997 (unseating him at The Chair). Johnson has twice been runner-up, on What's Up Boys (2002) and Balthazar King two years ago, but is yet to win. George Stevens is the most successful jockey in the history of the National with five wins. His final triumph came in 1870 on The Colonel. Stevens died three months after finishing sixth in the 1871 race. Together with the Lincoln Handicap run on the Flat at Doncaster, the Grand National forms leg two of the �Spring Double�. The only jockey to have won both contests is Dave Dick, who captured the Lincoln on Gloaming in 1941 and the Grand National on E.S.B. in 1956. Bruce Hobbs is the youngest jockey to have ever won the race. The 17-year-old triumphed aboard Battleship in 1938. The late Dick Saunders is the oldest ever winner of the Grand National, partnering Grittar to victory in 1982. Saunders was 48 at the time. He was the first member of the Jockey Club to partner a Grand National winner. Brian Fletcher (1968 Red Alligator, 1973 and 1974 Red Rum) shares a 20th century record with the legendary Jack Anthony (1911 Glenside, 1915 Ally Sloper, 1920 Troytown), both jockeys having ridden three National winners. Plenty of riders have won the Grand National on their first attempt. The most recent are Ryan Mania (2013 Auroras Encore), Liam Treadwell (2009 Mon Mome), Niall �Slippers� Madden (2006 Numbersixvalverde), Ruby Walsh (2000 Papillon), Jason Titley (1995 Royal Athlete), Nigel Hawke (1991 Seagram), Jimmy Frost (1989 Littler Polveir), Dick Saunders (1982 Grittar) and Maurice Barnes (1979 Rubstic). Ruby Walsh holds the best record of current jockeys, having won the Grand National twice, on Papillon in 2000 and Hedgehunter in 2005. Jockey William Watkinson recorded the first riding success for Australia in 1926. He was killed at Bogside, Scotland, less than three weeks after winning the Grand National. Prince Karl Kinsky, an Austro-Hungarian nobleman, was the first jockey from outside Britain and Ireland to ride when he made a winning debut on board his own mare Zoedone in 1883. Tsuyoshi Tanaka, the son of a champion boxer, became the first Japanese jockey to ride in the Grand National in 1995, although his taste of the Aintree experience proved to be brief as he fell at the first fence on The Committee. American amateur Tim Durant was 68 when 15th on Highlandie in 1968 (although he remounted at Becher�s second time). In 2012, Richard Johnson beat the record for the most rides in the National without a win. He has now ridden in the race 19 times without bettering the runner up spot in 2002 on What�s Up Boys. There are 12 other riders who have never won (or have not as yet won) the National, despite having had more than 12 rides in the race. They are: David Casey (1997-2015): finished third once in 15 attempts; Jeff King (1964�1980): finished third once in 15 attempts; Robert Thornton (1997�to date): never in first three in 14 attempts; Bill Parvin (1926�1939): finished second once in 14 attempts; Tom Scudamore (2001-2015): never in first three in 14 attempts; Graham Bradley (1983�1999): finished second once in 14 attempts; Chris Grant (1980�1994): finished second three times in 13 attempts; Stan Mellor (1956�1971): finished second once in 13 attempts; David Nicholson (1957�1973): never in first three in 13 attempts; George Waddington (1861�1882): finished second once in 13 attempts; Walter White (1854�1869): finished second once in 13 attempts; Andrew Thornton (1996-2013): never in first three in 13 attempts. Peter Scudamore technically lined up for thirteen Grand Nationals without winning but the last of those was the void race of 1993, which meant that he officially competed in twelve Nationals. Many other well-known jockeys have failed to win the Grand National. These include champion jockeys such as Terry Biddlecombe, John Francome, Josh Gifford, Stan Mellor, Jonjo O'Neill (who never finished the race) and Fred Rimell. Three jockeys who led over the last fence in the National but lost the race on the run-in ended up as television commentators: Lord Oaksey (on Carrickbeg in 1963), Norman Williamson (on Mely Moss in 2000), and Richard Pitman (on Crisp in 1973). Pitman's son Mark also led over the last fence, only to be pipped at the post when riding Garrison Savannah in 1991. Female Jockeys Since Charlotte Brew became the first in 1977, female jockeys have participated in 19 Grand National's. Brew attracted huge media attention when partnering her own horse Barony Fort. She was a guest on the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show and the Daily Mirror arranged a day-trip on Concorde to Washington. She was also unseated in the 1982 race. Geraldine Rees became the first to complete the course (albeit in last place) in 1982. She fell at the first a year later and went on to train for 12 years in Lancashire, before retiring in 2010. In 2012 Katie Walsh (sister of two-time winner Ruby Walsh) achieved the best placing by a woman to date - 3rd place on Seabass. In 2013, she rode that same horse when he was sent off as favourite, but he could only finish 13th. She also led up Papillon, when trained by her father and ridden by Ruby to win in 2000. National winning trainer, Venetia Williams, also rode in the race, falling at Becher�s first time when riding 200-1 chance Marcolo in 1988. Nina Carberry, now assistant to trainer Noel Meade, is the most experienced female rider, having finished on four of her five starts. Gee Armytage had to pull up her aptly-named mount, Gee-A, in 1988. A dual Cheltenham Festival-winning rider, she is the sister of Marcus Armytage - rider of the 1990 winner Mr Frisk - and became personal assistant to multiple champion jump jockey A P McCoy. Rosemary Henderson finished fifth when aged 51 on her own 100/1 shot Fiddlers Pike in 1994. She subsequently wrote a book, �Road To The National�, about her exploits. There was huge media interest in Carrie Ford when she finished fifth in 2005 on Forest Gunner, trained by her husband Richard. Ford, then 33, had given birth to her daughter Hannah 10 weeks earlier. Here is the complete record of lady jockeys to date: Year
geraldine rees
Heather Mackay was British Open Champion 16 times at which sport?
Facts & Figures Facts & Figures It is illegal for anyone aged under 18 to gamble Facts & Figures Records The first race was held in 1839, but it started in inauspicious circumstances, going off two hours late after confusion over weighing procedures. The aptly named, and 5-1 favourite, Lottery came home first. The 1929 National featured the most starters in the race when 66 horses lined up. The smallest field was in 1883 when just 10 faced the starter. The fastest ever time is the 8 minutes 47.8 seconds Mr Frisk recorded in taking victory in 1990. The slowest time is the 14m 53s it took Lottery to win the first National in 1839. The smallest number of finishers was in 1928 when Tipperary Tim, a 100-1 outsider, was the first of two past the post. The greatest number of horses to finish was 23 in 1984. Hallo Dandy, ridden by Neale Doughty, was the winner. 17 completed last season. The 1997 Grand National, which was won by Lord Gyllene, was the 150th running of the race at Aintree and Sir Peter O'Sullevan's 50th and final commentary for the BBC. 2013 saw the first screening of the race by Channel 4. The shortest price winner was Poethlyn at 11-4 in 1919. The Course The first five Grand National's included one jump that was a stone wall. It was situated where the water jump now stands. Becher's Brook earned its name when a top jockey, Captain Martin Becher, took shelter in the brook after being unseated. "Water tastes disgusting without the benefits of whisky" he reflected. The Chair is the tallest fence at 5ft 2ins, and the broadest. The fence got its name as it was once alongside the seat used by the distance judge. The fences at Aintree are made up of spruce from the Lake District. The cost of the building work is tens of thousands of pounds and takes a month to complete. As well as horse racing, Aintree has also hosted a European and five British Grand Prix. Stirling Moss won his first Grand Prix in Liverpool in 1955. The change seemed to work in 2014 as no horse lost his jockey until the Canal Turn, although there were plenty of early casualties last year. Horses Red Rum is the most successful horse, having won the Grand National three times: 1973, 1974 and 1977. The oldest winning horse is Peter Simple, aged 15 (1853); the youngest winning horses were Alcibiade (1865), Regal (1876), Austerlitz (1877), Empress (1880), Lutteur III (1909), all aged 5. Abd-El-Kader was the first horse to win back-to-back Nationals, in 1850 and 1851. The Colonel, (1869 & 1870), Reynoldstown (1935 & 1936) and Red Rum (1973 & 1974) have also retained the crown. Can Many Clouds join this elite club this year? Moiffa won in 1904 - having disappeared a year earlier. On a trip to Liverpool from New Zealand, Moiffa's ship was shipwrecked. The horse was presumed lost at sea before turning up on an outcrop south of Ireland. The legendary Golden Miller won in 1934 and became the only horse to complete the Cheltenham Gold Cup-Grand National double in the same season. Garrison Savannah narrowly failed to emulate the feat in 1991. Manifesto has run in more races than any other horse. Between 1895 and 1904, he ran in eight races, winning two and coming third on three occasions. He only failed to finish once. Two Russian horses, Reljef and Grifel, competed in the 1961 Grand National, but neither finished. Horses from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Norway have also run in previous Grand Nationals, although all with similarly disappointing results. Hungarian chaser Buszke was pulled up in 1868, while Gyi Lovam, the first Czechoslovakian challenger in 1931, came to grief at Becher�s, was remounted but fell again four fences later. The Czech-trained Essex, Fraze and Quirinus all carried automatic top-weight in the 1980s and 1990s but failed to complete. The 2000 renewal saw the first Norwegian-trained runner in the shape of Trinitro, but he got no further than the first fence where he fell. Japanese thoroughbred, Fujino-O captured four consecutive renewals of the prestigious Nakayama Daishogai in his homeland before being sent to Britain to be prepared for Aintree by trainer Fulke Walwyn. The seven year-old was given the automatic top-weight of 12st and failed to get competitive under his welter burden in 1966, eventually refusing under Jeff King. Five winners were bred in France � Alcibiade (1865), Reugny (1874), Lutteur III (1909), Mon Mome (2009) and Neptune Collonges (2012). Mely Moss, who was runner-up to Papillon in the 2000 Grand National and the 1996 and 2015 runners-up Encore Un Peu and Saint Are, were also French breds. In 1998, Earth Summit, owned by a six-strong partnership, became the first winner of the Grand National who was also successful in both the Scottish and Welsh Grand Nationals. Only three greys have won the Grand National - The Lamb (1868 and 1871), Nicolaus Silver (1961) and Neptune Collonges (2012). Suny Bay finished second to Lord Gyllene in 1997 and filled the same spot behind Earth Summit in 1998. King Johns Castle was second in 2008. Thirteen mares have won the Grand National, but the most recent was Nickel Coin back in 1951. Since then, the mares Gentle Moya (2nd 1956), Tiberetta (3rd 1957 and 2nd 1958), Miss Hunter (3rd 1970), Eyecatcher (3rd 1976 and 1977), Auntie Dot (3rd 1991), Ebony Jane (4th 1994) and Dubacilla (4th 1995) have all finished in the first four. The complete list of winning mares is: Charity (1841), Miss Mowbray (1852), Anatis (1860), Jealousy (1861), Emblem (1863), Emblematic (1864), Casse Tete (1872), Empress (1880), Zoedone (1883), Frigate (1889), Shannon Lass (1902), Sheila's Cottage (1948) and Nickel Coin (1951). In 1923, Sergeant Murphy became the first US bred horse to win the race. He is also the joint-second oldest horse to win, at age 13, alongside Why Not (1884). The US bred Battleship, son of the famous Man o' War, became the first (and so far only) horse to have won both the Grand National (in 1938) and the American Grand National (which he won four years earlier). 1991 was the seventh and final year that the Grand National was sponsored by Seagram. Aptly, the race was won by a horse named Seagram, bred in New Zealand. 1997 saw another New Zealand-bred winner in Lord Gyllene. Jockeys Tony McCoy is the most experienced jockey in the history of the National - his final ride in 2015 was his 20th National. McCoy won his only National on Don't Push It in 2010. He took the record from Tom Olliver who rode in 19 Nationals - winning three - despite spending time behind bars in a debtor's prison. In 2016 Richard Johnson will ride in the National for the 20th consecutive year since Celtic Abbey became his first mount in 1997 (unseating him at The Chair). Johnson has twice been runner-up, on What's Up Boys (2002) and Balthazar King two years ago, but is yet to win. George Stevens is the most successful jockey in the history of the National with five wins. His final triumph came in 1870 on The Colonel. Stevens died three months after finishing sixth in the 1871 race. Together with the Lincoln Handicap run on the Flat at Doncaster, the Grand National forms leg two of the �Spring Double�. The only jockey to have won both contests is Dave Dick, who captured the Lincoln on Gloaming in 1941 and the Grand National on E.S.B. in 1956. Bruce Hobbs is the youngest jockey to have ever won the race. The 17-year-old triumphed aboard Battleship in 1938. The late Dick Saunders is the oldest ever winner of the Grand National, partnering Grittar to victory in 1982. Saunders was 48 at the time. He was the first member of the Jockey Club to partner a Grand National winner. Brian Fletcher (1968 Red Alligator, 1973 and 1974 Red Rum) shares a 20th century record with the legendary Jack Anthony (1911 Glenside, 1915 Ally Sloper, 1920 Troytown), both jockeys having ridden three National winners. Plenty of riders have won the Grand National on their first attempt. The most recent are Ryan Mania (2013 Auroras Encore), Liam Treadwell (2009 Mon Mome), Niall �Slippers� Madden (2006 Numbersixvalverde), Ruby Walsh (2000 Papillon), Jason Titley (1995 Royal Athlete), Nigel Hawke (1991 Seagram), Jimmy Frost (1989 Littler Polveir), Dick Saunders (1982 Grittar) and Maurice Barnes (1979 Rubstic). Ruby Walsh holds the best record of current jockeys, having won the Grand National twice, on Papillon in 2000 and Hedgehunter in 2005. Jockey William Watkinson recorded the first riding success for Australia in 1926. He was killed at Bogside, Scotland, less than three weeks after winning the Grand National. Prince Karl Kinsky, an Austro-Hungarian nobleman, was the first jockey from outside Britain and Ireland to ride when he made a winning debut on board his own mare Zoedone in 1883. Tsuyoshi Tanaka, the son of a champion boxer, became the first Japanese jockey to ride in the Grand National in 1995, although his taste of the Aintree experience proved to be brief as he fell at the first fence on The Committee. American amateur Tim Durant was 68 when 15th on Highlandie in 1968 (although he remounted at Becher�s second time). In 2012, Richard Johnson beat the record for the most rides in the National without a win. He has now ridden in the race 19 times without bettering the runner up spot in 2002 on What�s Up Boys. There are 12 other riders who have never won (or have not as yet won) the National, despite having had more than 12 rides in the race. They are: David Casey (1997-2015): finished third once in 15 attempts; Jeff King (1964�1980): finished third once in 15 attempts; Robert Thornton (1997�to date): never in first three in 14 attempts; Bill Parvin (1926�1939): finished second once in 14 attempts; Tom Scudamore (2001-2015): never in first three in 14 attempts; Graham Bradley (1983�1999): finished second once in 14 attempts; Chris Grant (1980�1994): finished second three times in 13 attempts; Stan Mellor (1956�1971): finished second once in 13 attempts; David Nicholson (1957�1973): never in first three in 13 attempts; George Waddington (1861�1882): finished second once in 13 attempts; Walter White (1854�1869): finished second once in 13 attempts; Andrew Thornton (1996-2013): never in first three in 13 attempts. Peter Scudamore technically lined up for thirteen Grand Nationals without winning but the last of those was the void race of 1993, which meant that he officially competed in twelve Nationals. Many other well-known jockeys have failed to win the Grand National. These include champion jockeys such as Terry Biddlecombe, John Francome, Josh Gifford, Stan Mellor, Jonjo O'Neill (who never finished the race) and Fred Rimell. Three jockeys who led over the last fence in the National but lost the race on the run-in ended up as television commentators: Lord Oaksey (on Carrickbeg in 1963), Norman Williamson (on Mely Moss in 2000), and Richard Pitman (on Crisp in 1973). Pitman's son Mark also led over the last fence, only to be pipped at the post when riding Garrison Savannah in 1991. Female Jockeys Since Charlotte Brew became the first in 1977, female jockeys have participated in 19 Grand National's. Brew attracted huge media attention when partnering her own horse Barony Fort. She was a guest on the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show and the Daily Mirror arranged a day-trip on Concorde to Washington. She was also unseated in the 1982 race. Geraldine Rees became the first to complete the course (albeit in last place) in 1982. She fell at the first a year later and went on to train for 12 years in Lancashire, before retiring in 2010. In 2012 Katie Walsh (sister of two-time winner Ruby Walsh) achieved the best placing by a woman to date - 3rd place on Seabass. In 2013, she rode that same horse when he was sent off as favourite, but he could only finish 13th. She also led up Papillon, when trained by her father and ridden by Ruby to win in 2000. National winning trainer, Venetia Williams, also rode in the race, falling at Becher�s first time when riding 200-1 chance Marcolo in 1988. Nina Carberry, now assistant to trainer Noel Meade, is the most experienced female rider, having finished on four of her five starts. Gee Armytage had to pull up her aptly-named mount, Gee-A, in 1988. A dual Cheltenham Festival-winning rider, she is the sister of Marcus Armytage - rider of the 1990 winner Mr Frisk - and became personal assistant to multiple champion jump jockey A P McCoy. Rosemary Henderson finished fifth when aged 51 on her own 100/1 shot Fiddlers Pike in 1994. She subsequently wrote a book, �Road To The National�, about her exploits. There was huge media interest in Carrie Ford when she finished fifth in 2005 on Forest Gunner, trained by her husband Richard. Ford, then 33, had given birth to her daughter Hannah 10 weeks earlier. Here is the complete record of lady jockeys to date: Year
i don't know
What relation was William III to Charles I?
Royal Wedding: William and Kate are (very) distant cousins – Channel 4 News UK Royal Wedding: William and Kate are (very) distant cousins Much has been made of the coalminers and tradesmen in Kate Middleton’s family tree, but what about her royal links? Genealogist Patrick Cracroft-Brennan analyses her ancestry for Channel 4 News. Share on Twitter Much has been made of Kate Middleton’s “middle class” background, but does she have any royal links? Patrick Cracroft-Brennan, editor of the online reference work Cracroft’s Peerage : “Yes, she has, but they are very distant. Her great-great-grandmother, Frances Elizabeth Greenhow, was the 10 x great-granddaughter of Sir William Gascoigne, a Yorkshire knight who died in 1487. He married Lady Margaret Percy, 4th and youngest daughter of Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland. “The Earl descended from King Edward III through both his parents. Prince Charles and the late Princess Diana both descend from Sir William Gascoigne and his wife Lady Margaret. “This makes William and Kate fourteenth cousins once removed through his mother and fifteenth cousins through his father. This makes William and Kate fourteenth cousins once removed. Patrick Cracroft “Through her Gascoigne ancestry Kate is also an eighth cousin seven times removed to George Washington, first President of the United States, and a thirteenth cousin twice removed to the war time leader General George Patton. “A descent from Sir William Gascoigne is one of the commonest “royal descents” in both Britain and the United States. The New England Historic Genealogical Society has estimated that up to 50 million Americans can trace their ancestry back to King Edward III. “All of these people are related (albeit very distantly) to both Kate and Prince William.” Are there any surprising figures in Kate Middleton’s family tree? “Apart from her one royal descent, her ancestry is pleasantly normal. Her father’s family were solicitors in Leeds for several generations, and there is a close connection with the Lupton family, well known for their involvement in Leeds as woolen manufacturers. “There are several people ‘in trade’, which if not glamorous is at least dependable, and there are coal miners from the Durham coalfields. Social classes are very fluid in Britain and seeing an ancestry where the 16 great-great-grandparents range from lawyers to coalminers is not at all unusual in my experience.” How unusual is this union? “Since the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066 it has been the norm for our kings to marry princesses from other European royal families. In many ways this was a good practice as it ensured that the Queen would not favour her family at court. “Henry, Duke of Hereford, was already married to Lady Mary de Bohun when he seized the throne from his cousin in 1399 and became King Henry IV. His second wife was a French princess. King Edward IV broke the rule by marrying Lady Elizabeth Wydville in 1464. His brother, King Richard III, had already married Lady Anne Neville before he killed his nephew in 1483 and usurped the throne. This union is very unusual in that it is the first time in British history that someone in direct line to the throne has married someone who was not either a foreign princess or came from a British aristocratic or titled family. Patrick Cracroft “King Henry VIII had six wives – two of these were foreign princesses, the others were English aristocrats. “King James II had married Lady Anne Hyde in 1633, well before he succeeded his brother, King Charles II. After her death in 1671 his second wife was an Italian princess. “We then have to jump to 1923 and the marriage of the Duke of York and Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queens parents, before we again have an aristocratic commoner marrying a future king. The Prince of Wales, Prince William’s father, has famously married two aristocratic ‘gels’. “This union is very unusual in that it is the first time in British history that someone in direct line to the throne has married someone who was not either a foreign princess or came from a British aristocratic or titled family.” William & Kate’s future children will become heirs to the throne. But who will they be leapfrogging? Every child they have will move every other member of the royal family down a notch in the line of succession. Genealogists seem to have a passion in creating tables that show the succession to the throne in the minutest detail. Queen Victoria has thousands of living descendants, all of whom if not Roman Catholic or illegitimate are in the line of succession. Is William ‘more royal’ than his father? “You cant really say that. Prince Charles descends from a long direct line of British, Scottish, English, Norman and Saxon kings, stretching back quite literally into the mists of time. He is, to coin a phrase, as royal as they come. “A lot of his ancestry through his father and his mothers father is ‘foreign royalty’ which through various cousin marriages has reinforced his descent from the Hanoverian kings. More from Channel 4 News - Kate Middleton: the middle-class princess “The Queen’s parents were distantly related, but no closer than Prince William and Kate are. The Prince of Wales’s marriage to Lady Diana Spencer introduced new albeit illegitimate lines of descent from the later Stuart Kings of England and Scotland.” What titles does Kate Middleton acquire by marrying Prince William? “As things stand at the moment, Kate will become “Her Royal Highness The Princess William of Wales”. “It is widely forecast that Prince William will be made a Royal Duke on the morning of his wedding, in which case Kate becomes ‘Her Royal Highness The Duchess of X’. “There are a number of ducal titles that are traditionally used by the Royal Family. Edinburgh, Cornwall, Rothesay, York, Gloucester and Kent are all in current use, Cumberland, Teviotdale and Albany are not available, so the chances are it will be either Cambridge, Clarence, Sussex, Strathearn or St Andrews. “She will become the second highest ranking lady in the land after the Queen, so she will outrank all the ladies in the Royal Family apart from the Queen and the Duchess of Cornwall.” Patrick Cracroft-Brennan is the editor of Cracroft’s Peerage – a guide to British peerage, baronetage and an online database for family history researchers.
Grandchild
On which island is the New York borough Brooklyn?
The Creek Families 3B CHARLES WEATHERFORD and SEHOY III Charles Weatherford LifeNotes: According to Dr. Marion Elisha Tarvin, Charles Weatherford "was a man of means and was a government contractor, and constructed and owned the first race courses in Alabama." Charles Weatherford came to Creek country before 1778 with his friend Samuel Mims. He was also a longtime friend of Lachlan McGillivray. Born: about 1752 ; Married: about 1780 in Alabama; Died Parents: Martin Weatherford and Mary ?, a half-blood LifeNotes: Was a trader. He was a friend of Lachlan McGillivray. He went to the Creek Nation with his friend Samuel Mims. He lived at his horse track on the Alabama River, about 5 mile upriver from Sehoy; it was customary for Indian couples to live separately and Charles kept the custom with Sehoy. The Weatherford house was near what is now North Motgomery at Pickett Springs. There were conic mounds on the property -- 5 of which are still visible from what is now Coosada Ferry Road. James Albert Pickett tells this story in The History of Alabama: In 1792, Creeks frequently attack homes on the Cumberland. They captured a young girl named Elizabeth Baker and brought her back to Coosawda, after murdering her family before her eyes. Across the river, Charles Weatherford heard of the girl and ransomed her back, putting her in the care of Sehoy (III), his wife. Sehoy III LifeNotes: Of the Wind Clan. See her page . Born: about 1759 in Little Tulsa, Elmore, AL; 1st-union in 1774, Alabama; Married 2nd-about 1778 in Alabama; Married 3rd-about 1780; Died 1811-2 , buried in Baldwin County, Alabama; her son William Weatherford lies buried next to her. Parents: Sehoy II and a Tuckabatchee chief Her first husband was Colonel John Tate, a British officer with rank of colonel and the last British commander at Ft. Toulouse. The children of Sehoy II and her first husband John Tate were: David Tate, born 1778. See his family page . (m.1st-Mary Randon who died with her 2 of her daughters in the Massacre of Ft. Mims; m. 2nd- Margaret Dyer; d. 1829), John Tate II. Their children are: William Weatherford , or Lamochattee -- Red Eagle, born about 1781. See his family page . Married 1st-Mary Moniac, daughter of William Dixon Moniac and Polly Colbert, in 1801. Married 2nd-Sopathe Thlanie. Married 3rd- Mary Stiggins. William Weatherford died 1824. John "Jake" David Weatherford, born about 1783 in AL. See his page . Married about 1802 in AL to Patty Dyer (b. about 1785), sister of Margaret Dyer who was the 2nd- wife of David Tate. Their children were: John D. Weatherford (m. 1st-Elizabeth Tunstall; m. 2nd- Elizabeth Waller on 6-09-1864, Monroe Co., AL, to with Johnathon English as security and A. J. Lambert as minister), Caroline Weatherford (b. about 1805; m. ? Killiam). John Weatherford assisted General Andrew Jackson during the Creek War. Given a land grant by Jackson. John and his family lived in Monroe Co., AL. and he appears on the 1854 tax list. Rosanna Weatherford, born about 1789 in AL. See her page . Married in 1789 in Baldwin Co., AL to Captain Joseph Shomo. They lived in Monroe Co., AL. Their children were: David Tate Shomo (b. about 1809.; became a physician; m. Elizabeth Nettles Hobbs), Joseph Weatherford Shomo (b. about 1811; became a physician; m. 1st-Mary Elizabeth Wheadon; m. 2nd-Anne Tarke Moniac, widow of Dr. Alexander Moniac), James Preston Weatherford (b. about 1813), Francis William Shomo (born about 1815), Virginia Elizabeth Rosanna Shomo (b. about 1817), William Augustus Shomo (b. about 1819; m. Margaret Ione Staples), Frances Blount Shomo (b. about 1821). Dr. Marion Elisha Tarvin, her nephew, said, "I well recollect Aunt Rosannah and Capt. Shomo, having often been at their house. She was woman of great force of of character. She was born in the upper part of Baldwin county, Ala., near where rests the remains of her warrior brother, William the 'Red Eagle". Elizabeth Weatherford, born about 1785 in AL. Married Samuel Takkes-Hadjo Moniac about 1802 in Baldwin County, AL. See his Moniac page . Sam was born about 1781 in AL. Their children were: David Moniac (m. Polly Powell; their children were: David Alexander Moniac, sheriff of Baldwin Co., AL and d. 1880), Margaret Moniac (m. S. J. McDonald). From Dr. Marion Elisah Tarvin: "under the treaty at New York, was graduated at West Point. He was made a major and commanded 600 Creeks and Choctaws against the Seminoles in the Florida war of 1836. He was killed, 13 bullets piercing his body. A braver man never lived."), Alexander Moniac, Levitia Moniac (m.William Sizemore of Baldwin Co., AL, son of Dixon Baily's sister. William became a wealthy planter on the Alabama River. Levitia "Vicey" and William had children). maybe Washington Weatherford, born about 1787, Baldwin Co., AL. WILLIAM WEATHERFORD and his wives MARY MONIAC, SOPATHE THLANIE, and MARY STIGGINS William Weatherford War name: Hopnicafutsahia -- Straight Talker or Truth Teller Best known as Lamochattee or Red Eagle Born: about 1781 in AL; Married 1st-about 1797 in AL; Married 2nd -about 1804 in AL; Married 3rd-about 1817 in AL; Died 3/24/1824, following a bear hunt and is buried next to his mother Sehoy III in a grave in Baldwin Co., AL Parents: Sehoy III and Charles Weatherford LifeNotes: Leader of the Creeks. Deemed "the architect of the Massacre at Fort Mims". See the letter his grandson Charles Weatherford, Jr. wrote about William. Nephew of Alexander McGillivray and by marriage, nephew of LeClerc Milfort; received their wisdom, according to tribal custom-- the role of the uncle was considered far more importart than that of the father. Read about Red Eagle and the Massacre at Fort Mims! Red Eagle goes on to full participation in the Creek War. More to come on that war. Another massacre --the Kimbell-James Massacre, the Canoe Fight with Sam Dale and his forces against the Red Sticks, the Battle of Holy Ground with Red Eagle mounted on Arrow, his black steed, the Battle of Talladega, to the climactic Battle of Horseshoe Bend where all come together -- General Andrew Jackson's forces, including Davy Crockett and Sam Houston joining with Choctaws and other tribes against the Red Sticks. This ends the war. After the terrible defeat at Horseshoe Bend in 1814, Red Eagle goes to Ft. Jackson (formerly Ft. Toulouse), and surrendered to General Andrew Jackson. Jackson, filled with sympathy and admiration for the noble chief, takes Red Eagle home to Nashville, TN. According to Dr. Marion Elisha Tarvin, William's half brother, David Tate, (Tarvin's grandfather) was the only man in AL who knew where Weatherford was during his stay at the Hermitage. See his speech given to General Jackson at the official surrender at Fort Jackson. William lived out his days as a well-to-do and well-respected planter in Monroe Co., AL. See the story of an event that happened in his later years -- the story as told by Charles Weatherford, a grandson. 1st-Wife: Mary "Polly" Moniac Born: about 1783 in AL;. Married: about 1797 in AL; Died in 1804, Point Tholy, in Lowndes Co., AL Parents: William Dixon Moniac and Polly Colbert LifeNotes: sister of Sam Moniac and half-sister to Hannah Moniac, daughter of William Dixon Moniac and Sehoy III (thus Hannah was William Weatherford's half-sister too) Their children were: Charles Weatherford, born 1795 Montgomery Co., AL. Married Elizabeth Ann Stiggins, daughter of George Stiggins and Elizabeth Adcock. Their children were: William Wilshire Weatherford (died young), Charles A. Weatherford (b. 1814; m. on 2/28/1861 Martha Staples at Mt. Pleasant, Monroe Co., AL with McDuff Mann as security and R. Y. Reaves as Pastor; see the letter he wrote ; d. 6/13/1896, Monroe Co., AL), Elizabeth Weatherford, Lorrid L. Weatherford. Charles Weatherford died 6/13/1894, buried Weatherford Cemetery, Monroe Co., AL. Mary "Polly" Weatherford. Died before adulthood. 2nd-Wife: Sopoth Thlanie Born: about 1783 in AL; Married: ca 1813; Died in 1824 or immediately after birth of their son on 12/25/1813 in AL, buried Coosawda, unmarked grave Parents: John Moniac and Mary Tyner LifeNotes: From J. D. Driesback: she was " said to be the most beautiful forest maiden of the tribe, noted for her musical voice, and powers of song; and could charm the stern red warrior, and make him forget for the moment the war-path and the chase, by the cadence of her voice, whilst the wild bird stopped in its flight to drink in the sweet refrain." See the dream of the Red Eagle when he saw his own end. Their child: William Weatherford, Jr., born 12/25/1813, AL He went west to Oklahoma with the tribe during the Removal. After Mary Stiggins died, William sued his brother Charles over the estate. Died in Tulsa, Oklahoma; see the extract from the court record. Note: there is a notice in sources that William married Lilla Beasley, daughter of Col. Beasley of Fort Mims. The union is purported to have happened shortly after the Massacre. Am putting mention of it here because I do not want to let any item go unnoticed. Lilla's mother was the daughter of a Creek chief. 3rd-Wife: Mary Stiggins Born: about 1783 in AL. Married in 1817 "under white law"; Died in 1832, Mount Pleasant, Monroe Co., AL, buried with other Stiggins at the Baptist Church, Little River; her wooden marker was destroyed in a brush fire. Parents: Joseph Stiggins, an Englishman, and Nancy Grey, a Natchez, niece of Chinnabbee. LifeNotes: sister of George Stiggins . The great Indian fighter Sam Dale was best man at the wedding of Mary Stiggins to William Weatherford. Alexander McGillivray Weatherford. See his page . Married 1st-Martha Pollard. Their children are: Martha E. Weatherford (m. Eli King), Mary Ellen Weatherford (m. Alexander Moniac Sizemore), Percy W. Weatherford, Susan Arelia Weatherford, Frederick Tyler Weatherford, Levetia Weatherford, Charles A. Weatherford. Married 2nd-Martha "Mattie" Avery. Their son: Selestine Osceola "Oscie" Weatherford (d. 1941 Hardin Co., TX) Mary Levitia Weatherford. See her page . Married Dr. William Forbes Howell. Major Weatherford, who was killed as a child John Weatherford, died as a child. Woodrow Wallace shares the story of the Red Eagle's demise from Dreisback: The Red Eagle goes on a hunting trip and seeing the white deer among all the brown ones and reads therein his own death, going home from the hunt and dying three days later dreaming of departing hand in hand with Sopoth Thlanie. JOHN "JAKE" DAVID WEATHERFORD and PATTY DYER John "Jake" David Weatherford LifeNotes: John Weatherford operated the Claiborne ferry. He was able to assist General Andrew Jackson during the Creek War by helping Jackson transport the Army across the Alabama River. John was given a land grant by James Monroe for his service; the grant included a large portion of Monroe County and the adjoining counties. John and his family lived in Monroe Co., AL. and he appears on the 1854 tax list. Born: about 1783 in AL; Married:a bout 1802 in AL; Died: Parents: Charles Weatherford and Sehoy III Patty Dyer LifeNotes: She was sister of Margaret Dyer who was one of the wives of David Tate. Born: about 1785; Married: ; Died: Parents: Their children were: John D. Weatherford. Married his cousin 1st-Elizabeth Tunstall, daughter of Louisa Matilda Mary Tate and George Tunstall; Dr. Marion Elisha Tarvin was at the wedding "which was a brilliant affair". Their children: Rosa Weatherford (married and went to Indian Territory near Oklahoma), Fanny Weatherford (married twice; lived near Hiuntsville, AL in a community named Gurley; died in Gurley), Married on 6-09-1864, Monroe Co., AL, to 2nd- Elizabeth Waller with Johnathon English as security and A. J. Lambert as minister. Their children were: William Weatherford (died young), Thomas Waller Weatherford, Sr. (b. 7/25/1865; m. Rosa Shomo; they had 12 children; d. 1/18/1941) Caroline Weatherford, born about 1805. Married ? Killiam. Their descendants lived around Flomaton and Century, FL. ROSANNA WEATHERFORD and JOSEPH SHOMO Rosanna Weatherford LifeNotes: When young, Rosanna attended local schools. When she turned 16, her uncle David Tate took her to Raleigh, NC, to attend school; where she stayed there 2 years. Rosanna and Joseph and their children lived in Monroe Co., AL. Dr. Marion Elisha Tarvin, her nephew, said, "I well recollect Aunt Rosannah and Capt. Shomo, having often been at their house. She was woman of great force of of character. She was born in the upper part of Baldwin county, Ala., near where rests the remains of her warrior brother, William the 'Red Eagle". Born: about 1789 in Baldwin Co., AL Married: 12/25/1821; Died: buried in the family cemetery near the home of her son William A. Shomo. Parents: Charles Weatherford and Sehoy III Captain Joseph Shomo LifeNotes: He was an officer in the US Army. Resigned on 12/31/1820. Bought a farm in Clarke County, AL. They lived, however, in Monroe County, AL, at Mt. Pleasant. He was an Odd Fellow, a Democrat and a Methodist. His last residence is shown as Penscaola, FL. Born: Married: 12/25/1821; Died: buried at Fort Barrancas. Parents: Their children were: David Tate Shomo, born 5/16/1824. Became a physician. Married Elizabeth Nettles Hobbs. Died 10/25/1854. Joseph Weatherford Shomo, born about 1811; became a physician. Married 1st-Mary Elizabeth Wheadon. Married 2nd-Anne Tarke Moniac, widow of Dr. Alexander Moniac. James Preston Weatherford, born about 1813. Died young. Francis William Shomo, born about 1815 Virginia Elizabeth Rosanna Shomo, born about 1817 William Augustus Shomo, born about 1819. Married Margaret Ione Staples. Their daughter: Rosa Shomo (m. T. W. Weatherford, Sr.). Frances Blount Shomo, born about 1821. ELIZABETH WEATHERFORD and SAMUEL TAKKES-HADJO MONIAC Elizabeth Weatherford Born: about 1785 in AL; Married: about 1802 in Baldwin County, AL; Died: Parents: Charles Weatherford and Sehoy III Samuel Takkes-Hadjo Moniac Parents: William Dixon Moniac, see his Moniac page , and Polly Colbert Their children were: David Moniac. Married Margaret "Polly" Powell. Their children were: David Alexander Moniac (sheriff of Baldwin Co., AL and d. 1880), Margaret Moniac (m. S. J. McDonald). From Dr. Marion Elisah Tarvin: "under the treaty at New York, was graduated at West Point. He was made a major and commanded 600 Creeks and Choctaws against the Seminoles in the Florida war of 1836. He was killed, 13 bullets piercing his body. A braver man never lived."). Another account from J. D. Driesback: "... of whom Gen. Jessup said, that he was as brave and gallant a man as ever drew a sword or faced an enemy. ... His wife was a cousin of Osceola, the Florida chief, who commanded the Florida Indians when Maj. Moniac was killed. Moniac had resigned his commission in the U. S. A. many years before the Florida war of 1836, and entered the army as a private in the company from Claiborne, Ala., but soon rose to the rank of Major by Brevet, and was in command of 600 Creeks and Choctaws when he was killed." (Alabama Historical Reporter, Vol. 2, No. 4, March 1884) See this piece in its entirety . ALEXANDER McGILLIVRAY WEATHERFORD and his wives MARTHA POLLARD, JANE HADLEY, and MARTHA "MATTIE" AVERY Information with many thanks to descendant Jim Guest Alexander McGillivray Weatherford LifeNotes: Frances Eldorado Holland, second wife of Alexander's son "Oscie" Weatherford, in a letter dated 1 April 1975 to her grandson James Guest, stated, "Selestine Oscie Weatherford was born June 1, 1866 in Mobile, Alabama. His parents were Alexander McGillivray Weatherford and Mattie Avery. He came to Texas in 1874." Alexander (Alex) took his family to Austin County Texas in 1874, and some years later went back to Alabama (to sell some land, according to family stories) and died there. Alexander is shown in the 1880 census of Austin County Texas as being 61 years old. His child Maude is shown to be 3 years old and born in Alabama, and his son John shows to be 4 months old and born in Texas. This means that Alex's wife Martha "Mattie" (and probably the whole family) would have been in Alabama in about 1876, but in Texas by 1880. Alexander's granddaughter, Ina Weatherford Toups said that her grandfather, "Alex" Weatherford, came to Texas with his family from around Mobile, Alabama in the 1870's, and that he had "owned slaves". (The 1880 U.S. Census of Austin County Texas shows a black family living in the same "dwelling" with Alexander and his family. The father in the black family is listed as a "servant".) Ina said that she was told that Alexander went back to Alabama after some years, evidently to sell some land he had there. She said that she didn't think he came back to Texas because the family story was that, "the old man died in Alabama", and that, the land was never sold". The 1860 US Census of Baldwin County Alabama shows Alexander's age as 40. (From the 1860 U.S. Census of Baldwin County, Alabama. Dwelling 335, Line 5.) The 1870 U.S. Census of Escambia Co., AL shows Alleck's age as 55. He is listed as an "Indian", born in Alabama, and his occupation is listed as "rail road laborer". His wife Martha's age is listed as 29, as "white", and as a housewife, also born in Alabama. They have four boys, but evidently declined to answer any more questions because the census taker made a notation stating that Alexander had " 4 boys whom he refused to give names....ages". Another notation in different hand writing states "Weatherford refused to answer any questions regarding his children". (from the 1870 U.S. Census of Escambia County, Alabama. 4 July 1870, Jack's Spring Beat, Pg 188, Family #27.) The 1880 US Census of Austin County Texas shows Alexander's age as 61, his occupation as a farmer, and states that he and his parents were born in Alabama. His wife Martha, 35, is also listed, and seven children, Willie 18, Walter 16, Oceola 13, Agustus 11, Leslie 6, Maud 3, and John 4 months. (from the 1880 U.S. Census of Austin County, Texas. 8 June 1880, ED 166, Pg 4, lines 29. and 30) The book on William Weatherford by Lynn Hastie Thompson, gives something about Alexander's life before he brought his family to Texas. She says that he "served as Justice of the Peace in and for Baldwin Co. Alabama in September of 1856". Also that during the Civil War of 1861 to 1865 that, "Alexander served in Capt. T.C. English's company of Confederate mounted infantry." The book also states about Alexander that, "In his later years he lived in Austin, Texas, but his last years he lived with Mary Sizemore, his daughter, in South Monroe County, Alabama." Born: abt 1820, Alabama; Married 1st-; Married 2nd- : Married 3rd: 14 Mar 1860, Baldwin Co., AL; Died: about 1897 at age 77, while visiting in AL. Parents: William Weatherford The Red Eagle and Mary Stiggins 1st-Wife: Martha Pollard Mary Weatherford, born about 1843. Wife: Martha "Mattie" Avery Born: Married: 14 Mar 1860 at age 40, Baldwin Co., AL; Died: Parents: Willis "Will" Weatherford, born 1862. Died about 1906) Walter McGillivray Weatherford, born bet 1 Jun 1862 and 1864. Died about 3 Jul 1924. Selestine Osceola "Oscie" Weatherford, born 1866 in Monroe Co., AL (or Mobile Co., AL). Married 1st- ?. Married 2nd-Frances Eldorado Holland, daughter of James K. Polk Holland and Letha Ann Evans from Hardin Co., TX. One daughter was: Ina Leona Weatherford (b. 8 Oct 1908, Village Mills, Hardin Co., TX). Died 1941 Hardin Co., TX, buried there. Leslie "Lel" McGillivray Weatherford, born 18 Jun 1872 . Died 7 Oct 1936. Clyde Weatherford, born abt 1873. Died about 1950. D. G. "Gus" Weatherford, born Dec 1875. Died about 1925. Maude Weatherford, born abt 1877, AL. Verna Weatherford, born about 1878. Died about 1915. John Weatherford, born about 1880, TX. Jim Guest also lists sources: "Red Eagle and the Wars with the Creek Indians of Alabama" (George Cary Eggleston 1839-1911, Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, published reprint of 1878 edition and also on LDS microfiche #6088297), "William Weatherford, His Country and His People" Lynn Hastie Thompson, Lavender Publishing, Company, P.O. Box 884, Bay Minette, AL36507, published 1991), "Early Alabama Marriages" (published by Family Adventures, PO Box 290354, San Antonio, TX. 78280-1754. Pg 12) to Some Creek Families & Friends MARY LEVITIA WEATHERFORD AND DR. WILLIAM FORBES HOWELL George Windes is a descendant of Mary Levitia and William Howell and would like to hear from you if you share lines or if you have information on the Howells. George offers us the information below. Mary Levitia or Levelita Weatherford LifeNotes: She was very young when her father died. She was the only daughter of William Weatherford to grow to adulthood. Mary Levitia and her Dr. Howell would stay in Alabama till 1850, when her mother's estate was settled, and then moved with several children and numerous slaves to Louisiana where the family had holdings in Natchitoches, DeSoto and Sabine Parishes. Sadly, there was much sickness along the bayou's, and Levitia died at age 36 in 1859. Born: 1823, Little River, AL. Shown as age 24 in the 1850 census. Married: 4/11/1842, Monroe Co., AL, C. C. Sellers, surety, T. Burpo, Ordained Minister (source: "Monroe and Conecuh County, Alabama Marriages 1833-1880", Dr. Lucy Wiggins Colson, P. D. and Dr. Robert Ellis Colson, Southern Historical Press, 1983) Died: in 1859; is buried in a lonely, unkept forest place (Campground Cemetery) near Pleasant Hill, Louisiana. Two of her children are beside her, Bonaparte, age 5, and Natalie, age 14. The widower put up a nine foot apex style monument, which has fallen at least once. Parents: William Weatherford "Red Eagle" and Mary Stiggins Dr. William Forbes Howell LifeNotes: Was from Wilcox Co., AL. He married 2nd- Louisa Elizabeth Smith Durr, widow, about 1860. They had a daughter Emily Hall Howell, born 1862, after Dr. Howell died. Born: AL; Married: 4/11/1842, Monroe Co., AL, C. C. Sellers, surety, T. Burpo, Ordained Minister -- William is shown as William Harwell (source: "Monroe and Conecuh County, Alabama Marriages 1833-1880", Dr. Lucy Wiggins Colson, P. D. and Dr. Robert Ellis Colson, Southern Historical Press, 1983); Died: Parents: William H. Howell and Lucy Williamson. William H. Howell was a successful Alabama planter. Their children were:  Theodicia Howell, born 1843 AL. Shown as age 7 in the 1850 census. Natalie Weatherford, born 1844 AL. Shown as age 5 in 1850 census. Died 1859, and buried next to her mother at Camp Ground Cemetery. Lamar Howell, born 1846. AL Shown as age 3 in the 1850 census. Fought for the Confederacy. Later lived in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana. BonaparteWeatherford, born 1846 AL. Shown as age 4 in the 1850 census. Died 1852, buried near his mother, Camp Ground Cemetery. Winfield Scott Howell, born 1850 AL. Shown as age 6 moths in the 1850 census. Josephine Elizabeth Howell, born 1852, LA, the first of the Howell children born after the move to Louisiana. Married Lloyd C. Freeman. Their children were: Joseph Leroy Freeman (b. 12/14/1873 Pleasant Hill, LA; m. on 3/24/1907 to Dona Elizabeth Baker, daughter of Columbus Winfield Baker and Francis Brooks), Theodore Freeman (m. Rosanna Harjo, daughter of Hepsey Harjo and Woxie Harjo), Carlyle Freeman (b. 1876; m. Louvinia Harjo, daughter of Hepsey Harjo and Woxie Harjo; d. 1886), Lynne S. Freeman (d. young), Estelle Freeman (m. Columbus Winfield Baker, son of Thomas Baker-- and father of Dona Elizabeth Baker), Ella Blanche Freeman, Mamie Freeman, Emma Freeman (m. Joe Barnwell), Lloyd Freeman (d. young). This is Anita Freeman Cox 's line through Carlyle Freeman. William Howell, born 1855. CHARLES WEATHERFORD and ELIZABETH "BETSY" ANN STIGGINS Charles Weatherford LifeNotes: He and Elizabeth lived at the old homeplace of his father. Born: 1795 in what is now Montgomery Co., AL; Married: Died: 6/13/1894 Monroe Co., AL Parents: William Weatherford and Mary Moniac Elizabeth Stiggins Born: ca 1806; Married: ; Died: Parents: George Stiggins and Elizabeth Adcock Their children were: William Wilshire Weatherford, born ca 1829. Died young. Captain Charles A. Weatherford, born 6/4/1834 Monroe Co., AL. Married on 2/28/1861 Martha Virginia Staples (b. ca 1837; d. ca 1913, Baldwin Co., AL, daughter of Jason Staples and Margaret Powell, at Mt. Pleasant, Monroe Co., AL with McDuff Mann as security and R. Y. Reaves as Pastor. See the letter Charles wrote . Their children were: Sherman Evans Weatherford (b. 1 Dec 1862; m. Ruby V. (Ukn) who was born ca 1882; d. 9 Dec 1926), Sidney Clay Weatherford, Margaret "Maggie" James Weatherford (m. Charles Sizemore), Mary "Mamie" Staples Weatherford, Laura McGillivray Weatherford, Martha Marcelline or Marcellitte Weatherford (m. ? Deaux), Charles Jason Weatherford, Willliam "Billy" Weatherford, Charles Jason Weatherford II (b. ca 1870), Ione Zaydee Weatherford. Died 9/13/1909 or 6/13/1896, Monroe Co., AL, buried in Weatherford Cemetery, Monroe Co., AL. Elizabeth Weatherford, born ca 1834-5. Died 4/1850 of a fever Lorrid L. Weatherford, born ca 1841 CAPTAIN CHARLES A. WEATHERFORD and MARTHA VIRGINIA STAPLES Captain Charles A. Weatherford LifeNotes: See the letter Charles wrote Born: 6/4/1834 Monroe Co., AL Married: on 2/28/1861, at Mt. Pleasant, Monroe Co., AL with McDuff Mann as security and R. Y. Reaves as Pastor. Died: 9/13/1909 or 6/13/1896, Monroe Co., AL, buried in Weatherford Cemetery, Monroe Co., AL. Parents: Charles Weatherford and Elizabeth "Betsy" Ann Stiggins Martha Virginia Staples LifeNotes: Born: ca 1837 Married: on 2/28/1861, at Mt. Pleasant, Monroe Co., AL with McDuff Mann as security and R. Y. Reaves as Pastor. Died: ca 1913, Baldwin Co., AL Parents: Jason Staples and Margaret Powell Their children were: Sherman Evans Weatherford, born 1 Dec 1862. Married Ruby V. (Ukn) who was born ca 1882. Their children were: Estelle Weatherford (b. 1900), David M. Weatherford (b. 1902), Ruby Weatherford (b. 1903), Laura Weatherford (b. 1904), Arthur Weatherford (b. 1906), Eunice Weatherford (b. 1903), Mamie Weatherford (b. 1909),. Sherman Evans Weatherford died 9 Dec 1926 Sidney Clay Weatherford DANIEL T. WEATHERFORD and his wives Daniel Weatherford Born 10/12/1812 SC 1st-wife: Sarah (?). LifeNotes: They were in Walton Co., FL in 1850 for the census; Daniel is shown there as age 37 and Sarah is shown age 36 and born in AL. Later Daniel is shown in Neshoba Co., MS in the 1860 census as age 45. and in the 1870 census there as age 60. He is shown in the Angelina Co., TX 1880 census as age 67. He dies 9/29/1895. Suzanne Sowell asks your help for more information on Daniel and his family. Daniel is not shown in any way connected to the Creek Weatherford. If you know anything, please email Suzanne Sowell . Their known children are: Benjamin Weatherford. He is listed as age 17 and born in AL in the 1850 census for Walton Co., FL. John Weatherford. He is listed as age 8 and born in AL in the 1850 census for Walton Co., FL and age 18 iand born in AL n the 1860 census for Neshoba co., MS. William Weatherford. He is listed as age 7 and born in AL in the 1850 census for Walton Co., FL and as age 16 and born in AL in the 1860 census for Neshoba Co., MS. Sarah Weatherford. She is listed as age 5 and born in AL in the 1850 census for Walton Co., FL. George Weatherford. He is listed as age 2 and born in AL in the 1850 census for Walton Co., FL and the 1860 census for Neshoba Co., MS as age 11 and born in FL. Elizabeth Weatherford. She is listed as age 14 and born in AL in the 1860 census for Neshoba Co., MS and as age 20 in the 1870 census for Neshoba Co., MS. Caroline E. Weatherford. She is listed as age 8 and born in FL in the 1860 census for Neshoba Co., MS. Charles M. Weatherford. He is listed as age 6 and born in FL in the 1860 census for Neshoba Co., MS. In 1860, Daniel is in Neshoba Co., MS with no wife but with these children from the above list: William, Elizabeth, George, Caroline E., and Charles M. Mary Webb Born, Married by 1870, Died Parents: Mary is shown in the 1879 census in Neshoba Co., MS as age 25 and born supposedly in MS; she is shown in the Angelina Co., TX 1880 census as age 37. Their children are: Victoria Weatherford. She is listed as age 9 and born in MS in the 1870 census for Neshoba Co., MS. Zacharia Weatherford. He is listed as age 3 and born in MS in the 1870 census for Neshoba Co., MS. Henry James. He is listed as age 1 and born in MS in the 1880 census for Neshoba Co., MS. He is shown in the Angelina Co., TX 1880 census as age 11. Zacharia Weatherford. He is listed in the 1880 census for Neshoba Co., MS. He is shown in the Angelina Co., TX 1880 census as age 13. Walton Weatherford. He is listed in the 1880 census for Neshoba Co., MS. He is shown in the Angelina Co., TX 1880 census as age 9. David Weatherford. He is shown in the Angelina Co., TX 1880 census as age 7. Mary L. Weatherford. She is shown in the Angelina Co., TX 1880 census as age 4 Josie Weatherford. She is listed n the Angelina Co., TX 1880 census as age 2.
i don't know
Which country owns the Queen Elizabeth islands?
Feature: Queen Elizabeth's 16 Countries - Political Geography Now Tuesday, June 5, 2012 Feature: Queen Elizabeth's 16 Countries Update 2016-06-10: Queen Elizabeth II is now celebrating her 90th birthday . The below article is still just as accurate as when we first published it four years ago. As Britain wraps up celebrations for the queen's Diamond Jubilee (the 60th anniversary of her coronation), you may have heard it mentioned that Elizabeth II is not just the Queen of England and the U.K., but of 15 other independent countries as well. This article maps, lists, and explains the situation of those countries. Map of the Commonwealth realms - independent countries which share the British monarchy. Current realms in dark blue, former realms in light blue. By Evan Centanni, modified from public domain Wikipedia map ( source ). Which countries share the Queen? Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II is the official head of state for 16 different independent countries, known as the "Commonwealth realms" - a smaller club than the Commonwealth of Nations , many of whose members are now queenless republics. The current Commonwealth realms, in order of independence, are: Personal flag of Queen Elizabeth II ( source ) License: CC BY-SA .   Saint Kitts and Nevis Just as the sun never sets in the British Empire, the monarchy never set in the realms - each one inherits the queen's role from its time as a former British colony (with the exception of northern Papua New Guinea, which passed directly from German to Australian control before uniting with the British south in independence). Sixteen countries - is that all? Although the independent realms total 16, the number of "countries" with Elizabeth II as their queen actually increases to 19 when including the four "home nations" that make up the U.K.: England, Scotland , Wales, and Northern Ireland. But that's not all - as if 16 realms weren't enough for one woman, the Queen of England also reigns over three Crown Dependencies (Guernsey and Jersey in the Channel Islands, plus the Isle of Man) and the 14 British Overseas Territories , all of which are dependent on the U.K., but aren't considered part of the kingdom itself. And interestingly, the Realm of New Zealand includes two associated states, the Cook Islands and Niue, which could remain royal subjects even if New Zealand itself were to fire the queen from its government. Entire reign of Queen Elizabeth II (1952-2012). Current in red, former in blue (dark = sovereign realm; light = territory or dependency). Click to enlarge. Excludes Antarctic claims. By Evan Centanni, from public domain map ( source ). Historically, there are about 20 more countries which were Commonwealth realms during parts of the last Century, but have since abandoned the monarchy to become republics. Still, the current list is longer than it used to be - at the time of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1952, there were only seven realms: the U.K., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).   How can countries share the same monarch and still be sovereign states? Every one of the Commonwealth realms is a fully-fledged independent country and a member of the U.N., despite sharing the same queen. So how does that work? Each country has separately and independently designated Elizabeth II (and her royal line) as its head of state, and the British parliament has no authority whatsoever over the governments of any of the other realms. In a certain legal sense, these 16 countries just happen to have chosen the same family to form their monarchy. To show this independence, each realm calls the queen by its own national title - she is not only the the Queen of England, but the Queen of Australia, the Queen of Canada, the Queen of the Bahamas, etc. As for Her Majesty, she's been said to be "equally at home in all of her realms". But since she has only has one physical body, she still mainly lives in the oldest realm: the U.K. In her other countries, she's represented on an everyday basis by appointed viceroys (the highest-level viceroys are called governors-general). But if they're all controlled by the same person, isn't that like being one country? Flag of Elizabeth II, Queen of Barbados. See all flags of Elizabeth II . By Barryob ( source ). License: CC BY-SA . Unlike in medieval personal unions , where a single monarch had power over two or more countries, the queen has next to no power in her modern realms. Although there are some decision-making powers ceremonially assigned to her, for the most part she can now only exercise them if asked to by the country's government. Since modern constitutional monarchies require the royal family to stay out of politics, the queen serves as a symbol of a loyalty to one's nation that transcends political differences. Still, this must create some awkward situations now and then, right? Absolutely - since the queen mainly acts only on the "advice" of her countries' governments, she officially takes both sides whenever two realms disagree, and has also been found engaging in trade competition with herself. She may also be simultaneously neutral and at war when one realm is involved in an international conflict and others are not; in extreme cases, the monarch of the Commonwealth realms may even declare war against him or herself, as happened in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 (during the reign of King George VI).
Canada
Marilyn Monroe played the character Sugar Kane in which film?
Token Royalty? Queen Elizabeth II the largest landowner on Earth » Alex Jones' Infowars: There's a war on for your mind! Token Royalty? Queen Elizabeth II the largest landowner on Earth July 7, 2009 Comments Who Owns the World July 7, 2009 Queen Elizabeth II, head of state of the United Kingdom and of 31 other states and territories, is the legal owner of about 6,600 million acres of land, one sixth of the earth’s non ocean surface. She is the only person on earth who owns whole countries, and who owns countries that are not her own domestic territory. This land ownership is separate from her role as head of state and is different from other monarchies where no such claim is made – Norway, Belgium, Denmark etc. [efoods]The value of her land holding. £17,600,000,000,000 (approx). This makes her the richest individual on earth. However, there is no way easily to value her real estate. There is no current market in the land of entire countries. At a rough estimate of $5,000 an acre, and based on the sale of Alaska to the USA by the Tsar, and of Louisiana to the USA by France, the Queen’s land holding is worth a notional $33,000,000,000,000 (Thirty three trillion dollars or about £17,600,000,000,000). Her holding is based on the laws of the countries she owns and her land title is valid in all the countries she owns. Her main holdings are Canada, the 2nd largest country on earth, with 2,467 million acres, Australia, the 7th largest country on earth with 1,900 million acres, the Papua New Guinea with114 million acres, New Zealand with 66 million acres and the UK with 60 million acres. She is the world’s largest landowner by a significant margin. The next largest landowner is the Russian state, with an overall ownership of 4,219 million acres, and a direct ownership comparable with the Queen’s land holding of 2,447 million acres. The 3rd largest landowner is the Chinese state, which claims all of Chinese land, about 2,365 million acres. The 4th largest landowner on earth is the Federal Government of the United States, which owns about one third of the land of the USA, 760 million acres. The fifth largest landowner on earth is the King of Saudi Arabia with 553 million acres Largest five personal landowners on Earth: Queen Elizabeth II     6,600 million acres King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia     553 million acres King Bhumibol of Thailand     126 million acres King Mohammed IV of Morocco     113 million acres Sultan Quaboos of Oman     76 million acres
i don't know
Who played Hotlips in the film version of Mash?
Sally Kellerman HOT LIPS - YouTube Sally Kellerman HOT LIPS Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jun 12, 2012 She was the was the first actress to play Major Margaret "Hot Lips" O'Houlihan in the film version of MASH (1970). The role went to Loretta Swit for the television series. Category
Sally Kellerman
Leonard Alfred Schneider is best remembered by what stage name?
Margaret Houlihan | M*A*S*H 4077th (TV Series) Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia M*A*S*H 4077th (TV Series) Wiki Share Ad blocker interference detected! Wikia is a free-to-use site that makes money from advertising. We have a modified experience for viewers using ad blockers Wikia is not accessible if you’ve made further modifications. Remove the custom ad blocker rule(s) and the page will load as expected. Margret in season eight. Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan was a fictional character first created in the book M*A*S*H: A Novel About Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker. Actress Sally Kellerman portrayed her in the Robert Altman film adaptation (where the character was renamed "O'Houlihan"; however, like many of the M*A*S*H* characters, Hot Lips is probably best known from the television series, where her part was played by Loretta Swit. Having the advantage of an 11-year run on television, Swit's Houlihan became a significantly more developed character than originally portrayed in the film by Kellerman, in many ways demonstrating characteristics that would have been almost antithetical to the cinematic Hot Lips. The character of "Hotlips Houlihan" was inspired by real-life Korean War MASH head nurse "Hotlips Hammerly," also a very attractive blonde, of the same disposition, and also from El Paso, Texas. Contents Edit Major Houlihan is a member of the Army Nurse Corps and in charge of all the nurses at the MASH 4077 unit. She is devoted to her army career, having been born into the tradition. Her father, Colonel Alvin "Howitzer Al" Houlihan, was her role model for her career. As an army brat she was born in an army hospital and grew up on army bases, most notably Fort Ord. Relationship With Others Edit Margaret can be very strict and deplores anyone who does not live up to her standard of military discipline, but she also displays her passionate side in the early part of the series through her relationship with Frank Burns. This relationship eventually ran its course (there were hints that she really wasn't happy with Frank and knew he wasn't the man they both liked to think he was) and Margaret became engaged to, and then married, Lieutenant Colonel Donald Penobscot (which precipitated Frank's departure). Colonel Potter and even Hawkeye and BJ feared she was making a mistake, caught up in the euphoria of being too happy, of being in love with the idea of being in love, and in the end, they were right. The marriage did not last very long, as Donald mistreated and cheated on her. Later, she had a brief affair with Jack Scully, but that did not last very long, either with his increasingly obvious dismissal of her rank and her worth as a woman. In early seasons of the television show, it was shown that Margaret had a crush on Captain Trapper John McIntyre, professing how attractive she found his crooked smile and sturdy frame. She also had a brief relationship with Hawkeye Pierce, whose talent for kissing often left her speechless. Hot Lips spent the early part of the series battling Hawkeye and Trapper along with Frank and, additionally, criticizing Lt. Col. Henry Blake for his lack of authority when not going over his head, filing formal complaints. Many early jokes were at her expense, such as when a gassed boxer fell on her and Frank and when she said the oxymoronic description of Hawkeye & Trapper John: "They're ruining this war for all of us!" While she didn't seem to hate Henry as an individual, she once described him as a "golf playing figurehead" and later as a "fly fishing impostor". She also referred to him as "Col. Bubble-Head." Henry generally let her criticisms roll off his back, but at one point he mocked Hot Lips by saying that she'd gone over his head so many times she'd given him "athlete's scalp". Still, she and Frank both wept for Henry when they heard of his death. By contrast, she got along very well with Colonel Sherman T. Potter, the camp's 2nd CO, who was something of a father figure to her. Rear Edit The most noticeable of her physical feminine attributes among her male counterparts was her well-shaped voluptuous rear-end housed in very tight Army pants and was often literally the "butt" of jokes. One of which was when Hawkeye needed to give her an inoculation shot and coaxed her into letting him give it to her in the caboose. Hawkeye had only one word to say and that was "Magnificent!" Another was when a rash of practical jokes was sweeping through the camp including an unknowing Margaret parading around the camp in her bathrobe with the backside portion cut out resulting in several whistles, howls and a marriage proposal. (It was later revealed in the episode that Margaret made up the latter incident as part of B.J.'s elaborate practical joke on Hawkeye.) Changes Edit Over the run of the show Margaret mellowed from a completely "by-the-book" head nurse (who was also not above using her romantic contacts with superior officers to attempt to get her way), to a more relaxed member of the cast who tempered her authority with humanity. Key episodes in this development were "The Nurses" which had Margaret making an emotional tirade to her nurses about how their disdain of her hurt, which thoroughly stuns them, and "Comrades In Arms" where Hawkeye and Margaret make peace once and for all while lost in the wilderness. When the show ended Margaret was on her way back to the US to take up a position in an army hospital. Not coincidentally, the change came when Linda Bloodworth-Thomason joined the show's writing team. Some fans regretted the change of heart in Hot Lips' character. While some loved how she became a kinder, more gentle person, others felt that she worked better as strict, no-nonsense antagonist with a slight problem regarding her passion. Even at her most antagonistic, she was generally allowed more humanity than her fellow antagonist, Frank Burns. Name Edit The name "Hot Lips" originates from an infamous scene in M*A*S*H, the movie, in which Margaret O'Houlihan is played by Sally Kellerman. During sex with Frank Burns, Margaret is unaware that the public address microphone has been planted beneath their cot, broadcasting graphic details of their sexual encounter throughout the camp on its public address system. Other members of the camp overhear her asking Frank to kiss her "hot lips" (presumably her labia). This nickname was used - without the sexual meaning - more in the earlier seasons of the TV series but was used less and less as time went on. Decarations (Medals) Several times throughout the series, the awards that Major Houlihan had earned during her service in the army could be seen on her uniform. She had earned the: Army Commendation Medal
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What type of creature is a Turnstone?
Beaches and Shorelines | The Wildlife Trusts Beaches and Shorelines Beaches and Shorelines BEACHES AND SHORELINE Turnstone credit Neil Aldridge The shoreline or beach is the point at which the land meets the sea. They can consist of rocks, sand, gravel, shingles, pebbles or cobblestones and are often a mixture of these; the consistency can be sandy, muddy and/or stony and, again, is often a mix of these. What are they? The highest point the tide reaches is the strandline. Here the tides leave behind sediments such as seaweed, dead plants and animal and, unfortunately, litter. Several strandlines can occur on a beach due to changes in the height of the tides. Strandlines provide the main input of energy to sandy shores and intertidal habitats. They are particularly important on exposed shores, where they can act as precursors to sand dunes. As seaweed breaks down it produces organic matter which provides nutrients for pioneering plants trying to establish themselves in exposed beach and sand dune areas. Without this initial impetus, sand dune formation is severely limited. Where are they found? The coastline of the UK boasts more than 6,000 km of shoreline with habitats ranging from hard-and soft-rock cliffs, sheltered coves, open beaches, river mouths, tidal inlets, estuaries, spits and barriers. Why are they important? Due to the tide the bottom of the beach is often or always covered by water whereas the top of the beach will only be covered by water when the tide is high. Therefore the species of plant and animal will vary greatly from the bottom to the top of the beach. Our beaches and shorelines provide the UK with protection from the sea, dampening the waves and removing energy from storm surges. Although this is not always the case, areas such as those in the North East are subject to high levels of coastal erosion, where soft sediments are being reclaimed by the sea. The greatest biodiversity on the shoreline is in the strandline. This are usually made up of organic matter, mainly seaweeds, driftwood and other debris. With each high tide, new life and material are deposited which contribute towards creating and supporting these unique habitats. Many species depend upon them for their food and shelter. The richest communities are found in the thickest, wettest, rotting material. These rotting seaweeds provide a rich food source for a great variety of both marine and terrestrial invertebrates including sandhoppers, beetles, small crabs and seaslaters. Large pieces of driftwood provide shelter on the shore for active predators that emerge at night. There are a number of beetles who feed only on sea soaked wood. Many flies such as kelp fly lay their eggs in the strandline, and the emergent maggots become food for predatory beetles and birds. There are a broad group of birds which feed along the shoreline including dunlins, oystercatchers, ringed plover, sanderlings and turnstones. Some are resident others are migratory. These birds search for sandhoppers, other invertebrates and kelp fly eggs which are laid on the seaweed. In addition to invertebrates and birds, strandlines also support other animals, including bats, shrews and voles. Even larger mammals like deer will occasionally visit the strandline to support their diet by feeding on seaweed. Are they threatened? The main threat to British shorelines is pollution from litter and rubbish washed up by the tides. There are two methods to clean a beach - mechanical or hand beach cleaning. Mechanical beach cleaners are heavy and cause compaction of the sand, this form of cleaning also removes the top 10-15cm of beach which contains high numbers of invertebrates and significant quantities of organic matter, and this has been shown to cause a 90% reduction in strandline species. Hand cleaning allows the natural strandline to remain and support the beach ecosystem, while also getting people involved in beach conservation. Some Wildlife Trusts organise beach cleans and this gives people an opportunity to get involved with protecting shoreline wildlife and improving their local environment. Rising sea level increases the risk of flooding in human populated areas, to avoid these sea walls and other sea defences are built reducing the available habitat available for shorelines. How are The Wildlife Trusts helping? What can I do to help? Visit wildlifetrusts.org/livingseas to find out how you can help our marine conservation work in the UK. Depending on where you live, local Wildlife Trust volunteers help out with everything from recording marine wildlife sightings to beach cleans and educational work. Visit our Living Seas pages online or contact your local Trust to find out more.  
Bird (disambiguation)
Alvin Stardust first found fame under what name?
Turnstone - Definition and synonyms of turnstone in the English dictionary. Translation of turnstone to 20 languages. turnstone Meaning of turnstone in the English dictionary DICTIONARY ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD TURNSTONE So called because it turns over stones in search of food. Etymology is the study of the origin of words and their changes in structure and significance. PRONUNCIATION OF TURNSTONE exclamation Turnstone is a noun. A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc. WHAT DOES TURNSTONE MEAN IN ENGLISH? Turnstone Turnstones are the bird species in the genus Arenaria in the family Scolopacidae. They are closely related to calidrid sandpipers and might be considered members of the tribe Calidriini. Both birds are distinctive medium-sized waders. They are high Arctic breeders, and are migratory. These chunky powerful birds have strong necks and bills well suited to their feeding technique. As the name implies, these species readily turn stones or seaweed looking for hidden invertebrates. They are strictly coastal, preferring stony beaches to sand, and are often found with other waders such as purple sandpipers. Their appearance is striking in flight, with white patches on the back, wings and tail. Ruddy turnstone in breeding plumage. Black turnstone in summer plumage. The ruddy turnstone, Arenaria interpres, has a circumpolar distribution, and is a very long distance migrant, wintering on coasts as far south as South Africa and Australia. It is thus a common sight on coasts almost everywhere in the world. In breeding plumage, this is a showy bird, with a black-and-white head, chestnut back, white underparts and red legs. Synonyms and antonyms of turnstone in the English dictionary of synonyms SYNONYMS WORDS RELATING TO «TURNSTONE» turnstone contest group bivi casino estate builders buoy chairs turnstones bird species genus arenaria family scolopacidae they closely related calidrid sandpipers might considered turnstone simple quality office furniture small businesses brand from steelcase aligned today fast growing companies sales recruitment training graduate bespoke company proud work fastest dynamic mission provide therapeutic educational wellness recreational programs empower people disabilities only profit brands products offers smart solutions emerging rspb flipping over pebbles Translation of «turnstone» into 20 languages TRANSLATOR TRANSLATION OF TURNSTONE Find out the translation of turnstone to 20 languages with our English multilingual translator . The translations of turnstone from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «turnstone» in English. List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «turnstone». FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «TURNSTONE» OVER TIME The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «turnstone» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «turnstone» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day. Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about turnstone EXAMPLES 10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «TURNSTONE» Discover the use of turnstone in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to turnstone and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature. 1 The Turnstone: A Doctor's Story The author’s research has taken him around the world, and besides his research findings, the book has a rich array of anecdotes and adventures, ranging from the threat of imprisonment in South Africa to a period spent as the personal ... Geoffrey Dean, 2002 10 Icelandic Voice in Canadian Letters: The Contribution of ... Winnipeg: Turnstone, 1 994. . Fifty Stories and a Piece of Advice. Winnipeg: Turnstone, 1 982. . The Happiest Man in the World. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1989. , and Michael Olito. The Icelanders. Winnipeg: Turnstone, 1981. . If Pigs Could Fly. Daisy Neijmann, 1997 10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «TURNSTONE» Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term turnstone is used in the context of the following news items. 1 Turnstone hosting power soccer tournament this weekend Turnstone will host the 2015 MK Battery Champions Cup national power soccer tournament this weekend at IPFW. This is soccer played by individuals utilizing ... «News Sentinel, Jul 15» 2 Turnstone announces ongoing enrollment of Marabex clinical trial Turnstone Biologics Inc. ("Turnstone" or the "Company"), a FACIT portfolio company, has announced the ongoing enrollment of the Marabex™ clinical trial ... «News-Medical.net, Jul 15» 3 Turnstone Biologics Announces Enrollment in Landmark Oncolytic … Turnstone's technology platform, Marabex™, is a novel approach that combines the benefits of oncolytic viral therapy with a tumour-targeted vaccine into a ... «PR Newswire, Jul 15» 4 Tickets available for Turnstone annual corvette fundraiser Tickets are available starting at $10 by calling 866-483-1278 or stopping by in person to Turnstone at 3320 North Clinton Street. The Indiana License is #136481 ... «WANE, Jul 15» 5 My Neck of the Woods: At the Ruddy Turnstone reunion During the last few years, I have looked forward to meeting ruddy turnstones in this ecosystem, specifically in early June. These island locals are larger ... «theday.com, Jun 15» 6 Turnstone Partners Representing Bank on Office Condo Sale Turnstone Partners, having been authorized by the bank which owns the office condominiums at 703 Saint Joseph Street, is coordinating the activities designed ... «Island Gazette, May 15» 7 Turnstone Biologics Inc. to accelerate clinical and commercial … TORONTO, May 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ - The Fight Against Cancer Innovation Trust (FACIT) and its partners are pleased to announce the formation of Turnstone ... «PR Newswire, May 15» 8 Fort Wayne, Turnstone becoming home to national goalball squad Turnstone and the United States Association of Blind Athletes announced today that the United State's men's national goalball team will move to Fort Wayne in ... «News Sentinel, Feb 15» 9 National goalball team will train in Fort Wayne FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) Turnstone continues to work to become a leader in bringing Olympic and Paralympic athletes to the area for training and ... «WANE, Feb 15» 10 Turnstone Research Reveals Desire to Work in Lounge Postures GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Turnstone ®, a Steelcase brand, today introduces additions to its Campfire ® collection, designed in response to ... «Business Wire, Feb 15» REFERENCE
i don't know
Which king was the first English Prince of Wales?
Princes of Wales Links The title of Prince of Wales was instituted in 1307 by King Edward I, when he invested his eldest son, Edward, as the first English Prince of Wales, at Lincoln. The traditional ostrich feather badge and the motto 'Ich dien' ( I serve) were adopted by Edward, the Black Prince after the battle of Crecy, they were previously believed to have belonged to the blind King John of Bohemia, who died in the battle. (1) EDWARD OF CAERNARFON The first English Prince of Wales was born at Caernarfon on 25 April, 1284, the fourth and eldest surviving son of Edward I and Eleanor of Castille. On the completion of his father's conquest of the province, he was created Prince of Wales on 7 February, 1301, at the age of 16, at a parliament at Lincoln. Edward was married to Isabella 'the She-Wolf of France' daughter of Philip IV of France and Joan I of Navarre and had issue, which included the future Edward III. He reigned as Edward II from 1307-1327. He was deposed by a rebellion lead by his wife and Roger Mortimer, Earl of March and forced to abdicate in favour of his son. Edward II was murdered in a bestial manner at Berkeley Castle in Gloucestershire. He was buried at Gloucester Cathedral. (2) EDWARD OF WOODSTOCK, THE BLACK PRINCE Edward of Woodstock, later known as the Black Prince for the colour of his armour, was born on 15 June, 1330, the eldest son of Edward III and Phillipa of Hainault. He was created Prince of Wales on 12 May, 1343, aged 12, at Westminster and was also Earl of Chester and Duke of Cornwall, making him the first English Duke. At fourteen he was amongst the first of the knights of the Order of the Garter, which was founded by his father. He participated in the Hundred Years War with France and famously won his spurs at the Battle of Crecy, adopting as his personal emblem the Ostrich feather badge of the blind King John of Bohemia, who was killed in the battle. He also fought at the battle of Battle of Poiters. Edward married his cousin, Joan, Countess of Kent, known as 'the Fair Maid of Kent', daughter of Edmund Plantagenet, Earl of Kent, the marriage was said to be a love match and produced two sons, Edward of Angouleme, who died yound and the future King Richard II. The Black Prince was never to reign as King, he predeceased his father, dying on 8 June, 1376. He was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, near to the shrine of St. Thomas A' Beckett. (3) RICHARD OF BORDEAUX The second and eldest surviving son of Edward, the Black Prince and Joan, Countess of Kent, Richard was born on 6 January,1367 at Bordeaux. After the death of his famous father, he was created Prince of Wales on 20 November, 1376, aged nine, at Havering. He succeeded his grandfather, Edward III, as King Richard II in 1377. Richard married twice, firstly to Anne of Bohemia in 1383 and secondly to Isabelle of Valois in 1396, neither marriage produced issue. A volatile and brooding character, Richard proved an unpopular King and was forced to abdicate in favour of his cousin, Henry of Bolingbroke. He was either murdered or starved to death at Pontefract Castle in 1400, he was known to be certainly dead by 17 February of that year. (4) HENRY OF MONMOUTH The future Henry V was born in August or September, 1386-7 at Monmouth, the eldest son of Henry, Earl of Derby (the future Henry IV) and Mary de Bohun. On his father's accession to the throne he was created Duke of Lancaster and Prince of Wales on 15 October, 1399, aged 12, at Westminster. He succeeded his father in 1413. Due to his conquest of France he was to become one of the most famous of the Plantagenet Kings and an English national hero. Henry married Catherine of Valois, the daughter of Charles VI, King of France and Isabeau of Bavaria the marriage produced one child, the future Henry VI. Henry V died of dysentery at Bois de Vincennes whilst on campaign in France on 31 August, 1422. His body was returned to England where it was buried at Westminster Abbey. (5) EDWARD OF WESTMINSTER The fifth Prince of Wales, Edward, the only offspring of the marriage of Henry VI and Margaret of Anjou, was born on 13 October,1453, at Westminster. He was created Prince of Wales on 15 March, 1454, aged 5 months at Windsor. After his father was deposed by the Yorkists, Edward shared his mother's French exile. In December 1470 he was married to Anne Neville, daughter of Richard Neville, later known to history as Warwick 'the Kingmaker', the marriage produced no issue. Whilst parcipitating in a campaign to restore his father to the throne, Edward was killed either during or after the Battle of Tewksbury at the age of seventeen on 4 May, 1471,�there are several versions concerning how Edward, met his end, one states he was cut down as he fled north in the aftermath of the battle another states that following the rout of the Lancastrians at Tewkesbury, a small contingent of men under the Duke of Clarence found Edward near a grove, where he was immediately beheaded on a makeshift block, despite pleas for mercy to his brother-in-law Clarence. An alternative version was given by three other sources: The Great Chronicle of London, Polydore Vergil and Edward Hall, which was the version used by Shakespeare. This records, that Edward, having survived the battle and was taken captive and brought before Edward IV who was with George, Duke of Clarence; Richard, Duke of Gloucester; and William, Lord Hastings. The king received the prince graciously, and asked why he had taken up arms against him. The prince replied defiantly, "I came to recover my father's heritage." The king then struck the prince across his face with his gauntlet hand and those present with the king then suddenly stabbed Prince Edward with their swords.He was buried at Tewksbury Abbey in Gloucestershire. (6) EDWARD OF SANCTUARY The eldest son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, Edward was born in sanctuary at Westminster Abbey, on 4 November, 1470 during the brief restoration of Henry VI. He was created Prince of Wales on 26 June, 1471, aged 7 months, at Westminster. He succeeded his father as Edward V on 9 April, 1483. His throne was usurped by his uncle, Richard, Duke of Gloucester. Edward and his younger brother, Richard, Duke of York, known as 'the Princes in the Tower' were imprisoned in the Tower of London and believed to have been murdered there. Bones which were discovered at the Tower in 1674 and assumed to be those of Edward V and his brother were re-interred at Westminster Abbey by order of Charles II. (7) EDWARD OF MIDDLEHAM Edward of Middleham was the only son of Richard III and his wife Anne Neville, previously the wife of the Lancastrian Prince of Wales (5). He was born around 1473 at Middleham Castle in Yorkshire and created Earl of Salisbury in 1478 and Prince of Wales amongst great celebration on 24 August, 1483 aged 10, at York Minster. Known to be a delicate child, Edward died on 9 April, 1484, at about ten years old, possibly of tuberculosis and was buried at Sherrif Hutton Church in Yorkshire. (8) ARTHUR TUDOR Arthur Tudor the first Tudor Prince of Wales was born on 20 September, 1486 at Winchester, the son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York , daughter of Edward IV. He was created Prince of Wales at the age of 3 on 29 November, 1489 and invested with the title on 27 February, 1490 at Westminster. As part of a political alliance, Arthur was married to the Spanish Princess, Katherine of Aragon, daughter of the joint sovereigns Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille, in November, 1501 at St. Paul's Cathedral. He died at the age of sixteen, during an epidemic of sweating sickness at Ludlow Castle, in the Welsh Marches on 20 April, 1502. He was buried at Worcester Cathedral. (9) HENRY TUDOR The future Henry VIII was born on 28 June, 1491 at Greenwich, the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. He was created Duke of York in 1494 and after the death of his elder brother Arthur, Prince of Wales, was created Prince of Wales on 18 February, 1504, aged 12. He succeeded to the throne in as Henry VIII 1509 and famously married 6 times. (1) Katherine of Aragon (2) Anne Boleyn (3) Jane Seymour (4) Anne of Cleves (5) Katherine Howard (6) Katherine Parr. Henry had issue from his first three marriages and all three of his children were to reign after him. He died on 28 January, 1547 at the Palace of Whitehall. He was buried at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle and shares his tomb with his third wife, Jane Seymour. (10) HENRY FREDERICK STUART The first Stuart Prince of Wales was born on 19 February,1594, at Stirling Castle, Scotland, he was the eldest son of James VI of Scotland (later I of England) and Anne of Denmark and was named Henry Frederick after both his grandfathers. He became Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick and Lord of the Isles from birth. On the accession of his father to the throne of England he was further made Duke of Cornwall in 1603. He was created Prince of Wales on 4 June, 1610, aged 16, at Westminster. Although a promising young man, Henry was never to reign as King, he predeceased his father, dying of typhoid on 6 November, 1612 at the age of eighteen. He was buried at Westminster Abbey (11) CHARLES STUART Charles, the second Stuart Prince of Wales, was born on 19 November, 1600 at Dunfermline Palace, Fife, the second son of James I and VI and Anne of Denmark. Charles was a delicate and sickly child who experienced difficulties walking and talking. He was made Duke of Albany in 1603 and Duke of York in 1605. On the death of his elder brother Henry, he was created Prince of Wales in his place on 4 November, 1616, at 15 years old, at Whitehall. He succeeded his father as Charles I in 1625. On 13 June 1625, he married Henrietta Maria of France, the youngest daughter of King Henry IV of France (Henry III of Navarre) and his second wife, Marie de' Medici. Civil War broke out with parliament and Charles was tried and executed on the order of Oliver Cromwell, on 30 January, 1649, at Whitehall and buried in the tomb of a past Prince of Wales, Henry VIII, at St. George's Chapel, Windsor. (12) CHARLES STUART The future Charles II was born on 29 May, 1630 at St. James' Palace, the eldest surviving son of Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France. He was Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay from birth and was created Prince of Wales around 1638-41 in London, aged 8-11. Due to the upheavals of the Civil War he was never formally invested with the title. On the death of his father in 1649 Charles was already in exile. Charles was restored to the throne in 1660 and married in 1662 the Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza, daughter of John II, Duke of Braganza and his wife, Luisa de Guzm�n. King Charles II left no legitimate issue. He died of uremia on 6 February, 1685 and was buried at Westminster Abbey. (13) JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD STUART James Francis Edward Stuart was born on 10 January, 1688 at St. James' Palace, London, the only surviving son of James II and his Italian second wife, Mary Beatrice of Modena. He was created Prince of Wales on 4 July,1688, at St. James' Palace and went into French exile with his parents on his father's vacating the throne after a rebellion lead by William of Orange. On the death of his father he was declared ' James III ' and recognised as such by Louis XIV of France. He married a Polish Princess, Maria Clementina Sobieski (1667-1737) daughter of James Louis Sobieski , the eldest son of King John III, and Countess Palatine Hedwig Elisabeth of Neuburg on 3 Sept, 1719, by whom he had issue, Charles Edward Stuart, otherwise known as 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' and Henry Benedict Stuart, Cardinal York. Three failed Jacobite uprisings were led in his name, in 1715, 1719 and 1745, James died in Rome on 1 January, 1766 and was buried within St.Peter's Basilica, the Vatican. (14) GEORGE AUGUSTUS OF HANOVER The first of the Hanoverian Princes of Wales was born at Schloss Herrenhausen, Hanover on 10 November, 1683, the only son of George Ludwig, Prince of Brunswick-Luneberg (later George I ) and his first cousin, Sophia Dorothea of Celle. George's parents divorced in 1694. He was created Duke of Cambridge in 1706 and Prince of Wales on 27 September, 1714, aged 30, after the accession of his father to the English throne. He was married in 1705 to the German Princess Caroline of Anspach, daughter of John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach and Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach by whom he had issue, including Frederick, Prince of Wales(15). George succeeded his father as George II in 1727 and died of an aortic dissection on 25 October, 1760. He was buried at Westminster Abbey. (15) FREDERICK LEWIS OF HANOVER Frederick Lewis was born in Hanover on 1 February, 1707, the eldest son of George, Prince of Brunswick-Luneberg ( later George II ) and Caroline of Brandenburg-Anspach. He was created Duke of Edinburgh by his grandfather, George I, in 1726 and Prince of Wales on 8 January, 1729 at London, at the age of 21. Frederick married the Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, the daughter of Frederick II, Duke of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (1676-1732) and Magdalena Augusta of Anhalt-Zerbst (1676-1740), by whom he had issue, including the future George III. Frederick never succeeded to the throne, having predeceased his father. He died at Leicester House in London of a burst abscess in the lung, on 31 March, 1751 and was buried at Westminster Abbey. (16) GEORGE WILLIAM FREDERICK OF HANOVER The future George III was born prematurely on 4 June,1738 at Norfolk House, London, the eldest son of Frederick, Prince of Wales (15) and Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. He was created Prince of Wales after the death of his father by his grandfather, George II, on 20 April, 1751, aged 12 years. George succeeded his grandfather in 1760 and was married in 1761 to Charlotte of Mecklenberg-Strelitz, daughter of Duke Charles Louis Frederick of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Prince of Mirow and his wife Princess Elizabeth Albertine of Saxe-Hildburghausen, by whom he had issue, including Kings George IV and William IV. Afte one of the longest reigns in British history, George died of porphyria at Windsor Castle on 29 January, 1820 and was buried at Windsor. (17) GEORGE FREDERICK AUGUSTUS OF HANOVER The last Hanoverian Prince of Wales was born at St. James' Palace, London on 12 August, 1762, the eldest son of George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. He was Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay from birth. He was created Prince of Wales on19 August,1762 aged 1 week. He became Regent in 1811 and King George IV in 1820. George was married twice, firstly and in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act, to Maria Fitzherbert and secondly to his first cousin, Caroline of Brunswick, the daughter of Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenb�ttel and Princess Augusta of Great Britain, by whom he had one child, Princess Charlotte of Wales. Princess Charlotte died in childbirth before her father. George died of a ruptured blood vessel in the stomach on 26 June, 1830 and was buried at Windsor. (18) ALBERT EDWARD OF SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA Prince Albert Edward was born on 9 November, 1841 at Buckingham Palace, the eldest son of Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. He was created Prince of Wales on 8 December, 1841 at 4 weeks old. Albert Edward married Alexandra of Denmark daughter of Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Gl�cksburg and Louise of Hesse-Kassel on 10 March, 1863, the marriage produced six children, including the future King George V. His eldest son, Albert Victor Christian Edward died of pneumonia before his father. He succeeded his mother in 1901 as Edward VII and became a popular King. Edward died at Buckingham Palace of bronchitis and a series of heart attacks on 6 May, 1910. He was buried at Windsor Castle. (19) GEORGE FREDERICK ERNEST ALBERT WINDSOR The first Prince of Wales of the Windsor dynasty was born Prince George of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha on 3 June,1865 at Marlborough House, London, the second son of Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark. He was created Duke of York by his grandmother, Queen Victoria in 1892 and Prince of Wales by his father on 9 November, 1901 at the age of 36. George married his second cousin once removed, Victoria Mary of Teck, the daughter of Francis, Duke of Teck and Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, by whom he had issue, including Edward VIII and George VI. He succeeded to the throne in 1910 as George V . He died at Sandringham, Norfolk of a bronchial illness on 20 January, 1936 and was buried at Windsor. (20) EDWARD ALBERT CHRISTIAN GEORGE ANDREW PATRICK DAVID WINDSOR David, Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, as he was then called, was born at White Lodge, Richmond, Surrey on 23 June, 1894, the eldest son of George, then Duke of York (later George V ) and Mary of Teck. He was created Prince of Wales on 23 June, 1910, aged 16 and invested with the title at Caernarfon Castle on 13 July, 1911. He was a popular Prince of Wales and made a number of successful tours of the Empire. He succeeded to the throne as Edward VIII on 20 January, 1936 and abdicated on 10th/11th December, 1936 to marry the American divorcee, Wallis Warfield-Simpson. After his abdication he became the Duke of Windsor and thereafter spent his life in exile. There was no issue from his marriage to Mrs. Simpson, which took place in 1937, in France. He died of throat cancer in Paris on 28 May, 1972 and was buried at Frogmore, Windsor. (21) CHARLES PHILLIP ARTHUR GEORGE MOUNTBATTEN -WINDSOR Prince Charles was born at Buckingham Palace on 14 November, 1948 the eldest son of the then Princess Elizabeth and Phillip Mountbatten. He was created Prince of Wales on 26 July, 1958 aged 9 and invested with the title at Caernarfon Castle on 1st July, 1969. He has been married twice. firstly to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, by whom he had issue and secondly to divorcee Mrs. Camilla Parker-Bowles , who is known as the Duchess of Cornwall, in 2005. External Links
Edward II of England
In which film did a Rolls Royce have the number plate AU 1?
Edward "of Woodstock" Plantagenet, Prince of Wales (1330 - 1376) - Genealogy Edward "of Woodstock" Plantagenet, Prince of Wales Also Known As: Woodstock Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England Death: Trinity Chapel, Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury, Kent, England Immediate Family: June 23 1330 - Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire, England Death: June 16 1376 - Westminster Palace, London, England Wife: Joan Woodstock, 1st Princess of Wales, suo jure 4th Countess of Kent, 5th Baroness of Liddell, LG Son: June 15 1330 - Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire, Eng. Death: June 8 1376 - Westminster Palace, London, Eng. Wife: Joan Woodstock, 1st Princess of Wales, suo jure 4th Countess of Kent, 5th Baroness of Liddell, LG Children: June 16 1376 - WESTMINSTER,ON TRINITY,ENGLAND Wife: Joan of Kent De Woodstock Son: June 23 1330 - Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England Death: June 16 1376 - Westminster, Palace, London, England Wife: June 23 1330 - Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England Death: June 16 1376 - Westminster, Palace, London, England Wife: June 23 1330 - Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England Death: June 16 1376 - Westminster, Palace, London, England Wife: June 23 1330 - Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England Death: June 16 1376 - Westminster, Palace, London, England Wife: Joan Plantagenet Countess Of Kent Son: June 15 1330 - Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire, Eng. Death: May 31 1376 - Westminster Palace, London, Eng. Father: Edward Ill Plantagenet Siblings: June 23 1330 - Woodstock Palace, Oxon, England Death: Edward Plantagenet, Phillippa Plantagenet of Hainault Spouses: Joan Plantagenet, Joan De Woodstock Siblings: June 15 1330 - Woodstock Palace, Oxfordshire, Eng. Death: June 8 1376 - Westminster Palace, London, Eng. Parents: Edward III Plantagenet, Phillippa of Hainault Plantagenet Siblings: mother About Edward, the Black Prince "Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, Prince of Aquitaine, KG (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376) was the eldest son of King Edward III of England and his wife Philippa of Hainault as well as father to King Richard II of England. He was called Edward of Woodstock in his early life, after his birthplace, and since the 16th century has been popularly known as the Black Prince. He was an exceptional military leader, and his victories over the French at the Battles of Crécy and Poitiers made him very popular during his lifetime. In 1348 he became the first Knight of the Garter, of whose Order he was one of the founders. Edward died one year before his father, becoming the first English Prince of Wales not to become King of England. The throne passed instead to his son Richard II, a minor, upon the death of Edward III. Richard Barber comments that Edward "has attracted relatively little attention from serious historians, but figures largely in popular history." ==================================================================== Wikipedia links: ==================================================================== Citations / Sources: [S11] Alison Weir, Britain's Royal Families: The Complete Genealogy (London, U.K.: The Bodley Head, 1999), pages 92-94. Hereinafter cited as Britain's Royal Families. [S15] Les Valois (1990), Van Kerrebrouck, Patrick, (Villeneuve d'Ascq [France]: P. Van Kerrebrouck, 1990), FHL book 929.244 V247k., p. 116. [S20] Magna Carta Ancestry: A study in Colonial and Medieval Families, Richardson, Douglas, (Kimball G. Everingham, editor. 2nd edition, 2011), vol. 2 p. 486. [S22] #374 The Lineage and Ancestry of H. R. H. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales (1977), Paget, Gerald, (2 volumes. Baltimore: Geneal. Pub., 1977), FHL book Q 942 D22pg., vol. 1 p. 20. [S23] #849 Burke's Guide to the Royal Family (1973), (London: Burke's Peerage, c1973), FHl book 942 D22bgr., p. 198, 202. [S37] #93 [Book version] The Dictionary of National Biography: from the Earliest Times to 1900 (1885-1900, reprint 1993), Stephen, Leslie, (22 volumes. 1885-1900. Reprint, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1993), FHL book 920.042 D561n., vol. 10 p. 398; vol. 17 p. 90, 96, 101; vol. 48 p. 145, 147 , 150-151. [S39] Medieval, royalty, nobility family group sheets (filmed 1996), Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Family History Department. Medieval Family History Unit, (Manuscript. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1996), FHL film 1553977-1553985.. [S40] Handbook of British Chronology (1986), Fryde, E. B., editor, (Royal Historical Society guides and handbooks, no. 2. London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1986), FHL book 942 C4rg no. 2., p. 39. [S42] Plantagenet Ancestry of Seventeenth-century Colonists: the Descent from the Later Plantagenet Kings of England, Henry III, Edward I, Edward II, and Edward III, of Emigrants from England and Wales to the North American Colonies Before 1701 (2nd ed., 1999), Faris, David, (1st edition. Baltimore, Genealogical Publishing Co, 1996), FHL book 973 D2fp., p. 230. [S45] Journal of British Studies, (The University of Chicago Press), FHL Book 942 H25j., "Edward III and His Family", vol. 26 no. 4 p. 398. [S54] #21 The complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, Cokayne, George Edward, (Gloucester [England] : Alan Sutton Pub. Ltd., 1987), 942 D22cok., vol. 12 part 2 p. 305. [S68] #673 The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1846-), (Boston, Massachusetts: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1846-), FHL book 974 B2ne; CD-ROM No 33 Parts 1-9; See FHL., "Royal Bye-Blows II" vol. 121 p. 185. [S81] #125 The Royal Daughters of England and Their Representatives (1910-1911), Lane, Henry Murray, (2 voulmes. London: Constable and Co., 1910-1911), FHL microfilm 88,003., vol. 1 p. 63-64, 217-218. [S631] An Encyclopedia of World History; Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged (1972), Langer, William L., (5th edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1972), p. 292. [S650] The Victoria history of the county of Rutland, Page, William, (London : A. Constable, 1908-1975 Folkestone, Kent : William Dawson & Sons), Large Q book 942 H2vr., vol. 2 p. 270. [S673] #1079 A History of Monmouthshire from the Coming of the Normans into Wales down to the Present Time (1904-1993), Bradney, Sir Joseph Alfred, (Publications of the South Wales Record Society, number 8. Five volumes in 13. London: Mitchell, Hughes and Clarke, 1904-1993), FHL book 942.43 H2b., vol. 1 p. 6*. [S681] #6 The New Encyclopedia Britannica (1974), (15th edition. 30 volumes. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 1974), FHL book 032 En19n., vol. 8 p. 11-12 vol. 1 9 p. 286-287. [S713] #11577 Ættartolurbækur Jóns Espólíns Sysslumanns (1980-), Espólín, Jón, (Reykjavík: Samskipti, 1980-), FHL book 949.12 D2e v. 6; FHL microfilms 73,257-73., p. 99, FHL microfilm 73,257. [S731] The Three Edwards (1958), Costain, Thomas Bertram, (Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 1958), HBLL book DA 229 .C6., vol. 3 p. 356. [S735] Richard III, Ross, Charles Derek, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), JWML book DA260 .R67 1981., p. 238. [S813] The Life of Edward the Black Prince, 1330-1376: the Flower of Knighthood Out of All the World (1932), Sedgewick, Henry Dwight, (1st edition. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill, 1932), HBLL book DA 234 .S4 1932., p. 27, 169 (p. 99 on film). Edward, the Black Prince's Timeline 1330
i don't know
In 20,000 leagues Under the Sea, what was the name Captain Nemo’s submarine?
Nautilus - "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" Nautilus - "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" On the NAUTILUS men's hearts never fail them. No defects to be afraid of, for the double shell is as firm as iron, no rigging to attend to, no sails for the wind to carry away; no boilers to burst, no fire to fear, for the vessel is made of iron, not of wood; no cove to run short, for electricity is the only power; no collision to fear, for it alone swims in deep water; no tempest to brave, for when it dives below the water, it reaches absolute tranquility. That is the perfection of vessels. JULES VERNE TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, 1869 As an inspiration to the submarine pioneers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, no other literary figure loomed as large as Jules Verne, the "father of science-fiction" and the author in 1870 of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Verne's plot in Twenty Thousand Leagues is relatively simple and serves largely as a framework for describing both the wonders of the underwater world and the technologies needed to realize the author's prophetic vision of undersea travel and exploration. Captain Nemo relates [in CHAPTER XII. SOME FIGURES.] that the Nautilus "... is an elongated cylinder with conical ends. It is very like a cigar in shape, a shape already adopted in London in several constructions of the same sort. The length of this cyhnder, from stem to stern, is exactly 232 feet, and its maximum breadth is twenty-six feet. It is not built quite like your long-voyage steamers, but its lines are sufficiently long, and its curves prolonged enough, to allow the water to slide off easily, and oppose no obstacle to its passage. These two dimensions enable you to obtain by a simple calculation the surface and cubic contents of the Nautilus. Its area measures 6032 feet; and its contents about 1500 cubic yards; that is to say, when completely immersed it displaces 50,000 feet of water, or weighs 1500 tons. "The Nautilus is composed of two hulls, one inside, the other outside, joined by T-shaped irons, which render it very strong. Indeed, owing to this cellular arrangement it resists like a block, as if it were solid. Its sides cannot yield; it coheres spontaneously, and not by the closeness of its rivets; and the homogeneity of its construction, due to the perfect union of the materials, enables it to defy the roughest seas. "These two hulls are composed of steel plates, whose density is from .1 to .8 that of water. The first is not less than two inches and a half thick, and weighs 394 tons. The second envelope, the keel, twenty inches high and ten thick, weighs alone sixty-two tons. Theengine, the ballast, the several accessories and apparatus appendages, the partitions and bulkheads, weigh 961.62 tons." The anterior part of this submarine boat starting from the ship's head: the dining-room, five yards long, separated from the library by a water-tight partition; the library, five yards long; the large drawing-room, ten yards long, separated from the captain's room by a second watertight partition; the said room, five yards in length; mine, two and a half yards; and lastly, a reservoir of air, seven and a half yards, that extended to the bows. Total length thirty-five yards, or one hundred and five feet. The partitions had doors that were shut hermetically by means of india-rubber instruments, and they insured the safety of the Nautilus in case of a leak. A door opened into a kitchen nine feet long, situated between the large store-rooms. There electricity, better than gas itself, did all the cooking. The streams under the furnaces gave out to the sponges of platina a heat which was regularly kept up and distributed. They also heated a distilling apparatus, which, by evaporation, furnished excellent drinkable water. Near this kitchen was a bath-room comfortably furnished, with hot and cold water taps. Next to the kitchen was the berth-room of the vessel, sixteen feet long. At the bottom was a fourth partition, that separated this office from the engine-room. The engine-room, clearly lighted, did not measure less than sixty-five feet in length. It was divided into two parts; the first contained the materials for producing electricity, and the second the machinery that connected it with the screw. Loosely based on the celebrated novel by Jules Verne, the swashbuckler genre bumped into science fiction in 1954 for one of Hollywood's great entertainments. The Jules Verne story of adventure under the sea was Walt Disney's magnificent debut into live-action films. Kirk Douglas, Paul Lukas, and Peter Lorre star as shipwrecked survivors taken captive by the mysterious Captain Nemo, brilliantly portrayed by James Mason. Wavering between genius and madness, Nemo has launched a deadly crusade across the seven seas. But can the captive crew expose his evil plan before he destroys the world? Disney's brilliant Academy Award-winning (1955, Best Art Direction and Best Special Effects) adaptation of Jules Verne's gripping tale makes 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea a truly mesmerizing masterpiece. The art designs -- particularly those for the Nautilus -- are justly celebrated. At the time of its release, LEAGUES was the single most expensive motion picture ever made (ironically it would loose that dubious distinction later that same year to yet another film featuring James Mason: A STAR IS BORN), and every penny of the money spent shows in the onscreen result. But for all its beauty, it is the performances which make the film work. The interior arrangement of the famous submarine Nautilus from Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" has long been a subject for speculation. Scale models of this submarine consistently place it as being 178 feet long. Verne provides a rather exact description of the Nautilus, which is less imposing in configuration, though rather larger [70 meters, 227.5 feet] than Disney depicted. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Biograph, 1905) The 1905 silent version was the first time the novel was made into a film, an 18 minute short film by Wallace McCutcheon. [Admiral McCutcheon was a fictional character in the 1997 television remake of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea]. Wallace McCutcheon, previously a stage director, was taken on by American Biograph in the spring of 1897, subsequently directing hundreds of short films. In 1903, Biograph released two McCutcheon films, The Pioneers and Kit Carson, both wild-west action stories. These films were the first true movie Westerns. In May 1905 McCutcheon was lured away from Biograph by Thomas Edison, and McCutcheon, one of American cinema's true pioneers, simply disappears from the historical record after 1910. 20000 lieues sous les mers (1907) The 1907 silent version of Jules Vernes' 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was the second time the novel was made into a film, this time an 18 minute short film by Georges Melies, the special-effects pioneer. Melies made over 500 films, but his most famous was A Trip to the Moon made in 1902. There is a submarine, but Nemo is absent from this film, as are any of the plot elements and dramatic conventions of Verne's story. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1916) The third time the novel 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea was made into a film, it was the first time it was made as a full feature film and not a short film. The 1916 silent version of Jules Vernes' 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was "sold" on the basis of its advanced underwater photography, the handiwork of the legendary Williamson Brothers. This production, financed by Universal, would require location photography, large sets, exotic costumes, sailing ships, and a full-size navigable mock-up of the surfaced submarine Nautilus. The film's storyline combines elements from both 20,000 Leagues and another Verne novel, Mysterious Island. The cost of this film was so astronomical that it could not possibly post a profit, putting the kibosh on any subsequent Verne adaptations for the next 12 years. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1936). This production by Irving Thalberg was unfinished. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Paramount, 1952-53) Production unfinished. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Walt Disney Productions, 1954) Classic screen adaptation of Jules Verne's early vision of submarine warfare. James Mason is the mad Captain Nemo, who takes on the warmongering imperialist countries with his submarine Nautilus. Also stars Kirk Douglas and Peter Lorre. This Oscar winner (for special effects and set decoration) is a remake of a 1916 silent film. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Television - "Festival of Family Classics", 1972) T.V.-Video, Animated Cartoon Inc., 30 minutes. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Television - "Famous Classic Tales", 1973) Australia Broadcasting Commision, Sydney, Animated Cartoon, 60 minutes The Return of Captain Nemo / The Amazing Captain Nemo (CBS-TV/Warner Brothers TV, 1978) Typical 1970's lightweight pseudo-science-fictional fare, this movie was the pilot for a very brief action series. Modern-day US Navy scientists discover the legendary Nemo (an apparently underemployed Jose Ferrer) in suspended animation aboard his Nautilus at the bottom of the ocean. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) The heroes of 1899 are brought to life with the help of some expensive special effects in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. From the pages of Victorian literature come Dr. Jekyll (and his alter ego Mr. Hyde), Dorian Gray, Tom Sawyer, an Invisible Man, Mina Harker (from Dracula), the hunter Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery), and Captain Nemo. Naseeruddin Shah as Captain Nemo returns Nemo to his original characterization by Verne as a Sikh. Shah's Nemo was a welcome variation to previous Nemos, providing a sense of command, control and honor in comparison to those others. Some of the special effects are very good, such as the bizarre image of the Nautilus sailing the canals of Venice. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (2012 ?) David Fincher who was busy filming "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo", is also attached to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He said he wanted it be like a "Gigantic steampunk science fiction movie from 1873." Writer Randall Wallace (Braveheart, SECRETARIAT) said "They were developing it ... in a way that had more heart and a more realistic lucidness than what we would think of as the normal fantasy fare." The project was previously titled Captain Nemo: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and was setup with a script by Bill Marsilli's (Deja Vu), with rewrites by geek screenwriter Justin Marks (Masters of the Universe, Super Max) and Randall Wallace (Braveheart). 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (2012 ?) Fox is prepping its own version of the classic Jules Verne tale with an equally pedigreed filmmaking team. Producers Ridley and Tony Scott and their Scott Free Prods. are developing a "Leagues" project for the studio with a script by "Clash of the Titans" co-writer Travis Beacham. NEWSLETTER
Nautilus (Verne)
Who wrote the 1949 play Death of a Salesman?
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - Part One.: Chapter 21: Captain Nemo's Thunderbolt 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Previous Chapter Next Chapter Part One.: Chapter 21: Captain Nemo's Thunderbolt We looked at the edge of the forest without rising, my hand stopping in the action of putting it to my mouth, Ned Land's completing its office. "Stones do not fall from the sky," remarked Conseil, "or they would merit the name aerolites." A second stone, carefully aimed, that made a savoury pigeon's leg fall from Conseil's hand, gave still more weight to his observation. We all three arose, shouldered our guns, and were ready to reply to any attack. "Are they apes?" cried Ned Land. "Very nearly--they are savages." "To the boat!" I said, hurrying to the sea. It was indeed necessary to beat a retreat, for about twenty natives armed with bows and slings appeared on the skirts of a copse that masked the horizon to the right, hardly a hundred steps from us. Our boat was moored about sixty feet from us. The savages approached us, not running, but making hostile demonstrations. Stones and arrows fell thickly. Ned Land had not wished to leave his provisions; and, in spite of his imminent danger, his pig on one side and kangaroos on the other, he went tolerably fast. In two minutes we were on the shore. To load the boat with provisions and arms, to push it out to sea, and ship the oars, was the work of an instant. We had not gone two cable-lengths, when a hundred savages, howling and gesticulating, entered the water up to their waists. I watched to see if their apparition would attract some men from the Nautilus on to the platform. But no. The enormous machine, lying off, was absolutely deserted. Twenty minutes later we were on board. The panels were open. After making the boat fast, we entered into the interior of the Nautilus. I descended to the drawing-room, from whence I heard some chords. Captain Nemo was there, bending over his organ, and plunged in a musical ecstasy. "Captain!" He did not hear me. "Captain!" I said, touching his hand. He shuddered, and, turning round, said, "Ah! it is you, Professor? Well, have you had a good hunt, have you botanised successfully?" "Yes Captain; but we have unfortunately brought a troop of bipeds, whose vicinity troubles me." "What bipeds?" "Savages." "Savages!" he echoed, ironically. "So you are astonished, Professor, at having set foot on a strange land and finding savages? Savages! where are there not any? Besides, are they worse than others, these whom you call savages?" "But Captain----" "How many have you counted?" "A hundred at least." "M. Aronnax," replied Captain Nemo, placing his fingers on the organ stops, "when all the natives of Papua are assembled on this shore, the Nautilus will have nothing to fear from their attacks." The Captain's fingers were then running over the keys of the instrument, and I remarked that he touched only the black keys, which gave his melodies an essentially Scotch character. Soon he had forgotten my presence, and had plunged into a reverie that I did not disturb. I went up again on to the platform: night had already fallen; for, in this low latitude, the sun sets rapidly and without twilight. I could only see the island indistinctly; but the numerous fires, lighted on the beach, showed that the natives did not think of leaving it. I was alone for several hours, sometimes thinking of the natives-- but without any dread of them, for the imperturbable confidence of the Captain was catching--sometimes forgetting them to admire the splendours of the night in the tropics. My remembrances went to France in the train of those zodiacal stars that would shine in some hours' time. The moon shone in the midst of the constellations of the zenith. The night slipped away without any mischance, the islanders frightened no doubt at the sight of a monster aground in the bay. The panels were open, and would have offered an easy access to the interior of the Nautilus. At six o'clock in the morning of the 8th January I went up on to the platform. The dawn was breaking. The island soon showed itself through the dissipating fogs, first the shore, then the summits. The natives were there, more numerous than on the day before-- five or six hundred perhaps--some of them, profiting by the low water, had come on to the coral, at less than two cable-lengths from the Nautilus. I distinguished them easily; they were true Papuans, with athletic figures, men of good race, large high foreheads, large, but not broad and flat, and white teeth. Their woolly hair, with a reddish tinge, showed off on their black shining bodies like those of the Nubians. From the lobes of their ears, cut and distended, hung chaplets of bones. Most of these savages were naked. Amongst them, I remarked some women, dressed from the hips to knees in quite a crinoline of herbs, that sustained a vegetable waistband. Some chiefs had ornamented their necks with a crescent and collars of glass beads, red and white; nearly all were armed with bows, arrows, and shields and carried on their shoulders a sort of net containing those round stones which they cast from their slings with great skill. One of these chiefs, rather near to the Nautilus, examined it attentively. He was, perhaps, a "mado" of high rank, for he was draped in a mat of banana-leaves, notched round the edges, and set off with brilliant colours. I could easily have knocked down this native, who was within a short length; but I thought that it was better to wait for real hostile demonstrations. Between Europeans and savages, it is proper for the Europeans to parry sharply, not to attack. During low water the natives roamed about near the Nautilus, but were not troublesome; I heard them frequently repeat the word "Assai," and by their gestures I understood that they invited me to go on land, an invitation that I declined. So that, on that day, the boat did not push off, to the great displeasure of Master Land, who could not complete his provisions. This adroit Canadian employed his time in preparing the viands and meat that he had brought off the island. As for the savages, they returned to the shore about eleven o'clock in the morning, as soon as the coral tops began to disappear under the rising tide; but I saw their numbers had increased considerably on the shore. Probably they came from the neighbouring islands, or very likely from Papua. However, I had not seen a single native canoe. Having nothing better to do, I thought of dragging these beautiful limpid waters, under which I saw a profusion of shells, zoophytes, and marine plants. Moreover, it was the last day that the Nautilus would pass in these parts, if it float in open sea the next day, according to Captain Nemo's promise. I therefore called Conseil, who brought me a little light drag, very like those for the oyster fishery. Now to work! For two hours we fished unceasingly, but without bringing up any rarities. The drag was filled with midas-ears, harps, melames, and particularly the most beautiful hammers I have ever seen. We also brought up some sea-slugs, pearl-oysters, and a dozen little turtles that were reserved for the pantry on board. But just when I expected it least, I put my hand on a wonder, I might say a natural deformity, very rarely met with. Conseil was just dragging, and his net came up filled with divers ordinary shells, when, all at once, he saw me plunge my arm quickly into the net, to draw out a shell, and heard me utter a cry. "What is the matter, sir?" he asked in surprise. "Has master been bitten?" "No, my boy; but I would willingly have given a finger for my discovery." "What discovery?" "This shell," I said, holding up the object of my triumph. "It is simply an olive porphyry." {genus species missing} "Yes, Conseil; but, instead of being rolled from right to left, this olive turns from left to right." "Is it possible?" "Yes, my boy; it is a left shell." Shells are all right-handed, with rare exceptions; and, when by chance their spiral is left, amateurs are ready to pay their weight in gold. Conseil and I were absorbed in the contemplation of our treasure, and I was promising myself to enrich the museum with it, when a stone unfortunately thrown by a native struck against, and broke, the precious object in Conseil's hand. I uttered a cry of despair! Conseil took up his gun, and aimed at a savage who was poising his sling at ten yards from him. I would have stopped him, but his blow took effect and broke the bracelet of amulets which encircled the arm of the savage. "Conseil!" cried I. "Conseil!" "Well, sir! do you not see that the cannibal has commenced the attack?" "A shell is not worth the life of a man," said I. "Ah! the scoundrel!" cried Conseil; "I would rather he had broken my shoulder!" Conseil was in earnest, but I was not of his opinion. However, the situation had changed some minutes before, and we had not perceived. A score of canoes surrounded the Nautilus. These canoes, scooped out of the trunk of a tree, long, narrow, well adapted for speed, were balanced by means of a long bamboo pole, which floated on the water. They were managed by skilful, half-naked paddlers, and I watched their advance with some uneasiness. It was evident that these Papuans had already had dealings with the Europeans and knew their ships. But this long iron cylinder anchored in the bay, without masts or chimneys, what could they think of it? Nothing good, for at first they kept at a respectful distance. However, seeing it motionless, by degrees they took courage, and sought to familiarise themselves with it. Now this familiarity was precisely what it was necessary to avoid. Our arms, which were noiseless, could only produce a moderate effect on the savages, who have little respect for aught but blustering things. The thunderbolt without the reverberations of thunder would frighten man but little, though the danger lies in the lightning, not in the noise. At this moment the canoes approached the Nautilus, and a shower of arrows alighted on her. I went down to the saloon, but found no one there. I ventured to knock at the door that opened into the Captain's room. "Come in," was the answer. I entered, and found Captain Nemo deep in algebraical calculations of _x_ and other quantities. "I am disturbing you," said I, for courtesy's sake. "That is true, M. Aronnax," replied the Captain; "but I think you have serious reasons for wishing to see me?" "Very grave ones; the natives are surrounding us in their canoes, and in a few minutes we shall certainly be attacked by many hundreds of savages." "Ah!," said Captain Nemo quietly, "they are come with their canoes?" "Yes, sir." "Well, sir, we must close the hatches." "Exactly, and I came to say to you----" "Nothing can be more simple," said Captain Nemo. And, pressing an electric button, he transmitted an order to the ship's crew. "It is all done, sir," said he, after some moments. "The pinnace is ready, and the hatches are closed. You do not fear, I imagine, that these gentlemen could stave in walls on which the balls of your frigate have had no effect?" "No, Captain; but a danger still exists." "What is that, sir?" "It is that to-morrow, at about this hour, we must open the hatches to renew the air of the Nautilus. Now, if, at this moment, the Papuans should occupy the platform, I do not see how you could prevent them from entering." "Then, sir, you suppose that they will board us?" "I am certain of it." "Well, sir, let them come. I see no reason for hindering them. After all, these Papuans are poor creatures, and I am unwilling that my visit to the island should cost the life of a single one of these wretches." Upon that I was going away; But Captain Nemo detained me, and asked me to sit down by him. He questioned me with interest about our excursions on shore, and our hunting; and seemed not to understand the craving for meat that possessed the Canadian. Then the conversation turned on various subjects, and, without being more communicative, Captain Nemo showed himself more amiable. Amongst other things, we happened to speak of the situation of the Nautilus, run aground in exactly the same spot in this strait where Dumont d'Urville was nearly lost. Apropos of this: "This D'Urville was one of your great sailors," said the Captain to me, "one of your most intelligent navigators. He is the Captain Cook of you Frenchmen. Unfortunate man of science, after having braved the icebergs of the South Pole, the coral reefs of Oceania, the cannibals of the Pacific, to perish miserably in a railway train! If this energetic man could have reflected during the last moments of his life, what must have been uppermost in his last thoughts, do you suppose?" So speaking, Captain Nemo seemed moved, and his emotion gave me a better opinion of him. Then, chart in hand, we reviewed the travels of the French navigator, his voyages of circumnavigation, his double detention at the South Pole, which led to the discovery of Adelaide and Louis Philippe, and fixing the hydrographical bearings of the principal islands of Oceania. "That which your D'Urville has done on the surface of the seas," said Captain Nemo, "that have I done under them, and more easily, more completely than he. The Astrolabe and the Zelee, incessantly tossed about by the hurricane, could not be worth the Nautilus, quiet repository of labour that she is, truly motionless in the midst of the waters. "To-morrow," added the Captain, rising, "to-morrow, at twenty minutes to three p.m., the Nautilus shall float, and leave the Strait of Torres uninjured." Having curtly pronounced these words, Captain Nemo bowed slightly. This was to dismiss me, and I went back to my room. There I found Conseil, who wished to know the result of my interview with the Captain. "My boy," said I, "when I feigned to believe that his Nautilus was threatened by the natives of Papua, the Captain answered me very sarcastically. I have but one thing to say to you: Have confidence in him, and go to sleep in peace." "Have you no need of my services, sir?" "No, my friend. What is Ned Land doing?" "If you will excuse me, sir," answered Conseil, "friend Ned is busy making a kangaroo-pie which will be a marvel." I remained alone and went to bed, but slept indifferently. I heard the noise of the savages, who stamped on the platform, uttering deafening cries. The night passed thus, without disturbing the ordinary repose of the crew. The presence of these cannibals affected them no more than the soldiers of a masked battery care for the ants that crawl over its front. At six in the morning I rose. The hatches had not been opened. The inner air was not renewed, but the reservoirs, filled ready for any emergency, were now resorted to, and discharged several cubic feet of oxygen into the exhausted atmosphere of the Nautilus. I worked in my room till noon, without having seen Captain Nemo, even for an instant. On board no preparations for departure were visible. I waited still some time, then went into the large saloon. The clock marked half-past two. In ten minutes it would be high-tide: and, if Captain Nemo had not made a rash promise, the Nautilus would be immediately detached. If not, many months would pass ere she could leave her bed of coral. However, some warning vibrations began to be felt in the vessel. I heard the keel grating against the rough calcareous bottom of the coral reef. At five-and-twenty minutes to three, Captain Nemo appeared in the saloon. "We are going to start," said he. "Ah!" replied I. "I have given the order to open the hatches." "And the Papuans?" "The Papuans?" answered Captain Nemo, slightly shrugging his shoulders. "Will they not come inside the Nautilus?" "How?" "Only by leaping over the hatches you have opened." "M. Aronnax," quietly answered Captain Nemo, "they will not enter the hatches of the Nautilus in that way, even if they were open." I looked at the Captain. "You do not understand?" said he. "Hardly." "Well, come and you will see." I directed my steps towards the central staircase. There Ned Land and Conseil were slyly watching some of the ship's crew, who were opening the hatches, while cries of rage and fearful vociferations resounded outside. The port lids were pulled down outside. Twenty horrible faces appeared. But the first native who placed his hand on the stair-rail, struck from behind by some invisible force, I know not what, fled, uttering the most fearful cries and making the wildest contortions. Ten of his companions followed him. They met with the same fate. Conseil was in ecstasy. Ned Land, carried away by his violent instincts, rushed on to the staircase. But the moment he seized the rail with both hands, he, in his turn, was overthrown. "I am struck by a thunderbolt," cried he, with an oath. This explained all. It was no rail; but a metallic cable charged with electricity from the deck communicating with the platform. Whoever touched it felt a powerful shock-- and this shock would have been mortal if Captain Nemo had discharged into the conductor the whole force of the current. It might truly be said that between his assailants and himself he had stretched a network of electricity which none could pass with impunity. Meanwhile, the exasperated Papuans had beaten a retreat paralysed with terror. As for us, half laughing, we consoled and rubbed the unfortunate Ned Land, who swore like one possessed. But at this moment the Nautilus, raised by the last waves of the tide, quitted her coral bed exactly at the fortieth minute fixed by the Captain. Her screw swept the waters slowly and majestically. Her speed increased gradually, and, sailing on the surface of the ocean, she quitted safe and sound the dangerous passes of the Straits of Torres.
i don't know
Who partnered Flavia Cacace to win the Xmas Special?
Rufus Hound triumphs in Strictly's Christmas special | Television & radio | The Guardian Strictly Come Dancing Rufus Hound triumphs in Strictly's Christmas special Stage star beats DJ Sara Cox and Saturdays singer Rochelle Hulmes to win accolade with partner Flavia Cacace Flavia Cacace and Rufus Hound during the recording of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special 2013. Photograph: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Press Association Wednesday 25 December 2013 13.15 EST First published on Wednesday 25 December 2013 13.15 EST Close This article is 3 years old Comedian Rufus Hound triumphed in the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special – his second win in a BBC dance contest. He beat rivals including DJ Sara Cox and Saturdays singer Rochelle Humes to lift the trophy for his tango with partner Flavia Cacace. Hound previously won the BBC1 series Let's Dance for Sport Relief in 2010. Cacace was the partner of Louis Smith when he was the victor in last year's Strictly series but she did not take part in the 2013 run of the show which ended on Saturday. Elaine Paige topped the voting with the judging panel in the one-off festive Strictly show for her cha cha cha with Pasha Kovalev to Jingle Bells. Hound and Cacace drew 38 from the judges while Paige and Kovalev took a near-perfect 39. But when it went to the audience vote, Hound stepped out in front for his performance to Never Do a Tango With an Eskimo. The surprised winner said: "It's surreal in the extreme. We didn't really set out to win; the fact that it's happened – I don't know what it means. I think if I had more of a taste for the ballroom, they'd be serving it in a burger!" And he told his dance partner: "You came into this as the reigning champion so you were putting a lot on the line to dance with me, and have been spectacular all the way through." Also taking part were former Bros frontman Matt Goss and EastEnders' Ricky Norwood.
Rufus Hound
Under whose reign did England lose its last possession on mainland France?
Rufus Hound wins Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special tangoing with two huskies | Daily Mail Online comments Comedian Rufus Hound triumphed in the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special on Wednesday eveniong- his second win in a BBC dance contest. The funnyman and stage star beat the likes of DJ Sara Cox and Saturdays singer Rochelle Hulmes to lift this year's trophy for his tango with partner Flavia Cacace, as they performed beside two real huskies. Hound, who previously won the BBC1 series Let's Dance For Sport Relief in 2010, managed to injure himself in the process and ended the performance with a cut on his eyebrow after being hit by a fish prop. Scroll down for video What a win: Rufus Hound won the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special on Wednesday evening Hound dogs: Rufus was joined by two live huskies during his dance Cacace was the partner of Louis Smith when he was the victor in last year's Strictly series but she did not take part in the 2013 run of the show which ended on Saturday. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Elaine Paige topped the voting with the judging panel in the one-off festive Strictly show for her cha cha cha with Pasha Kovalev to Jingle Bells. But when it went to the audience vote, Hound stepped out in front for his performance to Never Do A Tango With An Eskimo.  Fun: Rufus and Flavia had everyone cheering with their energetic display Wipe: Rufus had to wipe his face after cutting it during the performance He and Cacace drew 38 from the judges while Paige and Kovalev took a near-perfect 39. Surprised winner Hound said: 'It's surreal in the extreme. We didn't really set out to win, the fact that it's happened I don't know what it means. I think if I had more of a taste for the ballroom, they'd be serving it in a burger!' And he told his dance partner: 'You came into this as the regning champion so you were putting a lot on the line to dance with me, and have been spectacular all the way through.' Second win: Rufus of course won Let's Dance For Comic Relief back in 2010 Meet and greet: Before the performance Rufus and Flavia went to meet some huskies Practise: But before the actual dance they had just toy dogs to use EastEnders star Ricky Norword kicked off the show in style alongside his partner Janette Manrara The pair came in on a snowboard floating down from the sky, dancing to Merry Christmas Everyone. Bruce, was in a jovial mood and gave each of the judges ‘presents’ including Chardonay for Craig Revel-Horwood, as he’s known for his love of wine, amongst other things. Bruno told the actor : ‘It was a wonderful glitzy hamper. I really, really enjoyed it.’ Snowed in: EastEnder's actor Ricky Norwood kicked off the show, paired with professional Janette Manrara What a entrance: Ricky kicked off his performance by arriving on a snowboard Hey DJ: Sara Cox was pair with Robin Windsor and put on a very elegant show Craig added: ‘There were a few posture problems but I rather enjoyed you snowboarding in. Actually, you’re a very good dancer.’ They received nine from Bruno, while Len, Darcy and Craig gave them an eight. Next up came Elaine Page and Pasha Kovalev who danced a very festive Cha Cha to Jingle Bells, which featured Christmas presents as props.  Impressed: Sara amazed the judges with Darcy telling her she was 'gliding' Ending the dance on a lift, singer Elaine looked delighted about taking part. Craig told her: ‘As a seasoned veteran of the theatre you’d expect nothing less than brilliant and that was brilliant.’ Darcy gushed: ‘The Cha Cha was made for you. It was a sparkly performance’ Cheekily Len said: ‘I’m telling you, you jingled my bells’. Craig gave them full marks, 10, as did Darcy and Bruno, while Len gave a nine. They were following by DJ Sara Cox, who was paired with Robin Windsor-  they danced the Waltz to Silent Night, Holy Night. Wind up: Rochelle Humes pretended to be a wind up doll in her performance with Ian White Their show began with a very elegant looking Sarah sitting on a light up swing. Dressed in a sparkly fitted bodice and floaty skirt she looked a far cry from her normal self. Craig kicked off the comments and said it was a little like a Christmas cracker that didn't explode. Darcy told her: 'It was like you were on ice, you glided effortlessly. It was beautiful controlled.' Juggling: Rochelle said it was rather tricky practicing with her baby Len added: 'Your footwork was good. I truly thought it was lovely well done.' Bruno said: 'The rock n'roll girl turned into a Christmas angel.' Craig gave a seven, Darcy an eight, Len a nine and Bruno also gave a nine. The Saturdays singer Rochelle Humes was up next with professional Ian Waite. Speaking about her first Christmas with daughter Alaia- Mai, she said: 'Although she doesn't know it I've gone to town. At home Marvin is trying to carry me around, he's really not that great at it. He's a great husband but not a good dance partner.' Fred Astaire: Matt Goss was told he was like the famous dancer during his performance with Aliona Vilani She continued: 'It's been a roller coaster doing Strictly and having a new baby. She's teething so i've been bringing her into training with me. She's been looking at me like 'mum, what are you doing?' Rochelle kicked off her performance as a wind up doll before breaking into an energetic routine to Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. Darcy told her: 'That was certainly a cracker of a dance. Sometimes slightly wild with the footwork.' Christmas stars: Tess Daly and Bruce Forsyth made sure their double act was even more festive than usual Len said: 'Never mind Santa coming to town, you're coming to town. It was like a party poper, bits were flying everywhere.' Next Bruno added: 'It was full of spirit like a Christmas tipple, but we all know you've got to be careful with at tipple.' And as per usual Craig was a little harsh: 'A bit all over the toyshop darling. You went for it and that's the good thing.' Christmas colour: Darcy Bussell wore a red dress as she judged the dancers Following the performance Rochelle told Tess: 'It was awful. I feel like my security  blanket is gone. I could see them looking at me.' Tess then said they very brave to try the dance. Rochelle joked back ' It was brave of him as I've not long had a baby.' Craig gave a seven, Darcy an eight, as did Len and Bruno. Up next came Matt Goss and Aliona Vilani Walking In A Winter Wonderland. All together: Tess chatted to all the contestants following their dances Len told him he thought they had danced it nicely while Bruno said it was like Christmas at the Ritz. Darcy said: 'I love the dyanmic. You reminded me of Fred Astaire. It was beautiful.' Craig was quite harsh and pointed out all the faults in the dance but he admitted he thought it was classy. They were followed by Rufus Hound and Flavia Cacace who performed to Never Do a Tango with an Eskimo. Glam: Sara looked very glamorous with plenty of eye-makeup and smooth hair Swing when she's winning: Sara started her performance on a swing Following the performance Bruno said: 'That was a nut cracker of tango. It was wonderful ending for a fantastic evening. Craig said: 'That was one of the most unusual tangos I've ever had the pleasure of watching. Darcy added: 'I thought you were an unusually hot Eskimo. It had drama and i liked it very much. Len agreed: 'What it lacked in technique, you made up for in entertainment.' Guests on the show included young choirboy Jack Topping who performed his single Tomorrow. The show ended with all the of the star's taking part in one final and very festive dance together. Voice of an angel: Choir boy Jack Toppings performed on the show The moment of truth: The stars looked nervous before finding out their fate
i don't know
Which French Monarch was known as the Citizen King?
Louis Philippe Encyclopedia  >  History  >  Biographies  >  French History: Biographies Louis Philippe Louis Philippe (lwē fēlēpˈ) [ key ], 1773–1850, king of the French (1830–48), known before his accession as Louis Philippe, duc d'Orléans. The son of Philippe Égalité (see Orléans, Louis Philippe Joseph, duc d' ), he joined the army of the French Revolution, but deserted (1793) with Gen. Charles François Dumouriez . Although in exile for the next 20 years, he did not collaborate with France's enemies. Reconciled with the Bourbons , he returned to France after their restoration and soon recovered his huge fortune. He figured in the liberal opposition to kings Louis XVIII and Charles X and was supported by the discontented upper bourgeoisie and by the liberal journalists. In the July Revolution of 1830, Louis Philippe was made lieutenant general of the realm and, with the support of the marquis de Lafayette , was chosen "king of the French." His reign, known as the July Monarchy, marked the triumph of the wealthy bourgeoisie and a return to influence of many former Napoleonic officials. Although the constitutional charter of 1814 was revised (1830) in a liberal direction, the new legislature was unresponsive to the economic needs and political desires of the lower classes. In the early years of his reign, Louis Philippe's basically conservative outlook was strengthened by a number of workers' demonstrations and by several attempts on his life, notably that of Giuseppe Fieschi (1835). Although the king was a constitutional monarch, he gained considerable personal power by splitting the liberal movement and appointing weak ministers, such as Louis Molé . Eventually a conservative ministry, dominated (1840–48) by François Guizot , who had the king's confidence, came to power. In foreign policy, Louis Philippe promoted Anglo-French friendship and supported colonial expansion; Algeria was conquered in his reign. He cooperated with England in support (1831) of Belgian independence and in the Quadruple Alliance of 1834. The Franco-British rapprochement was ended (1846), however, by the Spanish marriages (see Isabella II ), which violated a previous Franco-British agreement. In France, Louis Philippe became increasingly unpopular. On the right he was opposed by the legitimists (who supported the senior Bourbon line) and by the Bonapartists. The leftist elements organized numerous secret revolutionary societies. The opposition to the government undertook (1847–48) a banquet campaign to propagate the demand for electoral reform. The campaign led to the February Revolution of 1848. Louis Philippe abdicated in favor of his grandson (see Orléans , family), but a republic was set up. The king fled to England, where he died. Louis Philippe was known as the "citizen king" because of his bourgeois manner and dress, and he and his regime were satirized by Honoré Daumier . See J. Lucas-Dubreton, The Restoration and the July Monarchy (tr. 1929); biographies by J. S. C. Abbott (1902), C. Gavin (1933), A. de Stoeckl (1958), T. E. Howarth (1961), and P. H. Beik (1965). The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
Louis Philippe I
In which book do the Ten Commandments first appear?
French History, Past History of the French People and Country Metric Unit Conversion French History When discovering the French Culture, Architecture and even Politics, you cannot avoid the influence of the History of France! The French way of life as well as the Government still hold some marks of major historical events. French-Property.com gives you here some clues about the French History. Why is Christianity the major religion in France? Where does the name "France" originate from? How long had the French Monarchy lasted, when was the First Republic of France created? So many questions about the French History we tried to answer here, from the Medieval Times to the 20th century... Learn More About the History of France, By Region! Antiquity France was originally named Gaul or Gallia. Julius Caesar led the Romans into Gaul, whilst the Celts were still dominating the territory. In 121, the Roman troops won a conclusive victory over the Celtic tribes and the Roman Empire set the First Roman Province (in the area of Narbonne). Marseilles, ally to Rome as it was a great rival of the Carthaginians, became an important centre for trading and merchandising. After his trumphal campaigns and famous Gallic Wars (58-51 BC), Julius Caesar got built the town of Lutetia - future Paris - in 52 BC, when the Southern regions were already successful (the southern town of Lugdunum (Lyon) used to be the capital of the Gauls). Romans also brought the Christian Religion into Gaul in the 2nd century. From the 3rd century, Barbarian from the East such as the Franks, the Vandals and the Visigoths, started to invade the territory. Thus Gauls gathered up and formed alliances with local lords to gain their protection: the first marks of the Feodal system emerged. The Franks were actually a Germanic people who decided to conquer the Gallic territory from the East. Their leader, Clovis, rapidly became the First Frankish King and the "Country of the Franks" received its Latin name Francia - France in modern French. Christianity was definitely renowned and adopted when Clovis, who initiated the Merovingian Dynasty, was baptised in the Cathedral of Rheims in the late 4th century. French legends related that Clovis' conversion to Catholicism was an evidence of his love for Clotilda, a Burgundian princess who was Catholic. The most popular French Kings' name - Louis - may derive from the Latin name for Clovis. Middle-Ages Taking over from Dagobert I, last Merovingian Frankish king, Charles Martel initiated the Carolingian Dynasty. He expanded the Frankish kingdom even more than Clovis had done to the East, and struggled to stop Muslims' invasion from the South in 732. A popular French kids' song - entitled Le Bon Roi Dagobert - talks about King Dagobert who apparently has put his pants back to front! So-called Pepin the Short succeeded his father in 751 but the powerful Charlemagne ("Charles the Great" in Latin) rapidly took over as Military Leader. Charlemagne is crowned Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III in 800, which is still one of the major dates of the History of France regarding the relationships with Papacy as well as politics. Emperor Charlemagne indeed made crucial changes - these changes would have consequences for the future France, especially in the education and arts fields. A very popular 60s French song even evoked Charlemagne "inventing" school! During the Middle Ages, the Frankish kingdom successions caused many wars and conflicts. After the Treaty of Verdun was completed in 843 to share Charlemagne's lands into his three sons, the Carolingian dynasty started to decline. Dane and Norvegian Viking raids increased on the Northern coast and the Carolingian King lost his power. The Scandinavian word for Viking is "Northman", becoming Normand in vernacular French. The Normandy province of France actually received its name from the former Vikings' French dukedom. Hugh Capet was finally enthroned in 987, initiating the Capetian Dynasty. The complex game of dynasties would continue with the Duke of Normandy known as William the Conqueror, but who was also officially the King of France's vassal and would become the King of England in 1066! At that time, France widely developped the Education and Architecture fields. When Pope Gregory IX licenced Paris's university La Sorbonne as an independent institution, the Gothic style emerged as the Saint Denis and Chartres Cathedrals were restored. The Sorbonne was rapidly renowned as a centre of education and culture, and French Gothic churched would become a benchmark in terms of Architecture. After the death of Charles IV, last Capetian King, Edward III of England started the Hundred Years' War in 1337, determined to get the French kingdom - especially the Southwest regions (Gascony or the modern Aquitaine used to be English people's fief). The Franks' Victory was partly dued to a young French peasant girl named Jeanne d'Arc, Joan of Arc, who helped Charles VIII to send the English out of France (excepting Calais) in the late 15th century. Renaissance and Grand Siècle When François I was enthroned in 1515, he brought the Italian Renaissance to France, inviting great artists like Leonardo da Vinci who would largely influence the French culture, arts and architecture. Meanwhile, the increasing number of Protestants following Calvin's Reformation and coming to France led to serious and long religious wars. These violent conflicts between Catholics and Protestants were initiated by the terrible Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre ordered by Catherine de Medicis. The first Bourbon King of France, Henri IV, originally protestant, converted to Catholism and put an end to the Wars of Religion signing the Edict of Nantes in 1598 that gave the Huguenots (protestants) full civil rights and protection. The 17th century is known as the Grand Siècle, a period of extravagance and power for the French Monarchy. After more thriving and peaceful times, Cardinal Richelieu indeed ventured to turn the French feudal system into an absolute monarchy. From that day onwards, France has been more important on the European stage. King Louis XIV take the most of it and strengthened his own power by centralising the elaborate court life at his palace in Versailles (hosting the well-known "hall of mirrors", Galerie des Glaces) . Louis XIV - nicknamed Le Roi Soleil ("Sun King") to represent his influence - also forced the local princes and lords to be answerable to him and revoked the Edict of Nantes. Following the example of Richelieu and principal "minister" Mazarin, Colbert became the so-called Louis XIV's right hand man, acting with autority as for the French economy for instance. The reign of Le Roi Soleil was crucial as regards to the French culture and arts too: court ballets, shows, exhibitions and above all dramas were successful at that time. Molière, Racine and Corneille remain three major symbols of the French Classic Theatre. Probably resulting from the Fronde - refering to the political agitation affecting France for five years as a reaction against Richelieu absolute rules - the French Monarchy eventually stopped during the reign of Louis XV. Age of Enlightenment and French Revolution The 18th century gave rise to Modern Thoughts, Enlightenment and Revolution in France. The Bourgeoisie began to demand more political rights, scholars and thinkers like Diderot, Voltaire and Rousseau questioned the absolutism and claimed equal rights, free trade and liberalism. French philosophers and writers also criticized the abuses associated with the French political system (the "Old Regime"), targetting especially the clergy and the nobility. In the meantime, inspired by the recent struggle for the American Independence, Parisian masses began to protest against disparities. As a result, the well-known French Revolution occured on July 14th, 1789, symbolised by the storming of a great prison called La Bastille. Robespierre, Danton and Marat were some powerful figures of the Revolution, leading a radical group called the Jacobins and imposing the so-called Reign of Terror. The French national anthem La Marseillaise resulted in fact from the call to fight: the officer Rouget de Lisle composed this entertaining song to encourage the soldiers. Learn more about the symbols of France! During the Revolution, Louis XVI was decapitated (convicted of treason) at the Place de la Revolution now known as "Place de la Concorde". This event tragically marked the end of the French monarchy and in 1792, the First Republic of France was proclaimed. The court of Louis XVI and Austrian Queen Marie Antoinette is now often regarded as powerful as well as frivolous and corrupt. The French struggle between the privileged classes and the king turned into a real, political crisis and led the noble deputies to give up their traditional privileges: the legislation voted in August 1789 abolished all forms of feudalism - serfdom, monopolies and taxation, tithes to the clergy stopped, equality before the law and free provision of justice were set. Learn more about the Former Provinces of France such as Normandy, Anjou and Berry! Napoleon, 19th Century To conclude the crucial - and bloody - late 18th century that also led to a kind of revolutionary war against France's European neighbours, the authoritarian and ambitious Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned "Emperor Napoleon I" in 1804. Apart from challenging the authority of the church and centralising again the French administration, Napoleon was foremost renowned for his military campaigns. He indeed did his best to expand his empire in Europe, but the defeats in Russia in 1812 and Waterloo in 1815 forced him to exil on the Saint Helena Island. Napoleon I would remain an essential figure of the French history, mainly remembered for his constitutional reforms, commercial practices and the establishment of the French Baccalauréat examination. The coronation of the following moderate Bourbon King Louis XVIII was known as the Restoration; Louis XVIII was due to establish a constitutional monarchy but the 1820s were marked by reactionary policies at the Parlement. This political turning was even more visible after Charles X succeeded his brother in 1824: the clergy got back its power, the Jesuits reappeared, some money was again given to recompense the aristocracy, etc. Such perturbations rapidly provoked street fighting and rebellion: during the July Revolution, the French people - remembering the recent Revolution - finally won, Charles X gave up and Louis Philippe, a Bourbon cousin, was elected first King of the French by the will of the people". This young and modern King duly called "the Citizen King" originated the July Monarchy, period of prosperity in France. Napoleon I's nephew, Louis Napoleon, overthrew Louis Philippe and became the first president of the Second Republic in 1848. He was then proclaimed Emperor Napoleon III by national plebiscite - for the first time in France, the new constitution was approved by the nation. This marked the beginning of the Second Empire. At those times, the French were reassured by this new firm government, the economy and trade increased, railways were extended, industrialization and financial services were developed. As part of the Industrial Revolution, the Baron Haussman was ordered to redesign Paris by Napoleon III. That is not surprising then that one of the greatest boulevards in Paris received his name! The late 19th century included some European troubles, especially between France and Prussia - a powerful neighbouring nation that overcame Austria in the Seven Weeks' War. Therefore, a Franco-Prussian war broke out in 1870 due to diplomatic issues, whilst a crucial uprising affected Paris in 1871. Indeed, as the royalists had a great majority at the Assembly at that time (expecting the return of the Bourbon dynasty), Parisians rose up in reaction to the disarming of the National Guard in March 1871. The following tragic insurrection was very violent and remains a revolutionary event named La Commune. 20th Century in France After the defeat of the 1871 revolution, the third Republic was born. During this period, very important rights have been voted like the freedom of assembly, which led to the creation of the French political parties, and the freedom of the press (1881), the union right (1884). Some symbols of the French Republic were set at that time: Marianne’s bust, the Marseillaise and July, 14th as the French national holiday. The beginning of the 20th century was much influenced by the wish to separate the church from the state. As seen previously, Catholicism has always had a crucial place in the French society and culture, but Jules Ferry fought to establish the non-clerical organisation of public education. In 1905, a law of separation of church and state was implemented and, among other things, school became obligatory, non-denominational and free. France represented at that time a big colonial empire. The country kept on extending its territories for economic reasons and conquered new colonies in Asia, but especially in Africa in countries such as Senegal, Gabon, Congo and Mauritania for instance. Another characteristic of the third Republic was that the major part of the population was leaving the countryside to go to the city. The rural depopulation began in the middle of the 19th century. It indeed led to the urbanisation of France – as in other developing countries of that time. The 20th century was tragically marked by the two world wars, WWI and WWII. France suffered heavy losses despite being part of the winning forces, but it rapidly recovered thanks to American aid. The WWI bloodiest battle was undoubtedly the battle of Verdun , which occurred in 1916 and caused over 700000 casualties. During the interwar years, France also experienced les années folles (the French roaring twenties) and the Great Depression – a long and difficult economic crisis which initially hit the United States and appeared later in France. The third Republic came to an end in 1940 when Marshal Pétain (Prime Minister of the third Republic) proclaimed the Vichy government, as a consequence of the French military defeat against the Nazi troops. From 1940 to 1944, France was split into two parts: the northern zone, which was occupied by the German soldiers, and the southern zone, which was “free” and governed by the French Maréchal. General Charles De Gaulle has been the most important president of the 20th century. He has been at the head of the country from 1946 to 1958 (4th Republic) and initiated the 5th Republic in 1958. De Gaulle founded the current 22 French regions in 1969. After WWII, a period of decolonization began, marked by the first Indonesian war (1946-1954) and the Algerian war (1954-1962). This second controversial and violent war led to the independence of Algeria, in which De Gaulle proved to play an essential part. The following presidents of the 5th Republic were Georges Pompidou (1969-1974), Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (1974-1981), François Mitterrand (1981-1995) and Jacques Chirac (1995-2007).
i don't know
Who did Lord Peter Wimsey marry in the novel Busman’s Honeymoon?
Busman's Honeymoon : Dorothy L. Sayers : 9780563525479 Add to basket Add to wishlist Description Society's eligible women are in mourning. Lord Peter Wimsey has married at last, having finally succeeded in his ardent pursuit of the lovely mystery novelist Harriet Vane. The two depart for a tranquil honeymoon in a country farmhouse but find, instead of a well-prepared love nest, the place left in a shambles by the previous owner. His sudden appearance, dead from a broken skull in the cellar, only prompts more questions. Why would anyone have wanted to kill old Mr Noakes? What dark secrets had he to hide? The honeymoon is over, as Lord Peter and Harriet Vane start their investigations. Suspicion is rife and everyone seems to have something to hide, from the local constable to the housekeeper. Wimsey and his wife can think of plenty of theories, but it's not until they discover a vital fact that the identity of the murderer becomes clear. 2 CDs. 2 hrs 25 mins. show more Product details 124 x 142 x 10mm | 58.97g Publication date
Harriet Vane
To which club did Mycroft Holmes belong?
Busman's Honeymoon: Library Edition A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery: Amazon.es: Dorothy L. Sayers, Ian Carmichael: Libros en idiomas extranjeros 2.0 de un máximo de 5 estrellas Love Dorothy L. Sayers, hate the poor editing job 16 de septiembre de 2013 Por Shopping Goddess - Publicado en Amazon.com Formato: Tapa blanda Compra verificada Dorothy Sayers’ detective novels are entirely delightful. I own them all (in the Harper & Row/Perennial edition), and have read them so often that they are all starting to look much the worse for wear. My copy of Gaudy Night fell apart altogether, so I was initially delighted to find that the series had been issued by HarperCollins/Bourbon Street Books, and purchased the four Harriet Vane novels (Strong Poison, Have His Carcase, Gaudy Night, and Busman’s Honeymoon. I was disappointed to discover that the books are very poorly edited, with mistakes numerous enough to be distracting. In Busman’s Honeymoon, these mistakes include simple typos (“ont” in place of “not”), failures of erudition (the correct expression is not “springs to catch woodcocks” but “springes to catch woodcocks”), and inadvertently comical goofs, as in the following: “Kind hearts,” Kirk was saying, “are more than coronets; him as said that lived to wear a coroner himself.” The mind boggles. I am sorry that the editing is so poor, because the books are otherwise very handsome, with well laid out pages and a nice feel in the hand. But if you (unlike HarperCollins’ editors) are someone who can’t help noticing typos, this edition might not be for you—and if you are new to Sayers, you owe it to yourself to experience her fine writing without the distraction of textual bloopers. 2 de 2 personas piensan que la opinión es útil 5.0 de un máximo de 5 estrellas Lord Peter's triumph! 20 de agosto de 2014 Por Amazon Customer - Publicado en Amazon.com Formato: Versión Kindle Compra verificada Busman's Honeymoon is the crowning glory of the works of Ms. Sayers in this series. It really ought to be read last, or at least after Strong Poison, Have His Carcasse, and Gaudy Night. It's a love story, you see, with detective interludes, which is how the author described it. And WHAT A LOVE STORY! I told someone just the other day that this book ought to be required reading at pre-marital counseling sessions. He, Lord Peter Wimsey, aristocratic sleuth, understands her, Harriet Vane, writer of detective novels, his “heart’s heart,” so very well, and it makes for delicious reading and consideration on the subject of courtship and the intertwining of two hearts and minds. She understands him at last, as soon as he can help her put her own heart back together. When they meet, in Strong Poison, she is just about to be convicted of murder, and both her nerves and her love have been rubbed raw by the hemp of the waiting rope, the grotesque finale of the horrid affair that landed her in the dock. Lord Peter has done in those three aforementioned books what few men could do for any woman; he has made her see that she can be loved. Loved. Wanted, yes, but not wanted more than enjoyed and respected. Loved for herself, loved with an expectation of fun and delight and the ability to return love. A very tall order for most couples, especially when all first advances had to take place under the watchful eye of a prison warden. For these two, all advances in romance had to come with knotty problems to unravel, but, between Lord Peter and the woman who has him “singing songs in the French language”, the knottiest are those of the heart. Harriet has come to trust that somehow, wonderfully, her return of love will be enough for this man, and she knows that to return his love will be enough for her. It's a gem, I tell you, the unfolding of this story … and before it closes, as they move into their "fixer-upper" in the country, they must needs discover a body in the cellar. His startling ability to detect is memorably portrayed with the most provocative literary revelation of what it would be like to "detect things," when those you've caught are now themselves about to leave this world at the end of a rope. I'm sure it's out there somewhere, what I'm about to say, though I haven't read it. It's rather as if all of Harriet's ragged vulnerability in Strong Poison and Gaudy Night, all that she faced and all that she was powerless to forestall, looking death in the face moment by moment and growing too weary to care very much about it, all that now plays out in Lord Peter's soul, his ebullient, joyous, lover's soul. Will he, that they may know a more easeful life, walk away from what he does best and does for the sake of truth and justice? No more preoccupation with alibis and time-tables and motives, and no one on death row because he's so good at what he does. Dear reader, this book is, to me, a great detective story, and for a bonus, perhaps the best look at how two people can possess one another completely with absolutely no triumph of ownership. One of my very favorites. 1 de 1 personas piensan que la opinión es útil 5.0 de un máximo de 5 estrellas I think that tells you how much I love this story 8 de octubre de 2014 Por betty b - Publicado en Amazon.com Formato: Tapa blanda Compra verificada I originally read this book in 1968 as a companion to the BBC television adaptations of some of Ms. Sayers other books. My first paperback is now so worn that reading it is challenging since some of the pages fall out. I think that tells you how much I love this story. All of the Lord Peter Wimsey stories lead up to this one. As always Ms. Sayers tells a tale of crime most foul (murder) and peoples it with characters you can really believe in. The added spice of the love between Lord Peter and Harriet Vane make this story entirely enjoyable. As the title hints, when Lord Peter and Harriet Vane finally wed they find that a honeymoon doesn't stop crime from following them. From the very beginning the reader is allowed to see into the complex lives and characters of Lord Peter and Harriet. That each wants to strew rose leaves along lifes path for the other is obvoius, but constantly frustrated by the murder investigation. Lord Peters' ingrained habit of observation and Harrietts' naturally sharp writers imagination combine to aid the police in the investigation. The scenes with Superintendent Kirk are truly delightful. Try keeping up, you will find youeself making notes to follow up a quote to its source. I won't give away anymore of this great story. Sufice to say you will enjoy it and the challenging sub plots. 1 de 1 personas piensan que la opinión es útil
i don't know
Which drink did J.S. Bach like so much that he wrote a cantata for it?
Bach & Drinking Bach & Drinking wrote (January 5, 2007): Eric Bergerud wrote: << This is not a picture that I buy at all. My conservative guess is that everybody in Saxony drank in this era. It would have been extremely odd not to. When I made my first trip to Europe (too long ago) it struck me that entire towns went to the pub almost every day in Britain. It didn't mean that everyone was blasted (although I never saw public drunkenness in the US the way I saw it in Berlin) it's just that the pint was part of life. >> Somebody wrote: < The fact that there might be good reason for alcohol because "everybody" does or the town water supply is bad still does not mitigate the effects of the alcohol. Indeed, if people were drinking with every meal...I mean, today, alcohol with breakfast gets you into a 12-step program, no questions asked. I'm not moralizing about drink. I'm sure I'd have been no different (tho I like to think I might take coffee once in a while). But, the negative effects--as well as the inspirationally positive ones--would still exist. In Bach's favor regarding his being a "responsible" drinker, I doubt a falldown drunken Cantor would last long. I think there was something in his contract about being a good example to the boys. It would seem unlikely that his alcohol use caused embarrassment.(tho if everybody else was drinking, this could be somewhat relative) btw, regarding "everybody", I think I may have heard something about the Thomaners of the time receiving a daily ration of (weak) beer >. Eric Bergerud wrote: << I don't think we have the last word on this subject, but it does seem that genuine alcoholics metabolize sugar differently than about 85-90% of the population. In practice this means that after two or three drinks most people feel they've had enough - many begin to get a little tired. An alcoholic, however, has just primed the pump. >> Somebody wrote: < But, then can we really expect a "tired" Bach to maintain his notoriously challenging schedule? > Eric Bergerud wrote: << I would consider Bach's life a similar journey, except it was mental. >> Somebody wrote: < Resisting the temptation to quote the Grateful Dead here...I think you might be onto something. > Eric Bergerud wrote: << I can't imagine a drunk reaching his artistic peak at age 60. >> Somebody wrote: < Does "drunk" = "alcoholic"? "Drunk" strikes me as being rather public about it. But, my interest is not so much whether or not he was a "drunk" (and if you accept my "public" qualification of the word, then Bach was not a "drunk"). I'm interested in the effect alcohol played in his composing. Especially, since it now appears that he had alcohol in his blood from the time he got up in the morning until he went to bed. (and please...wine is so much more creative. Beer is...NASCAR and "om-pah-pah" bands. During the day, maybe; but, for inspiration, go with wine--unless there were other spirits available) I'm not sure I'd agree with you about not being able to reach artistic peaks at later ages despite alcohol/substance abuse (I assume we can drop the substance abuse in connection with Bach, tho what exactly is "snuff"?) But, Hemingway sort of springs to mind. I mean, these writers go off on these benders, and when they sober up they throw out all the stuff that looks like it was written by a drunk, and what's left is pure gold. But, they don't have to be young to do this. Indeed, over time, this can turn into an effective creative technique. I'm not saying Bach did precisely that, but I believe he became more and more aware of the positive effect alcohol had on his creativity--and that he would attempt to recreate this effect whenever he wished to compose. > Where to start? Hemingway or Scott Fitzgerald are pretty good examples of the kind of artists ruined by booze (although I suppose some fans might say their failing talents made the booze problem worse). Both were dead and artistic wrecks at an age Bach was working on Art of the Fugue. We actually have pretty good figures from the colonial and early Republican era of US history and it appears that the consumption of alcohol dropped very greatly (perhaps 50%) during the beginning of the "Victorian Era." This was very likely partially due to demographics: the USA in that era was going through probably the fastest increase in population growth (as measured by %) in world history: the population of the US at 1787 was about 3 million: in 1865 about 45 million. In any case, if you want to measure abuse by 21st century definition (quite controversial BTW) I think you could add all of the American founding fathers into the drunk tank with Bach. (George Washington was what was then called a "two bottle per" guy: two bottles of wine per day - almost certainly fortified wine like Madeira or Porto.) There were mitigating circumstances however. The physical activity of life in all classes in the 18th century would stun a modern. Simply sitting if the temperature is around 50 degrees will burn calories like crazy. Walking too and fro, riding a horse or making a fire is work, and folks back then weren't wearing synthetic fabrics that will keep you toasty in the arctic. And, for what it's worth, if you look at modern alcohol consumption figures (google away: there are lots of lists, none of which agree exactly) you will find that Americans drink considerably less than Europeans today. That no doubt explains the superiority of American public health and why we live so much longer than Germans or the French. Rick Canyon wrote (January 6, 2007): Eric Bergerud wrote: < In any case, if you want to measure abuse by 21st century definition (quite controversial BTW) > It's controversial because some see it as unfair. Today, we have the benefit of three centuries of further experience. Thus, to point a finger with moralizing superiority at those who went before is the height of Monday morning quarterbacking. On the other hand, applying what we have learned over those three centuries about alcohol abuse seems not inappropriate either. < I think you could add all of the American founding fathers into the drunk tank with Bach. (George Washington was what was then called a "two bottle per" guy: two bottles of wine per day - almost certainly fortified wine like Madeira or Porto.) > You probably could. Indeed, some might suggest that leaders of that era were far greater because they didn't have to fear attack ads regarding their alcohol consumption. (tho, isn't it rumored that both Washington and Jefferson grew marijuana, also?) < There were mitigating circumstances however. The physical activity of life in all classes in the 18th century would stun a modern. Simply sitting if the temperature is around 50 degrees will burn calories like crazy. Walking too and fro, riding a horse or making a fire is work, and folks back then weren't wearing synthetic fabrics that will keep you toasty in the arctic. And, for what it's worth, if you look at modern alcohol consumption figures (google away: there are lots of lists, none of which agree exactly) you will find that Americans drink considerably less than Europeans today. That no doubt explains the superiority of American public health and why we live so much longer than Germans or the French. > Correct me if I'm wrong, but what I think you are saying here is that physical activity metabolizes alcohol more quickly than sitting as we do today watching football while drinking. Thus, in the more active eras of yore--active in the sense that common activities required much more physical exertion--alcohol had less of a longterm effect than today. While the physical exertion might be largely true, I'm not sure I find this a particularly compelling reason to dismiss alcohol use among the populus of earlier eras as inconsequential. Keep in mind that what I am suggesting for Bach is that alcohol was as much a partner in creating his compositions as were his clearly deep Lutheran beliefs. Perhaps, try this for Bach in Leipzig : At breakfast--and apparently, this was a rather light meal, with a more substantial meal (brunch, if you will) comilater in the morning after the early classes...at breakfast, Bach drinks coffee. At this later meal, he drinks beer--or, perhaps wine. Somewhere on the website, there is a story (by, I believe, Thomas) wherein Bach, after this meal and drowsy from wine, takes a walk in the parkland (just outside the Thomas gate). While the story goes in another direction after this point, the idea that Bach might use these midday moments to gain inspiration is appealing. (indeed, Beethoven seems to have used the Vienna woods in much the same way) By our standards, dinner would seem rather late. (question: since Bach might not always be available for dinner at regular times, would his family, students, and guests necessarily wait for him on the really late nights?) At dinner, Bach begins turning definitely in the direction of wine rather than beer. Why? I would suggest because of the bloating effect of the beer. Bach is far from done with composing for the day and a bloated feeling sucks the life from his inspiration. After dinner and probably some lively music making among those in attendence (more wine)(another question: who cleans up after dinner? did Bach have any servants? or, did AMB and the daughters fill this role?)...After this, Bach&wife retire to the marriage bed. (true, some nights he may have had to supervise the Thomaners with their prayers, first) But, Bach does not remain in bed afterwards to sleep. At this point, all is quiet (finally) and Bach uses this time--accompanied by another goblet of wine--to act upon his inspiration from the earlier stroll in the parkland. I think you will find most creative artists--and I don't see Bach as an exception here--require, even DEMAND, a large degree of silence/isolation/privacy when they work. For Bach, late night would be the only time he could count on such. With this scenario then, small wonder he would want to start the day off with coffee rather than more alcohol. But, also with this scenario, I feel comfortable reconciling Bach's alcohol intake with his creative output. It's just that I feel one has to acknowledge alcohol's contribution to the finished product (so to speak). Stephen Benson wrote (January 6, 2007): Eric Bergerud wrote: < That no doubt explains the superiority of American public health and why we live so much longer than Germans or the French. > I was under the impression that the current state of American public health was far behind the Europeans, and that, in fact, the life expectancy of Americans was lower than that of either the Germans or the French. (A quick check of one list on Wikipedia shows 2006 life expectancy of the French as 79.73 years, the Germans as 78.80, and Americans as 77.85.) Thomas Braatz wrote (January 6, 2007): Canyon Rick wrote: >>At dinner, Bach begins turning definitely in the direction of wine rather than beer. Why? I would suggest because of the bloating effect of the beer. Bach is far from done with composing for the day and a bloated feeling sucks the life from his inspiration. << ...But, Bach does not remain in bed afterwards to sleep. At this point, all is quiet (finally) and Bach uses this time--accompanied by another goblet of wine--to act upon his inspiration from the earlier stroll in the parkland. I think you will find most creative artists--and I don't see Bach as an exception here--require, even DEMAND, a large degree of silence/isolation/privacy when they work. For Bach, late night would be the only time he could count on such. >> With this scenario then, small wonder he would want to start the day off with coffee rather than more alcohol. But, also with this scenario, I feel comfortable reconciling Bach's alcohol intake with his creative output. It's just that I feel one has to acknowledge alcohol's contribution to the finished product (so to speak).<< There was a discussion a few years ago on the subject: "What are some possible reasons/causes for Bach's genius in music?" While I would not want to discount many of the theories that have been set forth, I do not remember any which included alcohol as another aid (certainly not the only one!) contributing to Bach's prodigious output while fathering a large family, instructing pupils and other young musicians and still being able to compose great music. Two comparable situations (unfortunately not directly from Bach's time and place) that come to mind are Friedrich Schiller, the great playwright, writer and poet who penned "Ode to Joy" that Beethoven used at the end of his 9th Symphony. What follows is not hearsay, but information that was uncovered by researchers who have described this in scholarly articles. Schiller, it was observed, kept a few apples in the drawer of his desk at which he worked. To enhance his inspiration, he would, now and then, take a whiff of these apples each time he opened the drawer. These apples, in their most effective state, had turned rotten and had a very special odor about them. This is what enhanced the flow of creative ideas whenever he encountered an impasse. Another example I remember in quite some detail. It is the case of a great Romantic writer, musician and composer: E. T. A. Hoffmann (the Hoffmann who wrote the stories behind "The Tales of Hoffmann"). Among other things, Hoffmann had a rather high status, but dull and routine governmental position which occupied him all day long (somewhat like Franz Kafka who worked during the day for an insurance firm - the latter wrote up reports of injuries all day long), but in the evening, after having dinner with his wife, he withdrew into his private chambers where he was all alone. He kept a diary/journal in code which literary historians were able to decode long after his death. For quite a while these historians were baffled by repeated markings (something like 2, 3, 4 x's or plus signs) at the top of each evening's page in the diary and the subsequent writing/composing session. Finally they figured out what these markings meant: each mark was to indicate a glass of wine which he had before beginning his artistic activities. He escaped from his rather dull day-personality to become the night-genius that few would have recognized. Possibly he did not want his wife or anybody else to know about his secret. Bach, I believe, would easily fit into this type of category, where the wine could enhance/make flow more easily the flow of musical ideas that had already been in gestation and were simply waiting to come out. The wine acted as a facilitator for the genius that was already present. Ed Myskowski wrote (January 6, 2007): [To Stephen Benson] It is not just life expetancy, but life's expectations, that count. Do you correct for the number of years the typical French worker is on strike, for example? Eric Bergerud [To Stephen Benson] I was kinda kidding. Ed Myskowski [To Eric Bergerud] Moi aussi! (Me too!) Rick Canyon wrote (January 7, 2007): Thomas Braatz wrote: < Bach, I believe, would easily fit into this type of category, where the wine could enhance/make flow more easily the flow of musical ideas that had already been in gestation and were simply waiting to come out. The wine acted as a facilitator for the genius that was already present. > I would say that it releases the genius from 'earthly' inhibitions. Perhaps that is why I remarked that wine probably made those texts look lots better. If I were a music student searching for a thesis topic, "The Role of Alcohol on the Musical Compositions of J.S. Bach" might prove novel. One might also wonder if Bach wasn't something of a caffeine freak. It would explain how he found the energy to keep up with his schedule while existing on 3-4 hours of sleep. One would suspect that decaf wasn't a common option then. And in this respect, he would be little different from the StarBucks' patrons of our age. (I'll leave the possibility of a touch of OCD for a different time) The image of the cellar of the Thomasschule filled with beerkegs is rather amusing if viewed from today's perspective. I mean, teenage males and kegs of beer... I recall seeing a movie starring John Belushi about a similar s:)   The Thomaner and their alcoholic beverages Thomas Braatz wrote (January 5, 2007): I found this some time ago, but simply have had no time to get around to translating these two articles about St. Thomas School in Leipzig . If I can get around to it sometime, I will try to share the original German passages as well. For now this will have to do. From "Das in gantz Europa berühmte, galante und sehens-würdige Königliche Leipzig , 1725": "Not far from this church [St. Thomas Church in Leipzig ] is the school building which was made possible by a donation at the same time the monastery was constructed in 1222. From that time until now there have always been eight teachers (praeceptores), who, like their counterparts in the St. Nicholas School, have always been thoroughly educated scholars who teach the young people in various subjects (ad altiora = to lead them higher?). The laws and statutes which were first established in 1539 were revised in 1634 and 1716. In this school [St. Thomas School] a number of pupils have scholarships (paid for by trust funds/endowments that have been established) which pay for food and lodging at the school. In return they are responsible for providing music in the churches and are required to accompany funerals ["Leichen" = corpses] to the gravesite. Three times every week, on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays they walk about while singing through the streets hoping that the owners of the houses in front of which they sing will give them some sustenance [food?, money?] as is the common custom in other cities. Regarding this the book of school rules has more to say." From Anton Weiß's "Verbessertes Leipzig , 1728" "In 1701, the honorable City Council of Leipzig had a new cellar built under St. Thomas School to provide a place for the pupil's alcoholic beverages [the beer barrels] to be stored. All of this has happened because a respectable patron could be found who was sufficiently moved to this noble deed to be willing in this 18th century to provide [alcoholic] drinks for the poor pupils [those on a scholarship at this school]. For as long as these poor, languishing pupils have been provided for daily with food by a generous and kind endowment ever since the creation of this school until 1702 by the honorable City Council of Leipzig , and even on special occasions having special, splendid meals where they could eat all that they wanted, [it] nevertheless [was obvious] what was always missing was the [alcoholic] beverage even with the custom of the "Table Coin" which donors occasionally sent to the school and which proved inadequate because a pupil would have to wait many weeks until his turn would come up [most likely to be able to drink beer instead of water]. And since suffering from thirst, particularly on hot summer days, became unbearable, an experience common to many poor children who had no way of going home to get something to drink, it thus became necessary for them to go back frequently to their rooms [at school] where they had a jug with standing water to drink from. There they could share their drink with the many rats which were found there in great numbers back then. This was frequently the cause of many serious diseases. These children had to suffer through a lot. The miserable situation faced by these pupils moved one sympathetic donor so much that he set up a trust fund which stipulated that the thirst of these poor children must be quenched. Carrying out the stipulations of this fund [by an anonymous benefactor], Mr. D. Leonhard Baudis, Chairman/President of the City Council of Leipzig and distinguished judge and respected member of the city council, on January 1 (New Years Day), 1702 purchased and had delivered to the school 54 Biersteins ["Krüge" = also 'jugs' or 'jars'], according to the total number of students attending the school at that time. Each boy was presented with one of his own. A further decree was issued that, beginning from that day forward, every pupil would receive during the main meal on every Sunday and Feast Day one "Nösel" ["Nösel"= it is not exactly clear what amount this is] of Leipzig beer, but during the week they could have as much as they wanted of "Kofend" ["Kofend" = "near-beer" a beer with low alcoholic content]." Santu de Silva wrote (January 5, 2007): What's all the fuss about alcoholic beverages? I can't quite understand what the issues are. Are there members on the list who think that it is impossible to consume alcohol without drinking to excess? Are there members who think that drinking in any quantity was considered a vice in the time of Bach? I am confused, and I would be very grateful if someone would set out a *brief* reply outlining what the various opinions expressed have been. (It's particularly difficult to follow the discussion, because excess, of course, is a relative concept.) Yoël L. Arbeitman wrote (January 5, 2007): [To Santu de Silva] I believe that I became acquainted with Wolf-Ferrari's opera Il Segreto di Susanna before becoming acquainted with JSB's Coffee Cantata ( BWV 211 ). As I recall, they are pretty much about the selfsame subject: Susanna smokes (not dope) cigarettes. Bach's girl imbibes (not booze) coffee. Modern USA country music seems to be all about drinking, whoring, regretting, and the like. Somewhere between Bach's cantata and Wolf-Ferrari's opera I have failed to observe the subject of recreational substances as the libretto for a classical vocal musical work. Of course we do not have list members here. List members are the silent 700+. We have 10 pubmates who chill together from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof and therefore they gotta discuss something and they do find things to chat about. Give them a break. They need it; the list is their addiction and someone should write a cantata about that subject. Affectionally yours in all virtues, Cara Emily Thornton wrote (January 5, 2007): Yoël L. Arbeitman wrote: < We have 10 pubmates who chill together from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof and therefore they gotta discuss something and they do find things to chat about. Give them a break. They need it; the list is their addiction and someone should write a cantata about that subject. Affectionally yours in all virtues, > Now that's a solution I can live with. Very creative. Are you volunteering yourself? Thomas Braatz wrote (January 6, 2007): I had translated: "...every pupil [Thomaner] would receive during the main meal on every Sunday and Feast Day one "Nösel" ["Nösel"= it is not exactly clear what amount this is] of Leipzig beer, but during the week they could have as much as they wanted of "Kofend" ["Kofend" = "near-beer" a beer with low alcoholic content]." Here is the amount of liquid measure that "Nösel" represents: 1 Nösel = circa 450 ml., but regional differences exist; for instance, in Leipzig during Bach's time 1 Nösel = circa 601.9 ml. or 0.6 liter which is a little more than a pint. Rick Canyon wrote (January 6, 2007): [To Santu de Silva] Somewhere in this discussion is an assertion that people of this era drank at every meal (including breakfast, I would presume) and never drank anything unless it contained alcohol. The fact that this was not considered a vice is moot (tho I do think "any quantity" might eventually reach a quantity where it was considered a vice). The effect of alcohol exists regardless of whether we call it a "vice" or not. To simply dismiss Bach's alcohol use with a quip fails to consider the reality. See the previous post to Eric B. for greater detail. (I'd respond more fully to you but I've been experiencing a sciatica attack from sitting at the computer for so long--another reason to keep the number of posts down) Ed Myskowski wrote (January 6, 2007): Thomas Braatz wrote: < Here is the amount of liquid measure that "Nösel" represents: 1 Nösel = circa 450 ml., but regional differences exist; for instance, in Leipzig during Bach's time 1 Nösel = circa 601.9 ml. or 0.6 liter which is a little more than a pint. > Well, <a pint's a pound, the world around>. Easy to remember, if a bit lacking in accuracy. 0.6 L is substantially more than a USA (American English?) pint, but pretty close to the old UK 20 oz. pint. Which was substantially more than a pound. Weight, not money. I have not been around the pubs (UK) for a while. What is the standard pint? I'll bet a guinea (1.05 pounds sterling) it is still 20 oz. Santu de Silva wrote (January 7, 2007): Thanks to Canyon Rick for replying. (In what follows, please do not conclude that I'm being critical of any particular poster!) "Santu de Silva wrote: > What's all the fuss about alcoholic beverages? I can't quite understand what the issues are. ... > Canyon Rick wrote: "Somewhere in this discussion is an assertion that people of this era drank at every meal (including breakfast, I would presume) and never drank anything unless it contained alcohol. The fact that this was not considered a vice is moot (tho I do think "any quantity" might eventually reach a quantity where it was considered a vice)." Me: This is not unheard of even today, and would not be considered excessive in certain circles. Drinking alcohol with breakfast would not be condemned either (in some places); what might have been looked upon askance is drinking to inebriation. Since each person's tolerance is different, we must assume that "inebriation" would be measured by behavior, not by consumed volume of alcohol. Canyon Rick: < The effect of alcohol exists regardless of whether we call it a "vice" or not. To simply dismiss Bach's alcohol use with a quip fails to consider the reality. See the previous post to Eric B. > Me: Perhaps indeed it is appropriate to dismiss Bach's alcohol use (without a quip). Even if we desired to do an in-depth study of the degree to which Bach's creativity was fueled by alcohol, we can do very little, without normative data (and reliable data of Bach's creativity with and without alcohol). Unless some evidence has been turned up that Bach's level of alcohol consumption was noted by some contemporary as excessive, I would vote that this is a fruitless direction for research. As a youth, I was very critical of alcoholic beverages and those who indulged in them (partly due to unfortunate experiences of friends and family). But I took an occasional drink around the age of 30, and have now progressed to around a glass of wine or beer a day (and perhaps two on a Friday). While I do have a friend who drinks a couple of glasses of something or other each day, and happens to suffer moderate memory loss (at age 60), there is no firm basis to attribute the memory loss to alcohol. I know no one personally who drinks to excess in my opinion (though I'm a little worried about the aforementioned person). I'm trying to establish that I'm not prejudiced one way or the other any more at present. In my experience, and according to what I have heard, alcohol consumption per person in Germany was (1) higher in the past than it is now, and is (2) higher now than in the US --though I could be wrong, yet (3) fewer traffic fatalities are attributed to alcohol. In some cultures, drinking (alcohol) is done specifically in order to become senseless. (I am reliably informed that undergraduates in American institutions of higher learning pass through this phase.) In such cultures, losing control and misbehaving is part of the joy of drinking. Germany appears most vehemently to not be such a culture. I dare not record which cultures I refer to, for fear of reprisal ... Ed Myskowski < Drinking alcohol with breakfast would not be condemned either (in some places) > See, for example, the motto of the USA brewers: <Beer! Not just for breakfast anymore.> < In some cultures, drinking (alcohol) is done specifically in order to become senseless. (I am reliably informed that undergraduates in American institutions of higher learning pass through this phase.) > I have been a frequent champion of the Graduate Student on these pages. In this instance, I think you are letting them off far too easily. Reckless drinking on campus is by no means limited to the undergraduates. In truth, not even limited to the students! Peter Smaill wrote (January 7, 2007): Santu de Silva wrote: < Unless some evidence has been turned up that Bach's level of alcohol consumption was noted by some contemporary as excessive, I would vote that this is a fruitless direction for research. > Well now. The only item in Wolff tending this way is the account of Bach's trip to Halle , sometime around December 1 1713. His bill at the Inn of the Golden Ring for a two week stay was 18 groschen for beer. 18 groschen would buy thirty-two quarts of beer. There was a further 8 gr for brandy. Despite this excellent hospitality Bach refused the appointment and we do not know what Cantata he composed under these influences. He possibly did, however, obtain from his local champion, the pastor of the Frauenkirche D. Johann Michael Heinnecius, the text of the Cantata we now know as BWV 63 , "Christen, aetzet diesen Tag". This souvenir of the trip is stated by Wolff but queried by Dürr for lack of evidence and it was quite possibly originated in a secular work as the text is scarcely suited to Christmas; on which day it was performed in 1714 (?) and 1723. Rick Canyon < See, for example, the motto of the USA brewers: <Beer! Not just for breakfast anymore.> > Is this why my corn flakes were always floating in suds? << In some cultures, drinking (alcohol) is done specifically in order to become senseless. (I am reliably informed that undergraduates in American institutions of higher learning pass through this phase.) >> < I have been a frequent champion of the Graduate Student on these pages. In this instance, I think you are letting them off far too easily. Reckless drinking on campus is by no means limited to the undergraduates. In truth, not even limited to the students! > I've always had an image of institutes of higher learning back then as sort of the domains of party animals. Almost a class thing--a perk for being a student. As I recall, Thomas Braatz once mentioned that in Bach's Leipzig , there were something like 30+ pubs for the common people and eight for the upper class (did Zimmermann's count as a pub?). This produces an amazing per capita rate of 1 pub for about every 75 citizens. Quite probably, several of these establishments remained solvent because of the trade fairs (like having the super bowl in your city three times a year). Still that's an impressive number. It might be interesting to know how much Bach would tolerate from his students and prefects; if he had a standard; or perhaps simply a performance standard. That clash over his prefect striking (or was it beating up?) a student is perhaps worrisome. (as something of a footnote: a century after Bach, a St. Thomas cantor (initially) rejected the teenage Richard Wagner as a student because of the latter's carousing) Rick Canyon Santu de Silva wrote: < Me: Perhaps indeed it is appropriate to dismiss Bach's alcohol use (without a quip). Even if we desired to do an in-depth study of the degree to which Bach's creativity was fueled by alcohol, we can do very little, without normative data (and reliable data of Bach's creativity with and without alcohol). Unless some evidence has been turned up that Bach's level of alcohol consumption was noted by some contemporary as excessive, I would vote that this is a fruitless direction for research. > Well, I don't know. I think even if Bach's consumption was common for then era... I'm not looking to discover a vice, necessarily; just an effect. Noting that another poster had mentioned Bach's bill per Wolfe, I similarly looked. (and there is indeed tobacco and snuff use on Bach's part also). Besides the barbill, Wolfe mentions specifically the huge amount spent for a huge amount of wine for Bach's second wedding (presumably there was quite a bit left over for the newlyweds). He also talks of "Bach's liking for strong waters" as well as the "special" friendship he retained for those in the wine country. Finally, Wolfe states, "When Bach retreated into the solitude of his composing studio, all by himself, he apparently preferred to do so with a bottle of brandy." (aha...so it was brandy, not wine!) I kind of like this image. < I'm trying to establish that I'm not prejudiced one way or the other any more at present. > Oh no. I don't think you are prejudiced at all. It is quite possible to discuss Bach coherently regardless. I have thought it interesting that no one has suggested that perhaps the alcohol content of drink was less in that era--tho it's just as possible it was greater. Ed Myskowski wrote (January 8, 2007): Canyon Rick wrote: < Finally, Wolfe states, "When Bach retreated into the solitude of his composing studio, all by himself, he apparently preferred to do so with a bottle of brandy." (aha...so it was brandy, not wine!) I kind of like this image. > This could be the missing piece in the campaign to get Martell XO to sponsor (or at least provide the Cognac) for a discussion of Bach's XO. Santu de Silva wrote (January 8, 2007): I said: < Unless some evidence has been turned up that Bach's level of alcohol consumption was noted by some contemporary as excessive, I would vote that this is a fruitless direction for research. > Peter Smaill replies: < Well now. The only item in Wolff tending this way is the account of Bach's trip to Halle, sometime around December 1 1713. His bill at the Inn of the Golden Ring for a two week stay was 18 groschen for beer. 18 groschen would buy thirty-two quarts of beer. There was a further 8 gr for brandy. > Suppose he spent all his money on beer, since you did not provide information about how much brandy you could buy with the amount he spent. (I leave the experts to decide whether this would be an underestimate or an overestimate of the possible results in terms of alcohol consumed. Some of the money may have been for friends, too, though one expects that conversely Bach may have imbibed at the expense of the friendly locals, if there were any.) That gives us roughly 46 quarts of beer over two weeks, or 3 quarts a day, excessive by modern American standards. But was it noted by a contemporary as excessive? (I may have missed something in the discussion.) If there was not a lot to do all day except drink, it might not be that excessive, and very likely not indicative of his usual drinking habits. Also, many men I know usually drink in excess when away from their families. Finally, maybe Halle beer was either weaker or better than the beer JSB was used to; in either case he might have drunk more. Douglas Cowling wrote (January 8, 2007): Santu de Silva wrote: < That gives us roughly 46 quarts of beer over two weeks, or 3 quarts a day, excessive by modern American standards. > Funny, I always assumed that Bach's bar bill was hefty because he was entertaining friends and colleagues. Rick Canyon wrote (January 9, 2007): Ed Myskowski wrote: < This could be the missing piece in the campaign to get Martell XO to sponsor (or at least provide the Cognac) for a discussion of Bach's XO. > Cognac...yes! We are so sophisticated here. Ed Myskowski Canyon Rick wrote: < Cognac...yes! We are so sophisticated here. > Not so much sophisticated, as preparing to suck up to the Martell folks. They are French, after all. You may have missed a while back when I first proposed the idea, that I have some Martell on my Quebecker side (mother). Do they still use analogy questions on entrance exams for Graduate Students? If so, sparkling wine:Champagne::brandy: xxx? might be a good one, correct answer Cognac. Rick Canyon wrote (January 9, 2007): Ed Myskowski wrote: < Do they still use analogy questions on entrance exams for Graduate Students? If so, sparkling wine: Champagne::brandy: xxx? might be a good one, correct answer Cognac. > Well, no wonder I never got into grad school.  
Coffee
Who wrote The Symphony of a Thousand?
Johann Sebastian Bach - Biography - IMDb Johann Sebastian Bach Jump to: Overview  (3) | Mini Bio  (1) | Spouse  (2) | Trivia  (4) | Personal Quotes  (1) Overview (3) 5' 11" (1.8 m) Mini Bio (1) Johann Sebastian Bach was born on March 21, 1685, in Eisenach, Thuringia, Germany, into a large and distinguished family of professional musicians. His father, named Johann Ambrosius Bach, was a violinist and trumpeter, employed by the city of Eisenach. His uncles were church organists, court musicians and composers. His mother and father died before Bach was 10. As an orphan, he moved in with his eldest brother, J. C. Bach, an organist and composer, under whose tutelage Bach studied organ music as well as the construction and maintenance of the organ. Education: At the age of 14, Bach received a scholarship and walked on foot 300 kilometers to the famous St. Michael's school in Luneburg, near Hamburg. There he lived and studied for 2 years from 1699-1701. It was there that he sang a Capella at the boys chorale. Bach's studies included organ, harpsichord, and singing. In addition he took the academic studies in theology, history and geography, and lessons of Latin, Italian, and French. Besides his studies of music by the local Nothern German composers, Bach had important exposure to the music of composers from other European nations; such as the French composers Jean-Baptiste Lully , Marais, and Marchand, the South German composers Johann Pachelbel and Froberger, and the Italians Arcangelo Corelli and Antonio Vivaldi . Personality and character: Bach was 17 when he made a 4-month pilgrimage, walking on foot about 400 kilometers from Arnstadt to the Northern city of Lubeck. There he studied with 'Dietrich Buxtehude' and became so involved that he overstayed his leave by three months. Buxtehude being probably the best organist of his time became the living link between the founder of Baroque music Heinrich Schütz and the biggest Baroque genius, Bach. Back in Arnstadt, Bach wrote 'Toccata and Fugue in D Minor' (1702), his first masterpiece; which stemmed from his bold organ improvisations. At that time he was in love with his second cousin Maria Barbara; whom he was taking upstairs to the church organ, where her presence was inspirational for his creativity. Bach was punished for the violation of the restrictions on women's presence in the church and he was fired. However, he eventually married Maria Barbara. Cross-cultural studies: Bach studied the orchestral music of Antonio Vivaldi and gained insight into his compositional language by arranging Vivaldi's concertos for organ. Six French suites were written for keyboard; each suite opens with 'Allemande' and consists of several pieces, including 'Courante', 'Sarabande', 'Menuet', 'Gavotte', 'Air', 'Anglaise', 'Polonaise', 'Bourree', and 'Gigue'. As suggested by their titles, the pieces were representing songs and dances from various cultures. From the music of the Italians Antonio Vivaldi , Arcangelo Corelli , and 'Giuseppe Torelli'; Bach adopted dramatic introductions and endings as well as vivacious rhythmical dynamism and elaborate harmonization. Bach also performed the music of English, French, and Italian composers; motets of the Venetian school, and incorporated their rhythmical patterns and textural structures in the development of his own style. Teaching: Bach selected and instructed musicians for orchestras and choirs in Weimar and Leipzig. His work as a Cantor included teaching instrumental and vocal lessons to the church musicians and later to the musicians of the court orchestra. Bach was also a teacher of his own children and of his second wife. In 1730, Bach presented his second wife with a musical notebook for studies, known as the 'Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach'. Compositions in the notebook were written in a form of minuete, polonaise, gavotte, march, rondeau, chorale, sonata, prelude, song, and aria; written mainly by Bach, as well as by his sons 'Carl Philip Emanuel Bach', Johann Christoph Bach, and composers 'Francois Couperin', Georg Bohm, and others. Family: Bach married his second cousin, named Maria Barbara, who was the inspirational force for his early compositions. They had seven children, 4 of whom survived to adulthood. W. F. Bach, J. C. Bach, and C. P. E. Bach became composers. Maria Barbara died in 1720. On December 3, 1721, Bach married Anna Magdalena (bee Wilcke), a talented soprano, who was 17 years his junior. They had thirteen children. Bach fathered a total of 20 children with his two wives. His sons 'Friedemann Bach', Johann Christoph Bach, and 'Carl Philip Emanuel Bach' became important composers in the Rococo style. The descendants of Bach are living in many countries across the world. Social activity: Bach replaced his friend Georg Philipp Telemann as the director of the popular orchestra known as Collegium Musicum, which he led from 1729-1750. It was a private secular music society that gave concert performances twice a week at the Zimmerman's Coffeehouse near the Leipzig market square. Bach's exposure to such a secular public environment inspired him to compose numerous purely entertainment pieces for solo keyboard and several violin and harpsichord concertos. Politics: Being the undisputed musical genius, Bach still suffered from ugly political machinations. Although the Leipzig Council had enough money, they never honored the promised salary of 1000 talers a year; promised to Bach by the Mayor of Leipzig, Gottlieb Lange, at the hiring interview. Bach worked diligently, in spite of being underpaid for 27 years until his death. On top of that local political factions in the Leipzig Council manipulated Bach's educational work as well as his compositions and public performances. They were pressuring him as the Cantor and Composer and interfering his creative efforts by imposing restrictions on his performances because of their ugly political games. Bach prevailed as he composed and played his "Mass in B Minor" to the monarch of Saxony and was appointed the Royal Court Composer of Saxony. King Frederick the Great invited Bach to Potsdam in 1747. There the king played his own theme for Bach and challenged the composer to improvise on it. Bach used the 'royal theme' and improvised a three-part fugue on the king's piano. Later Bach upgraded the king's theme to a more sophisticated melody, and composed an array of pieces based on the improved 'royal theme', which he titled "Musical Offering" and later presented this composition to the king. Legacy: Bach wrote over eleven hundred music compositions in all genres. In Leipzig alone he wrote a cantata for every Sunday and feast day of the year, of which 224 cantatas survive. Some of his compositions were written on the same theme at different times in his life, like choral cantatas and organ works on similar themes with significantly reworked arrangements. The complete list of Bach's works, BWV, has 1127 compositions for voice, organ, harpsichord, violin, cello, flute, chamber music for small ensembles, orchestral music, concertos for violin and orchestra, and for keyboard and orchestra. His music became the essential part of the education for every musician. Bach influenced such great composers as Ludwig van Beethoven , Franz Liszt , Frédéric Chopin , Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy , Sergei Rachmaninoff , Sergei Prokofiev and many other prominent musicians. Bach is by far the most performed and recorded composer in history. His 'Das Wohltemperierte Clavier' (The well-tempered keyboard, or The well-tuned piano, in modern terminology) is the definitive work for all students as well as concert musicians. Bach's 'Orgebuchlein' (The little organ book) is a staple in the repertoire of organists and pianists, and some pieces from it were arranged for ensembles. Bach's many chorales, especially the "Mass in B Minor" are considered the best works in the genre. His last work 'The Art of Fugue' is best known for it's acclaimed performance by Glenn Gould . Bach's music was used in hundreds of films, thousands of stage productions, and continues being played all over the world. The definitive biography of J. S. Bach was written by the Nobel Prize Laureate Albert Schweitzer . - IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov Spouse (2)
i don't know
What kind of flower is a Tequila Sunrise?
Tequila Sunrise recipe Tequila Sunrise recipe Scan me to take me with you serve in 2 dashes grenadine syrup Pour tequila in a highball glass with ice, and top with orange juice. Stir. Add grenadine by tilting glass and pouring grenadine down side by flipping the bottle vertically very quickly. The grenadine should go straight to the bottom and then rise up slowly through the drink. Garnish stirrer, straw and cherry-orange. More comments Yes!!! posted by Kristin @ 03:43PM, 5/13/06 Oh my gosh that is my favorite... I laid drunk under the Eifel Tower in Paris after a few of those! Missing 1 more ingredient... posted by Kellyo @ 07:12PM, 5/13/06 You also need cranberry juice... MOST IMPORTANTLY! I'm gonna try it out posted by klayton @ 04:44AM, 6/03/06 Cranberry juice is not needed for a sunrise, it's a totaly different drink... Writing that down posted by cailet22 @ 02:07AM, 6/18/06 No wonder it's so popular, love making the effect with the syrup. Fav. drink as of now posted by C to the P @ 04:12AM, 6/30/06 Works well using a Goblet glass if you don't have a highball. Drink is outragous. Number 1# posted by Pig_Penn @ 02:46AM, 7/08/06 I tell ya, when your on the beaches of hawaii sippin on this, you feel like a million bucks. Hits the spot. Use this kind of tequila posted by redneck @ 10:33PM, 7/11/06 Try use Cabo Wabo tequila it makes the taste of this favorite so much better. More ingredient Great drink but try adding a bit of lemon juice!!! Try it ..and you will love it posted by elaine @ 08:59AM, 8/13/06 It has very nice colour effects, I love it. Great drink posted by J @ 12:16PM, 10/04/06 This drink was introduced to me not long ago, and it is one of my favorite drinks:) Cherry brandy posted by Nique @ 01:33AM, 10/13/06 Replace grenadine with cherry brandy - yummmm. Sweeeeet! posted by Boost @ 11:40AM, 11/05/06 Delicious, drink it and wait for the sun to brighten you up from inside Number 1# even better!! posted by nem o @ 12:01AM, 11/14/06 LONG LIVE TEQUILA SUNRISE! I love this drink, I love this drink I love this drink... Oh hell yes posted by leah @ 05:53PM, 11/20/06 Quite possibly my favorite drink ever. After a few of these you lack the coordination to get the effect with the syrup. But by then, it really doens't matter. Spanked my cheeks posted by spunky monkey @ 08:36PM, 11/21/06 Mix drink ingredients in large glass pitcher and slice up an orange and add. Beautiful touch to a spankin' drink. Canadians posted by The ONLY TRUE bartender in TORONTO @ 11:43PM, 12/19/06 Stupid canadian bartenders add sweet & sour mix to the classic drink. Taste like shit with S&S mix. Pineapple juice posted by iryna @ 11:34PM, 1/05/07 I always replace grenadine with raspberry syrup... and sometimes orange juice with pineapple... heehee sounds different but still so good. Awesome drink posted by Never a Sunset! @ 12:44AM, 1/06/07 What else is there to say. Its where the sunrise starts and the good times roll. I recommend this drink to anyone. Different tequila posted by Moni @ 09:29PM, 1/24/07 I adore this cocktail... Try different brands of tequila and you will be amazed how different each brand makes the cocktail taste! Amazing posted by Barbre @ 09:54PM, 1/25/07 This is great but people... don't be wussy, up your tequilla ratio. Love it! posted by hey @ 03:34PM, 1/28/07 Lovin' the taste and effect! Yumm! posted by lilspoiledgrl5 @ 06:46AM, 2/01/07 It's such a pretty effect too. Makes it more fun to drink! Great drink posted by shell @ 09:24PM, 2/09/07 I love this drink so much. I also am the biggest fan of tequila since I tried it. For me it's a different drink, a better one. But this drink is so tasty, and smooth, and relaxing. Just a great thing to have on a summer night, or after a long work week. WOW posted by pedro @ 11:59PM, 2/14/07 This is one of the best tasting drink i have seen ...with OLMECA brand tequila i give this a A+ Wow posted by naiem @ 07:34AM, 2/15/07 The best .. try it all. Triple sec posted by roseanna @ 10:01PM, 4/05/07 Instead of orange juice use triple sec. Blackberry brandy posted by Dave @ 12:15AM, 4/13/07 I've heard blackberry brandy instead of grenadine is real good. Called a tequila sunset. Lemon juice posted by Jane @ 09:50AM, 6/17/07 I always have had it with lemon juice too... and always in a large goblet. One is not enough posted by Nadi @ 01:50PM, 6/20/07 Great taste but the effects of just one are disappointing. Go for another. I had to sneak it. posted by Cliff @ 05:53PM, 9/15/07 I started going to the clubs when I was 17 and this is the first mixed drink I have ever tried. I am 21 now and it is STILL the only thing that I request at a club or bar. THE VERY BEST!!! if you love this drink... posted by Kristin @ 03:54PM, 11/07/07 and are a big fan of the tequila sunrise, try replacing the tequila with sake and you get a 'sake sunrise' mmmmm mmmm good!
Rose
In which Australian state is the city of Newcastle?
Coreopsis Tequila Sunrise, Tickseed - American Meadows American Meadows Sign up for our newsletter for updates on products. Shipping: Shipping begins in late March based on ground temperatures, warmest zones first. Learn More… Tickseed Tequila Sunrise is a wonderful hybrid with bright flowers, and variegated green and white foliage. (Coreopsis) 14-16 inches tall, 14-16 inches wide Bloom Time Q & A Plant Information Tequila Sunrise gives you a neat compact plant and a flurry of extra-bright flowers in golden yellow with sparkling red center spots. Best of all, even when its not in bloom, you'll enjoy the beautiful variegated foliage, decorative in the garden all spring, summer and fall. North American Native Wildflowers: Our beautiful wild Coreopsis species, and how they've been improved. The Coreopsis group is one of the great gifts of North America to the plant world. Almost all the species of Coreopsis that the world now knows and loves are North American native wildflowers. The following ones are particularly famous, and all these are native over most of the eastern states. Plains Coreopsis, C. tinctoria, also called Calliopsis, is a much-loved wild annual and is a mainstay of wildflower meadow seed mixtures. (See seed in our Wildflower Encyclopedia) Lanceleaf Coreopsis, C. lanceolata is the famous perennial golden daisy that decorates fields over almost the whole east. (See seed in our Wildlfower Encyclopedia) The Rosy Coreopsis, C. rosea is another wild perennial which is finer-leaved than Lanceleaf, and has been hybridized into some of the best new colors and forms. Thread Leaf Coreopsis, C. verticillata is a small delicate-appearing perennial wildflower with fine leaves and stems. This one has been made into many popular garden hybrids, most famous being Moonbeam, a huge hit when it hit the gardening market. Tickseed Coreopsis C. grandiflora is a common southern native and has golden flowers 1 to 2 1/2 inches across. Since these wonderful plants are North American natives, their hybrids are right at home in your perennial gardens. SKU
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Who is the oldest man to win Olympic Gold at 100 metres?
100 Meter Men's Olympic Medalists (1896 - 2012) 100 Meter Men's Olympic Medalists Olympic Sprints and Relays 100 Meter Men's Olympic Medalists Usain Bolt flies across the finish line to win the 2012 Olympic 100-meter gold medal.  Ian MacNicol/Getty Images By Mike Rosenbaum Updated August 23, 2016. The men's 100-meter race has been a part of every modern Olympic program, beginning with the Athens Games of 1896. During that time, three men have won consecutive Olympic 100-meter gold medals: American Archie Hahn in 1904 and then in the Intercalated Games of 1906; American Carl Lewis in 1984-88; and Jamaica's Usain Bolt, in 2008-12. Six men have tied or set the 100-meter world record during the Olympics. Oddly, the first man to do so, American Donald Lippincott, didn't earn a gold medal. In 1912 he established the first IAAF-recognized world mark by winning a preliminary heat in 10.6 seconds, but later had to settle for a bronze medal in the final. The other record-setters all won gold medals, beginning with American Bob Hayes, who tied the world mark in 1964, and followed by Jim Hines of the U.S. (1968), Lewis (1988), Canada's Donovan Bailey (1996) and Bolt (2008). 1896 GOLD Thomas Burke, USA 12.0 SILVER Fritz Hofmann, GER 12.2 BRONZE Francis Lane, USA 12.6 BRONZE Alojz Sokol, HUN 12.6 continue reading below our video Understanding Baseball GOLD Frank Jarvis, USA 11.0 SILVER Walter Tewksbury, USA 11.1 BRONZE Stan Rowley, AUS 11.2 1904 GOLD Archie Hahn, USA 11.0 SILVER Nate Cartmell, USA 11.2 BRONZE William Hogenson, USA 11.2 1906 GOLD Archie Hahn, USA 11.2 SILVER Fay Foulton, USA 11.3 BRONZE Nigel Barker, AUS 11.3 1908 GOLD Reggie Walker, SAF 10.8 SILVER James Rector, USA 11.0 BRONZE Robert Kerr, CAN 11.0 1912 GOLD Ralph Craig, USA 10.8 SILVER Alvah Meyer, USA 10.9 BRONZE Donald Lippincott, USA 10.9 1920 GOLD Charles Paddock, USA 10.8 SILVER Morris Kirksey, USA 10.9 BRONZE Harry Edward, GBR 10.9 1924 GOLD Harold Abrahams, GBR 10.6 SILVER Jackson Scholz, USA 10.8 BRONZE Arthur Porritt, NZL 10.9 1928 GOLD Percy Williams, CAN 10.8 SILVER Jack London, GBR 10.9 BRONZE Georg Lammers, GER 10.9 1932 GOLD Eddie Tolan, USA 10.3 SILVER Ralph Metcalfe, USA 10.3 BRONZE Arthur Jonath, GER 10.4 1936 GOLD Jesse Owens , USA 10.3 SILVER Ralph Metcalfe, USA 10.4 BRONZE Martinus Osendarp, HOL 10.5 1948 GOLD Harrison Dillard, USA 10.3 SILVER Barney Ewell, USA 10.4 BRONZE Lloyd LaBeach, PAN 10.4 1952 GOLD Lindy Remigino, USA 10.79 SILVER Herbert McKenley, JAM 10.80 BRONZE Emmanuel Bailey, GBR 10.83 1956 GOLD Bobby Morrow, USA 10.62 SILVER Thane Baker, USA 10.77 BRONZE Hector Hogan, AUS 10.77 1960 GOLD Armin Hary, GER 10.32 SILVER David Sime, USA 10.35 BRONZE Peter Radford, GBR 10.42 1964 GOLD Bob Hayes, USA 10.06 SILVER Enrique Figuerola, CUB 10.25 BRONZE Harry Jerome, CAN 10.27 1968 GOLD James Hines, USA 9.95 SILVER Lennox Miller, JAM 10.04 BRONZE Charlie Greene, USA 10.07 1972 GOLD Valeriy Borzov, URS 10.14 SILVER Robert Taylor, USA 10.24 BRONZE Lennox Miller, JAM 10.33 1976 GOLD Hasely Crawford, TRI 10.06 SILVER Don Quarrie, JAM 10.07 BRONZE Valeriy Borzov, URS 10.14 1980 GOLD Allan Wells, GBR 10.25 SILVER Silvio Tartabull, CUB 10.25 BRONZE Petur Petrov, BUL 10.39 1984 GOLD Carl Lewis , USA 9.99 SILVER Sam Graddy, USA 10.19 BRONZE Ben Johnson, CAN 10.22 1988 GOLD Carl Lewis, USA 9.92 SILVER Linford Christie, GBR 9.97 BRONZE Calvin Smith, USA 9.99 1992 GOLD Linford Christie, GBR 9.96 SILVER Frank Fredericks, NAM 10.02 BRONZE Dennis Mitchell, USA 10.04 1996 GOLD Donovan Bailey, CAN 9.84 SILVER Frank Fredericks, NAM 9.89 BRONZE Ato Boldon, TRI 9.90 2000 GOLD Maurice Greene, USA 9.87 SILVER Ato Boldon, TRI 9.99 BRONZE Obadele Thompson, BAR 10.04 2004 GOLD Justin Gatlin, USA 9.85 SILVER Francis Obikwelu, POR 9.86 BRONZE Maurice Greene, USA 9.87 2008 GOLD Usain Bolt , JAM 9.69 SILVER Richard Thompson, TRI 9.89 BRONZE Walter Dix , USA 9.91 2012 GOLD Usain Bolt, JAM 9.63 SILVER Johan Blake, JAM 9.75
Linford Christie
What, associated with the word, does a Galactophagist drink?
Usain Bolt wins 100m final at London 2012 Olympics | Daily Mail Online MEDALS TABLE Fittingly, it was the weekend that celebrated 50 years of Jamaican independence. Here were just 9.63 blistering seconds of it. At the end of the shortest Olympic race in history, two men were quite noticeably independent and away from the rest of the field. There was daylight between Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake, but clear air again between Blake and the chasing pack. The Jamaicans — friends, training partners at the Racers Club in Kingston, now the fiercest rivals on the track — were out on their own. When it came down to it, however, one Jamaican was simply more independent than the other. Bolt did it again. He did it as he said he would. As predicted, this was his time. Bolt became the first athlete this century to retain his Olympic 100 metres title, the first since Carl Lewis in 1988. Nobody stays the fastest man in the world for long and there were many who thought Bolt would repeat the brief flickering of many past champions. They were wrong, so very wrong. *SCROLL DOWN TO WATCH VIDEO OF USAIN BOLT'S VICTORY IN THE 100 FINAL Simply the best: Usain Bolt crosses the finishing line to win gold in the men's 100 metres final The Olympic 100m champions 2012 London - Usain Bolt (Jamaica) 9.63 2008 Beijing - Usain Bolt (Jamaica) 9.69 2004 Athens - Justin Gatlin (USA) 9.85 2000 Sydney - Maurice Greene (USA) 9.87 1996 Atlanta - Donovan Bailey (CAN) 9.84 1992 Barcelona - Linford Christie (GBR) 9.96 1988 Seoul - Carl Lewis (USA) * Ben Johnson (CAN) won in 9.79 but was later disqualified. 1984 Los Angeles - Carl Lewis (USA) 9.99 1980 Moscow - Alan Wells (GBR) 10.25 1976 Montreal - Hasely Crawford (TRI) 10.06 1972 Munich - Valeriy Borzov (SOV) 10.14 1968 Mexico City - Jim Hines (USA) 9.95 1964 Tokyo - Bob Hayes (USA) 10.0 1960 Rome - Armin Hary (GER) 10.2 1956 Melbourne - Bobby Morrow (USA) 10.62 1952 Helsinki - Lindy Remigino (USA) 10.79 1948 London - Harrison Dillard (USA) 10.3 1936 Berlin - Jesse Owens (USA) 10.3 Having given the field, even the brilliant Blake, a head start, he then accelerated. It was as if Batman had flicked the switch on the Batmobile, the one that sends the machine into warp speed. We almost expected to see an ignition of white-hot flame at Bolt’s tail. And that is what Bolt is, in essence. A  latter-day superhero. He draped the  Jamaican flag around his shoulders like a Caped Crusader, too, and mimed firing his arrow as if an Olympian of old. He is old, Bolt, yet so very new. His talent is one of the purest skills of all: the ability to run faster than any other man. But his manner is modern. He knows his place in sport’s galaxy, his status, and what it represents. At the pinnacle stands the heavyweight boxing champion and the world’s fastest man; except Bolt has more personality in his discarded woolly hat than the Klitschko brothers have in a lifetime of  perfect punishing victories. If Bolt were a boxer, even Muhammad Ali’s Greatest status might have been under threat. He is charismatic, mesmerising. Once he entered the track nobody could take their eyes from him; and then when he started running, blink, and he was gone. At the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton, Bolt as Batman was further emphasised. Jamaica Day celebrations in the area had segued jubilantly into the main event of the night. On the big screen, The Dark Knight Rises gave way to Bolt and a free showing of the BBC Olympics coverage played to an audience comprising the nearest thing a Jamaican athlete could get to a partisan crowd, so far from his island. Not that he could have heard them as he sped into history. Not that any athlete could hear much above the cacophony of the  Olympic Stadium. After Britain’s Super  Saturday, this was tagged Supersonic  Sunday, as if any further showbiz hype was required. The fastest men in the world know they are the players of the Olympic meeting without further encouragement. They preen, they strut, they perform for the  cameras, and that is just in the heats. Dip for the line: Bolt finishes ahead of Yohan Blake (second right) and Justin Gatlin (third right) to win the Olympic gold medal Lightning Bolt: The Jamaican set a new Olympic record after winning the 100m in a time of 9.63 seconds Making his point: Bolt celebrates after crossing the finishing line in first in the 100m final at the London Olympic Games History boy: Bolt bathes in the glory of his brilliant victory in London's Olympic Stadium The finalists: (from left) Churandy Martina, Ryan Bailey, Usain Bolt, Justin Gatlin, Yohan Blake, Tyson Gay, Asafa Powell and Richard Thompson Close call: Bolt did not run away with the race as he had done four years ago in Beijing, with Blake, Gatlin and Gay all running super quick times Twitter reaction to Bolt's victory Joey Barton: 'Bolt = Ridiculous'  Rio Ferdinand: 'What a character Bolt is, guys throwing shapes pre race... can't imagine a football player doing that before the biggest game of their life!'  Ferdinand again: 'Wow, Usain Bolt... out of this world type athlete! The 100metres final is the best sport to watch in the Olympics...' Piers Morgan: 'UNDERSTATEMENT OF THE CENTURY: '"I brought it..." @usainbolt By the time of the main event, Bolt was in his element. He took off his black and gold headwear and walked casually to the start line, a wink here, a cocky grin there, utterly assured after all the uncertainty. His semi-final heat time was already a statement of intent. Having sped past the field to finish a comfortable first, he pointed a finger to the sky. No 1, still. Catch me if you can. It was a portent. He walked through the media interview area tight-lipped, but the high-fives for loitering journalists spoke as eloquently as any prediction. When Bolt’s name was announced, he went through his showman’s routine. He  shut his eyes, pretended to be deeply focused, then lifted his head up with a broad grin and made a running gesture with his fingers, put them to his forehead and then away in a salute. The crowd loved it. Then again, they loved Boris Johnson, too, when his face came up on the big screen. Pay 750 quid for tickets and you probably need to love everything to get your money’s worth. At the semi-final Bolt had thrown in a little shadow boxing, probably as a nod to his great friend Lennox Lewis. Second time around, no doubt keen to vary his repertoire, he mimed DJ moves. Trademark: Bolt strikes his usual pose for the cameras after winning the 100m final in London Mummy's boy: The sprinter's mother Jennifer (centre) and silver medallist Blake (centre left) join the celebrations Kneesy does it: Bolt kneels on the running track after sealing his place in history once again It is easy to root for Bolt, the way it was Ali, the way it is any man who  combines supreme athleticism with charm and personality. Bolt has such charisma. Even operating from a rare position of vulnerability, his demeanour suggested he was the man to beat. So it proved. The moment the pistol sounded, all doubts about his fitness evaporated. Slow out of the blocks, as he would be at 6ft 5in from a crouching position, it was instantly the Bolt of old, motoring as if slung from a catapult, tearing up the super-fast surface as if it would curl up beneath his feet as he went. Jamaica, Kingston, Stratford, Brixton, he did them all proud, it was as if the world is spun by his spikes. And Bolt needed to be at his best for this, have no doubt. From third-placed Justin Gatlin to Richard Thompson of Trinidad and Tobago in seventh, every  runner was the fastest for his  position in an Olympic final. Get set... go: The sprinter's fly out of their starting blocks - but Bolt did not make a quick getaway If Bolt had been 95 per cent fit as was once claimed, he would not have been able to live with many of them, let alone the noble Blake. There was no showboating on the line this time. Blake would have gobbled him up. In the circumstances, with all his fitness worries and that false start at the World Championships to weigh him down, it was an astonishing run. So what next? Bolt is still just 25 and no man has ever won the 100m title three times. Unlike swimming, sprinting is not exactly a young man’s game. Linford Christie won gold in Barcelona at the age of 32, so there is still time. Bolt could set a record in Olympic sprinting that would be hard to beat; as if he has not done that already. Short term, there is the small matter of the 200m here on Thursday. No one has ever retained that title. So Bolt is on course for a remarkable double later this week: always providing he can be kept clear of that party at the Ritzy. Toy story: Bolt helps London 2012 mascot 'Wenlock' strike his famous pose Fire in the belly: The Olympic Flame burns brightly as 100m champion Bolt runs on his lap of honour Unforgettable moments: Bolt celebrates glory in London's iconic Olympic Stadium Cruise control: Usain Bolt (right) wins his 100m semi-final ahead of Britain's Dwain Chambers (left) Plenty left in the tank: Bolt crosses the finishing line in a time of 9.87 secs in the second 100m semi-final Not quite enough: British sprinter Dwain Chambers looks in vain at the scoreboard after his race Rising star: Gemili (centre) proved he has a bright future after just missing out on the final Fastest of all: American Justin Gatlin (right) qualified fastest for the final in 9.82secs Ever the showman: Jamaican superstar Bolt plays up for the crowd in London ahead of his race USAIN BOLT FACTFILE 1986: Born August 21 in Trelawny, Jamaica. 2002: At the age of 15 Bolt wins gold in the 200m and silver in both the 4x100m and 4x400m relays at the 2002 World Junior Championships in Kingston. 2003: Wins gold in the 200m at World Youth Championships in Sherbrooke. 2004: Becomes first junior to break the 20-second mark in the 200m, clocking 19.93 seconds. 2005: Claims gold medal in the 200m at the Central American and Caribbean Championships with a time of 20.03secs. 2007: Wins 200m silver at World Championships in Osaka, and also wins silver as a member of the 4x100m relay. We've been here before: Bolt stuns the world by winning gold in Beijing in 2008 2008: May 3 - Posts the second-fastest 100m time in history at the Jamaica Invitational, clocking 9.76secs. May 31 - Breaks the world record in the 100m at the Reebok Grand Prix, posting a time of 9.72secs in only his fifth race over the distance. July 13 - Beats his personal best in the 200m, finishing in 19.67 seconds in Athens to register the fastest time over the distance in 2008 and the fifth-fastest 200m time ever. August 16 - Wins 100m gold at the Beijing Olympics, lowering his previous world record to 9.69secs. August 20 - Completes Olympic sprint double, winning the 200m in a new world record time of 19.30secs. August 22 - Runs third leg as Jamaica score Olympic 4x100m relay victory in world record time of 37.10secs. November 23 - Voted IAAF World Male Athlete of the Year. 2009: April 29 - Escapes serious injury when his BMW M3 car skids off road outside of Kingston and overturns. Requires minor foot surgery. May 17 - Wins Manchester Great City Games 150m in world best time of 14.35secs. Covered first 100m in 9.91sec and last 100m with flying start in 8.70secs. June 10 - Wins 2009 Laureus World Sportsman of the Year. August 16 - Wins gold medal in 100m at World Championships in Berlin, with new world record time of 9.58 seconds. August 20 - Claims second gold medal at World Championships in Berlin, with new world record time of 19.19 seconds over 200 metres. 2010: August 6 - Suffers only the second loss of his career in a 100m final, losing to Tyson Gay in Stockholm 2011: August 28 - Disqualified for a false start in the 100m final at the World Championships in Daegu. Training partner Yohan Blake goes on to take gold. September 3 - Retains his world 200m title and later goes on to help Jamaica win the 4x100m relay in a new world record time of 37.04 2012: June - Loses to Blake over both 100 and 200m at the Jamaican Olympic trials, but seals his place on the team for London. July 26 - Admits he had been suffering from a stiff back which was causing a hamstring problem, but insists he is ready to defend his titles. August 5 - Retains Olympic 100m title in 9.63s, the second quickest time in history.  
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Who was known as the Scourge of God?
A Profile of Attila the Hun - the Scourge of God Ruler Dates: We don't know when Attila was born. It could have been around 406 A.D. He ruled from about 433 until his death in 453. Offices and Titles: Attila was the king of the Scythian hordes known as the Huns, who frightened those in their paths even with their appearance. For devastating much of Europe -- mostly while on horseback shooting javelins, composite bows and arrows, Attila the Hun is also known as the Scourge of God. Jordanes says the following about Attila: " His army is said to have numbered five hundred thousand men. He was a man born into the world to shake the nations, the scourge of all lands, who in some way terrified all mankind by the dreadful rumors noised abroad concerning him. He was haughty in his walk, rolling his eyes hither and thither, so that the power of his proud spirit appeared in the movement of his body." continue reading below our video Profile of Attila the Hun Military: Attila successfully led his forces to invade the Eastern Roman Empire, whose capital was in Constantinople, in 441. In 451, on the Plains of Châlons (also known as the Catalaunian Plains), which was located in Gaul (modern France), although the exact located is disputed, Attila suffered a setback. Attila was ranged against the Romans and the Germanic Visigoths who were settled in Gaul. This didn't stop him, though; he made progress and was on the verge of sacking Rome when, in 452, the pope (Leo I [d. 461]) dissuaded Attila from sacking Rome. Death: The death of Attila was the following year, on his wedding night in 453, supposedly of a nosebleed. There are other explanations, including an assassination plot. With Attila's death the Huns fade from prominence as a foe of the Romans. Sources: We know about Attila through Priscus (5th century), a Roman diplomat and historian, and Jordanes, a sixth century Gothic historian and author of the Getica.
Attila
In which county is Saffron Walden?
Who was known as the The Scourge of God??????????? View the step-by-step solution to: Who was known as the The Scourge of God??????????? This question was answered on May 26, 2016. View the Answer Who was known as the The Scourge of God??????????? darrensola151 posted a question · May 26, 2016 at 10:14am Top Answer Attila the Hun who was the most... View the full answer {[ getNetScore(29755248) ]} brown776 answered the question · May 26, 2016 at 10:15am Other Answers Please see the attached... View the full answer {[ getNetScore(29755250) ]} Let me explain the... View the full answer {[ getNetScore(29755252) ]} Here is the solution... View the full answer {[ getNetScore(29755253) ]} The way to approach this... View the full answer {[ getNetScore(29755272) ]} By the time he died, the non-ChristianAttilahad become... View the full answer {[ getNetScore(29755293) ]} Please fell free to ask if you need more information. Thanks TopTutor_001 May 26, 2016 at 10:30am {[ getNetScore(29755563) ]} Who is also known as the founder of scientific socialism ? Recently Asked Questions 4 History experts found online! Average reply time is less than an hour Get Homework Help Why Join Course Hero? Course Hero has all the homework and study help you need to succeed! We’ve got course-specific notes, study guides, and practice tests along with expert tutors and customizable flashcards—available anywhere, anytime. - - Study Documents Find the best study resources around, tagged to your specific courses. Share your own to gain free Course Hero access or to earn money with our Marketplace. - Question & Answers Get one-on-one homework help from our expert tutors—available online 24/7. Ask your own questions or browse existing Q&A threads. Satisfaction guaranteed! - Flashcards Browse existing sets or create your own using our digital flashcard system. A simple yet effective studying tool to help you earn the grade that you want!
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For which king was the Palace at Versailles built?
Palace of Versailles: Facts & History Palace of Versailles: Facts & History By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | August 14, 2013 07:03pm ET MORE The Palace of Versailles, the seat of French royalty, is about 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Paris. Credit: Worakit Sirijinda | Shutterstock The Palace of Versailles is the central part of a complex that housed the French government, most notably its royalty, during the reigns of Louis XIV (France’s famed “Sun King”), Louis XV and Louis XVI. After the French Revolution in 1789, it ceased to be a permanent royal residence. Located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southwest of Paris, it is beside the settlement of Versailles. Before the construction of the palace by Louis XIV, this settlement was little more than a hamlet but by the time of the revolution it had a population of more than 60,000 people, making it one of the largest urban centers in France. Before the revolution, the Versailles complex included the palace, gardens, a walled-in royal hunting ground, a smaller palatial structure known as the Grand (or Marble) Trianon and an estate used by Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI’s queen. Between the palace and the town there are also buildings that housed the war and foreign affairs ministries, residences for those not entitled to live in the palace, stables and a kennel, among other structures. The palace was chock full of paintings and sculptures, ornately designed rooms (like the “Hall of Mirrors”) and even technological innovations — such as pressurized water fountains in its gardens that jetted water into the air — and an opera house with a mechanical device that allowed the orchestra pit to rise up to the stage, allowing it to be turned into a dance or banqueting hall. Overall, the palace was built to impress. “Versailles is a mirage, a sumptuous and theatrical entertainment. It is also a manifestation of glory and power imposed to a great extent by art, luxury, and magnificence,” writes Valérie Bajou, a modern-day curator at Versailles, in her book "Versailles" (Abrams, 2012). From hunting lodge to palace The first thing that attracted France’s kings to Versailles was its prolific game. Louis XIII, who lived 1601-1643, bought up land, built a chateau and went on hunting trips. At the time, much of the land around Versailles was uncultivated allowing wild animals to flourish. The chateau Louis XIII built was little more than a hunting lodge having enough space to house the king and a small entourage. It was the “Sun King,” Louis XIV (1638-1715), a ruler who chose the sun as his emblem and believed in centralized government with the king at its center, who would radically transform Versailles making it the seat of France’s government by the time of his death. He ruled France for 72 years and in that time transformed Versailles by encompassing Louis XIII’s chateau with a palace that contained north and south wings, as well as nearby buildings housing ministries. A series of gardens, created in a formal style, stood to the west of the palace (one of them today is in the shape of a star) and contained sculptures as well as the pressurized fountains capable of launching water high into the air. Versailles features many fountains that were technological marvels for their time. Credit: Joan Quevado Fle Shutterstock “From the outset Louis attached a supreme importance to these water effects. Their virtuosity formed the star turn of a tour of the gardens,” writes Tony Spawforth, a professor at Newcastle University, in his book "Versailles: A Biography of a Palace" (St. Martin’s Press, 2008). “The effects were the work of engineers whose machines made Versailles a hydraulic as much as an artistic wonder.” Unfortunately, Spawforth notes, problems supplying water meant that the fountains could only be turned on during special occasions. In addition a grand canal, constructed to the west of the garden and running about a mile long, was used for naval demonstrations and had gondolas, donated by the Republic of Venice, manned by gondoliers. As the French government moved into Versailles, and the king found himself swamped by work in his palace, he built himself the Grand (also called Marble) Trianon, a more modest palatial structure, about a mile (1.6 kilometers) to the northwest of the palace as a private retreat where only he and those invited could visit. Like the palace itself it had an abundant garden whose smells were said to overpower visitors “The tuberoses drive us away from Trianon every evening,” wrote Madame de Maintenon in a letter dated Aug. 8, 1689. “The excess of fragrance causes men and women to feel ill.” (Source: Versailles official website ) Scholars have suggested a number of factors that led Louis XIV to build a great palace complex at Versailles and move the French government there. It’s been noted that by keeping the king’s residence some distance from Paris, it offered him protection from any civil unrest going on in the city. It also forced the nobles to travel to Versailles and seek lodging in the palace, something that impeded their ability to build up regional power bases that could potentially challenge the king. Sparforth notes that the French Duke Saint-Simon (1675-1755) commented on how easy it was to see all the officials he needed because they were all located in one complex. Saint-Simon wrote that someone at Versailles “could see everyone he needed in the space of an hour,” something that would have taken much longer in Paris. Inside the palace Spawforth notes that the palace contained about 350 living units varying in size, from multi-room apartments to spaces about the size of an alcove. The size and location of the room a person got depended on their rank and standing with the king. While the crown prince (known as the dauphin) got a sprawling apartment on the ground floor, a servant may have nothing more than a space in an attic or a makeshift room behind a staircase.  The bedroom of Louis XIV, built on the upper floor and located centrally along the east-west axis of the palace, was the most important room and was the location of two important ceremonies where the king would wake up (lever) and go to sleep (coucher) surrounded by his courtiers. The king also had a ceremony for putting on and taking off his hunting boots. “The room where the king slept became the nucleus of the residence and, therefore, of the kingdom,” Bajou writes. The importance of the courtiers being at these ceremonies continued into the reigns of Louis XV and XVI. Spawforth notes that a courtier in 1784 wrote that “most of the people who come to the court are persuaded that, to make their way there, they must show themselves everywhere, be absent as little possible at the king’s lever, removal of the boots, and coucher, show themselves assiduously at the dinners of the royal family ... in short, must ceaselessly work at having themselves noticed.” Complementing these court ceremonies was the beauty of the palace itself, which emphasized the achievements and power of the king. The king’s bedroom and apartment area were located close to the Hall of Mirrors. Spawforth writes that the hall has 30 tableaux that tell an “epic narrative” of what “Louis (XIV) as King of France aspired to be.” Victory in battle features prominently in these narratives with one example showing Louis with his army crossing the Rhine River in 1672. “Hair streaming, dressed in Roman style and holding a thunderbolt like a projectile, Louis sits godlike on a silver chariot pushed by Hercules while riding roughshod over female personifications of nearby enemy towns.” The design of the hall added to the effect. “Viewing was to be helped by the famous wall of mirrors, which diffuses the daylight, except above the windows, where the detail is shadowy.” The Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles.
Louis XIV of France
Which fictional character tilted at windmills?
Versailles Palace Versailles Palace To prepare your Versailles Palace visit,  consult our information mentionned below. History of Versailles Palace Before visiting Versailles Palace discover why and how it was built : King Louis XIII After having purchased the seigniory of Versailles (the present day Vieux-Versailles district), Louis XIII became the owner of the neighboring hunting ground, a game preserve on a butte surrounding several windmills. He had a hunting lodge built there in 1624, and expanded it shortly thereafter. However, it was labeled a "castle of cards" by his contemporaries, due to its unpretentiousness. The king died young and Versailles was soon forgotten again. Louis XIV the Sun King It was not until the 1660's that the young Louis XIV began to grace Versailles with his presence, and to start building and holding parties there. The first building project, headed by the architect Louis Le Vau, led to the construction of the commons on the city side (the present day "old wing" and its former facing building, since replaced by the Gabriel wing) and to the start of André Le Nôtre's laying out of the gardens. After which, the famous "envelope" surrounding the old castle got underway, completely modifying the garden side part of the castle, to give it what was then a fashionable Italianate look. New buildings were built for the commons (the current ministers' wings), linking the prior ones to the palace and refurbishing them to suit the king's needs. But the most significant work started by the Sun King was undertaken in 1678, once he decided to make Versailles the seat of his government. Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the king's lead architect, then oversaw construction of the sparkling hall of mirrors, with the decoration headed by Charles Le Brun. With the building of the south and north wings, the palace, designed to house the princes and courtesans, took on its definitive appearance at that time, while the "outside" was rising from the earth: royal stables around the parade ground, Grand Commun for services "of the Mouth," sumptuous Orangerie ... The court moved in on May 6, 1682, before the work was finished. The present day palace chapel was not built and decorated until 1699 to 1710, and was used more by Louis XV and Louis XVI than by the one who commissioned it. The XVIII ° century : Louis XV, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette Subsequently, the work undertaken under Louis XV and headed by Jacques-Ange Gabriel focused mainly on interior decoration, and led to the creation not only of the refined decor of the private apartments, but also the Hercules Salon, particularly the admirable Opera. In that period, the king also had the Petit Trianon built, not far from the Grand Trianon, for the respite the Sun King required from the pomp of court life. Louis XV had the same desire, plus a passionate interest in the sciences, leading to a renowned botanical garden, later replaced by Marie-Antoinette's English garden. This queen, who was, herself, passionate over this enchanting domain, had a delightful theater built a little later and a Norman village set up, thenceforth referred to as the Queen's Hamlet (architect: Richard Mique). The kingdom's finances were in poor shape, and King Louis XVI himself limited the work to the palace, which underwent few changes during his reign. French Revolution The French Revolution might have significantly damaged the emblem of absolute monarchy Versailles had become. But the presence of a large staff, plus assignment of the palace to the department's Ecole Centrale, meant that the worst was avoided. The park was turned into farmland, the courtyards unpaved, the insignia of the monarchy felled, and the furnishings dispersed. Napoleon 1st and Louis XVIII Napoleon 1st, for his part, was only interested in the Trianons: He refurnished the larger one and made it his spring house after his split with Joséphine (1809). Its refined layout, only slightly changed later on, on the occasion of the stays of Louis-Philippe and his family, can still be visited. The Petit Trianon was dedicated by the emperor to his sister Pauline Borghesi. But it was later refurbished, thanks to the Empress Eugenia, who devoted part of her activities to clearing the name of the unfortunate Marie-Antoinette. To restore the symmetry of the palace's facade on the town side, broken with the addition of the Gabriel wing under Louis XV, the Dufour pavilion was added to the palace, uninhabited after the Revolution, once Louis XVIII took the throne. Museum of the History of France and modern History But it was Louis-Philippe, in particular, who set the palace on a new path by transforming it into the Museum of the History of France, opened in 1837 (architect: Frédéric Nepveu). Many of the Eighteenth Century interiors disappeared at the time, and in their place large numbers of paintings and sculptures were installed, illustrating the major periods of national history, from the Middle Ages to the most recent times. Some of these installations remain, such as the renowned gallery of battles, the halls of the crusades and the galleries of stone. The museum’s layout was momentarily disrupted at the end of the Nineteenth Century when Versailles once again became the seat of government, and the offices of the ministries and the Chambers occupied the palace. At this time the Salle du Congrès was built in the Midi wing, where presidential elections were held until 1953. This is where the National Assembly and the Senate continue to meet for changes to the French Constitution. In the contemporary period, the palace was also the theater of another major event : the signature, in the Hall of mirrors of the Versailles treaty which ended the First world war, on June 28th, 1919. Since these events, the palace has once again become a full-fledged museum, whose areas, including the gardens, have gradually been done over to receive the public, with some 4 million visitors per year. Tickets, rates and subscriptions: DAY PASS To explore Versailles in full detail, a practical option is to purchase a single ticket for admission to tours of the palace, the park and Marie-Antoinette's Estate, an audioguide (just for the Palace) in 11 languages and admission to the Grand Musical Fountain display on Saturday, Sunday and certain public holidays. - 18€ - 25€ on the days of the Grand Musical Fountain display or musical gardens in high season on week-end, public holidays and on tuesdays. (See the complete program on www.chateauversailles-spectacles.fr ) - Free to people under 26 (from the European Union), to anyone under 18, and to those in specific situations ( click here to see the list). Admission for the following tours (special closings excepted): ▪ King's Apparments , Hall of Mirrors, king 's room (the Queen's appartment are closed for renovation) ▪ Chapel and  Seventeenth Century Galleries ▪ Galleries of the History of France ▪ The Dauphin (The Prince)  and Dauphine's Suites (closed) ▪ Grand Trianon TICKET TO PALACE - €15 (Audioguide included in 10 languages) - Free to people under 26 (from the European Union), to anyone under 18, and to people in specific situations (Click here to see the list). Admission to the following tours (except specific closings): ▪ King's and Queen's Suite, Hall of Mirrors, king's room ▪ Chapel and Seventeenth Century Galleries ▪ Galleries of the History of France ▪ Dauphin (The Prince) and Dauphine's Suites ▪ Suites of My Ladies, the daughters of Louis XV, weekends. TICKET TO MARIE-ANTOINETTE'S ESTATE -10€. - Free (without audioguide and Grand Musical Fountain dislay): to people under 26 (from the European Union), to anyone under 18, and to people in specific situations (Click here to see the list). During High Season admission to the following tours (special closings excepted): ▪ Grand Trianon GARDENS (Where the fountains are) Free admission except on days of Grand Musical Fountain display (€9) and Musical Gardens (€8). PARC Free admission for pedestrians and bikers. €5/Car, 6€ on weekends and public holidays from march 1 to october 31. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION The season ticket « one year in Versailles » gives: - a free and limitless access to all the areas opened to the public (Palace, Grand and Petit Trianons, Marie-Antoinette's estate) -a free and limitless access to temporary exhibitions (including audioguide), to the musical Gardens and Grand Musical Fountain display. - a rate reduces on visits conferences / themes /  families visits - a cultural information exclusively reserved for the possessors of this card (previews, invitations, newsletters...) - possibility for close relations to buy tickets so as to reception case subscription- trade benefits to partners Rate:  50 € Palace: The palace is open daily, except Mondays, certain holidays and when there are official ceremonies. High Season from April 1st to October 31, from 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., no admission after: 6:00 p.m. Low Season from November 1st to March 31 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., no admission after 5:00 p.m. Marie-Antoinette's Estate: During high season: Marie-Antoinette's Estate is open from 12:00 noon to 6:30 p.m. (access to interior areas until 5:45 p.m.) from Tuesday to Sunday except for certain holidays or official ceremonies. During low season: Marie-Antoinette's Estate is open from 12:00 noon to 5:30 p.m. (no admission after 5:00 p.m.) from Tuesday to Sunday except for certain holidays or official ceremonies. The Garden (Petit Parc) and the Grand Parc: The gardens and the Grand Parc are open every day, except for inclement weather or official ceremonies. High season : 9:00 a.m to 8:30 p.m Low season : 9:00 a.m to 6:30 p.m Vehicular traffic authorized in certain areas (please inquire); 5€ entrance fee per car (6€ on weekends and public holidays) and 30€ per bus. Entrance from the boulevard de la Reine or the Saint-Antoine gate. The park is open to cars from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. in high season and from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in low season.   Practical information Attack Alert Following the terror attacks in Paris on Friday, November 13, 2015 and to ensure the safety of our visitors, the Palace of Versailles is strictly applying the security measures decided by the French authorities. The Palace is open.  It is strongly recommended not to bring suitcases and luggage to the museum. Only luggage not exceeding 55cmx35cmx20cm will be accepted. Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience and delay which may be caused by the extra security checks at the entrances. Best days to come: ■ Try to avoid long waiting lines: come on Wednesdays, Thursdays (except school holidays). On-site transportation ■ A little train provides shuttle service between the Palace and the Trianon: handy for going to Marie-Antoinette's Estate and to the Grand Trianon (surcharge on all tickets). ■ To get around independently, electric vehicles leaving from the south Terrace are available for hire. ■ Segways and electric bicycles can be hired in the Palace Park beside the Grand Canal. - Plain bicycles can be hired at the park entrance on the boulevard de la Reine side and beside the Grand Canal. - You can rent boats on the Grand Canal except in winter. Link to Leisure section (fun activities) Please note: ■ Baby pushchairs and metal frame baby carriers are not allowed in the rooms. Use a fabric baby carrier for children under one. ■ Animals are not allowed in the palace, but dogs on leashes are allowed in the parc. ■ In the rooms: turn off laptops; no flash photography. ■ No coat room but free checkroom for unauthorized objects (food, baggage, large umbrellas, tripods). ■ Picnicking in bad weather: tents are available near the North flower bed. Contact : FOR INDIVIDUALS: Lecture tours: By national museum lecturers (French or English). Options: private apartments of Louis XV and Louis XVI; Splendors of Versailles; private apartments of Marie-Antoinette… Daily guided tours : Sign up on the same day at the entrance of lecture visits. Various themes are not provided every day. Theme tours: For adults (from September to June). Various theme tours on Court life, furnishings, interior design, music, etc. are available on weekdays and week-ends. (Please inquire at the palace). For children: Activities led by national museum lecturers are held on Wednesday afternoons and during school holidays from October to April. (Please inquire at the palace). Information : +33(0)1 30 83 78 00 or on www.chateauversailles.fr FOR GROUPS: Guided tours by national museum lecturers, 25 people maximum. Tours for adults: upon request, admission to all sections of the palace open to the public (subject to availability of lecturers). Tours for young people: you may reserve a guided or studio tour year round. (Please inquire at the palace). Tours for disabled individuals: lecturers provide special tours for people with reduced mobility or visual, auditory or mental impairment. Self-guided group tours: King's and Queen's Suites (Hall of Mirrors, King's Chamber, Council Chamber). The right to speak out loud in the museum's halls, subject to mandatory advance reservation (see rates below), is governed by law. Only the following are authorized to do so: instructors to their students, professional lecturers and docents, and curators. Handling charge rates: Up to 10 people: 25€20 (without palace tickets and without lecture fee). From 11 to 30 people: 50€30 (without palace tickets and without lecture fee). School age and under 26: 25€ handling charge in high season and free in low season (without lecture fee). Additional fees for lateness: +50% on applicable fee. The Versailles Tourist Office offers lecturers approved by the Ministry of Culture. Information at +33(0)1 30 97 89 82</o:p> Tel: +33(0)1 30 83 75 05 Fax: +33(0)1 30 83 77 90 Email: [email protected]   Palace of Versailles spectacles Faithful to its history, Versailles invites performers to recreate the spirit of the Grand Siècle (Great Century) shows. Musical Fountains show - promenade in the heart of the groves and fountains with baroque music. From March 25th to October 30th, 2016, Saturdays, Sundays and some Tuesdays) Click here to see complete program. Musical Gardens - musical stroll in the garden groves (fountains are off) Tuesdays from March 29th to May 17th and July 5th to October 29th, 2016. Click here to see complete program. The Grandes Eaux Nocturnes and The royal serenades in the Hall of Mirrors, (every Saturday evenings from June 18th to September 17th 2016) To relive the flamboyant times of the reign of Louis XIV, visit the King's apartments to the sound of a serenade right before the Grandes Eaux Nocturnes. Come watch a Grand Siècle ball, with an ensemble of baroque musicians and dancing couples. Then take a magical stroll through the gardens with lights and music, closing with a fireworks display . Click here to see complete program. A remarkable series of classical concerts and operas is being offered in emblematic locations such as the Royal Chapel, the Gallery of Battles, the Hall of Mirrors, and at the Royal Opera during the year. Full Address Grille du Dragon-Pavillon des Roulettes 78000 Versailles   Tel: +33(0)1 30 83 78 89 Fax: +33(0)1 30 83 78 90 Group reservations: + 33(0)1 30 83 74 44
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What is the highest point on the Isle of Man?
Highest point of Isle of Man - Traveller Reviews - Snaefell - TripAdvisor “Highest point of Isle of Man” Reviewed 31 July 2016 It was a sunny day when I went up Snaefell on the mountain railway, so I expected clear views at the top. However, there seemed to be a light haze when I reached the top and I only managed to catch a glimpse of England. (I was supposed to see Wales, Scotland, and Ireland too but I didn't...) I met 2 travellers who said they went up Snaefell for the 2nd time because the view was even worse during their 1st time. (If you have a 1 day or 3 day Go Explorer card, you can go up unlimited times on the mountain railway.) The wind was strong when I was at the summit. Hide all loose items (esp caps) if you plan to go up. There was a cafe at the summit, which has a post-box to let you send postcards from the highest point of IOM. Beside the cafe and the supposedly great views from the summit, there was not much else to see, but then, I believe many people travelled up the hill because of the charming vintage cars of the Snaefell Mountain Railway., which are really a delight to ride. Visited May 2016 44 attraction reviews 264 helpful votes “Fun, vintage train ride, lovely views but if you can plan you trip for good weather” Reviewed 23 July 2016 The whole experience was wonderful. I organised my visit to coincide with the best day of my holiday and although it was dry and sunny, at the top of the mountain visibility was reasonable to good but not amazing, as although I could make out the coast line I definitely was unable to see all the 7 Kingdoms. Also at the top the temperature was a bit cooler than on the ground and it was also quite windy, so it felt a bit chilly, so dress appropriately. I took the Manx Electric Railway from Douglas to Laxey and then changed onto the mountain railway. The mountain railway is timed to leave Laxey at regular intervals throughout the day. I timed my journey to get the 1st train to the summit but by the time I arrived at Laxey there was a queue to get on the 1st train and I had to wait 30 minutes until the next train left. The 2nd train was also full. Travelling in the vintage carriages was a lovely experience and the journey to the summit took about 30 minutes. There were 2 quite steep steps to get on/ off the carriage, people were good natured and patient with those who needed a bit of extra time to get on/ off but the carriages would unfortunately not be suitable for some people with mobility problems. I sat on the right hand side travelling up and got a great view of the Laxey Wheel. However as it neared the summit the best views were had from the left hand side. Midway there is a train stop known as the Bungalow which stops by the TT Course for those who would like to walk part way. There is recorded commentary on both the upward and downward journeys which points out several places of interest and the history of the area. At the summit the train stops next to the café (food looked good although I didn't eat there) and there are also public toilets. There a path so it is clear where you can walk. I spent about 30 minutes on the summit and that gave me time to walk round and take a few photos. Personally I felt I had enough time at the top. I didn't notice any outdoor seating for people who just wanted to sit and take in the views. The carriage travelling back was not as full. I sat on the opposite side coming down so I could enjoy the view. I travelled to Snaefell on my Go Explore card. The card cost me £39 for 5 days and included travel on buses, railways and trams and all Manx National Heritage attractions and was remarkably good value. “Great views” Reviewed 12 July 2016 The train from Laxey is icon and full of character. The best views are on the right as you go up for the first part of the journey, but on the left nearer the summit., so if doing the return journey try to change sides at the top. A large café near the top which seemed to be well stocked. There is a crashed spitfire near the summit, but I could not see anything that gives any explanation; which seemed a pity. On a previous occasion we walked back to Laxey, passed the old mine workings and along a good track on the left of the valley, with views of the Snaefell train on the right of the valley - very interesting and scenic walk. You can combine Snaefell with a visit to the Laxey wheel and with a trip on the Manx Electric Railway, which runs between Douglas and Ramsey: both really worth doing. Visited July 2016
Snaefell
Born 384 BCE, which philosopher was a tutor to Alexander the Great?
Snaefell Summit Snaefell Summit Off with yon cloud, old Snafell ! that thine eye Over three Realms may take its widest range Wordsworth 1833 Snaefell is the highest mountain on the Island, its nominal height is generally given as 2034 ft above sea level - the name derives from the Norse for Snow Mountain. The Isle of Man lies close to the geographic centre of the British Isles and thus the top of its highest mountain can (weather permitting) offer some unrivalled views. The comment made by Earl James in letters to his son When I go on the mount you call Baroull, and, but turning me round, can see England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, I think shame so fruitlessly to see so many kingdoms at once (which no place, I think, in any nation, that we know, under heaven can afford such a prospect), and to have so little profit by them. has subsequently been more usually applied to the higher Snaefell (South Barrule is considerably more convenient to Castletown and was a 'watch and ward' lookout). It is the answer to the often posed question as to where can one see seven kingdoms at the same time ? The seven Kingdoms being the four mentioned by Earl James, the Kingdom of Man, of Earth (in some answers that of Neptune) and of Heaven. Wordsworth was obviously familiar with the unpredictable weather by which Snaefell can suddenly be enveloped in mist out of a clear blue sky! He also quotes Cowley's setting on this mountain of a visionary debate with an angel on the subject of Cromwell's governance - presumably being set here because it was at the centre of Cromwell's territorial ambitions. Height Probably the first to determine the height of the mountain was Bishop Wilson who in his notebook records Barometer at every 2 ft. (ascending) , falls 10th of an inch, and at 164 2/10ths. July 10th, 1702, at Bishop's Court, 29 4/10ths. On the mountain above the house, it fell 1 inch 1/10th. On Snaefield, 2 in., acc. tis therefore 564 yards." [I'm not sure I fully understand Bishop Wilson's calculation (or possibly Keble's transcription ]. As his biographer, Keble, notes this process was then comparatively new, having been made known first by Halley, the Bishop's contemporary. Fannin in his map of 1789 quotes a height of 580 yards (1740 ft) above the sea level - this he probably arrived at by personal observation. Berger in his geological map of 1814 gives a height of 2000 ft (which was copied by Smythe in his 1826 and thus further copied by many others) - it is possible that this value was that determined by the original triangulation of the Ordnance Survey which used Snaefell. Cary in 1816 quotes 2004 ft, though on what authority I have not yet determined, which value found its way into several guidebooks. In 1838 the retriangulation of Great Britain by the Ordnance Survey took place and although they used South Barrule they would have redetermined the heights of the major mountains. In 1861 Stanford uses a value of 2024 ft which was then replaced by the 2034 determined by the Ordnance survey of 1868. Pilgrimages to the top of Snaefell obviously have a long history judging from the Lonan presentments quoted by Moore . Tourism Possibly the first luxorious 'picnic' on top was that organised by Mr Dixon of the British Hotel, Douglas , to celebrate the end of the Napoleonic Wars - another such visit was described by John Welch in 1836 - Leech's 1861 guide gives a good account of pre-railway visiting.   The opening of the Snaefell Mountain railway in 1896 made it one of the standard tourist resorts. The castellated building shown on this card replaced a plain wooden building in 1906 - it burnt down in 1982 and was replaced by a much plainer building. All food etc. for the public house had to be taken up by trailer cars on the railway. The rustic seat was visible on an earlier view and may have been part of a job lot as the Laxey terminus had several huts in this style. Naturally at the summit the tourist could buy special cards - this is the one for the 1907 season "Sold exclusively by the guide on the summit..." The postbox for the cards can be seen to the right of the viewing platform - the fee for which was 2d to use the telescopes. The postbox would be emptied just prior to the last tram and its contents passed onto the Post Office in Douglas. The viewing platform was a later addition - this card shows a group of tourists on a typically windy summit.  
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Whose preserved head can be seen in a large glass case at University College London?
Auto-Icon Auto-Icon Tweets by @TranscriBentham Auto-Icon At the end of the South Cloisters of the main building of UCL stands a wooden cabinet, which has been a source of curiosity and perplexity to visitors. The cabinet contains Bentham's preserved skeleton, dressed in his own clothes, and surmounted by a wax head. Bentham requested that his body be preserved in this way in his will made shortly before his death on 6 June 1832. The cabinet was moved to UCL in 1850. Not surprisingly, this peculiar relic has given rise to numerous legends and anecdotes. One of the most commonly recounted is that the Auto-Icon regularly attends meetings of the College Council, and that it is solemnly wheeled into the Council Room to take its place among the present-day members. Its presence, it is claimed, is always recorded in the minutes with the words Jeremy Bentham - present but not voting. Another version of the story asserts that the Auto-Icon does vote, but only on occasions when the votes of the other Council members are equally split. In these cases the Auto-Icon invariably votes for the motion. Stories of the Auto-Icon's regular attendance at Council meetings are, however, myths. Bentham had originally intended that his head should be part of the Auto-Icon, and for ten years before his death (so runs another story) carried around in his pocket the glass eyes which were to adorn it. Unfortunately when the time came to preserve it for posterity, the process of desiccation, as practiced by New Zealand Maoris, went disastrously wrong, robbing the head of most of its facial expression, and leaving it decidedly unattractive. The wax head was therefore substituted, and for some years the real head, with its glass eyes, reposed on the floor of the Auto-Icon, between Bentham's legs. In 1948 the head was placed inside a specially constructed wooden box to give it more protection. The box was too large to fit inside the Auto-Icon and so it was displayed on top of the case containing the Auto-Icon until 1956, when it was put on a plinth over the door to the Cloisters leading to the eastern staircase. (UCL Archive: Bentham Box File 3). Extract from Bentham's Will My body I give to my dear friend Doctor Southwood Smith to be disposed of in a manner hereinafter mentioned, and I direct ... he will take my body under his charge and take the requisite and appropriate measures for the disposal and preservation of the several parts of my bodily frame in the manner expressed in the paper annexed to this my will and at the top of which I have written Auto Icon. The skeleton he will cause to be put together in such a manner as that the whole figure may be seated in a chair usually occupied by me when living, in the attitude in which I am sitting when engaged in thought in the course of time employed in writing. I direct that the body thus prepared shall be transferred to my executor. He will cause the skeleton to be clad in one of the suits of black occasionally worn by me. The body so clothed, together with the chair and the staff in the my later years bourne by me, he will take charge of and for containing the whole apparatus he will cause to be prepared an appropriate box or case and will cause to be engraved in conspicuous characters on a plate to be affixed thereon and also on the labels on the glass cases in which the preparations of the soft parts of my body shall be contained ... my name at length with the letters ob: followed by the day of my decease. If it should so happen that my personal friends and other disciples should be disposed to meet together on some day or days of the year for the purpose of commemorating the founder of the greatest happiness system of morals and legislation my executor will from time to time cause to be conveyed to the room in which they meet the said box or case with the contents therein to be stationed in such part of the room as to the assembled company shall seem meet. Queens Square Place, Westminster, Wednesday 30th May, 1832. The original will of Jeremy Bentham is available from the National Archives . However, the head proved an irresistible target for students, especially from King's College London, who stole the head in 1975 and demanded a ransom of £100 to be paid to the charity Shelter. UCL finally agreed to pay a ransom of £10 and the head was returned. On another occasion, according to legend, the head, again stolen by students, was eventually found in a luggage locker at a Scottish Station (possibly Aberdeen). The last straw (so runs yet another story) came when it was discovered in the front quadrangle being used for football practice, and the head was henceforth placed in secure storage. After the incident of 1975, a memo (3 Nov 1975) instructed that the head be put in the Strong Room of the Records Department. In 2005 it was relocated to the Conservation Safe in the Institute of Archaeology. It was decided that as 'human remains', it was inappropriate to put the head on public display, and since then permission to view has been granted only in exceptional circumstances by the curator of the College Collections. Many people have speculated as to exactly why Bentham chose to have his body preserved in this way, with explanations ranging from a practical joke at the expense of posterity to a sense of overweening self-importance. Perhaps the Auto-Icon may be more plausibly regarded as an attempt to question religious sensibilities about life and death. Yet whatever Bentham's true motives, the Auto-Icon will always be a source of fascination and debate, and will serve as a perpetual reminder of the man whose ideals inspired the institution in which it stands.  Jeremy Bentham welcomes visitors. Find out how to  visit the Auto-Icon  or view our 360-degree rotatable ' Virtual Auto-Icon ' from your computer. For more information on the Auto-Icon, including its history, travels and preservation, visit the UCL Museums website . Further reading
Jeremy Bentham
In which Australian state did a gold rush begin in July 1851?
London's oddest museum exhibits | CNN Travel Horniman Museum and Gardens , 100 London Road; +44 208 699 1872 3. Jeremy Bentham’s skeleton Bentham was a child prodigy who grew up to become a giant of British political philosophy and social reform at the turn of the 19th century. He demanded in his will that his body be dissected and preserved as an “ auto-icon .” And so it was -- although he was given a waxy new head after his real one was rendered terrifying by the preservation process. In 1850 the relic was acquired by University College London, the South Cloister of which he imperiously gazes upon to this day. Come for Jeremy Bentham, stay for … the jar of moles (see 8, below). South Cloister, UCL, Gower Street; +44 207 679 0664 4. Ram’s head snuff 'mull' -- on wheels Not content with making a snuff dispenser out of the head of a large ram, someone in 19th century Scotland thought it would be a good idea to put the whole affair on wheels. Presumably if your eyes weren’t watering enough when this satanic sight coasted across the room after dinner, they soon would be after you’d snorted up a good dose of its contents. Skull-shaped vessels ... more assorted oddities from the Wellcome Collection.The object is part of a vast collection of medical oddities that form the wonderful Wellcome Collection, most of which is sadly off-limits until spring 2014, when it re-opens after a grand expansion program. Come for the ram’s head, stay for … the vicious Chinese torture chair. More at home in a snuff movie, perhaps. Wellcome Collection , 183 Euston Road; +44 207 611 2222. Check website for details of reopening. 5. Digestive and respiratory systems of a sea cucumber You read that right. This unsurprisingly stringy offering is just one of the incredible array of unusual animal and human body parts on display at the intriguing Hunterian Museum within London’s Royal College of Surgeons. Each container of pickled organs is more confronting than the next (there are jars of pickled jaws, too). Behold, the nasal passage of a minke whale, the anus and urethra of a hyena and a wince-inducing display of syphilis-ravaged human penises. Come for the cucumber, stay for … the labyrinthine internal organs of a “hellbender” salamander. Hunterian Museum , 35-43 Lincoln's Inn Fields; +44 207 869 6560 6. Churchill’s chamber pot During World War II, Britain carved out a subterranean command center where military leaders and politicians could safely mastermind operations as bombs pounded the streets above. These dank corridors and chambers filled with Bakelite telephones and bulky filing cabinets hosted the country’s wartime leader, Winston Churchill, overnight on three occasions. Next stop after Churchill's chamber pot: the Map Room.Lurking beneath a surprisingly tiny bed is Churchill’s chamber pot, provided in the absence of flushing toilets. Given the then prime minister’s predilection for hosting morning meetings while still under the blankets, it must be hoped that someone was employed to empty it promptly. Come for the chamber pot, stay for … The Map Room -- once the buzzing heart of the bunker. Churchill War Rooms , Clive Steps, King Charles Street; +44 207 930 6961 7. The ‘Elephant Man’s’ skeleton Another skeleton, but this time with a more woeful story than Jeremy Bentham's above. The unfortunate life of Joseph Merrick, a Victorian man whose severe deformities led him to be known as the Elephant Man, has been well documented, not least in the Oscar-winning David Lynch film of 1980. His story remains fascinating, partly for the continuing scientific disagreement on what caused his condition, but also as a disquieting window on attitudes to disfigurement. READ: 15 of the world's weirdest hotels For that last reason, the Royal London Hospital maintains a museum display about the man who became one of its most celebrated patients. The centerpiece is an exact replica of Merrick’s skeleton created by Gentle Giant, a special effects company that has worked on movies such as Hunger Games and Iron Man. The exhibit also features the hat and shroud Merrick was obliged to don in public to avoid shocking those around him. Come for the skeleton, stay for … the alarming medical tools: hemorrhoid clamps, anyone? Royal London Hospital Museum , St. Philip's Church, Newark Street; +44 207 377 7608 8. Jar of moles The UCL’s Grant Museum of Zoology is home to possibly the oddest thing on display in London. There isn’t much you can say about a glass jar inexplicably rammed with 18 dark-furred and pink-footed moles other than it is truly a thing of bad dreams. Or terrible delicatessens. The jar has, however, earned cult status via a well-followed Twitter account on which it appears to rail against government spending cuts and the insidiousness of stuffed fish.  Come for the moles, stay for … the massive anaconda skeleton. Gripping stuff. Grant Museum of Zoology , Rockefeller Building, University College London, 21 University St.;  +44203 108 2052
i don't know
Erect-Crested, Little Blue (or Fairy), Humboldt and Chinstrap are species of what?
Different Species - Penguins Penguins Comments Different Species There are many different types of penguins. Each and everyone of them are unique. If you try to count all the species, there would probably be 17 in all. Some people think that there are more than 17 because some penguins have different names. Like, the "Blue penguin" is also known as the "Little pengiun," "Little Blue penguin" and the "Fairy penguin."  These are all the different species: African penguins                                                                                                                              Adelie penguins Little (Blue, Fairy or Little Blue) penguins Macaroni penguins Yellow-eyed penguins Where do you find penguins? Penguins can be found in many different parts/habitats of the world. From the freezing cold Antartica, to the warm, sandy beaches of Australia. From the rough, rocky coasts of South America to the coasts of New Zealand. Penguins live in more habitats than any other animal in the world. Here are 15 different species that live around the world.... PENGUINS LIVING IN ANTARTICA AND SUB-ANTARTIC ISLANDS Emperor Penguins Emperor penguins are the largest penguins with a height of 45 inches (115 centimeters). Some Emperor penguins can grow to 1.1 meters or 3 feet 7 tall! Once, an Emperor penguin grew up to 4 feet! However, emperor penguins are the only penguins that breed in the winter. They make their homes on thick ice in Antartica using their dense feathers, blubber and slow movements to keep them warm. Emperor penguins usually dive to about 165 feet (50 meters), but if they want, can dive up to 820 feet (250 meters). They can stay underwater to about 18 minutes without needing to come to the surface for air. Adelie Penguins Adelie Penguins usually have a height of 27.5 inches (70 centimeters). They nest in big, noisy colonies. The females usually lays two eggs, so that each parent can incubate (sit on) it. The egg that is first hatched, gets all the food first-the second hatched must wait until it's older sibling moves off the nest, for its food. The parents leave the nesting grounds after the chicks grow up. While they are away, they hunt for food in the freezing ocean and they molt (old feathers fall off, new feathers grow back) on a glacier (ice floes) during the whole winter. Gentoo Penguins Gentoo peguins can swim up to 27 miles (45 kilometers) an hour, then they shoot up above the water to get a breath of air. Gentoo penguins are usually 29-31 inches (75-81 cetimeters) tall. They weigh about 13 pounds. Gentoo penguins have wide white strips over their head, so they are easy to identify. For their nests, they pile stones, grass and sticks creating a circular shape. During the autumn Gentoo penguins molt, waiting for the gelid winter to come... King Penguins SWOOSH! A king penguin slides on its belly across a thin piece of ice. This is what they call "tobogganing" because it is silimlar to a person with a toboggan. Since penguins have short legs, it's easier for them to slide than to walk. King penguins are the second-largest penguins in the world. Their size usually is 36 inches (91 centimeters). Sometimes, for food, they must dive 165 feet (50 meters) before any food may show up. They must dive deeper in the winter. King penguins feed their chicks lots of food to prepare for the winter. The funny thing is, the chicks grow into big, fluffy, brown balls! Some of the chicks are so big, that they make their parents look small. Macaroni Penguins How do you think Macaroni Penguins got their name? Well, there were these English explorers who found out about the macaroni penguin, and because of the vivid, orange head crests on their head, the explorers thought that it looked like the hats that fashionable men wear in England who were known as "Macaronis". So, they kept on calling the penguin, Macaroni," and the name stuck.  The Macaroni penguins have a height of 28 inches (71 centimeters). Did you know that, some colonies have more than 1 million penguins so the smell and noise is stronger. Sometimes, you can smell them from 5 miles (8 kilometers)! Chinstrap Penguins Chinstrap penguins are very numerous. It is esimated that there are 12 to 13 million located on the barren islands. They have a height of 26-30 inches (68-77 centimeters). Chinstrap penguins got their names because of the little, black line of feathers in their face. In the summer, they breed and live in large colonies near the Gentoo and Adelie penguins. Chinstrap penguins have nests of pebbles. Females lay 2 eggs at a time. The eggs hatch after about 15 to 33 days. The chicks must stay in the nest until they are 20 to 30 days old. PENGUINS LIVING IN SOUTH AMERICA Galapagos Penguins Galapagos penguins are the smallest penguins of the "warm weather" penguins. It's height is only 19-21 inches (48-53 centimeters)! That is very small for a penguin. Instead of living in big colonies like all the other penguins, they live in small groups with their mate in pairs of 2 or 3. They stay in the same place for summer and winter. There is a lot of food, so a female may be able to lay 3 clutches of eggs! The population had gone down once because there wasn't enough sardines and mullet, so being able to lay 3 clutches of eggs is helping the population rise. Galapagos penguins build their nests on hardened lava, also known as magma. Humboldt Penguins Humboldt penguins got their names from the European explorer, Humboldt, who first found them. They usually are 17 inches (60 centimeters). They weigh 6.5-11 pounds (3 to 5 kilograms). Humbolt penguins live in small groups off the coasts of Peru and Chile. They make their nests out of large, hardened piles of guano. Guano is bird droppings. Sadly, some people collected guano and found out that it was very good fertilizer. So now, Humboldt penguins can't use guano anymore; there's not enough. Instead, they use caves so the hungry gulls and skuas cannot eat the chicks. The male will pick out a good place for a nest; he will court (try and get attention to) a female, then start bowing and bobbing his head to see if she would like him. If she does, then the pair will mate for life. Sometimes, the parents has to travel up to 45 miles (75 kilometers) just to find food for their chicks. If the chicks grow quickly, they'll be on their own after 3 months. Magellanic Penguins Magellanic pengiuns were named after Ferdinand Magellan; he was the first one to find magellanic pengiuns in 1519. Magellanic pengiuns make many different sounds like braying, bleating and cackling. It's really easy to hear a colony of megellanic penguins. The breeding colony at Punta Tomba has more than 1 million megellanic penguins! They nest on grassy slopes and in open woodland. They return to their breeding grounds at around September which is the beginning of South America's spring. They have black, scattered spots on their chest, a long line of feathers shaped like a backwards shoe horn, on the belly and a wide, gray strip at the neck. Their height is 17 inches (60 centimeters). Rockhopper Penguins Rockhopper penguins have the same "yellow crest" as the macaroni pengiuns. I think rockhopper penguins were named "rockhopper" because they have an unsual talent of jumping. They usually hop to their nesting areas with both feet together. When they put both feet together, they are able to jump 4-5 feet! However, it is easier for a rockhopper penguin to hop, than to waddle and slide, because of the jagged, wide rocks in their habitat. When a group of rockhopper penguins reach an extra steep rock, they secure their beak in the rock and dig a hole into the rock with their toes to keep themself from falling. Rockhopper penguins build their nests at the top of cliffs. The deep caves helps the chicks to be safe from the gulls and skuas. The most colorful penguins in Falkland Islands and islands near the coast of South America are rockhopper penguins with their bright red eyes, orange beaks, and small, colorful feathers at the top of the head. Baby rockhopper penguins are born in November spending 3 weeks in cozy nests before joining a little group of other young penguins. They grow their feathers in March, so by that time, it's almost time for South America's winter. Little/Blue/Fairy/Little Blue Penguin The little penguin is the smallest penguin in the world. That is why some people call them "fairy" penguins because faries are very small. They are 15-17 inches (40-45 centimeters). When a male wants to mate, he raises up his head and flippers upward then starts to sing a song. It's not really a song; it is a loud braying sound. If a female penguin likes him, they build a nest together. Little penguins make their nests underground. Sometimes, little penguins may build their nests under a building, between the ties of railway tracks, or even in a stack a lumber. The female lays eggs, later on.  For food, the little pengiun eat fishes, octopuses, squids and tiny crustaceans (lobsters, crabs, shrimps etc. are custaceans). Little penguins can dive to about 226 feet (69 meters)! PENGUINS LIVING IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND Yellow-eyed Penguins Yellow-eyed penguins have yellow feathers all around their faces. They are 21 inches (65 centimeters).   Yellow-eyed penguins eat cod, siversides, opal fish and arrow squid. They dive for food in groups of 2-3, including other penguins. Breeding season is in August. The males show off by flashing the yellow stripes on their heads while bowing to the females. Once a couple gets together, they raise their chicks peacefully. Living away from other penguins is what yellow-eyed penguins like to do. They like living in forests and grassy slopes near the ocean. Most of them live in New Zealand, Aukland, Campbell, Stewert and South Islands. Fiordland Penguins Fiordland Penguins have a long crest of bright yellow feathers starting from the bill and coming back behind their eyes. They are also known as the "Fiordland crested penguins" and the "Thick-billed penguins". Fiordland penguins are shy and timid creatures that live on the west and southwest of New Zealand, also including two offshore islands of Stewart and Solander.  The nesting areas are difficult to see because of thick vegetation. Fiordland penguins make their nest in the soft ground. The estimation of the total population was fewer than 1,000 breeding pairs. When the female penguin gets a egg, the egg is kept warm for thirty to thirty-six days with the two parents taking care of it in turns of long five to twelve day shifts. The female brings food while the egg hatches and the male stays with the chick for two to three weeks. The chicks get their adult feathers and go to sea in about seventy-five days.    Erect-crested Penguins  Erect-crested penguins have long, straight yellow feathers at the side of their head. They can move them up and down, unlike other crested penguins. They have a height of 25-27 inches (63-68 centimeters).  Erect-crested penguins eat fish and squid.   Nests are made out of stones and mud. The female lays 2 eggs, but usually only 1 hatches. A good nesting site is hard to find, so penguins have to fight for one. Before molting, erect-crested penguins must eat a lot because they are not allowed to eat while molting. PENGUINS LIVING IN AFRICA African Penguins African penguins sound like donkeys when they speak. Sometimes, african penguins can be called "Jackass penguins."Jackass" is another word for a donkey. But, when the parents are ready to feed the chick, it croons softly. In water, african penguins communicate differently. African pengiuns are the only penguins that live close to Africa. African penguins eat sardines, anchovies and squid. They stay in the cool water for most of the day to avoid the sun's hot rays.  For nests, african penguins scratch a small nest under a rock of bush. But the bad thing is, unfortunately, bushes aren't very safe from skuas and gulls, so about every year, at least one african penguin is eaten. Create a free website
Penguin
In which town was a public supply of electricity first made available in the UK?
Erect-crested Penguin -  Penguin Erect-crested Penguin Pammie's Penguins Blog Erect-crested Penguin (Eudyptes sclateri)    Erect-crested penguins are hard to find which makes many things about this species unknown. They can grow between 25.5 to 27 inches tall and weigh around 6.5 to 11 pounds. They have a special yellow strip that starts from the beak all the way to the back of their head disappearing in the feathers. Their beak is orange and is long and slim and their eyes are brown. These fascinating creatures are endangered.     Erect-Crested Penguins spend their winter in the sub Antarctic waters but come to breed on the shores of the Antipodes, Bounty, Auckland and Campbell Islands off the south coast of New Zealand. Their main diet consists of fish and krill. Create a free website
i don't know
Who was the first to put steam engines in ships and build the first practical submarine?
Submarine History 1580-1869: The first submarines (Return to top) 1623 Dutchman CORNELIUS DREBBEL , hired in 1603 as "court inventor" for James I of England, built what seems to have been the first working submarine. According to accounts, some of which may have been written by people who actually saw the submarine, it was a decked-over rowboat, propelled by twelve oarsmen, which made a submerged journey down the Thames River at a depth of about fifteen feet. There are no credible illustrations of Drebbel's boat, and no credible explanations of how it worked. Best guess: the boat was designed to have almost-neutral buoyancy, floating just awash, with a downward-sloping foredeck to act as a sort of diving plane. The boat would be driven under the surface by forward momentum . . . just as are most modern submarines. When the rowers stopped rowing, the boat would slowly rise. Reports that Drebbel's patron, James I, witnessed a demonstration, may be true. Reports that James I took an underwater ride are most unlikely. 1634 French priest MARIN MERSENNE theorized that a submarine should be made of copper, cylindrical in shape to better withstand pressure and with pointed ends both for streamlining and to permit reversing course without having to turn around. Pressure? For every foot of depth, water pressure increases about half a pound per square inch (PSI). 1654 The 72-foot-long "Rotterdam Boat," designed by a Frenchman (named DE SON) was probably the first underwater vessel specifically built (by the council of the Southern Netherlands) to attack an enemy (the English Navy). This almost submarine � a semi-submerged ram � was supposed to sneak up unobserved and punch a hole in an enemy ship. The designer boasted that it could cross the English Channel and back in a day, and sink a hundred ships along the way. [Correction entered: the client was not "Belgium" as noted in the original posting. Thanks to Björn Verheijden, 2010] The "Rotterdam Boat." Propulsion: a spring-driven clock-work device to turn a central paddle wheel. The device was so underpowered that, when the boat was launched, it went � literally � nowhere. (Return to top) 1680 There is no evidence that Italian GIOVANNI BORELLI ever built a submarine, but this illustration continues to appear in books and magazines � in several variations � as if were a real boat, sometimes erroneously linked with Drebbel's or Symons's (below, 1729) efforts. Borelli did understand the basic principle of volume vs weight (displacement), but he illustrated a totally impractical ballast system by which weight would be increased or diminished by allowing a bank of goat-skin bags to fill with water, then by squeezing the water out to rise again. (Return to top) 1696 DENIS PAPIN, a professor of mathematics built two submarines. He used an air pump to balance internal pressure with external water pressure, thus controlling buoyancy through the in-and-out flow of water into the hull. Propulsion: sails on the surface, oars underwater. Papin featured "certain holes" through which the operator might "touch enemy vessels and ruin them in sundry ways." Papin tested his first boat, (left) but his patron lost interest and the second boat (above) was never finished. Illustrations of this submarine look like a steam kettle. Papin was also the inventor of the pressure cooker. An engraver might have confused the two, or this may have been a joke � or Papin's attempt at secrecy.   1729 English house-carpenter NATHANIEL SYMONS created a one-man expanding/contracting sinking boat � no locomotion � as a sort of public entertainment. Sealed up inside, in front of a crowd of spectators, he cranked the two parts of his telescopic hull together, spent forty-five minutes underwater, then expanded the hull, rose to the surface, and passed the hat. One man gave him a coin.   1773 Wagon-maker J. DAY, another Englishman, built a small submarine with detachable ballast stones, hung around the outside with ring bolts, which could be released from inside. This worked quite well in shallow water. Encouraged by a professional gambler, he built a bigger boat: they would take bets on how long he could remain underwater, further out in the deep-water harbor. Surrounded by ships filled with bettors, they hung some stones; the boat wallowed awash, but would not go under. They hung some more stones. The boat sank � like a rock � and would have collapsed long before the ballast could be released.     1776 Yale graduate DAVID BUSHNELL (�75) built the first submarine to actually make an attack on an enemy warship. Dubbed the "Turtle" because it resembled a sea-turtle floating vertically in the water, it was operated by Sergeant Ezra Lee. The scheme: be towed into the vicinity of the target; open a foot-operated valve to let in enough water to sink, close the valve; move in under the enemy by cranking the two propellers � one for forward and one for vertical movement � turned by foot treadle "like a spinning wheel;" drill into the hull to attach a 150-pound keg of gunpowder with a clockwork detonator; crank to get away; operate a foot-pump to get the water out of the hull and thus re-surface. In early-morning darkness on September 7, 1776, "Turtle" made an attack on a British ship in New York harbor, probably HMS Eagle. The drill may have hit an iron strap � it would not penetrate the hull. (Contrary to most reports, the Eagle of 1776 had not been fitted with a copper-sheathed bottom.) Lee became disoriented, soon bobbed to the surface and was spotted by a lookout. He managed to get away.   "Turtle," as drawn in 1875 from the best information the artist could gather. There are several important errors. It shows ballast tanks when there were none; it shows an Archimedes screw (helical) for locomotion instead of the propeller like the "arms of a wind mill" or a "pair of oars"described by Bushnell and others. It also shows -- but this we may forgive -- the operator wearing a rather foppish late 19th-century outfit.     1797 ROBERT FULTON, a marginal American artist but increasingly successful inventor living in Paris, offered to build a submarine to be used against France's British enemy: "a Mechanical Nautlius. A Machine which flatters me with much hope of being Able to Annihilate their Navy." He would build and operate the machine at his own expense, and would expect payment for each British ship destroyed. He predicted that, "Should some vessels of war be destroyed by means so novel, so hidden and so incalculable the confidence of the seamen will vanish and the fleet rendered useless from the moment of the first terror."   1800 After protracted delays and several changes in government, Fulton was encouraged enough to build the submarine he called "Nautilus." He made a number of successful dives, to depths of 25 feet and for times as long as six hours (ventilation provided by a tube to the surface). "Nautilus" was essentially an elongated "Turtle" with a larger propellor and mast and sail for use on the surface. In trials, "Nautilus" achieved a maximum sustained underwater speed of four knots. Fulton (given the rank of rear admiral) made several attempts to attack English ships � which saw him coming and moved out of the way. Relationships with the French government deteriorated; a new Minister of Marine is reported to have said, "Go, sir. Your invention is fine for the Algerians or corsairs, but be advised that France has not yet abandoned the Ocean." Fulton broke up "Nautilus" and sold it for scrap (after which it may have sat on the beach for a number of years). He proposed � but, most reports to the contrary, never built � an improved version. The name "Nautilus" was immortalized by Jules Verne in his 1870 novel, "20,000 Leagues under the Sea" and was given to several U. S. Navy boats � including the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, the 1954 USS Nautilus.   This most commonly-reproduced "Nautilus" was drawn two years before the submarine was built; Fulton added a deck and made a number of un-documented changes in the finished product. Illustrations which show "Nautilus" with the hull-form and sail rig of a surface sailboat represent the never-buil "improved" version.   Fulton also attached the name "torpedo" to that maritime weapon we now call a mine. Fulton's torpedoes were meant to be towed into position, either by a submerged boat or a surface rowboat. When the French passed on the submarine, he offered so sell torpedoes to the English; he demonstrated their utility by sinking an anchored ship with a torpedo towed into place by a rowboat. In 1867, English engineer Robert Whitehead developed a self-propelled mine, which he called the "automobile torpedo" -- the true ancestor of the modern submarine-launched torpedo.     1812-1815 There were at least two submersibles reported during the War of 1812, to one of which a British admiral attached the by then-generic name "Turtle." There is no truth to the assertion that Bushnell "returned to the charge" in the War of 1812; by that time, Bushnell, whose family had not heard from him for more than 25 years, was in his 70s and living under an assumed name in Georgia. The first boat, which may have operated just awash, was attributed to "an ingenious gentleman named Berrian," as reported in the New York Evening Post, headed out to do battle in June. 1814. On June 26, it was grounded on the Eastern end of Long Island. The Sag Harbor militia tried to defend it, but were overwhelmed with four men killed or wounded. The boat was destroyed by the British sloop of war Sylph and frigate Maidstone.   [Added 2010. Information provided by --- and our thanks go to --- Geoffrey K. Fleming, Director of the Southold (NY) Historical Society]   One artist's concept (1908) of the 1814 "torpedo boat"   The other boat, clearly a submarine, is preserved in the notebooks of Samuel Colt, a design attributed to SILAS CLOWDEN HALSEY: "lost in New London harbor in an effort to blow up a British 74." Of this, nothing else is known.   . The drawing shows the operator with one hand on a tiller, the other on a crank to turn the propeller and drill bit. A technical "Turtle" clone: there is a "water cock" and a "force pump" at the bottom of the boat and an "air tube to shove up when at the surface of the water." A "torpedo" is attached by a line to the drill.     1815 Englishman THOMAS JOHNSTONE may � or may not � have participated in Fulton's efforts on behalf of the French and may � or may not � have been hired to build a 100-foot-long submarine to be used in a planned rescue of Napoleon Bonaparte from exile on the island of Elba. Whatever the facts of the case � Napoleon died before the (possible) submarine was finished.   1832 Frenchman BRUTUS DE VILLEROI demonstrated what he called le bateau poisson ("fish boat"), a submarine 10 feet 6 inches long, just over two feet diameter, with a crew of three . . . maybe; that would be a bit tight. Propulsion: three pair of duck-paddles. Over several years, he demonstrated (and tried to sell) his submarine to the Dutch and the French, without success. He moved to Philadelphia in the late 1850s (listed in the 1860 Federal Census, occupation, "natural genius." (See below, 1859 ).   Drawing made by two Dutch officials, who examined Villeroi's "fish boat," 1832   1850 The German port of Kiel was under blockade by the Danish Navy, and Prussian army corporal WILHELM BAUER persuaded a shipbuilder to construct his design for a blockade-breaking submarine which he called "Brandtaucher," (Incendiary Diver). The boat was made of riveted sheet iron, about the size and shape of a small sperm whale; propulsion, by a two-man-power treadmill which drove a propeller. A third crewmember steered. Buoyancy was controlled by ballast tanks, and trim was adjusted by moving a sliding weight along an iron rod. On its first appearance, Brandtaucher was sufficiently threatening to cause the blockading force to move further out to sea. On a subsequent submerged run, the sliding weight slid too far forward and the boat plunged to the bottom, getting stuck in the mud at 60 feet. Water pressure was too great to allow Bauer and his two companions to open the hatch, and, with water seeping in through the damaged hull, they had to wait until incoming water had raised the internal pressure to match that outside. After an unimaginable six hours � in the claustrophobic darkness -- they opened the hatch and were swept aloft in a bubble of escaping air.   "Brandtaucher" was recovered in 1887 and is now on display in Dresden.     1852 Indiana shoemaker LODNER D. PHILLIPS built at least two submarines. The first collapsed at a depth of twenty feet. The second achieved hand-cranked underwater speeds of four knots and depths to 100 feet; Phillips offered to sell it to the U. S. Navy. The response: "No authority is known to this Bureau to purchase a submarine boat . . . the boats used by the Navy go on not under the water." During the Civil War, Phillips again offered his services to the U. S. Navy, again, without success.   Phillips was granted an 1852 patent for a "Steering Submarine Propller." The innovation: steering, as well as up-and-down movement, was controlled by a hand-cranked propeller on a swivel joint. In 1856, he patented his "Submarine Exploring-Armor"--- an armored diving suit (left). In 1915, a submarine (with long-dead operator) was discovered, sunk, in the Chicago River, The newspapers dubbed in the "Fool Killer." It may have been a Phillips boat. The photo below (right) from the Chicago Daily News shows the boat being raised from the river.   (Return to top) 1855 WILHELM BAUER built the 52-foot "Diable Marin" or "Seeteufel" (Sea Devil) for Russia; this submarine made as many as 134 dives, the most spectacular of which was in celebration of the coronation of Tsar Alexander II. The boat took sixteen men underwater, four of whom made up a brass band whose underwater rendition of the national anthem clearly could be heard by observers on the surface.   1859 French designer BRUTUS DE VILLEROI built a 33-foot-long treasure-hunting submarine for a Philadelphia financier. The target: the 1780 wreck of the British warship De Braak, lost near the mouth of the Delaware River. The method: divers, operating out of an airlock. The boat made at least one three-hour dive to twenty feet; no other details known. (However, Villeroi was not finished with the submarine-business. See below, 1861-1862. CIVIL WAR CLICK HERE 1861 Early in the Civil War, the Confederate Government authorized citizens to operate armed warships as "privateers." A New Orleans consortium headed by cotton broker HORACE L. HUNLEY was approved for the operation of "Pioneer," a 20-foot long three-man submarine (one to steer, two to crank the propeller) designed and built by JAMES MCCLINTOCK . In a March 1862 demonstration on Lake Pontchartrain, a submerged "Pioneer" sank a barge with a towed floating torpedo. In April, 1862, the U. S. Navy captured New Orleans, and "Pioneer" was scuttled by its builders. Soon discovered, the boat eventually was sold for scrap in 1868.   Plan---most certainly for "Pioneer" [www.navsource.org, 2010]   The Confederate submarine Pioneer, pulled from "the bottom of New Basin, New Orleans," drawn by Ensign David M. Stauffer of the Mississippi Squadron, 1865 [www.navsource.org, 2010]   A Civil War-era submarine -- which was long thought to be "Pioneer," but is not -- was discovered and raised in 1878 and is on display at the Louisiana State Museum. True origin? A mystery.   1861-1862 VILLEROI obtained a contract from the U. S. Navy for a larger submarine: the 46-foot-long "Alligator." Propulsion: originally sixteen oarsmen with hinged, self-feathering oars; improved, a three-foot diameter hand-cranked propeller. Weapon: an explosive charge to be set against an enemy hull by a diver. "Alligator" was placed in service on June 13, 1862 � the first submarine in the U. S. Navy, all reports to the contrary notwithstanding. Towed South from Philadelphia for operations in the James River, the boat proved to be too large to hide and support divers in the relatively shallow water. It foundered and sank in a storm, 1863, while being towed to a potential operating area off South Carolina.   Intercepted Confederate mail included this drawing---forwarded to the Federal War Department---of a submarine to be used off the coast of Texas. No other details available . . . [2010]     1863 Hunley's New Orleans consortium shifted operations to Mobile, Alabama, and built a second, slightly-improved submarine which may have been called "American Diver." McClintock spent some time and money trying to replace hand-cranking with some sort of electrical motor, but without success. This submarine sank in rough weather in Mobile Bay; the crew was rescued.   Sketch made by McClintock in 1872, which may represent the features of "American Diver."   1863 Hunley's consortium built a third, larger, submarine -- about 40 feet long. Crew: possibly nine, eight to crank the propeller and at least one to steer and operate the sea cocks and hand-pumps to control water level in the ballast tanks.   These drawings were made, sometime after the Civil War, from information provided by W. A. Alexander -- one of the original (and suriving) builders. The cross-section (above) clearly shows the tight working space inside.   This submarine was sent to Charleston, to try to break the Federal blockade. Almost immediately, it, too, sank -- possibly twice, swamped by the wake of a passing steamer, with the loss of some crewmembers. Confederate Commanding General P. G. T. Beauregard became disenchanted but Horace Hunley persuaded him to allow "one more try" under his -- Hunley's -- personal supervision. The boat sank again, killing Hunley and the crew. It was found, and raised -- and two members of the original team who had not been aboard harassed Beauregard often enough that , after "many refusals and much discussion," he agreed to allow one more attempt -- but not as a submarine. The boat -- now named CSS H. L. Hunley in honor of her spiritual father -- was to be armed with a spar torpedo and operate awash, as a David.   CSS H. L. HUNLEY, recovered after a fatal accident and awaiting a "go-no go" decision by Charleston-area commanding General P. G. T. Beauregard, CSA.     1863 A group of Northern speculators formed the American Submarine Company, to take advantage of a vote in the U. S. Congress to approve the use of privateers. However, when President Abraham Lincoln declined to accept the authority, construction of this consortium's submarine � the "Intelligent Whale" � languished. The boat was not completed until 1866, long after the end of the war. The then-ostensible owner, O. S. HALSTEAD, made several efforts over several years to sell it to the government; the U. S. Navy held formal acceptance trials in 1872. The "Intelligent Whale" failed. Halstead was murdered, probably by the jealous ex-lover of his mistress. "Intelligent Whale" is now an exhibit at the Militia Museum in New Jersey. It should not be regarded as a serious contender in the 19th Century submarine sweepstakes. 1863 A French team of CHARLES BURN and SIMON BOURGEOIS launched "Le Plongeur" (The Diver) � 140 feet long, 20 feet wide, displacing 400 tons. Power: engines run by 180 psi compressed air stored in tanks throughout the boat. Method of operation: fill ballast tanks just enough to achieve neutral buoyancy, then make adjustments with cylinders that could be run in and out of the hull to vary the volume � Bourne's concept. The boat was too unstable; the movement of a crew member could send her into radical gyrations. Le Plongeur ( CLICK to view enlarged, printable pdf file). Added 2010.   1864 On February 17, after months of training and operational delays, the spar-torpedo-armed CSS H. L. Hunley attacked USS Housatonic � which became the first warship ever sunk by a submarine. However, Hunley disappeared with all hands, not to be found until 1995, about 1000 yards from the scene of action. Best speculation on the fate of Hunley: with hatches open for desperately-needed ventilation, the boat was swamped by the wake of a steamer rushing to the aid of Housatonic. Hunley was recovered in the summer of 2000, and is now in the process of conservation and study.   1864 WILHELM BAUER proposed that submarines be powered by a visionary � but not yet practical � internal combustion engine. Overall, he was to spend twenty-five years developing (or at least, proposing) submarines on behalf of six nations � Germany, Austria, England, the United States, Russia, France. His plebeian origin and autocratic style � not to mention his lowly army rank � were a serious handicap in dealing with the aristocratic brethren who ran most of the navies of the day. Essentially ignored by his native Germany in his lifetime, Bauer became a posthumous hero in the Nazi era.     1869 The U. S. Navy began manufacturing, under license, the WHITEHEAD torpedo, for use by surface ships and, especially, a new class: the torpedo boat. This spawned development of another new class, the torpedo boat destroyer. Some navies flirted with yet another class, the destroyer of torpedo boat destroyers. Whatever: surface launched torpedoes had marginal military effectiveness, and found their true home underwater.  
Robert Fulton
Who is the Wizard of Wishaw?
ALHN - America's Age of Steam - Timeline, 1800-1899 [ In the beginning... ] [ 1600-1699 ] [ 1700-1799 ] [1800-1899] [ 1900-1999 ] 1800: Oliver Evans, an American, creates the earliest successful non-condensing high pressure stationary steam-engine. 1801: British engineer William Symington develops a practical steamboat for towing barges on the Forth and Clyde Canal in Scotland. 1801: Englishman Robert Trevithick demonstrates a steam locomotive. 1803: The Louisiana Purchase allows American flatboats, &c. to operate freely on the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. 1804: Oliver Evans builds his first steam-powered boat, weight: 4,000 lbs. 1804: Englishman Matthew Murray invents a steam locomotive which runs on timber rails. Is this the first railroad locomotive? 1804: Englishman Richard Trevithick builds 40 psi steam locomotive for the Welsh Penydarran Railroad (after he sees Murray’s locomotive). 1805: Fulton Steam Works begins manufacturing steam carriages. 1807: Robert Fulton’s steamboat Clermont was launched and made a run from New York to Albany, a distance of 150 miles. 1811: The first steamboat to descend the Mississippi River was the New Orleans. By the 1830s, steam ruled the Mississippi. 1812: The first commercially successful steam locomotives, using a rack and pinion drive, commenced operation on the English Middleton Railway. This was the world’s first regular revenue-earning use of steam traction. 1804: The worlds first steam-powered rock-boring machine was built by Harvey's of Hayle, Cornwall, England. 1813: Congress authorizes steam boats to carry mail. 1814: The first American steam-powered warship, "Demologos," was launched in New York Harbor; designed and built by Robert Fulton, the ship was officially christened "Fulton the First." 1814: In England, a steam-powered rotary press prints The Times. 1817: Fulton Motor Works patents a process for vulcanizing rubber. It is primarily used in pneumatic tires for steam carriages. 1820: The first American steamboat to cross the Atlantic (from Savannah, George, to Liverpool, England) makes the crossing in 25 days, all but 7 on steam power. 1823: First steamboat on the upper Mississippi River. 1826: First steamboat on Lake Michigan. 1826: John H. Stevens completes a circular track in Hoboken, New Jersey. He exhibits the first steam locomotive to run on rails in the U.S. (In 1815, he had received a charter from the State of New Jersey to build the first American rail). 1829: In England, Stephenson’s “Rocket” wins a competition for locomotive power at the Rainhill Trials on the Manchester-Liverpool Railway. Capable of 30 mph with 30 passengers. 1829: In England, Goldsworthy Gurney made the first long distance journey in a steam-powered vechile from Bath to London at an average speed of 15 miles per hour. 1829: George Braithwaite built first fire engine using steam to pump water. 1830: The first locomotive in the U.S. to carry passengers, the "Tom Thumb," carried 26 passengers 13 miles over the tracks of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad; the trip lasted 1 hour and 15 minutes. 1830: The “Best Friend” is built at the West Point Foundry at Cold Spring, New York, for the Charleston-Hamburg Railroad, South Carolina. It was the first completely American-built steam engine to go into scheduled passenger service. It did excellent work until 1831 when the boiler exploded due to human error. 1832: First arrival of a steamboat at Chicago. 1832: Officials in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and Troy, New York, begin building improved roadways for steam carriage use. 1831: The 3½ ton “De Witt Clinton” hauls 5 stage coach bodies on railroad wheels at 25 mph on the Mohawk-Hudson Railroad between Albany and Schenectady. This small engine was retired less than two years after going into service. 1831: English locomotive “John Bull” was shipped to the United States in unassembled form. It was erected by mechanic Isaac Dripps for the Camden & Amboy Railroad in New Jersey. 1835: First arrival of a steamboat at Milwaukee. 1835: The famed "Teagle" belt-driven, counterweighted, steam-driven lift was developed in England by Frost and Stutt. 1837: Great Western, the first ocean-going steamship, is launched. 1838: The steamship Sirius is the first ship to cross the Atlantic on steam power alone, taking 18 days and very nearly running out of coal before reaching New York. 1840: Henry R. Worthington invented an independent, direct-acting steam pump. 1841: Paul Hodge builds the first steam-powered fire engine in America. He is scorned by the volunteer firefighters of New York. 1843: Great Britain, the first large, iron, screw-propelled steamship, is launched. 1843: Joseph Dart of Buffalo, New York, invents the world's first steam transfer and storage elevator. 1845: British engineer William M'Naught developed the first compound steam engine. 1849: A patent was issued for the first percussion rock drill. The drill was driven by steam power. 1851: Forced-draft boilers come into use in high-performance steam engines. 1852: Elisha Otis invented the "Improvement in Hoisting Apparatus" - a safety-elevator powered by steam. 1853: Alexander Bonner Latta invented the first practical fire engine, a "steam" engine. Built and tested in Cincinnati, Ohio, it's chief feature was a boiler made of two square chambers: the inner one (a fire box) and the outer one (a space for water and steam). Cincinnati became the first American city to replace volunteers with the horse-drawn steam fire engine and to form a paid fire department. 1854: John Elder developed the compound steam engine. This new engine allowed the use of an additional cylinder. Greater fuel economies were achived with this new engine. 1855: Joshua C. Stoddard patents the steam calliope. 1857: Benjamin Isherwood, patents the steam turbine engine. 1857: St. Louis forms the second fully paid steam fire department in America. 1857: The first elevator for public use was a steam-driven type installed by Otis Brothers in the five-story department store on Broadway for E.W Haughtwhat & Company. 1862: Otis Brothers developed a new "Patent Hoisting Engine" having two vertical steam-fed cylinders situated below a crankshaft upon which was keyed a pulley. A belt from this sheave drove the winding drum located on the same bedplate. 1869: Alexander Carnagie Kirk redesigned John Elder’ compound steam engine into a triple expansion engine. The engine was fitted to Robert Napier & Sons’ ship, the Aberdeen. 1870: The nine-story Equitable Life Assurance Society Building, tallest in New York City, became the first to have passenger elevators specifically designed by the architect for office building use. Otis Tufts' two steam elevators cost a bit less than $30,000. Almost 2,500 people used the elevators the first day! 1879: Anglican Reverend George W. Garrett tested the steam-powered subarine, "Resurgam" steam for a boiler for surface operations, steam stored in pressurized tanks for submerged operations. [See the World Submarine History Timeline* ] 1881: Werner von Siemens connected a steam engine to a dynamo. 1881: Thomas Edison displayed a 300 hp steam-driven dynamo at the Paris Exhibition. 1882: A 1,000 hp direct-connected steam-driven dynamo was installed by Siemens in the West Berlin Power Station. 1885: "Nordenfeldt I" – a 64-foot-long steam-powered submarine – was launched. [See the World Submarine History Timeline* ] 1887: The U.S. Navy an open competition for a submarine torpedo boat, with a $2 million incentive. The specifications were based onpresumed Nordenfeldt-level capabilities and presumed a steam-powerplant of 1000 horsepower. [See the World Submarine History Timeline* ] 1889: At the Paris Universal Exhibition, the Gustave Eiffel Tower contained five steam-driven hydraulic elevators -- two by Roux-Combaluzier, two inclined Otis elevators and one Edoux with one car balancing another. 1892: Rudolph Diesel patented the “diesel” engine in 1892; by 1897, he had a fully working engine. 1895: On March 3, the John P. Holland Torpedo Boat Company was awarded $200,000 to build an 85-foot, 15 knot, steam-powered submarine to be called "Plunger."
i don't know
What was Charles Dickens final completed novel?
The Story of Dickens's Last Complete Novel — a review of Sean Grass's “Charles Dickens's 'Our Mutual Friend': A Publishing History” (2014) [ Victorian Web Home —> Authors —> Charles Dickens —> Our Mutual Friend —> Book reviews ] Henry James , then just a young writer out to make a name for himself, did not like Charles Dickens's last complete novel; as he reported in his 21 December 1865 review for The Nation, he found it too loose, baggy, disorganized, sentimental, and (as Elizabeth Gaskell would say) "Dickensey." It was, he contended, lacking in subtlety of characterization, and relied too heavily on whimsical caricature and superficial analysis of motivation. In short, it was everything that James felt a Dickens tended to be, but what a novel should not be; it is, he unhesitatingly pronounced, "the poorest of Mr. Dickens's works" (786, cited in Grass, 1). (This comment also encapsulates the somewhat negative sentiments of early reviews in The Saturday and Westminster Reviews, and summarizes the feeling of the reviewer for The New York Times.) Alfred Lammle's self-serving evil, he contends, is as simplistic as Jenny Wren's crusty goodness is unreal. He did not like Our Mutual Friend, and subsequent generations of critics and scholars, says Sean Grass, have (mistakenly) received James's judgment as holy writ. "This is an enormous shame, for Our Mutual Friend is certainly one of Dickens's most profoundly thoughtful and deliberately artistic books" (2), contends Grass in his engaging narrative about the chequered history of one of the most significant novels in the Dickens canon. Cover of Charles Dickens's "Our Mutual Friend": A Publishing History. [Click on image to enlarge it.] Although this review focuses on the introduction and chapter 4, the story of the inception and reception of the novel is worth reading cover to cover, including such appendixed materials on Dickens's separation from his wife of over twenty years, Catherine (from the Times, 7 June 1858, and his involvement in the Staplehurst railway accident in 1865. It all amounts to a surprisingly good read, the rebuttal of Henry James's thoroughly biased review to numerous contemporary pronouncements on Dickens's last complete novel. Herein is the great good of DICKENS as a popular writer. It is objected by the fastidious that he excels in depicting the vulgar side and scenes of life; that there is a gross relish of the comfortable and convivial in his pictures; that he exalts mere disposition above heroism, and makes good-nature a sublime virtue. In these very objections we find the evidence of his superior claims and his benign mission. ["Literary: Charles Dickens' Last Novel," New York Times, 14 December 1865, pp. 4-5, cited in Grass, 246] The values of the age as reflected in such contemporary reviews exalt a Dickens that became less than fashionable by the end of the century, but recall for us today his incredibly broadly based appeal as a writer of fiction in the early and mid-Victorian periods. This present review cannot do justice to the complex thread of Grass's argument, and so focusses on just a few of the chapters. Here, then, are the constituents of this interesting "reception" work, mandatory reading for anybody who intends to teach Our Mutual Friend: Introduction: Our Mutual Friend: "The poorest of Mr. Dickens's works" 1 The Man from Somewhere: Ellen Ternan, Staplehurst, and the Remaking of Charles Dickens 2 The Cup and the Lip: Writing Our Mutual Friend 3 Putting a Price upon a Man's Mind: Our Mutual Friend in the Marketplace 4 A Dismal Swamp? Our Mutual Friend and Victorian Critics 5 The Voice of Society: Our Mutual Friend since 1870 Appendix 1: Dickens, Ellen Ternan, and Staplehurst Appendix 2: The Manuscript, the Proof Sheets, and the Berg Copy Appendix 3: Contemporary Reviews of Our Mutual Friend Appendix 4: Selected Bibliography of Editions of Our Mutual Friend. Should we take Chapman and Hall's losing money on the nineteen-month venture as confirmation that, that, in the judgment of the reading public, too, this was "Mr. Dickens's weakest performance to date"? The author of this new book on the critical and popular reception of the much-maligned Our Mutual Friend in order to counter this misperception has actually examined the balance sheet for Chapman and Hall's bargain with Dickens, as well as contemporary responses other than James's. In fact, given its overall positive reception, Our Mutual Friend is not a 'lesser novel requiring resurrection' because it has never died. As we can see in the 83-page appendix containing forty-one early reviews of the novel, it was received at the time as a worthy addition to the Dickens canon, and evidence that the master had not lost his touch, even though his last outing in the extended part-publication form had been Little Dorrit, published in nineteenth months between 1856 and 1857 — in other words, some eight years before the last number of Our Mutual Friend appeared in November, 1865. A hard bargainer in his later career, Dickens wrung from Chapman and Hall some £6,000 for half-copyright, eventually leaving the firm with a net loss £700 (to which its extensive advertising campaign and overprinting of the opening numbers likely contributed). But that loss is the beginning rather than the end of the story: "By not haggling over the price, Frederic Chapman kept Dickens happy and so secured his continued cooperation for any new works, the People's edition, and nearly £10,000 of back stock, as well as for the immensely profitable Charles Dickens edition of his works that they brought out beginning in 1867" (75). Chapman and hall lost a little to ensure profits in the long term. During the second half of his thirty-five-year career as a novelist (that is, from The Pickwick Papers of April, 1836, through November, 1837, to the September 1870 number of the unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood) Dickens wrote voluminously, but in fact he made more money (thanks, in part, to shrewdly working his American copyrights) and wrote far fewer novels after the mid-point of that career. That is, in addition to the Christmas Book novellas and countless journalistic pieces in Household Words and All the Year Round , only six of his fifteen novels post-date the year 1853. And far from being "loose" (that is, poorly structured), these later works are highly unified and disciplined, rendered cohesive by unifying imagery and themes. And yet, unlike A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations dating from this same period, Our Mutual Friend languishes, perhaps, as Grass concedes, because its "central marriage plot [is] far too saccharine and unconvincing" (2): Yet if Dickens disappoints us occasionally in his last finished novel, he rewards us richly, too, and in ways that often carry Our Mutual Friend far beyond the achievements of his earlier books. He may never have drawn a character more psychologically credible than Eugene Wrayburn, more menacing than Bradley Headstone, or more compelling than Lizzie Hexam, each of whom is drawn with a subtlety that Dickens rarely approaches in his earlier fiction, and that his detractors often claimed he was simply incapable of. Likewise, his attack on "Podsnappery" and other upper-class hypocrisies cuts as deeply and cunningly as anything in Little Dorrit (1855-57), just as his portrayal of the dehumanizing power of capitalism broadens and deepens the critique he began in Great Expectations. And, if the Bella/John marriage plot fails finally to move us, we nevertheless hurtle through the novel's closing chapters, propelled by Headstone's mounting rage, his savage attack on Eugene, and the grinding torments he undergoes at the hands of the novel's other consummate villain, Rogue Riderhood. [3] Grass points out that the number of years between the last number of Little Dorrit (June 1857) and the first (May 1864) number of Our Mutual Friend may explain the amount of thought that Dickens put into the planning of this last complete novel — Dickens's meticulous plotting, manipulation of language, and deeply embedded patterns of imagery to produce a narrative as tight as his shorter efforts in those intervening years, A Tale of Two Cities (1859, in All the Year Round and Great Expectations (1 December 1860-3 August 1861, also in All the Year Round). Those shorter novels Dickens wrote chiefly to preserve the economic viability of his new weekly journal; in contrast, he wrote Our Mutual Friend to demonstrate his continuing mastery of the novel form, to prove to himself as much as to his public that he could still combine commercial and critical success. And, despite James's carping and an apparent financial loss sustained by Chapman and Hall on the publication of the novel, Grass makes the point that Dickens actually "made more money from Our Mutual Friend than he had ever made from a novel in his life" (84), even though England's mid-sixties recession made it difficult for any publisher of any novelist to make money. But did Dickens's publishers really lose money in their compact with Dickens? After all, had Dickens simply published Our Mutual Friend under the standard terms of his old contracts with Bradbury and Evans, asking for no money up front but granting the house a ¼ share plus 12.5 per cent commission, Chapman and Hall would have made £2,500 and Dickens would still have gotten more than £7,000. It would have been, in other words, a runaway success, particularly compared against other novels published during these same years. . . . [84] Grass makes this point abundantly clear by comparing Our Mutual Friend's runs and profits to those of Dickens best-seller of the 1850s, Bleak House. He notes that, although sales slumped a little after the early numbers, which opened strongly with 38,00 and an additional run of 2,500, this was often the way with Dickens's monthly serials, and by September 1853 total sales of monthly parts amounted to 700,000, yielding Dickens a profit of £10,000. For his next novel, a similar falling off after the initial number occurred, so that the last double number of Little Dorrit amounted to just 29,250 copies after total sales of 43,000 for No. 1. But the novel's sales in total still amounted to 650,000 parts, earning Dickens about £11,500. However, the economic climate of the 1860s was very different from that of the roaring 1850s, in part owing to the cotton shortages resulting from the American Civil War. This was compounded in Britain shortly after by the liquidity crisis of 1866-67 which reached its zenith on 12 May 1866 when the bank lending rate soared to 10 per cent. At the time the United States accounted for one-third of British book exports, and during 1861-64 these plummeted in value from more than £150,000 annually to scarcely £50,000. In January 1863 Sampson Low, who represented Harper & Co. in England, wrote to Wills [Dickens's subeditor] to alert him that Harper, in its financial distress, could not renew its agreement to pay £250 per annum for advance sheets of All the Year Round. [86] Soon after Confederate commander General Robert E. Lee had surrendered his sabre at Appomattox Court House, the American market began a quick rebound, but that, of course, was after the conclusion of the serial run of Our Mutual Friend. The new illustrated periodicals such as Cornhilland Once a Week had suffered dramatic reversals, so that All the Year Round's retaining its circulation of 100,000 is really an achievement for Dickens and his staff, especially when one considers that the Extra Christmas numbers hit the quarter-million mark consistently in those years, although Grass merely mentions "larger totals." Meanwhile, popular writers such as Anthony Trollope , Wilkie Collins , and George Eliot continued to demand huge sums for new fiction, putting the squeeze on such firms as Smith, Elder and Chapman and Hall. Although they were in no danger of failing, several other publishers did go bankrupt at that time. Ironically, this financial squeeze may explain, argues Grass, for Chapman and Hall's paying so much for Our Mutual Friend in 1863: "trapped in a down market, they were, like other houses, looking around them for sure bet" (88). So, did Chapman and Hall miscalculate, especially since, as Robert L. Patten contends, part-publication of novels in monthly shilling numbers by 1864 had "pretty well run [its] course" since this method did not lend itself to subsequent publication of a book as a triple-decker, the three-volume format favoured by the new lending libraries. (Dickens, perhaps to meet the demands of this corporate buyer, issued the novel in two volumes, the first appearing half-way through the serial run.) Dickens's competitors in a tight market included Ellen Wood, Thomas Trollope, George Augustus Sala, Percy Fitzgerald, Amelia Edwards, W. M. Thackeray , Wilkie Collins — and Dickens himself. And herein lies the sagacity of Chapman and Hall in compacting with Dickens at this time, for by doing so they were able to make considerable profits on new volumes in the Cheap and Library Editions: From April 1847 to September 1852, Chapman and Hall reissued an old novel roughly every six months, and it may be more than coincidence that the single new novel in parts that Dickens produced during these years, David Copperfield, was one of the worst sellers of his career. For almost the next twenty years, Chapman and Hall sold between 200,000 and 350,000 of these parts annually, providing Dickens with a steady income of around £175 per year. [90] Just as Our Mutual Friend was entering its fourteenth monthly number, in June 1865, Chapman and Hall issued yet another inexpensive format, the People's Edition, beginning with the ever-popular Pickwick, at just two shillings per volume — that is, for the same price as just two monthly parts of Our Mutual Friend. Profits on sales of 135,000 volumes by the end of 1865 yielded Chapman and Hall profits of £1,358, and during the serial run of the loss leader the publishers "sold some 800,000 weekly and monthly parts, and 170,000 bound volumes, earning gross receipts of more than £15,000" (91). In other words, Chapman and Hall may have lost money on the novel, but the residuals of their agreement with Dickens more than offset those losses, particularly from the sales of cheaper versions of Pickwick, which had remained Dickens's most popular novel for thirty-five years: "during 1867-70 Chapman and Hall had to print it four times for a total of 76,000 copies" (95). Against that popularity we may compare the sales of Our Mutual Friend: 380,000 monthly parts and 2,700 two-volume editions, generating £2,700 in revenue. Furthermore, in its afterlife the novel sold well, in the 18-volume Charles Dickens edition, beginning in 1867, with half-a-million volumes sold by the time of Dickens's in 1870, thanks in part to sales of Pickwick, amounting to 76,000 volumes. Just as Grass in the first three chapters employs the statistics of Dickens's contract with Chapman and Hall and their sales of Dickens's latest and previous novels to demolish the argument that Our Mutual Friend was not a commercial success, so Grass analyses a substantial body of criticism, from the period in which the novel was published and since, to demonstrate that reviewers responded to the new book in a manner much more positive than James's. Grass's narrative of the publishing history, compelling in its evidence, omits only the reception of Marcus Stone 's illustrations, which gave the novel a sixties look — although he discusses the evolution of the monthly wrapper in some depth. Everybody recognized that Dickens had changed illustrators, but no one could determine whether the change was for the better or not, as contemporary reviews tantalizingly reveal considerable ambivalence. The role played by the Marcus Stone wood-engravings (not the old steel-engraved illustrations of Phiz ) in the sales of monthly parts remains to be considered. Whereas both David Copperfield and Great Expectations "enjoyed nearly universal critical acclaim" (101), Our Mutual Friend was not without significant detractors in print. Grass describes the late 1970s "critical revitalization" (147), the book's new-found popularity with poststructuralist critics, and the proliferation of paperback versions in the mid-70s, a part of its "renaissance since roughly 1970" (7) after a long period of neglect. The resurgence of this novel was a twentieth-century phenomenon: for example, although by 1920 Dickens's works had been adapted for film at least seventy times, only one of these — "Eugene Wrayburn" (1911) — was based on Our Mutual Friend. In this regard, its popularity on the small screen has been an established fact since 1970. The Novel's Reputation, 1865 to the Present In Chapter 4, "A Dismal Swamp? Our Mutual Friend and Victorian Critics," Grass begins with John Forster's equivocal review in the Examiner for 28 October 1865, in which Forster acknowledges the book's unity of design, "fancy" (Dickens's term for imaginative power), its telling descriptions, and well-wrought characters, but then concludes that Our Mutual Friend "will never rank with his higher efforts . . . [because] it wants freshness and natural development" (p. 681, cited in Grass, 97). Since, however, a modern reader would encounter the Examiner review only in critical editions (it appears, for example, in its entirety between pages 175 and 178 in this book), his remarks in The Life of Charles Dickens, issued by Chapman and Hall not long after Dickens's death, touched far more readers, and were much more significant in shaping the attitudes of posterity. According to Forster in his chapter on the novel (a passage not fully quoted by Grass), It has not the creative power which crowded his earlier page, and transformed into popular realities the shadows of his fancy; but the observation and humour he excelled in are not wanting to it, nor had there been, in his first completed work, more eloquent or generous pleading for the poor and neglected, than this last completed work contains. Betty Higden finishes what Oliver Twist began. [vol. 2, p. 211] This is a book for which Forster had tremendous respect — but he could not love it. While the bulk of Dickens's work, even the vastly popular Pickwick , Dickens's funniest book, remains in the past, even as it was often a reminiscence of an earlier era already irretrievably of the past at the time of writing, Our Mutual Friend is a post-industrial novel a hundred and fifty years ahead if its time, providing a cogent analysis of the personal and social consequences of capitalism as it was in the mid-sixties of the nineteenth century and as it continues to evolve at the multi-national level today, compelling us to sacrifice environment and even climate for economic viability. As industrialism runs its course and capitalism matures and evolves, Dickens will become — has become — more and more relevant. And if this so, it may be that Our Mutual Friend, in all the nightmarish glory of its indictment of Veneering and Podsnap, of public welfare that terrifies rather than raises up, of an economic system that depends upon and exults the detritus of the human lives wrecked upon its shores, may yet supplant Bleak House and Great Expectations as the "best" book, the most important book, most read book that Dickens ever wrote. Of how many literary works, even among the most enduring, can we say with confidence that they resonate more strongly 150 years later than they did in their own day? [Grass, 157] Related Material Editions of Dickens's Works and Our Mutual Friend (from ch 5 of the book under review) References Forster, John. The Life of Charles Dickens. Volume the Second: 1847-1870. The Charles Dickens Edition. 2 vols. London: Chapman and Hall, originally in 3 vols., 1872-4; rpt. 1895. Grass, Sean. Charles Dickens’s Our Mutual Friend: A Publishing History. Burlington, VT, and Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2014. xiv+ Pp. 274. Cloth. Il. ISBN 978-0-7546-6930-2. Schlicke, Paul, ed. Oxford Reader's Companion to Dickens. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. Waugh, Arthur. A Hundred Years of Publishing, Being the Story of Chapman & Hall, Ltd. London: Chapman and Hall, 1930.
Our Mutual Friend
What was Thomas Hardy s last completed novel?
Digital Dickens Notes Project – exploring serial novel form About the Project T he Digital Dickens Notes Project (DDNP) is digitizing and exploring Charles Dickens’s working notes for his novels. Currently under construction, this project aims to interactively demonstrate how Victorian readers experienced serial novels as forms-in-process rather than as complete texts. Manuscripts of the working notes survive in whole or in part for ten of Dickens novels: The Old Curiosity Shop, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, Great Expectations, Our Mutual Friend, and Edwin Drood. Beginning with his last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend, the DDNP will gradually digitize and annotate all of these notes and place them alongside, and in the context of, the serial parts of his novels, some of which were published in weekly and some in monthly parts. This project is produced by Anna Gibson, assistant professor of English at Duquesne University. Funding  and support for this project has generously provided by Duquesne University, the Wimmer Family Foundation, Duquesne’s NEH Endowment fund, the Duke Ph.D. Lab, and NINES funding for DHSI. My thanks also go to the Pierpont Morgan Library, home of the Our Mutual Friend manuscript. u News and Updates Update! As of late October, 2015, all the Our Mutual Friend working notes images from the Pierpont Morgan Library have been uploaded to the prototype with JuxtaEditions. Transcriptions and introductions are still in the works, but you can look at the manuscripts here . Update! Thanks to an NEH Endowment Grant from Duquesne University and the assistance of the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, we now have high resolution digital images of the working notes for Our Mutual Friend. I have uploaded and transcribed the first installment using Juxta Editions here . Update!  Digital Dickens Notes now has a Twitter Feed!  Find us at @DickensNotes Update!   Take a look at the progress — an xml markup and screenshots of the working prototype for the second installment.   Details here . Screenshot of the early prototype. Click to read and see more.   An earlier digital abstract for the project is available here: c Contact For more information about this project, please contact Anna Gibson, Department of English, Duquesne University via her website , via email at gibsona at duq dot edu
i don't know
Written by William Boyd what was the last James Bond novel to be published?
Solo: A James Bond Novel review – Has William Boyd outdone Ian Fleming? | Books | The Guardian Nicholas Lezard's choice Solo: A James Bond Novel review – Has William Boyd outdone Ian Fleming? Boyd's spy romp has got the tone just right and offers a plausible peek behind the curtains of British intelligence Perhaps the most serious author to take up the Bond baton … William Boyd. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images Tuesday 6 May 2014 05.08 EDT First published on Tuesday 6 May 2014 05.08 EDT Share on Messenger Close It's a curious phenomenon, the rise of the semi-canonical sequel. It's a return to the nursery, a kind of fan-fiction, and a reluctance to accept that the final page of the book is the end of the story. Particularly prone to this is James Bond 's audience, appropriately enough, given that the Bond books are basically adolescent in appeal (which is not to say this is a bad thing). Those written by Ian Fleming are now hugely outnumbered by those that aren't. The exercise was given an immediate pseudo-legitimacy by Kingsley Amis , who published the first post-Fleming Bond story, Colonel Sun , in 1968; more recently, Sebastian Faulks gave the franchise further respectability with Devil May Care . William Boyd is, with Amis, and pace Faulks, perhaps the most serious, or most respected author to take up the Bond baton. One does wonder why? He can hardly need the money, or the potential risk to his reputation. Amis put his finger on it, perhaps, when he said we want to be Bond: and the "we" here also means "writers". We have long gone past the point when Bond stories were taken seriously, if they ever were; as the films have, for most of the last 40 years, been travesties of the original concept, Bond is a barrel whose bottom has been scraped right through, and now represents only a kind of Ukip masturbation fantasy in this country (remember that union jack parachute in The Spy Who Loved Me?) and formulaic high jinks elsewhere. That said, I have to admit that I found Solo at least as fun as everyone said it was, and at times I found myself wondering if Boyd had outdone Fleming – that is, constructed a plausible look behind the curtains of British post-imperial intelligence, with the adventure, sadism and sex ramped up. Bond – aged 45 now, in 1969 – is sent to a civil-war-torn imaginary African state ("Zanzarim") to get close to the brilliant general whose tactics are making the government's job difficult. The British interest resides in the fact that the country is sitting on an enormous amount of untapped oil. Bond's job is to make the general "a less efficient soldier", in M's words. And, as romps go, it romps. Bond still drinks and smokes too much; indeed, Boyd seems to have decided that Bond's Morlands are a bit lightweight has him smoking African cigarettes instead, which, if my experience is any guide, feel like grenades going off in your chest. (There is another joke that has Bond reading Graham Greene 's The Heart of the Matter as part of his preparation. Bond is famously unliterary.) The tone is just right; on the qui vive for solecisms or anachronisms, I found none. Even the baddy is perfectly judged: with a disfigured face, and one eye that cannot stop weeping; a brilliant touch. This is a powerful and smoothly running entertainment machine. But, but. I would strongly recommend not reading this if you have recently read a Fleming Bond. It was Martin Amis who said of novels that each of them displays, pinned and wriggling, the novelist's soul for all to see. This applies across genres, and part of the savour of Fleming's work is the way we get to peer behind his curtains, too. For Fleming, sadism was not assumed, it was part of his being. There is none of Bond's – how best to put this? – reprehensible attitude to women here, or homosexuals, or anything else (bar a little drink-driving) that might jar with contemporary standards. A tacit clean-up job has been done on the seamier aspects of the spy's character, which is a failure of nerve, if an understandable one; although at least when he somewhat implausibly acts the valiant knight, defending a woman's honour, he does so with satisfying violence. Also, Boyd has chosen to ignore the events of Fleming's final, exhausted Bond novels – as well as his fondness for the exclamation mark. There is, besides, the nagging sense that Bond is a little too decent here. He was never a bounder in the Fleming books – only his smile was cruel – but after the scene where he tries to rescue some starving children, I couldn't quite get the title of Boyd's first novel out of my head: A Good Man in Africa.
Solo
Which WWII song is heard at the end of Dr Srangelove?
Latest James Bond novel cover revealed - BBC News BBC News Latest James Bond novel cover revealed 1 August 2013 Close share panel Image caption Solo is written by William Boyd The cover for the new James Bond novel by William Boyd has been revealed, featuring die-cut bullet holes which "hint at danger and espionage". Solo, set in 1969, features Bond as a veteran agent, whose solo mission in Africa takes an unexpected turn. The designer, Random House creative director Suzanne Dean, said she was inspired by Ian Fleming's 007 series. The audiobook edition of the novel, published in September, will be narrated by actor Dominic West. Dean, whose previous designs include the covers of Ian McEwan's Atonement and Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, said the book's title was her starting point. "In the book, Bond goes on an unauthorised solo mission, recklessly motivated by revenge. I had always been keen, since finding out the title, that there might be a way to use the two o's within Solo and link it to the zeros in 007. Image caption A version of the cover will also feature on the audiobook edition "A new Bond cover needs to do a lot of things at once," she added. "It needs to appeal to literary and commercial audiences, both fans of the original 14 Fleming books and film fans. It needs to reflect both the content of the novel and capture the reader's imagination." The illustrator also took inspiration from designers such as Paul Rand and Saul Bass, who created memorable logos and title sequences in the 1960s. "I didn't want just to depict a cinematic image, but rather to try and reflect the essence of Ian Fleming's original novels, as well as William Boyd's own take on James Bond," she said. While the abstract die-cut holes in the outer dust jacket aim to represent a "pivotal part of the novel," the red hardcover beneath reveals a gecko, a reference to Bond's African mission.
i don't know
The Doors song The End is heard at the end of which war film?
The End by The Doors Songfacts The End by The Doors Songfacts Songfacts "The End" is death, although the song also deals with Jim Morrison's parents - it contains Oedipal themes of loving the mother and killing the father. Morrison was always vague as to the meaning, explaining: "It could be almost anything you want it to be." The Doors developed this song during live performances at the Whisky a Go Go, a Los Angeles club where they were the house band in 1966. They had to play two sets a night, so they were forced to extend their songs in order to fill the sets. This gave them a chance to experiment with their songs. This started as a short song about a farewell to a girl, and developed into an 11-minute epic. One night, Morrison didn't show up for his gig as the Whisky a Go Go. After their first set, the band retrieved Morrison from his apartment, where he had been tripping on acid. They always played "The End" as the last song, but Morrison decided to play it early in the set, and the band went along. When they got to the part where Morrison could do a spoken improvisation, he started talking about a killer, and said, "Father, I want to kill you. Mother, I want to f--k you!" The crowd went nuts, but they were fired right after the show. The Doors had recently signed a record deal and they had established a large following, so getting fired from the Whisky was not a crushing blow. Morrison sang this live as "F--k the mother," rather than "Screw the mother." At the time, the band couldn't cross what their engineer Bruce Botnick called "the f--k barrier," so they sanitized the lyric on the album. When Botnick remixed the album for a 1999 reissue, however, he put Morrison's "f--k"s back in, which is how the song was intended. This was famously used in the movie Apocalypse Now over scenes from the Vietnam War. Director Francis Ford Coppola had it remixed to include the line "F--k the mother." Morrison was on an acid trip when they first tried to record this song. He kept singing "F--k the mother, kill the father" rather than the actual lyrics. In The Mojo Collection, it states: "Comprehensively wrecked, the singer wound up lying on the floor mumbling the words to his Oedipal nightmare. Then, suddenly animated, he rose and threw a TV at the control room window. Sent home by producer Paul Rothchild like a naughty schoolkid, he returned in the middle of the night, broke in, peeled off his clothes, yanked a fire extinguisher from the wall and drenched the studio. Alerted, Rothchild came back and persuaded the naked, foam-flecked Morrison to leave once more, advising the studio owner to charge the damage to Elektra; next day the band nailed the track in two takes. Morrison lived for only another five years." This is supposedly the last song Morrison heard. The night he died, he was playing old Doors albums, ending with this one. This was the last song on that album. This was recorded with the lights off and only one candle burning next to Morrison. The album version of the song is an edited combination of two takes. Morrison would sometimes stop in the middle of this during concerts to get a reaction from the crowd. The instrumentation is meant to be like an Indian raga. The guitar imitates a sitar, with seemingly unrythmic pluckings of diatonic notes. The drum beat is designed to sound like a tabla, and the keyboard is supposed to provide the humming support of a tambura. >> Suggestion credit:
Apocalypse Now
Which cartoon character is mentioned Bowie’s song Life on Mars?
SoundtrackINFO: Jarhead Soundtrack Add more missing songs to this list, or tell us in what scenes these songs are heard or where they can be found.   Additional soundtrack info Conducted by Thomas Newman. Orchestration by Thomas Pasatieri. Orchestra recorded by Armin Steiner at the Newman Scoring Stage, 20th Century Fox, Los Angeles. Recorded and mixed by Tommy Vicari at Signet Sound Studios and Sony Music Studios, NYC. Trivia Naughty By Nature's song "O.P.P." was played during a Christmas party scene set in 1990. In reality, this track was not released until late 1991. Soundtrack Q & A Q:  What is the name of the music under film info on the Jarhead official movie website? (from Mark in Boca Raton, Florida, United States) A:  Is that not part of Thomas Newman's original score for Jarhead? I believe so. Soundtrack comes out in a month. (thanks to Dawg3, NC)  add more info Q:  Anyone know what the name of the Notorious BIG song in the movie? I think it was played during the Christmas Eve scene as well. Maybe a remix of "Sky's The Limit"? Thanks. (from Stewart in NYC) A:  O.P.P. - Naughty by Nature (thanks to MonkeyMan, Nebraska)  add more info Q:  What was the song right before the "Jesus Walks" song? Right before credits started rolling. (from Garry in NYC) A:  "Soldier's Things" by Tom Waits, from Swordfishtrombones (thanks to Sean, Pittsburgh, PA)  add more info Q:  What's the name of the song heard when he is having that dream looking in the mirror? Thanks. (from devin in Juneau, AK) A:  Nirvana's "Something in the Way" (thanks to Stoney, Valdosta, GA)  add more info A:  Confirmed, it is Nirvana's "Something in the Way" (thanks to the_dude, USA)  add more info Q:  Does anyone know the name of the song that plays during the end credits?? It's sorta like a constant drum sound? (from Michele in ny) A:  "Jesus Walks" by Kanye West (thanks to Froggy64, Lake Havasu, AZ)  add more info Q:  The ending scene where Swafford is looking at his dead buddie in a coffin there's a slow blues song playing. What song is that? Thank you. (from MonkeyMan in NE) A:  Tom Waits - "Soldier's Things" (thanks to Anthony, N. Chicago, IL)  add more info Q:  What was the song that had the really awesome beat to it... I believe it was towards the middle to the front of the movie and they were walking together somewhere? Hardly any words if any... (from make in PA) A:  I think that's "Ball and Chain." (thanks to Anthony, N. Chicago, IL)  add more info Q:  Is the song playing during the credits by Disturbed? What song is it? (from parsons in toronto canada) A:  No. It's an instrumental version of "Jesus Walks" by Kanye West. After that is score by Thomas Newman until the credits are over. (thanks to Anthony, N. Chicago, IL)  add more info Q:  What is the name of the song in the movie when they are dancing?? I think it's by Cypress Hill (from YellowLily in Tucson, Az) A:  In the tent on Christmas Eve? Its O.P.P. and "Naughty By Nature." (thanks to such_jaunt, uk)  add more info Q:  Is there any specific name for the version of "Jesus Walks" during the end credits? The track only contains the beat and the chorus without Kanye singing. I am trying to find this version and have been unable to! (from Franco in Vancouver, Canada) A:  It may be an instrumental version possibly asked to be made specifically for this movie. There are many versions of "Jesus Walks" I found. There's the "album version," a "remix," "Chris Milk version," and a "church version." Maybe it's one of them. (thanks to Anthony, N. Chicago, IL USA)  add more info A:  Kayne West, Instrumental Invasion 11. (thanks to Rogue, Eire)  add more info Q:  What was the song heard when all the marines first land and they are walking off of the airplane? The song is heard a few times - it's a real "Pump You Up" song. (from Bikeman_78 in Vancouver / B.C / Canada) A:  The song played when they alight from the aeroplane is one composed specially for the film, its on the soundtrack and is called "Welcome to the Suck". (thanks to such_jaunt, Uk)  add more info A:  "Welcome to the Suck" as heard on the album doesn't seem to run for as long or sound as good as the sequence which plays when they disembark the aircraft... maybe it just sounds better in the cinema with tanks and guns on the screen. (thanks to dave, sydney, australia)  add more info A:  I've only seen the movie once, so I am not entirely positive; however, I believe the song is actually "Listen Up." "Welcome to the Suck" has a similar sound but lacks the energy of the former. (thanks to ae davies, NH)  add more info Q:  Does anyone know the song featured on the movie's official website? The one I'm referring to is on the movie's information page. This music is not on the soundtrack CD.  (from Ricardo in San Diego, CA, U.S.A.) A:  Yep, I am told it's music from Jarhead that isn't included on the soundtrack CD. (thanks to Karman, Virginia Beach)  add more info Q:  What was the song played when the two soldiers find the party in the desert, and Jammie Foxx said the war is over? (from viony in australia) A:  "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy. (thanks to kumar, Minnesota)  add more info Q:  What's the name of the background song that ends suddenly when they call the jarheads to the war? (from tacks2000 in usa) A:  Ride of the Valkyrie (thanks to NibbleSomeMore, here, there, everywhere)  add more info Q:  In the song "Unsick Most Ricky-Tick," what instruments are being played? Thanks! ...from DrRAH66 in Olive Branch, MS, USA ( answer DrRAH66's question ) Q:  What was that song that Swofford had to play with his "bugle"? I know it was by Stevie Wonder... (from SucculentSweet57 in Waipahu, Hawaii) A:  "You are the Sunshine of My Life" (thanks to okay, earth)  add more info Q:  What's the song playing when they first arrive in the desert and all you see is the line up of hummers coming through the heat waves? (from J in canada) A:  Pink Mist (thanks to mike V, center line michigan )  add more info A:  I think "Listen Up" track from Jarhead OST is played in the background when the hummers race into the desert. (thanks to Anon, India)  add more info Q:  Is that really Jake Gyllenhaal narrating throughout the movie? (from mrsg in San Diego, Ca) A:  Yes it is. He sounds a little different, but that's him. (thanks to Alida, Florida)  add more info Q:  What's the name of the famous war song that's playing in the video that all of the troops are watching? (from Jeremiah Pasternak in Rye NH) A:  The jarheads are watching Coppola's Apocalypse Now! The scene they are watching is when the Americans invade a native beach in Vietnam because they want to go surfing and the tune played is "The Ride of the Valkyries" by R. Wagner... Coppola tried to show how pointless and absurd the Vietnam war was and the story was based on the book Heart of Darkness by J. Conrad (though Conrad actually wrote the book about colonialism in Congo). Wagner was also one of Hitler's favorite composers and Der F�hrer used the music to pump up his soldiers during WWII and he thought Wagner's political views emphasised and supported Hitler's vision of the German state... (the third Reich). The tune is from Wagner's opera Die Walk�re... (thanks to Nick J., Boston)  add more info A:  Wagner's "Valkyries." The movie that they are watching is Apocalypse Now. (thanks to choppy, Gold Coast Australia)  add more info Q:  I want to know the name of the song from the preview of this movie. I know it's not on the soundtrack because Iown the CD. Please help... I really want the song. (from nay in australia) A:  "Jesus Walks" by Kanye West. (thanks to hillary, sebastopol, ca)  add more info Q:  What is the name of the song when he was in the shower? It started playing when he looked up at the shower head. (from Ellen in tularosa, NM, United States) A:  Artist: Nirvana, Song "Something in the Way" (thanks to Bartek, London Ontario Canada)  add more info Q:  This question has been asked before but not been answered. What is the name of the music on the Jarhead website under "Access film info"? It sounds like a Thomas Newman piece but it is NOT on the soundtrack! Help! ...from matt in NY, NY ( answer matt's question ) Q:  My question is, when the credits end, there's a U.S Marine Corps song, goes a little like "All my life it was my dream....to be a bad mothaf****n U.S Marine!" It's right after when the credits are almost finished. Can you please hook me up with the name and artist of this hymn? Thanks (from Lance Corporal in Tennessee) A:  It's a military cadence, not a song! (thanks to t4ykez, Agadir - Morocco)  add more info Q:  What's the name of the song heard when they are working in the rain? One of them is standing on some kind of hillock. I don't remember any more details. ...from Jagoda in PL ( answer Jagoda's question ) Q:  Does anyone know where you can get the film version of "Welcome to the Suck"? The one on the movie is killer. ...from dude in canada ( answer dude's question ) Q:  I like the song but can't figure out the name or who sings this. It plays during his bad dream right until he wakes up. What's the name and who sings it? (from alexis in alaska) A:  Nirvana's "Something in the Way" (thanks to bauer, England (Bristol))  add more info Q:  The last song playing during the credits... I know it's a military candence, but I can't find the actual one. There are probably hundreds. Can you tell me about the actual candence? ...from eric in georgia ( answer eric's question ) Q:  ...from frozencone in Australia ( answer frozencone's question ) Q:  Looking for song and artist when Swofford is in selection training to be a scout sniper. It is most noticeable when the platoon is all jogging together, the movie keeps flashing back to the shrinking platoon. (from stanno in aussie) A:  "Pink Mist" track 16 (thanks to andy, TX)  add more info Q:  What song is playing when they are training and they are boxing or kickboxing in the ring? ...from cody in massachusetts ( answer cody's question ) Q:  What's the Vietnam song playing when they are walking and Swoff says "can't we get our own music"? (from mike w. in odessa, texas) A:  The Doors' "Break On Through" (thanks to AJ, UK)  add more info Q:  What is the song/artist the helicopter plays as they fly over the soldiers? He gets mad because it's Vietnamese music and he wants their kind of music. (from GxOxD in Hollister Ca Us ) A:  The Doors - "Break On Through" (thanks to chtr, PL)  add more info Q:  What's the song playing when they are playing football in the desert? It's the song right before "Gonna Make You Sweat." I've been looking for ages and I can't find it (from Omzyster5001 in England) A:  Full Chemical Gear (thanks to Ryan, Michigan)  add more info Q:  What the song playing when Jamie Foxx makes them run in their gas suits right after they fail to get into their suits? (from BTOman in Credo, Texas, US) A:  "Bang a Gong Get It On" (thanks to sobczak, cville pa )  add more info Q:  What is the song playing when he has the dream of vomiting sand? (from chris in north dakota) A:  It is called "Something in the Way" by Nirvana. (thanks to chris, north dakota)  add more info Q:  What's the song playing when he's in the bathroom and he starts throwing up sand? (from mike in hartford, wisconsin, usa) A:  "Something's in the Way" by Nirvana (thanks to butch, carribean)  add more info Q:  What is the song playing towards the end when the soldiers find out they're going home (after the 2 go over the hill) and they all start firing their machine guns? (from Tam in Mass) A:  "Fight The Power" by Public Enemy (thanks to TillDeathDoUsPArt, Las Vegas NV)  add more info Q:  Is it me, or do the tracks "Raining Oil" and "Desert Storm" sound awfully the same? (from Necrophyte in La Jolla, CA, USA) A:  Hahaha this is true, "Raining Oil" has a different intro, but other than that it's nearly the exact same. (thanks to Cage Oukami, Birmingham)  add more info Q:  ...from erin in al ( answer erin's question ) Q:  What's the middle eastern sounding song we hear when the men on the camels approach? (from fizzle mizzle in hartford, ct) A:  "Mirage Bedouin." It's one of the tracks in the Jarhead sountrack (thanks to Cage Oukami, Birmingham)  add more info Q:  What song is playing when Jake's character has a nightmare with him looking into the mirror and seeing his ex? This is where he throws up in the sink, but it's sand that he upchucks, not vomit. Plz, anyone?! (from GUIT4Rfreak in High River, AB, Canada) A:  "Something in the Way" by Nirvana (thanks to esther_xxx, australia)  add more info Q:  What is the song playing for a few seconds when the unit is in the tent and Swoff starts insulting Troy and they brand him? He is almost crying. ...from Ben in USA ( answer Ben's question ) Q:  What is the song playing after the Marines start an impromptu strip dance after playing football?  (from pam in Sunrise, Florida) A:  "The Choice Is Yours" by Black Sheep (thanks to Damifino, Colo.)  add more info Q:  Did Kanye West do a song in the movie or trailer for Jarhead? If so, what is the song, and where can I find it? (from Jeffro Devo in Grand Junction, CO) A:  Jesus Walks (thanks to jemini, the center of the universe)  add more info Q:  What's the song playing when they arrive at Camp Pendleton? It goes like "...Here's a little something I wrote, you might want to take it note for note...." (from corpral in Maryland) A:  "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bob Marley. (thanks to A-Dub, IN)  add more info A:  "Don't Worry Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin!! (thanks to Mikey, Portugal)  add more info Q:  ...from fhghdsgdfg in ffdgdfgfdg ( answer fhghdsgdfg's question ) Q:  ...from karol in NL ( answer karol's question ) Q:  ...from Taco in United States ( answer Taco's question ) Q:  ...from PartyTimer in Germany ( answer PartyTimer's question ) Feedback
i don't know
According to the children’s rhyme, What is Tuesday’s Child?
Tuesday's Child Monday's child is fair of face, Tuesday's child is full of grace, Wednesday's child is full of woe, Thursday's child has far to go, Friday's child is loving and giving, Saturday's child works hard for its living, But a child that's born on the Sabbath day Is bonny and blythe, and good and gay. Wondering what day of the week you were born? Enter the day, month, and year that you were born. For example if you were born on April 16, 1990 you would enter Day:16 Month:4 Year:90 Day:
full of grace
Which North African dish consists of semolina granules cooked by steaming?
Nursery Rhymes - Brain Water Brain Water Ring a ring o' rosies Ring a ring o' rosies A pocketful of posies We all fall down! Origins in English History The lyrics to this nursery rhyme has its origins as a children's ring game. The period in history  dates back to the great plague of London in 1665 (bubonic plague). The symptoms of the plague included a raised red rash on the skin (Ring a ring o' rosies) and violent sneezing (Atishoo, Atishoo) A pouch of sweet smelling herbs or posies were carried due to the belief that the disease was transmitted by bad smells. The death rate was over 60% and the plage was only halted by the Great Fire of London in 1666 which killed the rats which carried the disease which had been transmitting it to water sources. Hush a bye baby Hush a bye baby, on the tree top, When the wind blows the cradle will rock; When the bow breaks, the cradle will fall, And down will come baby, cradle and all. Nursery Rhyme or lullaby? The lyrics to this famous nursery rhyme were first published in 1765. The words and lyrics to this song are often crooned to a baby in an effort to rock them to sleep. When repeating this song children often make a rocking motion with their hands and arms. The imagery conveyed appeals to a child's imagination! The origins and history of this nursery rhyme are said to originate from America and the habit of some Native Americans of placing a baby in the low branches of a tree allowing the young child or baby to be rocked to sleep. Little Jack Horner He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum And said "What a good boy am I!" 16th Century history origins of the nursery rhyme Little Jack Horner was in fact reputed to be the Steward to the Bishop of Glastonbury. He was sent to King Henry VIII with a Christmas gift of twelve title deeds to manorial estates. Whilst on his way to the King Jack stole the deed to the manor of Mells (this being the real 'plum' of the twelve manors) which was in France. The remaining eleven manors were given to the crown but the manor of Mells became the property of the Horner family! The first publication date for the lyrics to this nursery rhyme is 1725. Seesaw Marjorie Daw Johnny shall have a new master He shall earn but a penny a day Because he can't work any faster Origins and history in a game for children A see-saw is one of the oldest 'toys' for children , easily constructed from logs of various sizes. The words of the nursery rhyme reflect children playing on a see-saw and often singing this rhyme to accompany their game. There was no such person that we can identify who had the name Margery Daw and we therefore make the assumption that this was purely used to rhyme with the words 'see-saw'. The last three lines appear to reflect the use of child labour in work houses where those with no where else to live would be forced to work for a pittance (a penny a day) on piece work (because he can't work any faster) Christmas is coming   Origin lost in the depths of time? Unable to trace a commonly agreed upon origin for this particular nursery rhyme however could be connected to Black Jack, a pirate who was notorious for escaping from the authorities in the late 16th century. The words and lyrics of this nursery rhyme cannot be further analysed due to the brevity of the text of the lyrics but could be associated with the old tradition and sport of 'candle leaping' which used to be practised at English fayres. Little Robin Red Breast Little Robin Red breast sat upon a tree, Up went pussy cat and down went he; Down came pussy, and away Robin ran; Says little Robin Red breast, "Catch me if you can". Little Robin Red breast jumped upon a wall, Pussy cat jumped after him and almost got a fall; Little Robin chirped and sang, and what did pussy say? Pussy cat said, "Meeow!" and Robin jumped away.   A traditional English nursery rhyme The nursery rhyme lyrics are  merely teaching children about natural enemies of animals and makes good use of the English language by using similes (red breast). It has no basis in history for its origins. It does, however, introduce a child to onomatopoeia ( a word that sounds like its meaning) In this nursery rhyme the word 'meeow'  when pronounced conveys the actual sound of the word! The robin is a small brown bird with a bright red breast - hence the continuous reference to red breast. The robin is always associated with the Christmas season and featured on many Christmas cards showing a snow scene. Incy Wincy spider Incy Wincy spider climbing up the spout Down came the rain and washed the spider out Out came the sun and dried up all the rain Now Incy Wincy spider went up the spout again! Finger nursery rhyme for children A child will love trying to mimic the actions of this particular nursery rhyme. It assists them with improving manual dexterity whilst remembering the words of the song. The name of the spider seems to vary but 'Incy Wincy spider' is believed to be the correct and original version. The original history and origins of the Incy Wincy spider nursery rhyme cannot be traced, it is believed just to be a fun action rhyme that has survived the test of time. Horsey horsey Gone to fetch a rabbit skin To wrap the Baby Bunting in Cry Baby Bunting The origins - lullaby lyrics for this nursery rhyme for a baby The lyrics, origins and history to this nursery rhyme are not important - it was the sound of the music to accompany it! The song would be crooned to a young child as a lullaby. Perhaps to explain the disappearance of Daddy to a fretting child! Star light star bright The first star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, Have the wish I wish tonight. Nursery rhyme with American history and origins The lyrics to this nursery rhyme are believed to be of late 19th century American origins and the lyrics allude to the fantasy that you can wish upon a star. This nursery rhyme has no doubt been used on many occasions to quieten a child ready for bedtime as they patiently look out of the window waiting for it to get dark enough to see the very first star! The Owl and the Pussycat The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea In a beautiful pea-green boat, They took some honey, and plenty of money, Wrapped up in a five pound note. The Owl looked up to the stars above, And sang to a small guitar, "O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love, What a beautiful Pussy you are, you are, you are, What a beautiful Pussy you are." Pussy said to the Owl "You elegant fowl,  How charmingly sweet you sing. O let us be married, too long we have tarried; But what shall we do for a ring?" They sailed away, for a year and a day, To the land where the Bong-tree grows, And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood With a ring at the end of his nose, his nose, his nose, With a ring at the end of his nose. "Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling your ring?"  Said the Piggy, "I will" So they took it away, and were married next day By the Turkey who lives on the hill. They dined on mince, and slices of quince, Which they ate with a runcible spoon. And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand. They danced by the light of the moon, the moon, the moon, They danced by the light of the moon. What is a Runcible Spoon? A traditional childrens poem , or folksong, as the lyrics have  been set to music on several occasions. The author was Edward Lear (1812 - 1888) and the first publication date was 1806. Some wonderful illustrated graphics have also been set to the words and lyrics of this poem helping to fire the imagination of a child! The burning question remains, however, what exactly is a runcible spoon? The most agreed upon definition of this term is that a runcible spoon is a kind of fork with three broad prongs or tines, one having a sharp edge, curved like a spoon, used with pickles, etc. Little Boy Blue Little Boy Blue come blow your horn, The sheep's in the meadow the cow's in the corn. But where is the boy who looks after the sheep? He's under a haystack fast asleep. Will you wake him? No, not I - for if I do, he's sure to cry Origins of the story Unlike other Nursery Rhymes the words and lyrics cannot be closely connected to any historical figure in European history. There is, however, a doubtful theory that 'Little Boy Blue' could refer to Cardinal Thomas Wolsey dating back to English Tudor history (although the origins and lyrics cannot be connected to any events in his life). Neither does the rhyme have a moral objective or used to demonstrates any specific use of the English language. The most common belief is that the origins of this nursery are not based on actual events or people in history but  is merely a reflection of peaceful country life which would appeal to the imagination of a young child Hey Diddle Diddle Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon. The little dog laughed to see such fun And the dish ran away with the spoon! Fantasy Nursery Rhyme! Origins and history The first known date of publication for the lyrics of this nursery rhyme is 1765. Completely nonsensical rhyme whose sole aim is to fire the imagination of a child with impossible actions which are, however, very easy and amusing for a child to envision! Walt Disney uses this type of imagery in animated films to great effect! The term 'Hey diddle diddle' was a colloquialism used in much the same vein as "hey nonny no" which can be found in traditional British folk songs. The original title was known as 'High Diddle Diddle' but has been changed to 'Hey Diddle Diddle' during the course of time. There was a crooked man There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile, He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile. He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse. And they all lived together in a little crooked house The origins  and lyrics of the Nursery rhyme in British history The content and lyrics of this nursery rhyme have  a basis in history. The origins of this nursery rhyme originating from the English Stuart history of King Charles 1. The crooked man is reputed to be General Sir Alexander Leslie of Scotland. The General is one of those who signed the Covenant securing religious and political freedom for Scotland. The 'crooked stile' being the border between England and Scotland. 'They all lived together in a little crooked house' refers to the fact that the English and Scots had come to an agreement. The lyrics reflect the times of old England with reference to the animosity between the English and the Scots. The word crooked is pronounced as 'crookED' the emphasis being placed upon the 'ED' in the word. This was  common in olde England and many references can be found in this type of pronunciation in the works of William Shakespeare. The Lion and the Unicorn The lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown The lion beat the unicorn all around the town. Some gave them white bread, and some gave them brown; Some gave them plum cake and drummed them out of town. Origins in British history The lion and the unicorn lyrics date from 1603 when King James VI of Scotland became James I of England unifying the Scottish and English crowns . The virgin Queen Elizabeth 1 named the son of Mary Queen of Scots, James, as her heir. The new union of the two countries required a new royal coat of arms combining those of England which featured two lions, and Scotland, whose coat of arms featured two Unicorns. A compromise was made thus the British coat of arms has  one Lion and one Unicorn. Goosie Goosie Gander Goosie goosie gander where shall I wander, Upstairs, downstairs and in my lady's chamber There I met an old man who wouldn't say his prayers, I took him by the left leg and threw him down the stairs. Obscure morality Nursery Rhyme Goosie, goosie gander - an attention grabber to a nursery rhyme which uses alliteration in the lyrics designed to intrigue a child. The 'lady's chamber' is a room that no longer exists today but English history refers to a high born lady having her own chamber, which was once referred to as a solar. The origins of the nursery rhyme are said to date back in history to the 16th century and refer to Catholic priests hiding in 'Priest Holes' ( very small secret rooms found in great houses in England) to avoid persecution from zealous Protestants who were completely against the old Catholic religion. If caught the priest and also members of any family found harbouring them would be executed. The moral to the story and in the lyrics is to point out that something unpleasant would occur to anyone found not saying their prayers! What are little boys made What are little boys made of? Snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails That's what little boys are made of !" What are little girls made of? "Sugar and spice and all things nice That's what little girls are made of!" The lyrics! The origins and history of this nursery rhyme date back to the early nineteenth century - the battle of the sexes was raging even then! The lyrics obviously reflect this, but what is the meaning of 'snips and snails'? Many meanings have been suggested but the one that has the most credibility is that the original words were in fact 'snips of snails' snips meaning 'little bits of' No redemption there for describing what little boys are made of' ! Georgie Porgie Georgie Porgie pudding and pie, Kissed the girls and made them cry When the boys came out to play, Georgie Porgie ran away. The Early Battle of the Sexes? A Nursery Rhyme demonstrating the different attitudes between the sexes! Even at a very early age children in Britain would play a game called 'Kiss Chase' - in fact the girls would actually chase the boys and then kiss them! their were no tears from the girls but the boys fought like mad to get away! The origins and history of the lyrics to this nursery rhyme are English and refer to George (Georgie Porgie),  the Duke of Buckingham, from 17th century English history. His dubious moral character was much in question! This, however, was overlooked due to his friendship with King Charles II until the parliament stopped the Kind intervening on his behalf - at this point all of the jealous husbands vowed to wreak their revenge causing Georgie Porgie to 'run away'! For want of a nail For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail. A Nursery Rhyme explaining consequences through its lyrics A clever set of lyrics encouraging a child to apply logic to the consequences of their actions. Perhaps used to gently chastise a child and explain the possible events that might follow a thoughtless act. The references to horses, horseshoe, riders, kingdoms and battles indicate the origins of this nursery rhyme were probably set in English History Hickory, Dickory Dock Hickory dickory dock Participative Nursery Rhyme reflected in the lyrics A nonsense song using alliteration and allowing a small child or even a baby to mimic the sound of a clock chiming one at the appropriate point in the lyrics. Obviously intended to introduce children to the rudiments and importance of telling the time. The origins and history are unknown but the first publication date for this nursery rhyme is 1744. Pease pudding hot Pease pudding hot, pease pudding cold, Pease pudding in the pot - nine days old. Some like it hot, some like it cold, Some like it in the pot  - nine days old. Pease pudding hot - the origins of the lyrics based on a traditional British dish The pease pudding referred to in the lyrics of this nursery rhyme is a dish which is still enjoyed in Britain today. It is a smooth, thick sauce, (referred to as a pudding in the rhyme for the sake of alliteration) which has a dark yellow colour and is made from dried peas. Pease pudding is traditionally served hot with boiled bacon or a form of sausage called a saveloy. Thirty days hath September All the rest have thirty one Except for February which has twenty eight! (And twenty nine each leap year) Nursery Rhyme - Aide Memoire! The words and lyrics to this useful little nursery rhyme are probably used by many adults to prompt them into remembering how many days are in each month! The origins and history of the lyrics are obscure but use of olde English can date this rhyme back to at least the 16th century. When was the last time that you found yourself muttering the words to this nursery rhyme? The Queen of Hearts The Queen of Hearts she made some tarts all on a summer's day; The Knave of Hearts he stole the tarts and took them clean away. The King of Hearts called for the tarts and beat the Knave full sore The Knave of Hearts brought back the tarts and  vowed he'd steal no more. The Queen of Hearts lyrics The origins of the title the 'Queen of Hearts' can be found in the work of Lewis G. Carroll in his book entitled 'Alice in Wonderland' first published in 1805. In more recent history the term was used by Princess Diana during a famous interview as her preference to the title  the Queen of Hearts to that of Queen of England. Princess Diana is now lovingly referred to as the Queen of Hearts The lion and the unicorn The lion and the unicorn were fighting for the crown The lion beat the unicorn all around the town. Some gave them white bread, and some gave them brown; Some gave them plum cake and drummed them out of town. Origins in British history The lion and the unicorn lyrics date from 1603 when King James VI of Scotland became James I of England unifying the Scottish and English crowns . The virgin Queen Elizabeth 1 named the son of Mary Queen of Scots, James, as her heir. The new union of the two countries required a new royal coat of arms combining those of England which featured two lions, and Scotland, whose coat of arms featured two Unicorns. A compromise was made thus the British coat of arms has  one Lion and one Unicorn. Three Blind Mice Three blind mice, three blind mice, See how they run, see how they run, They all ran after the farmer's wife, Who cut off their tails with a carving knife, Did you ever see such a thing in your life, As three blind mice? The origins of the 'tale'! The origins of the lyrics to this nursery rhyme are in English history. The 'farmer's wife' refers to Queen Mary I, otherwise known as 'Bloody Mary' the reference to 'farmer's wife' alludes to the massive farming estates which she possessed and those of her husband, Philip of Spain. The 'three blind mice' were three noblemen who were plotting against the Queen - she did not have them dismembered and blinded as inferred in the rhyme - but she did have them burnt at the stake! Baa baa black sheep Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full! One for the master, one for the dame, And one for the little boy who lives down the lane. Educational reasons of the nursery rhyme lyrics The reason to the words and history to this song were to associate wool and wool products with the animal that produces it, not to mention the sound that a sheep would make! The first grasp of language for a child or baby is to imitate the sounds or noises that animals make onomatopoeia (words sound like their meaning e.g. baa baa). The first publication date for the lyrics to this famous nursery rhyme can be dated back to 1744. Rock a bye baby Rock a bye baby on the tree top, When the wind blows the cradle will rock, When the bough breaks the cradle will fall, And down will come baby, cradle and all. Origins in American history The words and lyrics to this nursery rhyme are reputed to reflect the observations of a young pilgrim boy in America who had seen Native Indian mothers suspend a birch bark cradle from the branches of a tree enabling the wind to rock the cradle and the child to sleep. The rhyme also hold a warning on the choice of bough! Pat a cake Pat a cake Pat a cake, Pat a cake, baker's man Bake me a cake as fast as you can;  Pat it and prick it and mark is with a 'B',  And put it in the oven for baby and me.  The origins and lyrics The origins and lyrics of this nursery rhyme are unknown, but the tradition of decorating cakes with the name or initial of a child is still adhered to today!  Peter Peter pumpkin eater Had a wife and couldn't keep her! He put her in a pumpkin shell, And there he kept her very well! American origins... The lyrics of this nursery rhyme (unlike so many others) are not based in Europe, but in America. This rhyme is known of by British children but is only in recent years that it has become clear exactly what a pumpkin is! As it is not indigenous to the British shores the vast majority of the British population have never eaten pumpkin! The tradition of dressing up for Halloween (and the subsequent use of the pumpkin for making lanterns) together with 'Trick or Treat'  Little Miss Muffet Who sat down beside her And frightened Miss Muffet away Origins and history of the Nursery Rhyme Little Miss Muffet was a small girl whose first name was Patience. Her father, Dr. Muffet, was an entomologist (someone who studies insects). Whilst eating her breakfast one day she was frightened by one of his spiders and ran away! This particular Nursery Rhyme reputedly dates back to the  late 16th century! Unlikely story! This little piggy This little piggy went to market, This little piggy stayed at home, This little piggy had roast beef, This little piggy had none. And this little piggy went...  "Wee wee wee" all the way home... Action nursery rhyme for baby or young children The lyrics for this particular nursery rhyme include action based words where the little piggy is each one of the child's toes! The last line is used to accompany the child being tickled by the teller of the rhyme! This is a typical rhyme which will be passed down from one generation to another - it has no origins in history! The lyrics for this nursery rhyme were first published in 1728. Tom Tom the pipers son Tom Tom the pipers son Stole a pig and away he ran, The pig was eat and Tom was beat And Tom went roaring down the street. Origins of a Scottish nursery rhyme? The words and lyrics of this nursery rhyme were not based on a person in Scottish history (pipers son). The term 'piper's son' could allude to any piper in the British army and the origins of this tale probably date back to the 18th century  It is a children's nonsense rhyme which has an obvious moral. The imagery used in the phrase 'went roaring down the street' is very strong and would indicate to a child that Tom's punishment was severe! Pussycat, pussycat "Pussycat, pussycat, where have you been?" "I've been up to London to visit the Queen." "Pussycat, pussycat, what did you dare?" "I frightened a little mouse under her chair" "MEOWW!" The origins of the nursery rhyme! The origins of this rhyme goes back to the history of 16th century Tudor England. One of the staff of Queen Elizabeth I had an old cat which tended to roam throughout one of her castles. On one occasion the cat went underneath the throne and the cat's tail brushed against the Queen's foot, startling her. But 'Good Queen Bess' had a sense of humour and declared that the cat may wander through the throne room on condition it kept it free of mice! Here's the church Here's the church, and here's the steeple Open the door and see all the people. Here's the parson going upstairs, And here he is saying his prayers. Visual impact! An action based Nursery rhyme Children love this nursery rhyme as it combines lyrics and words with actions. This also improves the manual dexterity and coordination of a child whilst firing their imagination. An oft repeated song ending with the hands clasped together as if in prayer! Probably steeped in English history where the architecture of churches and its steeple dominated the skyline of all towns. Ding dong bell One, two, three, four, five One, two, three, four, five. Once I caught a fish alive, Six, seven, eight, nine ,ten, Then I let it go again. Why did you let it go? Because it bit my finger so. Which finger did it bite? This little finger on the right. The lyrics of the nursery rhyme The lyrics of this nursery rhyme are not based on origins dating back in history. This is an education rhyme with the lyrics devised with the specific intention of teaching a child to count. Doctor Foster Doctor Foster went to Gloucester In a shower of rain. He stepped in a puddle right up to his middle And never went there again! The History behind the words and lyrics! The origins and history of this Nursery Rhyme are in England, which is clear due to the reference to the English county of Gloucestershire (Doctor Foster went to Gloucester). A warning to a child in days gone by, prior to modern roads, that what could appear to be a shallow puddle could in fact be far deeper! An attempt to keep a child clean and safe! The origins of this nursery rhyme are reputed to lie in English history dating back to the Plantagenant reign in the 13th century when King Edward 1 was reputed to have visited Gloucester and fell from his horse into a large muddy puddle! He was so humiliated by this event that he refused to ever return to the town of Gloucester ever again! A Wise Old Owl A wise old owl lived in an oak The more he saw the less he spoke The less he spoke the more he heard. Why can't we all be like that wise old bird? The origins and history of 'A wise old owl' The origins and history of this nursery rhyme is vague but its meaning is not, it basically would be told to a child in an attempt to instil the wisdom of observing and keeping quiet! The association of the lyrics of this nursery rhyme derive from the saying 'a wise old owl' based on an owl's behaviour of watching and patiently waiting when hunting its prey "Children should be seen and not heard!" Old Mother Hubbard So the poor little doggie had none. Origins of lyrics in British history The Old Mother Hubbard referred to in these nursery rhyme words and lyrics allude to the famous Cardinal Wolsey. Cardinal Wolsey was the most important politician and churchman of the Tudor history period in 16th century England. Cardinal Wolsey  proved to be a faithful servant but displeased the King, Henry VIII, by failing to arrange the King's divorce from Queen Katherine of Aragon which would enable him to marry Anne Boleyn. The King was the "doggie" and the "bone" alludes to the divorce (and not money as many believe) The cupboard relates to the Catholic Church  Who killed Cock Robin "Who killed Cock Robin?" "I," said the Sparrow, "With my bow and arrow, I killed Cock Robin." "Who saw him die?" "I," said the Fly, "With my little eye, I saw him die." "Who caught his blood?" "I," said the Fish, "With my little dish, I caught his blood." "Who'll make the shroud?" "I," said the Beetle, "With my thread and needle, I'll make the shroud." "Who'll dig his grave?" "I," said the Owl, "With my pick and shovel, I'll dig his grave." "Who'll be the parson?" "I," said the Rook, "With my little book, I'll be the parson." "Who'll be the clerk?" "I," said the Lark, "If it's not in the dark, I'll be the clerk." "Who'll carry the link?" "I," said the Linnet, "I'll fetch it in a minute, I'll carry the link." "Who'll be chief mourner?" "I," said the Dove, "I mourn for my love, I'll be chief mourner." "Who'll carry the coffin?" "I," said the Kite, "If it's not through the night, I'll carry the coffin." "Who'll bear the pall? "We," said the Wren, "Both the cock and the hen, we'll bear the pall." "Who'll sing a psalm?" "I," said the Thrush, "As she sat on a bush, I'll sing a psalm." "Who'll toll the bell?" "I," said the bull, "Because I can pull, I'll toll the bell." All the birds of the air fell a-sighing and a-sobbing, When they heard the bell toll for poor Cock Robin. The origins and history of the lyrics 'Who killed cock robin?' is better described as a British folksong rather than a nursery rhyme.  The Death of Cock Robin is frequently taken as a Robin Hood analogue and the ready offers of help following this event, as described in the lyrics, reflect the high esteem that the legendary figure of  Robin Hood was, and is, still held What are little boys made of What are little boys made of? Snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails That's what little boys are made of !" What are little girls made of? "Sugar and spice and all things nice That's what little girls are made of!" The lyrics! The origins and history of this nursery rhyme date back to the early nineteenth century - the battle of the sexes was raging even then! The lyrics obviously reflect this, but what is the meaning of 'snips and snails'? Many meanings have been suggested but the one that has the most credibility is that the original words were in fact 'snips of snails' snips meaning 'little bits of' No redemption there for describing what little boys are made of' Old King Cole Old King Cole was a merry old soul, and a merry old soul was he; He called for his pipe in the middle of the night And he called for his fiddlers three. Every fiddler had a fine fiddle, and a very fine fiddle had he; Oh there's none so rare as can compare With King Cole and his fiddlers three. Nursery rhyme lyrics based in history origins dating back to 3rd century Old King Cole ruled part of Britain in the third century. He is reputed to have built the English town of Colchester. In Colchester there is the site of a  Roman gravel pit which is still known today as 'King Cole's Kitchen.'   Cole or "Godebog" was a Dark Age British King, and, a descendant of Britain's pre-Saxon & pre-Roman royal house. The Tudor Kings, starting with Henry VII, claimed to descend from this royal lineage in attempt to further  legitimise the Tudor claim to the English throne. Wee Willie Winkie Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town, Upstairs and downstairs in his nightgown, Tapping at the window and crying through the lock, Are all the children in their beds, it's past eight o'clock? The origins of the nursery rhyme The origins of the words and lyrics to this nursery rhyme were to allow children to associate every day tasks with their own lives. Before the days of radio, TV and indeed the Internet and also due to levels of illiteracy within the population great reliance was made on the Town Crier who was paid to walk the streets crying out the latest news and information. 'Wee willie winkie' was a child's  version of the Town Crier! The author of the nursery was William Miller (1810 - 1872) and the first publication date of the lyrics was in 1841. Mondays child Mondays child is fair of face, Tuesdays child is full of grace, Wednesdays child is full of woe, Thursdays child has far to go, Fridays child is loving and giving, Saturdays child works hard for his living, And the child that is born on the Sabbath day Is bonny and blithe, and good and gay. Traditional Nursery Rhyme lyrics The words and lyrics of this nursery rhyme poem were used to introduce a child to the order and the different days of week. The wording guaranteed to ensure that a child would take a keen interest in which day that they were born on! Sunday was traditionally referred to as the 'Sabbath day' in the religion of Christianity. This is the only reference to history for the origins of this nursery rhyme poem Two little dicky birds (Fly away Peter, fly away Paul) Two little dicky birds sitting on a wall, One named Peter, one named Paul. Fly away Peter, fly away Paul, Come back Peter, come back Paul! The origin? No specific origins in history could be traced for this popular children's nursery rhyme! Neither could any other verses be traced!  What is also unusual is that although the rhyme only has four lines there are two titles for it - the obvious 'Two little dicky birds' and the more obscure 'Fly away Peter, Fly away Paul'  which is also used! How does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells And pretty maids all in a row. The origins are steeped in history... The Mary alluded to in this traditional English nursery rhyme is Mary Tudor, or Bloody Mary, who was the daughter of King Henry VIII. Queen Mary was a staunch Catholic and the garden referred to is an allusion to graveyards which were increasing in size with those who dared to continue to adhere to the Protestant faith. The silver bells and cockle shells were colloquialisms for instruments of torture. The 'maids' were a device to behead people similar to the guillotine. Twinkle twinkle little star Mary had a little lamb Mary had a little lamb its fleece was white as snow; And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go. It followed her to school one day, which was against the rule; It made the children laugh and play, to see a lamb at school. And so the teacher turned it out, but still it lingered near, And waited patiently about till Mary did appear. "Why does the lamb love Mary so?" the eager children cry; "Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know" the teacher did reply. Increasing use of language The words and lyrics of this  American nursery rhyme would appeal to a young child and introduces imagery and the use of similes (white as snow) as part of use of the English language. The words also convey the morale that love is reciprocated! We can find no specific connection in history for the origins of this nursery rhyme but the origins are American as the lyrics were written by  Sarah Hale, of Boston, in 1830. Ride a cock horse
i don't know
Who starred as Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the US TV series?
Amazon.com: Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Movies & TV Buffy The Vampire Slayer Unlimited Streaming with Amazon Prime Start your 30-day free trial to stream thousands of movies & TV shows included with Prime. Start your free trial Add to Cart Buffy The Vampire Slayer $22.88 Free Shipping for Prime Members | Fast, FREE Shipping with Amazon Prime Only 14 left in stock. Sold by Outlet Promotions and Fulfilled by Amazon . Gift-wrap available. Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) is a service we offer sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's fulfillment centers, and we directly pack, ship, and provide customer service for these products. Something we hope you'll especially enjoy: FBA items qualify for FREE Shipping and . If you're a seller, Fulfillment by Amazon can help you increase your sales. We invite you to learn more about Fulfillment by Amazon . What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item? Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Page 1 of 1 Start over Page 1 of 1 This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading. Page 1 of 1 Start over Sponsored Products are advertisements for products sold by merchants on Amazon.com. When you click on a Sponsored Product ad, you will be taken to an Amazon detail page where you can learn more about the product and purchase it. To learn more about Amazon Sponsored Products, click here . Ad feedback Special Offers and Product Promotions Buffy The Vampire Slayer [DVD] Product Details Language: English (Dolby Surround), French (DTS 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1) Subtitles: English, Spanish Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats. ) Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 DVD Release Date: May 4, 2010 Average Customer Review: Page 1 of 1 Start over Sponsored Products are advertisements for products sold by merchants on Amazon.com. When you click on a Sponsored Product ad, you will be taken to an Amazon detail page where you can learn more about the product and purchase it. To learn more about Amazon Sponsored Products, click here . on October 10, 2012 Format: Blu-ray Verified Purchase While Joss Whedon created this concept and took if forward with the series a few years later, this movie has a bit of a different tone than the show. Whedon didn't get to direct this but his script remained largely intact with the exception of Donald Sutherland apparently changing a lot of his own lines. I am a big fan of the show and I like this movie as well. While I love the show, I still think Kristy Swanson was a really good Buffy and I think if Sarah Michelle Gellar played Buffy in the movie, it wouldn't have been as good. I have a great sense of Nostalgia for this movie, I watched it countless times before there ever was a tv show and for me, this is an Autumnal staple for Halloween and horror movies on the advent of Autumn. I think the effects hold up well, I think the music and costumes date the movie appropriately and this movie is really a great look back on early `90's cinema. On Blu-Ray it looks the best it ever has. It's a shame there isn't more content on this, very limited special features and nothing new. I hope they put out the series on Blu-Ray soon, although I won't hold my breath because these Hollywood Dougs and their licensing problems tie everything up. Everything is about money for them, for me, it's all about watching cool movies and shows. This is definitely a cool movie. If you haven't seen it, you need to. If you love this movie and don't have it on Blu-Ray, you need to get it.
Sarah Michelle Gellar
Who directed the 1975 film Lisztomania?
14 Future Stars Who Appeared on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' | Mental Floss 14 Future Stars Who Appeared on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Buffy Wikia/Getty Images Like us on Facebook In its seven season run, the sci-fi/fantasy series Buffy the Vampire Slayer was responsible for launching the careers of a number of its stars, including Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendan, Charisma Carpenter, David Boreanaz, and Julie Benz, among others. A number of future famous faces stopped by the Hellmouth, too. 1. Carmine Giovinazzo // Season 1, Episode 1 Getty Images You might recognize him as the first-ever person killed on Buffy—in the pilot’s cold-open, by "damsel in distress"-turned-vampire Darla. You might also recognize Carmine Giovinazzo from his role on CSI: New York; he played Danny Messer. 2. Clea Duvall // Season 1, Episode 11 YouTube In "Out of Mind, Out of Sight," Clea Duvall played Marcie Ross, a student who feels so invisible she actually becomes invisible—and also goes crazy, setting her sights on popular girl Cordelia Chase. She later reunited with Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar in The Grudge, appeared in the Oscar winning film Argo, starred in the second season of American Horror Story, and appeared in Lifetime's The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, The Newsroom, and Better Call Saul.. 3. Eion Bailey // Season 1, Episode 6 In his first on-screen role, Eion Bailey played Kyle DuFours, a Sunnydale High student, who—along with four other students, including Xander—is possessed by the spirit of demonic hyenas. In one memorable scene of "The Pack," the group—minus Xander—kills and eats Sunnydale High Principal Bob Flutie. Bailey later appeared in six episodes of HBO’s Band of Brothers, had a 10-episode arc on ER, and starred as August Booth on the hit ABC series Once Upon a Time. And, oh yeah, he won a Daytime Emmy. 4. Jordana Spiro // Season 2, Episode 5 Getty Images In “Reptile Boy,” Jordana Spiro played Callie Anderson, a student at Kent Preparatory School, who was offered up as a sacrifice to a demon by a fraternity alongside Buffy and Cordelia. Spiro, who had just three screen credits to her name before she appeared on Buffy, went on to star in the TBS series My Boys and had an arc on CBS' The Good Wife. 5. Laura Silverman // Season 2, Episode 5 Getty Images Comedian Sarah Silverman’s sister Laura had her first on-screen role in “What’s My Line? Part 1,” playing Vampire #2 (she was uncredited). She went on to play Jan in Half-Baked and appear in the TV series Nurse Jackie and The Comeback. These days, she voices Andy, one of Jimmy Pesto’s twins, in Bob’s Burgers. (Sarah plays the other twin, Ollie.) 6. Wentworth Miller // Season 2, Episode 20 Wentworth Miller played Gage Petronzi, a member of the Sunnydale High Swim Team who becomes a Gill Monster, in the episode “Go Fish.” It was his first on-screen role. Later, he appeared in a pair of Mariah Carey music videos, starred in the TV series Prison Break and The Flash, and appeared in films, including Underworld and Resident Evil: Afterlife. 7. Shane West // Season 2, Episode 20 Buffy Wikia Shane West had a number of bit parts on other shows, including Boy Meets World and California Dreams, before he booked the role of Sean Dwyer in “Go Fish." Look for him in the scene where the swim team is in the sauna: He's the one who tells Xander that the steroids the swim team is taking—which the coach has laced with fish DNA to improve the swimmers’ performance (and is unknowingly turning them into sea monsters)—are in the steam. After Buffy, West starred in A Walk to Remember and on the TV series ER, Nikita, and Salem. 8. Pedro Pascal // Season 4, Episode 1 Buffy Wikia Before he was getting his skull crushed as Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones, Pedro Pascal was Pedro Balmaceda, and he played Eddie, a potential friend for Buffy, in “The Freshman.” In a Reddit AMA , Pascal explained that his character was “kind of [Buffy’s] first friend in college, or she finally meets a nice person that's in the same boat as her. And unfortunately I am turned into a vampire by the head campus vampire, and Buffy is forced to kill her first college friend. Or her first new college friend.” It was one of his first jobs out of college, which Pascal said “made my sister and friends very very proud.” Pascal has also appeared in The Adjustment Bureau, on The Mentalist, and this August, on Netflix's Narcos. 9. Kal Penn // Season 4, Episode 5 Buffy Wikia Harold & Kumar star Kal Penn’s third screen credit was a role as a stereotypical college guy—i.e., one who loves beer—in “Beer Bad." He played Hunt, a UC Sunnydale student who would go with his friends to a local pub to drink pitchers. One night, they entice Buffy to join them, and when they drink the Black Frost beer—which the pub's bitter owner, who is sick of being mocked by students, has put a spell on with the help of his warlock brother-in-law—they temporarily revert back to cavemen (and a kinda-cavelady, though Gellar doesn't get the full-on Neanderthal makeup), wreaking general havoc and setting the pub on fire. Not content with having just one role in the Buffyverse, Penn also appeared on the Buffy spin-off Angel; he played “Brain Man” in “That Vision Thing,” the second episode of the third season. Penn also worked with Buffy actress Alyson Hannigan again on an episode of How I Met Your Mother. Most recently, he appeared on CBS' Battle Creek as Fontanelle White.  10. Amy Adams // Season 5, Episode 6 Amy Adams Fan Amy Adams had appeared in the movie Drop Dead Gorgeous and had a number of guest-starring roles on other TV shows when she guest-starred in the Buffy episode “Family,” but was by no means a household name. Adams played Beth, a cousin of Willow’s girlfriend (and fellow witch) Tara, who comes to Sunnydale with Tara’s father and older brother Donny. They all seem pretty OK at first, but it turns out they're not so nice at all: They're there to bring Tara home, claiming that on Tara's 20th birthday, she’ll suddenly become evil thanks to some demonic heritage. (Spoiler alert: Tara's not a demon.) Memorable Adams line: "I hope you'll all be happy hanging out with a disgusting demon!" 11. Amber Tamblyn // Season 6, Episode 6 Buffy Wikia No doubt soap fans knew who Amber Tamblyn was when she played Dawn Summers' best friend Janice in the season six episode "All the Way"—she had played Emily Bowen/Quartermaine on General Hospital for six years. But Tamblyn wouldn't become really famous until she starred in the hit adaptation of YA novel, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The actress also appeared with Gellar in The Grudge 2, and had arcs on House MD and Two and a Half Men.  12. Zach Woodlee // Season 6, Episode 7 Getty Images Post-Buffy, Woodlee made a name for himself as a choreographer on, and producer of, the Fox series Glee. But back in the day, he did some acting and dancing on camera. One of his first roles was “Demon/Henchman” in the musical episode “Once More, With Feeling.” 13. Rachel Bilson // Season 7, Episode 18
i don't know
Rudolphe Raspe is best known for writing about whom?
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Forgotten Books): Amazon.es: Rudolph Erich Raspe: Libros en idiomas extranjeros Descripción del producto Reseña del editor The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is one of the most famous book of tall tales. It is based on stories told by Karl Friedrich von Münchhausen, a retired army captain, who was noted for his exaggerated and fantastic accounts of his war adventures and hunting experiences. The German scientist and librarian Rudolf Erich Raspe produced the first, small book based on these and some other stories. His work was followed by enlarged collections, composed by other authors, of whom Gottfried Bürger (1747-1794) is the most notable. (Quote from kirjasto.sci.fi) About the Author Rudolf Erich Raspe (1736 - 1794) was a German librarian, writer and scientist, and he was called by his biographer John Carswell a "rogue". He is best known for his collection of tall tales: The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, originally a satirical work with political aims. Raspe was born in Hanover, studied law and worked as a librarian for the university of Gottingen. Since 1767 he was responsible for some collections of the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel Frederic II before having to flee to England in 1775 after pilfering some gems that were supposedly in his care. He was employed by Matthew Boulton in the mines of Cornwall, and he was also publishing in geology and in the history of art. He also worked for the famous publisher John Nichols in several projects. In 1791 he moved to Scotland, and after an involvement in a mining swindle there, he left. He finally moved to Ireland where he managed a copper mine on the Herbert Estate. He died in Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland, of typhoid, in November of 1794. The Baron Munchausen tales were made famous when they were 'borrowed', translated into German, and embellished somewhat by G. A. Burger in 1786 - and have been a favourite read No es necesario ningún dispositivo Kindle. Descárgate una de las apps de Kindle gratuitas para comenzar a leer libros Kindle en tu smartphone, tablet u ordenador. Apple
Baron Munchausen
The characters Captain Cuttle and Mrs MacStinger appear in which Dickins novel?
HOT FREE BOOKS • The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen • Rudolph Erich Raspe THE SURPRISING ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN By Rudolph Erich Raspe Published in 1895. INTRODUCTION It is a curious fact that of that class of literature to which Munchausen belongs, that namely of Voyages Imaginaires, the three great types should have all been created in England. Utopia, Robinson Crusoe, and Gulliver, illustrating respectively the philosophical, the edifying, and the satirical type of fictitious travel, were all written in England, and at the end of the eighteenth century a fourth type, the fantastically mendacious, was evolved in this country. Of this type Munchausen was the modern original, and remains the classical example. The adaptability of such a species of composition to local and topical uses might well be considered prejudicial to its chances of obtaining a permanent place in literature. Yet Munchausen has undoubtedly achieved such a place. The Baron's notoriety is universal, his character proverbial, and his name as familiar as that of Mr. Lemuel Gulliver, or Robinson Crusoe, mariner, of York. Condemned by the learned, like some other masterpieces, as worthless, Munchausen's travels have obtained such a world-wide fame, that the story of their origin possesses a general and historic interest apart from whatever of obscurity or of curiosity it may have to recommend it. The work first appeared in London in the course of the year 1785. No copy of the first edition appears to be accessible; it seems, however, to have been issued some time in the autumn, and in the Critical Review for December 1785 there is the following notice: "Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia. Small 8vo, IS. (Smith). This is a satirical production calculated to throw ridicule on the bold assertions of some parliamentary declaimers. If rant may be best foiled at its own weapons, the author's design is not ill-founded; for the marvellous has never been carried to a more whimsical and ludicrous extent." The reviewer had probably read the work through from one paper cover to the other. It was in fact too short to bore the most blase of his kind, consisting of but forty-nine small octavo pages. The second edition, which is in the British Museum, bears the following title; "Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia; humbly dedicated and recommended to country gentlemen, and if they please to be repeated as their own after a hunt, at horse races, in watering places, and other such polite assemblies; round the bottle and fireside. Smith. Printed at Oxford. 1786." The fact that this little pamphlet again consists of but forty-nine small octavo pages, combined with the similarity of title (as far as that of the first edition is given in the Critical Review), publisher, and price, affords a strong presumption that it was identical with the first edition. This edition contains only chapters ii., iii., iv., v., and vi. (pp. 10-44) of the present reprint. These chapters are the best in the book and their substantial if peculiar merit can hardly be denied, but the pamphlet appears to have met with little success, and early in 1786 Smith seems to have sold the property to another bookseller, Kearsley. Kearsley had it enlarged, but not, we are expressly informed, in the preface to the seventh edition, by the hand of the original author (who happened to be in Cornwall at the time). He also had it illustrated and brought it out in the same year in book form at the enhanced price of two shillings, under the title: "Gulliver Reviv'd: The Singular Travels, Campaigns, Voyages and Sporting Adventures of Baron Munnikhouson commonly pronounced Munchausen; as he relates them over a bottle when surrounded by his friends. A new edition considerably enlarged with views from the Baron's drawings. London. 1786." A well-informed Critical Reviewer would have amended the title thus: "Lucian reviv'd: or Gulliver Beat with his own Bow." Four editions now succeeded each other with rapidity and without modification. A German translation appeared in 1786 with the imprint London: it was, however, in reality printed by Dieterich at Goettingen. It was a free rendering of the fifth edition, the preface being a clumsy combination of that prefixed to the original edition with that which Kearsley had added to the third. The fifth edition (which is, with the exception of trifling differences on the title-page, identical with the third, fourth, and sixth) is also that which has been followed in the present reprint down to the conclusion of chapter twenty, where it ends with the words "the great quadrangle." The supplement treating of Munchausen's extraordinary flight on the back of an eagle over France to Gibraltar, South and North America, the Polar Regions, and back to England is derived from the seventh edition of 1793, which has a new sub-title:—"Gulliver reviv'd, or the Vice of Lying properly exposed." The preface to this enlarged edition also informs the reader that the last four editions had met with extraordinary success, and that the supplementary chapters, all, that is, with the exception of chapters ii., iii., iv., v., and vi., which are ascribed to Baron Munchausen himself, were the production of another pen, written, however, in the Baron's manner. To the same ingenious person the public was indebted for the engravings with which the book was embellished. The seventh was the last edition by which the classic text of Munchausen was seriously modified. Even before this important consummation had been arrived at, a sequel, which was within a fraction as long as the original work (it occupies pp. 163-299 of this volume), had appeared under the title, "A Sequel to the Adventures of Baron Munchausen. . . . Humbly dedicated to Mr. Bruce the Abyssinian traveller, as the Baron conceives that it may be some service to him, previous to his making another journey into Abyssinia. But if this advice does not delight Mr. Bruce, the Baron is willing to fight him on any terms he pleases." This work was issued separately. London, 1792, 8vo. Such is the history of the book during the first eight or constructive years of its existence, beyond which it is necessary to trace it, until at least we have touched upon the long-vexed question of its authorship. Munchausen's travels have in fact been ascribed to as many different hands as those of Odysseus. But (as in most other respects) it differs from the more ancient fabulous narrative in that its authorship has been the subject of but little controversy. Many people have entertained erroneous notions as to its authorship, which they have circulated with complete assurance; but they have not felt it incumbent upon them to support their own views or to combat those of other people. It has, moreover, been frequently stated with equal confidence and inaccuracy that the authorship has never been settled. An early and persistent version of the genesis of the travels was that they took their origin from the rivalry in fabulous tales of three accomplished students at Goettingen University, Buerger, Kaestner, and Lichtenberg; another ran that Gottfried August Buerger, the German poet and author of "Lenore," had at a later stage of his career met Baron Munchausen in Pyrmont and taken down the stories from his own lips. Percy in his anecdotes attributes the Travels to a certain Mr. M. (Munchausen also began with an M.) who was imprisoned at Paris during the Reign of Terror. Southey in his "Omniana" conjectured, from the coincidences between two of the tales and two in a Portuguese periodical published in 1730, that the English fictions must have been derived from the Portuguese. William West the bookseller and numerous followers have stated that Munchausen owed its first origin to Bruce's Travels, and was written for the purpose of burlesquing that unfairly treated work. Pierer boldly stated that it was a successful anonymous satire upon the English government of the day, while Meusel with equal temerity affirmed in his "Lexikon" that the book was a translation of the "well-known Munchausen lies" executed from a (non-existent) German original by Rudolph Erich Raspe. A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1856 calls the book the joint production of Buerger and Raspe. Of all the conjectures, of which these are but a selection, the most accurate from a German point of view is that the book was the work of Buerger, who was the first to dress the Travels in a German garb, and was for a long time almost universally credited with the sole proprietorship. Buerger himself appears neither to have claimed nor disclaimed the distinction. There is, however, no doubt whatever that the book first appeared in English in 1785, and that Buerger's German version did not see the light until 1786. The first German edition (though in reality printed at Goettingen) bore the imprint London, and was stated to be derived from an English source; but this was, reasonably enough, held to be merely a measure of precaution in case the actual Baron Munchausen (who was a well-known personage in Goettingen) should be stupid enough to feel aggrieved at being made the butt of a gross caricature. In this way the discrepancy of dates mentioned above might easily have been obscured, and Buerger might still have been credited with a work which has proved a better protection against oblivion than "Lenore," had it not been for the officious sensitiveness of his self-appointed biographer, Karl von Reinhard. Reinhard, in an answer to an attack made upon his hero for bringing out Munchausen as a pot-boiler in German and English simultaneously, definitely stated in the Berlin Gesellschafters of November 1824, that the real author of the original work was that disreputable genius, Rudolph Erich Raspe, and that the German work was merely a free translation made by Buerger from the fifth edition of the English work. Buerger, he stated, was well aware of, but was too high-minded to disclose the real authorship. Taking Reinhard's solemn asseveration in conjunction with the ascertained facts of Raspe's career, his undoubted acquaintance with the Baron Munchausen of real life and the first appearance of the work in 1785, when Raspe was certainly in England, there seems to be little difficulty in accepting his authorship as a positive fact. There is no difficulty whatever, in crediting Raspe with a sufficient mastery of English idiom to have written the book without assistance, for as early as January 1780 (since which date Raspe had resided uninterruptedly in this country) Walpole wrote to his friend Mason that "Raspe writes English much above ill and speaks it as readily as French," and shortly afterwards he remarked that he wrote English "surprisingly well." In the next year, 1781, Raspe's absolute command of the two languages encouraged him to publish two moderately good prose-translations, one of Lessing's "Nathan the Wise," and the other of Zachariae's Mock-heroic, "Tabby in Elysium." The erratic character of the punctuation may be said, with perfect impartiality, to be the only distinguishing feature of the style of the original edition of "Munchausen." Curious as is this long history of literary misappropriation, the chequered career of the rightful author, Rudolph Erich Raspe, offers a chapter in biography which has quite as many points of singularity. Born in Hanover in 1737, Raspe studied at the Universities of Goettingen and Leipsic. He is stated also to have rendered some assistance to a young nobleman in sowing his wild oats, a sequel to his university course which may possibly help to explain his subsequent aberrations. The connection cannot have lasted long, as in 1762, having already obtained reputation as a student of natural history and antiquities, he obtained a post as one of the clerks in the University Library at Hanover. No later than the following year contributions written in elegant Latin are to be found attached to his name in the Leipsic Nova Acta Eruditorum. In 1764 he alluded gracefully to the connection between Hanover and England in a piece upon the birthday of Queen Charlotte, and having been promoted secretary of the University Library at Goettingen, the young savant commenced a translation of Leibniz's philosophical works which was issued in Latin and French after the original MSS. in the Royal Library at Hanover, with a preface by Raspe's old college friend Kaestner (Goettingen, 1765). At once a courtier, an antiquary, and a philosopher, Raspe next sought to display his vocation for polite letters, by publishing an ambitious allegorical poem of the age of chivalry, entitled "Hermin and Gunilde," which was not only exceedingly well reviewed, but received the honour of a parody entitled "Harlequin and Columbine." He also wrote translations of several of the poems of Ossian, and a disquisition upon their genuineness; and then with better inspiration he wrote a considerable treatise on "Percy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry," with metrical translations, being thus the first to call the attention of Germany to these admirable poems, which were afterwards so successfully ransacked by Buerger, Herder, and other early German romanticists. In 1767 Raspe was again advanced by being appointed Professor at the Collegium Carolinum in Cassel, and keeper of the landgrave of Hesse's rich and curious collection of antique gems and medals. He was shortly afterwards appointed Librarian in the same city, and in 1771 he married. He continued writing on natural history, mineralogy, and archaeology, and in 1769 a paper in the 59th volume of the Philosophical Transactions, on the bones and teeth of elephants and other animals found in North America and various boreal regions of the world, procured his election as an honorary member of the Royal Society of London. His conclusion in this paper that large elephants or mammoths must have previously existed in boreal regions has, of course, been abundantly justified by later investigations. When it is added that Raspe during this part of his life also wrote papers on lithography and upon musical instruments, and translated Algarotti's Treatise on "Architecture, Painting, and Opera Music," enough will have been said to make manifest his very remarkable and somewhat prolix versatility. In 1773 he made a tour in Westphalia in quest of MSS., and on his return, by way of completing his education, he turned journalist, and commenced a periodical called the Cassel Spectator, with Mauvillon as his co-editor. In 1775 he was travelling in Italy on a commission to collect articles of vertu for the landgrave, and it was apparently soon after his return that he began appropriating to his own use valuable coins abstracted from the cabinets entrusted to his care. He had no difficulty in finding a market for the antiques which he wished to dispose of, and which, it has been charitably suggested, he had every intention of replacing whenever opportunity should serve. His consequent procedure was, it is true, scarcely that of a hardened criminal. Having obtained the permission of the landgrave to visit Berlin, he sent the keys of his cabinet back to the authorities at Cassel—and disappeared. His thefts, to the amount of two thousand rixdollars, were promptly discovered, and advertisements were issued for the arrest of the Councillor Raspe, described without suspicion of flattery as a long-faced man, with small eyes, crooked nose, red hair under a stumpy periwig, and a jerky gait. The necessities that prompted him to commit a felony are possibly indicated by the addition that he usually appeared in a scarlet dress embroidered with gold, but sometimes in black, blue, or grey clothes. He was seized when he had got no farther than Klausthal, in the Hartz mountains, but he lost no time in escaping from the clutches of the police, and made his way to England. He never again set foot on the continent. He was already an excellent English scholar, so that when he reached London it was not unnatural that he should look to authorship for support. Without loss of time, he published in London in 1776 a volume on some German Volcanoes and their productions; in 1777 he translated the then highly esteemed mineralogical travels of Ferber in Italy and Hungary. In 1780 we have an interesting account of him from Horace Walpole, who wrote to his friend, the Rev. William Mason: "There is a Dutch scavant come over who is author of several pieces so learned that I do not even know their titles: but he has made a discovery in my way which you may be sure I believe, for it proves what I expected and hinted in my 'Anecdotes of Painting,' that the use of oil colours was known long before Van Eyck." Raspe, he went on to say, had discovered a MS. of Theophilus, a German monk in the fourth century, who gave receipts for preparing the colours, and had thereby convicted Vasari of error. "Raspe is poor, and I shall try and get subscriptions to enable him to print his work, which is sensible, clear, and unpretending." Three months later it was, "Poor Raspe is arrested by his tailor. I have sent him a little money, and he hopes to recover his liberty, but I question whether he will be able to struggle on here." His "Essay on the Origin of Oil Painting" was actually published through Walpole's good service in April 1781. He seems to have had plans of going to America and of excavating antiquities in Egypt, where he might have done good service, but the bad name that he had earned dogged him to London. The Royal Society struck him off its rolls, and in revenge he is said to have threatened to publish a travesty of their transactions. He was doubtless often hard put to it for a living, but the variety of his attainments served him in good stead. He possessed or gained some reputation as a mining expert, and making his way down into Cornwall, he seems for some years subsequent to 1782 to have been assay-master and storekeeper of some mines at Dolcoath. While still at Dolcoath, it is very probable that he put together the little pamphlet which appeared in London at the close of 1785, with the title "Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia," and having given his jeu d'esprit to the world, and possibly earned a few guineas by it, it is not likely that he gave much further thought to the matter. In the course of 1785 or 1786, he entered upon a task of much greater magnitude and immediate importance, namely, a descriptive catalogue of the Collection of Pastes and Impressions from Ancient and Modern Gems, formed by James Tassie, the eminent connoisseur. Tassie engaged Raspe in 1785 to take charge of his cabinets, and to commence describing their contents: he can hardly have been ignorant of his employe's delinquencies in the past, but he probably estimated that mere casts of gems would not offer sufficient temptation to a man of Raspe's eclectic tastes to make the experiment a dangerous one. Early in 1786, Raspe produced a brief but well-executed conspectus of the arrangement and classification of the collection, and this was followed in 1791 by "A Descriptive Catalogue," in which over fifteen thousand casts of ancient and modern engraved gems, cameos, and intaglios from the most renowned cabinets in Europe were enumerated and described in French and English. The two quarto volumes are a monument of patient and highly skilled industry, and they still fetch high prices. The elaborate introduction prefixed to the work was dated from Edinburgh, April 16, 1790. This laborious task completed, Raspe lost no time in applying himself with renewed energy to mineralogical work. It was announced in the Scots Magazine for October 1791 that he had discovered in the extreme north of Scotland, where he had been invited to search for minerals, copper, lead, iron, manganese, and other valuable products of a similar character. From Sutherland he brought specimens of the finest clay, and reported a fine vein of heavy spar and "every symptom of coal." But in Caithness lay the loadstone which had brought Raspe to Scotland. This was no other than Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster, a benevolent gentleman of an ingenious and inquiring disposition, who was anxious to exploit the supposed mineral wealth of his barren Scottish possessions. With him Raspe took up his abode for a considerable time at his spray-beaten castle on the Pentland Firth, and there is a tradition, among members of the family, of Sir John's unfailing appreciation of the wide intelligence and facetious humour of Raspe's conversation. Sinclair had some years previously discovered a small vein of yellow mundick on the moor of Skinnet, four miles from Thurso. The Cornish miners he consulted told him that the mundick was itself of no value, but a good sign of the proximity of other valuable minerals. Mundick, said they, was a good horseman, and always rode on a good load. He now employed Raspe to examine the ground, not designing to mine it himself, but to let it out to other capitalists in return for a royalty, should the investigation justify his hopes. The necessary funds were put at Raspe's disposal, and masses of bright, heavy material were brought to Thurso Castle as a foretaste of what was coming. But when the time came for the fruition of this golden promise, Raspe disappeared, and subsequent inquiries revealed the deplorable fact that these opulent ores had been carefully imported by the mining expert from Cornwall, and planted in the places where they were found. Sir Walter Scott must have had the incident (though not Raspe) in his mind when he created the Dousterswivel of his "Antiquary." As for Raspe, he betook himself to a remote part of the United Kingdom, and had commenced some mining operations in country Donegal, when he was carried off by scarlet fever at Muckross in 1794. Such in brief outline was the career of Rudolph Erich Raspe, scholar, swindler, and undoubted creator of Baron Munchausen. The merit of Munchausen, as the adult reader will readily perceive, does not reside in its literary style, for Raspe is no exception to the rule that a man never has a style worthy of the name in a language that he did not prattle in. But it is equally obvious that the real and original Munchausen, as Raspe conceived and doubtless intended at one time to develop him, was a delightful personage whom it would be the height of absurdity to designate a mere liar. Unfortunately the task was taken out of his hand and a good character spoiled, like many another, by mere sequel-mongers. Raspe was an impudent scoundrel, and fortunately so; his impudence relieves us of any difficulty in resolving the question,—to whom (if any one) did he owe the original conception of the character whose fame is now so universal. When Raspe was resident in Goettingen he obtained, in all probability through Gerlach Adolph von Munchausen, the great patron of arts and letters and of Goettingen University, an introduction to Hieronynimus Karl Friedrich von Munchausen, at whose hospitable mansion at Bodenwerder he became an occasional visitor. Hieronynimus, who was born at Bodenwerder on May 11, 1720, was a cadet of what was known as the black line of the house of Rinteln Bodenwerder, and in his youth served as a page in the service of Prince Anton Ulrich of Brunswick. When quite a stripling he obtained a cornetcy in the "Brunswick Regiment" in the Russian service, and on November 27, 1740, he was created a lieutenant by letters patent of the Empress Anna, and served two arduous campaigns against the Turks during the following years. In 1750 he was promoted to be a captain of cuirassiers by the Empress Elizabeth, and about 1760 he retired from the Russian service to live upon his patrimonial estate at Bodenwerder in the congenial society of his wife and his paragon among huntsmen, Roesemeyer, for whose particular benefit he maintained a fine pack of hounds. He kept open house, and loved to divert his guests with stories, not in the braggart vein of Dugald Dalgetty, but so embellished with palpably extravagant lies as to crack with a humour that was all their own. The manner has been appropriated by Artemus Ward and Mark Twain, but it was invented by Munchausen. Now the stories mainly relate to sporting adventures, and it has been asserted by one contemporary of the baron that Munchausen contracted the habit of drawing such a long-bow as a measure of self-defence against his invaluable but loquacious henchman, the worthy Roesemeyer. But it is more probable, as is hinted in the first preface, that Munchausen, being a shrewd man, found the practice a sovereign specific against bores and all other kinds of serious or irrelevant people, while it naturally endeared him to the friends of whom he had no small number. He told his stories with imperturbable sang froid, in a dry manner, and with perfect naturalness and simplicity. He spoke as a man of the world, without circumlocution; his adventures were numerous and perhaps singular, but only such as might have been expected to happen to a man of so much experience. A smile never traversed his face as he related the least credible of his tales, which the less intimate of his acquaintance began in time to think he meant to be taken seriously. In short, so strangely entertaining were both manner and matter of his narratives, that "Munchausen's Stories" became a by-word among a host of appreciative acquaintance. Among these was Raspe, who years afterwards, when he was starving in London, bethought himself of the incomparable baron. He half remembered some of his sporting stories, and supplemented these by gleanings from his own commonplace book. The result is a curious medley, which testifies clearly to learning and wit, and also to the turning over of musty old books of facetiae written in execrable Latin. The story of the Baron's horse being cut in two by the descending portcullis of a besieged town, and the horseman's innocence of the fact until, upon reaching a fountain in the midst of the city, the insatiate thirst of the animal betrayed his deficiency in hind quarters, was probably derived by Raspe from the Facetiae Bebelianae of Heinrich Bebel, first published at Strassburgh in 1508. There it is given as follows: "De Insigni Mendacio. Faber clavicularius quem superius fabrum mendaciorum dixi, narravit se tempore belli, credens suos se subsecuturos equitando ad cujusdam oppidi portas penetrasse: et cum ad portas venisset cataractam turre demissam, equum suum post ephippium discidisse, dimidiatumque reliquisse, atque se media parte equi ad forum usque oppidi equitasse, et caedem non modicam peregisse. Sed cum retrocedere vellet multitudine hostium obrutus, tum demum equum cecidisse seque captum fuisse." The drinking at the fountain was probably an embellishment of Raspe's own. Many of Bebel's jests were repeated in J. P. Lange's Delicioe Academicoe (Heilbronn, 1665), a section of which was expressly devoted to "Mendacia Ridicula"; but the yarn itself is probably much older than either. Similarly, the quaint legend of the thawing of the horn was told by Castiglione in his Cortegiano, first published in 1528. This is how Castiglione tells it: A merchant of Lucca had travelled to Poland in order to buy furs; but as there was at that time a war with Muscovy, from which country the furs were procured, the Lucchese merchant was directed to the confines of the two countries. On reaching the Borysthenes, which divided Poland and Muscovy, he found that the Muscovite traders remained on their own side of the river from distrust, on account of the state of hostilities. The Muscovites, desirous of being heard across the river announced the prices of their furs in a loud voice; but the cold was so intense that their words were frozen in the air before they could reach the opposite side. Hereupon the Poles lighted a fire in the middle of the river, which was frozen into a solid mass; and in the course of an hour the words which had been frozen up were melted, and fell gently upon the further bank, although the Muscovite traders had already gone away. The prices demanded were, however, so high that the Lucchese merchant returned without making any purchase. A similar idea is utilised by Rabelais in Pantagruel, and by Steele in one of his Tatlers. The story of the cherry tree growing out of the stag's head, again, is given in Lange's book, and the fact that all three tales are of great antiquity is proved by the appearance of counterparts to them in Lady Guest's edition of the Mabinogion. A great number of nugoe canoroe of a perfectly similar type are narrated in the sixteenth century "Travels of the Finkenritter" attributed to Lorenz von Lauterbach. To humorous waifs of this description, without fixed origin or birthplace, did Raspe give a classical setting amongst embroidered versions of the baron's sporting jokes. The unscrupulous manner in which he affixed Munchausen's own name to the completed jeu d'esprit is, ethically speaking, the least pardonable of his crimes; for when Raspe's little book was first transformed and enlarged, and then translated into German, the genial old baron found himself the victim of an unmerciful caricature, and without a rag of concealment. It is consequently not surprising to hear that he became soured and reticent before his death at Bodenwerder in 1797. Strangers had already begun to come down to the place in the hope of getting a glimpse of the eccentric nobleman, and foolish stories were told of his thundering out his lies with apoplectic visage, his eyes starting out of his head, and perspiration beading his forehead. The fountain of his reminiscences was in reality quite dried up, and it must be admitted that this excellent old man had only too good reason to consider himself an injured person. In this way, then, came to be written the first delightful chapters of Baron Munchausen's "Narrative of his Travels and Campaigns in Russia." It was not primarily intended as a satire, nor was it specially designed to take of the extravagant flights of contemporary travellers. It was rather a literary frivolity, thrown off at one effort by a tatterdemalion genius in sore need of a few guineas. The remainder of the book is a melancholy example of the fallacy of enlargements and of sequels. Neither Raspe nor the baron can be seriously held responsible for a single word of it. It must have been written by a bookseller's hack, whom it is now quite impossible to identify, but who was evidently of native origin; and the book is a characteristically English product, full of personal and political satire, with just a twang of edification. The first continuation (chapters one and seven, to twenty, inclusive), which was supplied with the third edition, is merely a modern rechauffe, with "up to date" allusions, of Lucian's Vera Historia. Prototypes of the majority of the stories may either be found in Lucian or in the twenty volumes of Voyages Imaginaires, published at Paris in 1787. In case, however, any reader should be sceptical as to the accuracy of this statement he will have no very great difficulty in supposing, as Dr. Johnson supposed of Ossian, that anybody could write a great amount of such stuff if he would only consent to abandon his mind to the task. With the supplementary chapters commence topical allusions to the recently issued memoirs of Baron de Tott, an enterprising Frenchman who had served the Great Turk against the Russians in the Crimea (an English translation of his book had appeared in 1785). The satire upon this gallant soldier's veracity appears to be quite undeserved, though one can hardly read portions of his adventures without being forcibly reminded of the Baron's laconic style. It is needless to add that the amazing account of De Tott's origin is grossly libellous. The amount of public interest excited by the aeronautical exploits of Montgolfier and Blanchard was also playfully satirised. Their first imitator in England, Vincenzo Lunardi, had made a successful ascent from Moorfields as recently as 1784, while in the following year Blanchard crossed the channel in a balloon and earned the sobriquet Don Quixote de la Manche. His grotesque appropriation of the motto "Sic itur ad astra" made him, at least, a fit object for Munchausen's gibes. In the Baron's visit to Gibraltar we have evidence that the anonymous writer, in common with the rest of the reading public, had been studying John Drinkwater's "History of the Siege of Gibraltar" (completed in 1783), which had with extreme rapidity established its reputation as a military classic. Similarly, in the Polar adventures, the "Voyage towards the North Pole," 1774, of Constantine John Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, is gently ridiculed, and so also some incidents from Patrick Brydone's "Tour through Sicily and Malta" (1773), are, for no obvious reason, contemptuously dragged in. The exploitation of absurd and libellous chap-book lives of Pope Clement XIV., the famous Ganganelli, can only be described as a low bid for vulgar applause. A French translation of Baron Friedrich von Trenck's celebrated Memoirs appeared at Metz in 1787, and it would certainly seem that in overlooking them the compiler of Munchausen was guilty of a grave omission. He may, however, have regarded Trenck's adventures less as material for ridicule than as a series of hableries which threatened to rival his own. The Seventh Edition, published in 1793, with the supplement (pp. 142- 161), was, with the abominable proclivity to edification which marked the publisher of the period (that of "Goody Two-Shoes" and "Sandford and Merton"), styled "Gulliver Reviv'd: or the Vice of Lying Properly Exposed." The previous year had witnessed the first appearance of the sequel, of which the full title has already been given, "with twenty capital copperplates, including the baron's portrait." The merit of Munchausen as a mouthpiece for ridiculing traveller's tall-talk, or indeed anything that shocked the incredulity of the age, was by this time widely recognised. And hence with some little ingenuity the popular character was pressed into the service of the vulgar clamour against James Bruce, whose "Travels to Discover the Sources of the Nile" had appeared in 1790. In particular Bruce's description of the Abyssinian custom of feeding upon "live bulls and kava" provoked a chorus of incredulity. The traveller was ridiculed upon the stage as Macfable, and in a cloud of ephemeral productions; nor is the following allusion in Peter Pindar obscure:— "Nor have I been where men (what loss alas!) Kill half a cow, then send the rest to grass." The way in which Bruce resented the popular scepticism is illustrated by the following anecdote told by Sir Francis Head, his biographer. A gentleman once observed, at a country house where Bruce was staying, that it was not possible that the natives of Abyssinia could eat raw meat! "Bruce said not a word, but leaving the room, shortly returned from the kitchen with a piece of raw beef-steak, peppered and salted in the Abyssinian fashion. 'You will eat that, sir, or fight me,' he said. When the gentleman had eaten up the raw flesh (most willingly would he have eaten his words instead), Bruce calmly observed, 'Now, sir, you will never again say it is impossible.'" In reality, Bruce seems to have been treated with much the same injustice as Herodotus. The truth of the bulk of his narrative has been fully established, although a passion for the picturesque may certainly have led him to embellish many of the minor particulars. And it must be remembered, that his book was not dictated until twelve years after the events narrated. Apart from Bruce, however, the sequel, like the previous continuation, contains a great variety of political, literary, and other allusions of the most purely topical character—Dr. Johnson's Tour in the Hebrides, Mr. Pitt, Burke's famous pamphlet upon the French Revolution, Captain Cook, Tippoo Sahib (who had been brought to bay by Lord Cornwallis between 1790 and 1792). The revolutionary pandemonium in Paris, and the royal flight to Varennes in June 1791, and the loss of the "Royal George" in 1782, all form the subjects of quizzical comments, and there are many other allusions the interest of which is quite as ephemeral as those of a Drury Lane pantomime or a Gaiety Burlesque. Nevertheless the accretions have proved powerless to spoil "Munchausen." The nucleus supplied by Raspe was instinct with so much energy that it has succeeded in vitalising the whole mass of extraneous extravagance. Although, like "Gulliver's Travels," "Munchausen" might at first sight appear to be ill-suited, in more than one respect, for the nursery, yet it has proved the delight of children of all ages; and there are probably few, in the background of whose childish imagination the astonishing Munchausen has not at one time or another, together with Robinson Crusoe, Jack-the-Giant-Killer, and the Pied Piper of Hamelyn, assumed proportions at once gigantic and seductively picturesque. The work, as has been shown, assumed its final form before the close of the eighteenth century; with the nineteenth it commenced its triumphant progress over the civilised world. Some of the subsequent transformations and migrations of the book are worthy of brief record. A voluminous German continuation was published at Stendhal in three volumes between 1794 and 1800. There was also a continuation comprising exploits at Walcheren, the Dardanelles, Talavera, Cintra, and elsewhere, published in London in 1811. An elaborate French translation, with embellishments in the French manner, appeared at Paris in 1862. Immerman's celebrated novel entitled "Munchausen" was published in four volumes at Dusseldorf in 1841, and a very free rendering of the Baron's exploits, styled "Munchausen's Lugenabenteuer," at Leipsic in 1846. The work has also been translated into Dutch, Danish, Magyar (Bard de Manx), Russian, Portuguese, Spanish (El Conde de las Maravillas), and many other tongues, and an estimate that over one hundred editions have appeared in England, Germany, and America alone, is probably rather under than above the mark. The book has, moreover, at the same time provided illustrations to writers and orators, and the richest and most ample material for illustrations to artists. The original rough woodcuts are anonymous, but the possibilities of the work were discovered as early as 1809, by Thomas Rowlandson, who illustrated the edition published in that year. The edition of 1859 owed embellishments to Crowquill, while Cruikshank supplied some characteristic woodcuts to that of 1869. Coloured designs for the travels were executed by a French artist Richard in 1878, and illustrations were undertaken independently for the German editions by Riepenhausen and Hosemann respectively. The German artist Adolph Schroedter has also painted a celebrated picture representing the Baron surrounded by his listeners. But of all the illustrations yet invented, the general verdict has hitherto declared in favour of those supplied to Theophile Gautier's French edition of 1862 by Gustave Dore, who fully maintained by them the reputation he had gained for work of a similar genre in his drawings for Balzac's Contes Drolatiques. When, however, the public has had an opportunity of appreciating the admirably fantastic drawings made by Mr. William Strang and Mr. J. B. Clark for the present edition, they will probably admit that Baron Munchausen's indebtedness to his illustrations, already very great, has been more than doubled. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION Baron Munnikhouson or Munchausen, of Bodenweder, near Hamelyn on the Weser, belongs to the noble family of that name, which gave to the King's German dominions the late prime minister and several other public characters equally bright and illustrious. He is a man of great original humour; and having found that prejudiced minds cannot be reasoned into common sense, and that bold assertors are very apt to bully and speak their audience out of it, he never argues with either of them, but adroitly turns the conversation upon indifferent topics and then tells a story of his travels, campaigns, and sporting adventures, in a manner peculiar to himself, and well calculated to awaken and shame the common sense of those who have lost sight of it by prejudice or habit. As this method has been often attended with good success, we beg leave to lay some of his stories before the public, and humbly request those who shall find them rather extravagant and bordering upon the marvellous, which will require but a very moderate share of common sense, to exercise the same upon every occurrence of life, and chiefly upon our English politics, in which old habits and bold assertions, set off by eloquent speeches and supported by constitutional mobs, associations, volunteers, and foreign influence, have of late, we apprehend, but too successfully turned our brains, and made us the laughing-stock of Europe, and of France and Holland in particular. TO THE PUBLIC Having heard, for the first time, that my adventures have been doubted, and looked upon as jokes, I feel bound to come forward and vindicate my character for veracity, by paying three shillings at the Mansion House of this great city for the affidavits hereto appended. This I have been forced into in regard of my own honour, although I have retired for many years from public and private life; and I hope that this, my last edition, will place me in a proper light with my readers. AT THE CITY OF LONDON, ENGLAND. We, the undersigned, as true believers in the profit, do most solemnly affirm, that all the adventures of our friend Baron Munchausen, in whatever country they may lie, are positive and simple facts. And, as we have been believed, whose adventures are tenfold more wonderful, so do we hope all true believers will give him their full faith and credence. GULLIVER. x SINBAD. x ALADDIN. x Sworn at the Mansion House 9th Nov. last, in the absence of the Lord Mayor. JOHN (the Porter). TRAVELS OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN CHAPTER I [THE BARON IS SUPPOSED TO RELATE THESE ADVENTURES TO HIS FRIENDS OVER A BOTTLE.] The Baron relates an account of his first travels—The astonishing effects of a storm—Arrives at Ceylon; combats and conquers two extraordinary opponents—Returns to Holland. Some years before my beard announced approaching manhood, or, in other words, when I was neither man nor boy, but between both, I expressed in repeated conversations a strong desire of seeing the world, from which I was discouraged by my parents, though my father had been no inconsiderable traveller himself, as will appear before I have reached the end of my singular, and, I may add, interesting adventures. A cousin, by my mother's side, took a liking to me, often said I was fine forward youth, and was much inclined to gratify my curiosity. His eloquence had more effect than mine, for my father consented to my accompanying him in a voyage to the island of Ceylon, where his uncle had resided as governor many years. We sailed from Amsterdam with despatches from their High Mightinesses the States of Holland. The only circumstance which happened on our voyage worth relating was the wonderful effects of a storm, which had torn up by the roots a great number of trees of enormous bulk and height, in an island where we lay at anchor to take in wood and water; some of these trees weighed many tons, yet they were carried by the wind so amazingly high, that they appeared like the feathers of small birds floating in the air, for they were at least five miles above the earth: however, as soon as the storm subsided they all fell perpendicularly into their respective places, and took root again, except the largest, which happened, when it was blown into the air, to have a man and his wife, a very honest old couple, upon its branches, gathering cucumbers (in this part of the globe that useful vegetable grows upon trees): the weight of this couple, as the tree descended, over-balanced the trunk, and brought it down in a horizontal position: it fell upon the chief man of the island, and killed him on the spot; he had quitted his house in the storm, under an apprehension of its falling upon him, and was returning through his own garden when this fortunate accident happened. The word fortunate, here, requires some explanation. This chief was a man of a very avaricious and oppressive disposition, and though he had no family, the natives of the island were half-starved by his oppressive and infamous impositions. The very goods which he had thus taken from them were spoiling in his stores, while the poor wretches from whom they were plundered were pining in poverty. Though the destruction of this tyrant was accidental, the people chose the cucumber-gatherers for their governors, as a mark of their gratitude for destroying, though accidentally, their late tyrant. After we had repaired the damages we sustained in this remarkable storm, and taken leave of the new governor and his lady, we sailed with a fair wind for the object of our voyage. In about six weeks we arrived at Ceylon, where we were received with great marks of friendship and true politeness. The following singular adventures may not prove unentertaining. After we had resided at Ceylon about a fortnight I accompanied one of the governor's brothers upon a shooting party. He was a strong, athletic man, and being used to that climate (for he had resided there some years), he bore the violent heat of the sun much better than I could; in our excursion he had made a considerable progress through a thick wood when I was only at the entrance. Near the banks of a large piece of water, which had engaged my attention, I thought I heard a rustling noise behind; on turning about I was almost petrified (as who would not be?) at the sight of a lion, which was evidently approaching with the intention of satisfying his appetite with my poor carcase, and that without asking my consent. What was to be done in this horrible dilemma? I had not even a moment for reflection; my piece was only charged with swan-shot, and I had no other about me: however, though I could have no idea of killing such an animal with that weak kind of ammunition, yet I had some hopes of frightening him by the report, and perhaps of wounding him also. I immediately let fly, without waiting till he was within reach, and the report did but enrage him, for he now quickened his pace, and seemed to approach me full speed: I attempted to escape, but that only added (if an addition could be made) to my distress; for the moment I turned about I found a large crocodile, with his mouth extended almost ready to receive me. On my right hand was the piece of water before mentioned, and on my left a deep precipice, said to have, as I have since learned, a receptacle at the bottom for venomous creatures; in short I gave myself up as lost, for the lion was now upon his hind-legs, just in the act of seizing me; I fell involuntarily to the ground with fear, and, as it afterwards appeared, he sprang over me. I lay some time in a situation which no language can describe, expecting to feel his teeth or talons in some part of me every moment: after waiting in this prostrate situation a few seconds I heard a violent but unusual noise, different from any sound that had ever before assailed my ears; nor is it at all to be wondered at, when I inform you from whence it proceeded: after listening for some time, I ventured to raise my head and look round, when, to my unspeakable joy, I perceived the lion had, by the eagerness with which he sprung at me, jumped forward, as I fell, into the crocodile's mouth! which, as before observed, was wide open; the head of the one stuck in the throat of the other! and they were struggling to extricate themselves! I fortunately recollected my couteau de chasse, which was by my side; with this instrument I severed the lion's head at one blow, and the body fell at my feet! I then, with the butt-end of my fowling-piece, rammed the head farther into the throat of the crocodile, and destroyed him by suffocation, for he could neither gorge nor eject it. Soon after I had thus gained a complete victory over my two powerful adversaries, my companion arrived in search of me; for finding I did not follow him into the wood, he returned, apprehending I had lost my way, or met with some accident. After mutual congratulations, we measured the crocodile, which was just forty feet in length. As soon as we had related this extraordinary adventure to the governor, he sent a waggon and servants, who brought home the two carcases. The lion's skin was properly preserved, with its hair on, after which it was made into tobacco-pouches, and presented by me, upon our return to Holland, to the burgomasters, who, in return, requested my acceptance of a thousand ducats. The skin of the crocodile was stuffed in the usual manner, and makes a capital article in their public museum at Amsterdam, where the exhibitor relates the whole story to each spectator, with such additions as he thinks proper. Some of his variations are rather extravagant; one of them is, that the lion jumped quite through the crocodile, and was making his escape at the back door, when, as soon as his head appeared, Monsieur the Great Baron (as he is pleased to call me) cut it off, and three feet of the crocodile's tail along with it; nay, so little attention has this fellow to the truth, that he sometimes adds, as soon as the crocodile missed his tail, he turned about, snatched the couteau de chasse out of Monsieur's hand, and swallowed it with such eagerness that it pierced his heart and killed him immediately! The little regard which this impudent knave has to veracity makes me sometimes apprehensive that my real facts may fall under suspicion, by being found in company with his confounded inventions. CHAPTER II In which the Baron proves himself a good shot—He loses his horse, and finds a wolf—Makes him draw his sledge—Promises to entertain his company with a relation of such facts as are well deserving their notice. I set off from Rome on a journey to Russia, in the midst of winter, from a just notion that frost and snow must of course mend the roads, which every traveller had described as uncommonly bad through the northern parts of Germany, Poland, Courland, and Livonia. I went on horseback, as the most convenient manner of travelling; I was but lightly clothed, and of this I felt the inconvenience the more I advanced north-east. What must not a poor old man have suffered in that severe weather and climate, whom I saw on a bleak common in Poland, lying on the road, helpless, shivering, and hardly having wherewithal to cover his nakedness? I pitied the poor soul: though I felt the severity of the air myself, I threw my mantle over him, and immediately I heard a voice from the heavens, blessing me for that piece of charity, saying— "You will be rewarded, my son, for this in time." I went on: night and darkness overtook me. No village was to be seen. The country was covered with snow, and I was unacquainted with the road. Tired, I alighted, and fastened my horse to something like a pointed stump of a tree, which appeared above the snow; for the sake of safety I placed my pistols under my arm, and laid down on the snow, where I slept so soundly that I did not open my eyes till full daylight. It is not easy to conceive my astonishment to find myself in the midst of a village, lying in a churchyard; nor was my horse to be seen, but I heard him soon after neigh somewhere above me. On looking upwards I beheld him hanging by his bridle to the weather-cock of the steeple. Matters were now very plain to me: the village had been covered with snow overnight; a sudden change of weather had taken place; I had sunk down to the churchyard whilst asleep, gently, and in the same proportion as the snow had melted away; and what in the dark I had taken to be a stump of a little tree appearing above the snow, to which I had tied my horse, proved to have been the cross or weather-cock of the steeple! Without long consideration I took one of my pistols, shot the bridle in two, brought the horse, and proceeded on my journey. [Here the Baron seems to have forgot his feelings; he should certainly have ordered his horse a feed of corn, after fasting so long.] He carried me well—advancing into the interior parts of Russia. I found travelling on horseback rather unfashionable in winter, therefore I submitted, as I always do, to the custom of the country, took a single horse sledge, and drove briskly towards St. Petersburg. I do not exactly recollect whether it was in Eastland or Jugemanland, but I remember that in the midst of a dreary forest I spied a terrible wolf making after me, with all the speed of ravenous winter hunger. He soon overtook me. There was no possibility of escape. Mechanically I laid myself down flat in the sledge, and let my horse run for our safety. What I wished, but hardly hoped or expected, happened immediately after. The wolf did not mind me in the least, but took a leap over me, and falling furiously on the horse, began instantly to tear and devour the hind-part of the poor animal, which ran the faster for his pain and terror. Thus unnoticed and safe myself, I lifted my head slyly up, and with horror I beheld that the wolf had ate his way into the horse's body; it was not long before he had fairly forced himself into it, when I took my advantage, and fell upon him with the butt-end of my whip. This unexpected attack in his rear frightened him so much, that he leaped forward with all his might: the horse's carcase dropped on the ground, but in his place the wolf was in the harness, and I on my part whipping him continually: we both arrived in full career safe at St. Petersburg, contrary to our respective expectations, and very much to the astonishment of the spectators. I shall not tire you, gentlemen, with the politics, arts, sciences, and history of this magnificent metropolis of Russia, nor trouble you with the various intrigues and pleasant adventures I had in the politer circles of that country, where the lady of the house always receives the visitor with a dram and a salute. I shall confine myself rather to the greater and nobler objects of your attention, horses and dogs, my favourites in the brute creation; also to foxes, wolves, and bears, with which, and game in general, Russia abounds more than any other part of the world; and to such sports, manly exercises, and feats of gallantry and activity, as show the gentleman better than musty Greek or Latin, or all the perfume, finery, and capers of French wits or petit-maitres. CHAPTER III An encounter between the Baron's nose and a door-post, with its wonderful effects—Fifty brace of ducks and other fowl destroyed by one shot—Flogs a fox out of his skin—Leads an old sow home in a new way, and vanquishes a wild boar. It was some time before I could obtain a commission in the army, and for several months I was perfectly at liberty to sport away my time and money in the most gentleman-like manner. You may easily imagine that I spent much of both out of town with such gallant fellows as knew how to make the most of an open forest country. The very recollection of those amusements gives me fresh spirits, and creates a warm wish for a repetition of them. One morning I saw, through the windows of my bed-room, that a large pond not far off was covered with wild ducks. In an instant I took my gun from the corner, ran down-stairs and out of the house in such a hurry, that I imprudently struck my face against the door-post. Fire flew out of my eyes, but it did not prevent my intention; I soon came within shot, when, levelling my piece, I observed to my sorrow, that even the flint had sprung from the cock by the violence of the shock I had just received. There was no time to be lost. I presently remembered the effect it had on my eyes, therefore opened the pan, levelled my piece against the wild fowls, and my fist against one of my eyes. [The Baron's eyes have retained fire ever since, and appear particularly illuminated when he relates this anecdote.] A hearty blow drew sparks again; the shot went off, and I killed fifty brace of ducks, twenty widgeons, and three couple of teals. Presence of mind is the soul of manly exercises. If soldiers and sailors owe to it many of their lucky escapes, hunters and sportsmen are not less beholden to it for many of their successes. In a noble forest in Russia I met a fine black fox, whose valuable skin it would have been a pity to tear by ball or shot. Reynard stood close to a tree. In a twinkling I took out my ball, and placed a good spike-nail in its room, fired, and hit him so cleverly that I nailed his brush fast to the tree. I now went up to him, took out my hanger, gave him a cross-cut over the face, laid hold of my whip, and fairly flogged him out of his fine skin. Chance and good luck often correct our mistakes; of this I had a singular instance soon after, when, in the depth of a forest, I saw a wild pig and sow running close behind each other. My ball had missed them, yet the foremost pig only ran away, and the sow stood motionless, as fixed to the ground. On examining into the matter, I found the latter one to be an old sow, blind with age, which had taken hold of her pig's tail, in order to be led along by filial duty. My ball, having passed between the two, had cut his leading-string, which the old sow continued to hold in her mouth; and as her former guide did not draw her on any longer, she had stopped of course; I therefore laid hold of the remaining end of the pig's tail, and led the old beast home without any further trouble on my part, and without any reluctance or apprehension on the part of the helpless old animal. Terrible as these wild sows are, yet more fierce and dangerous are the boars, one of which I had once the misfortune to meet in a forest, unprepared for attack or defence. I retired behind an oak-tree just when the furious animal levelled a side-blow at me, with such force, that his tusks pierced through the tree, by which means he could neither repeat the blow nor retire. Ho, ho! thought I, I shall soon have you now! and immediately I laid hold of a stone, wherewith I hammered and bent his tusks in such a manner, that he could not retreat by any means, and must wait my return from the next village, whither I went for ropes and a cart, to secure him properly, and to carry him off safe and alive, in which I perfectly succeeded. CHAPTER IV Reflections on Saint Hubert's stag—Shoots a stag with cherry-stones; the wonderful effects of it—Kills a bear by extraordinary dexterity; his danger pathetically described—Attacked by a wolf, which he turns inside out—Is assailed by a mad dog, from which he escapes—The Baron's cloak seized with madness, by which his whole wardrobe is thrown into confusion. You have heard, I dare say, of the hunter and sportsman's saint and protector, St. Hubert, and of the noble stag, which appeared to him in the forest, with the holy cross between his antlers. I have paid my homage to that saint every year in good fellowship, and seen this stag a thousand times, either painted in churches, or embroidered in the stars of his knights; so that, upon the honour and conscience of a good sportsman, I hardly know whether there may not have been formerly, or whether there are not such crossed stags even at this present day. But let me rather tell what I have seen myself. Having one day spent all my shot, I found myself unexpectedly in presence of a stately stag, looking at me as unconcernedly as if he had known of my empty pouches. I charged immediately with powder, and upon it a good handful of cherry-stones, for I had sucked the fruit as far as the hurry would permit. Thus I let fly at him, and hit him just on the middle of the forehead, between his antlers; it stunned him—he staggered—yet he made off. A year or two after, being with a party in the same forest, I beheld a noble stag with a fine full grown cherry-tree above ten feet high between his antlers. I immediately recollected my former adventure, looked upon him as my property, and brought him to the ground by one shot, which at once gave me the haunch and cherry-sauce; for the tree was covered with the richest fruit, the like I had never tasted before. Who knows but some passionate holy sportsman, or sporting abbot or bishop, may have shot, planted, and fixed the cross between the antlers of St. Hubert's stag, in a manner similar to this? They always have been, and still are, famous for plantations of crosses and antlers; and in a case of distress or dilemma, which too often happens to keen sportsmen, one is apt to grasp at anything for safety, and to try any expedient rather than miss the favourable opportunity. I have many times found myself in that trying situation. What do you say of this, for example? Daylight and powder were spent one day in a Polish forest. When I was going home a terrible bear made up to me in great speed, with open mouth, ready to fall upon me; all my pockets were searched in an instant for powder and ball, but in vain; I found nothing but two spare flints: one I flung with all my might into the monster's open jaws, down his throat. It gave him pain and made him turn about, so that I could level the second at his back-door, which, indeed, I did with wonderful success; for it flew in, met the first flint in the stomach, struck fire, and blew up the bear with a terrible explosion. Though I came safe off that time, yet I should not wish to try it again, or venture against bears with no other ammunition. There is a kind of fatality in it. The fiercest and most dangerous animals generally came upon me when defenceless, as if they had a notion or an instinctive intimation of it. Thus a frightful wolf rushed upon me so suddenly, and so close, that I could do nothing but follow mechanical instinct, and thrust my fist into his open mouth. For safety's sake I pushed on and on, till my arm was fairly in up to the shoulder. How should I disengage myself? I was not much pleased with my awkward situation—with a wolf face to face; our ogling was not of the most pleasant kind. If I withdrew my arm, then the animal would fly the more furiously upon me; that I saw in his flaming eyes. In short, I laid hold of his tail, turned him inside out like a glove, and flung him to the ground, where I left him. The same expedient would not have answered against a mad dog, which soon after came running against me in a narrow street at St. Petersburg. Run who can, I thought; and to do this the better, I threw off my fur cloak, and was safe within doors in an instant. I sent my servant for the cloak, and he put it in the wardrobe with my other clothes. The day after I was amazed and frightened by Jack's bawling, "For God's sake, sir, your fur cloak is mad!" I hastened up to him, and found almost all my clothes tossed about and torn to pieces. The fellow was perfectly right in his apprehensions about the fur cloak's madness. I saw him myself just then falling upon a fine full-dress suit, which he shook and tossed in an unmerciful manner. CHAPTER V The effects of great activity and presence of mind—A favourite hound described, which pups while pursuing a hare; the hare also litters while pursued by the hound—Presented with a famous horse by Count Przobossky, with which he performs many extraordinary feats. All these narrow and lucky escapes, gentlemen, were chances turned to advantage by presence of mind and vigorous exertions, which, taken together, as everybody knows, make the fortunate sportsman, sailor, and soldier; but he would be a very blamable and imprudent sportsman, admiral, or general, who would always depend upon chance and his stars, without troubling himself about those arts which are their particular pursuits, and without providing the very best implements, which insure success. I was not blamable either way; for I have always been as remarkable for the excellency of my horses, dogs, guns, and swords, as for the proper manner of using and managing them, so that upon the whole I may hope to be remembered in the forest, upon the turf, and in the field. I shall not enter here into any detail of my stables, kennel, or armoury; but a favourite bitch of mine I cannot help mentioning to you; she was a greyhound, and I never had or saw a better. She grew old in my service, and was not remarkable for her size, but rather for her uncommon swiftness. I always coursed with her. Had you seen her you must have admired her, and would not have wondered at my predilection, and at my coursing her so much. She ran so fast, so much, and so long in my service, that she actually ran off her legs; so that, in the latter part of her life, I was under the necessity of working and using her only as a terrier, in which quality she still served me many years. Coursing one day a hare, which appeared to me uncommonly big, I pitied my poor bitch, being big with pups, yet she would course as fast as ever. I could follow her on horseback only at a great distance. At once I heard a cry as it were of a pack of hounds—but so weak and faint that I hardly knew what to make of it. Coming up to them, I was greatly surprised. The hare had littered in running; the same had happened to my bitch in coursing, and there were just as many leverets as pups. By instinct the former ran, the latter coursed: and thus I found myself in possession at once of six hares, and as many dogs, at the end of a course which had only begun with one. I remember this, my wonderful bitch, with the same pleasure and tenderness as a superb Lithuanian horse, which no money could have bought. He became mine by an accident, which gave me an opportunity of showing my horsemanship to a great advantage. I was at Count Przobossky's noble country-seat in Lithuania, and remained with the ladies at tea in the drawing-room, while the gentlemen were down in the yard, to see a young horse of blood which had just arrived from the stud. We suddenly heard a noise of distress; I hastened down-stairs, and found the horse so unruly, that nobody durst approach or mount him. The most resolute horsemen stood dismayed and aghast; despondency was expressed in every countenance, when, in one leap, I was on his back, took him by surprise, and worked him quite into gentleness and obedience with the best display of horsemanship I was master of. Fully to show this to the ladies, and save them unnecessary trouble, I forced him to leap in at one of the open windows of the tea-room, walked round several times, pace, trot, and gallop, and at last made him mount the tea-table, there to repeat his lessons in a pretty style of miniature which was exceedingly pleasing to the ladies, for he performed them amazingly well, and did not break either cup or saucer. It placed me so high in their opinion, and so well in that of the noble lord, that, with his usual politeness, he begged I would accept of this young horse, and ride him full career to conquest and honour in the campaign against the Turks, which was soon to be opened, under the command of Count Munich. I could not indeed have received a more agreeable present, nor a more ominous one at the opening of that campaign, in which I made my apprenticeship as a soldier. A horse so gentle, so spirited, and so fierce—at once a lamb and a Bucephalus, put me always in mind of the soldier's and the gentleman's duty! of young Alexander, and of the astonishing things he performed in the field. We took the field, among several other reasons, it seems, with an intention to retrieve the character of the Russian arms, which had been blemished a little by Czar Peter's last campaign on the Pruth; and this we fully accomplished by several very fatiguing and glorious campaigns under the command of that great general I mentioned before. Modesty forbids individuals to arrogate to themselves great successes or victories, the glory of which is generally engrossed by the commander—nay, which is rather awkward, by kings and queens who never smelt gunpowder but at the field-days and reviews of their troops; never saw a field of battle, or an enemy in battle array. Nor do I claim any particular share of glory in the great engagements with the enemy. We all did our duty, which, in the patriot's, soldier's, and gentleman's language, is a very comprehensive word, of great honour, meaning, and import, and of which the generality of idle quidnuncs and coffee-house politicians can hardly form any but a very mean and contemptible idea. However, having had the command of a body of hussars, I went upon several expeditions, with discretionary powers; and the success I then met with is, I think, fairly and only to be placed to my account, and to that of the brave fellows whom I led on to conquest and to victory. We had very hot work once in the van of the army, when we drove the Turks into Oczakow. My spirited Lithuanian had almost brought me into a scrape: I had an advanced fore-post, and saw the enemy coming against me in a cloud of dust, which left me rather uncertain about their actual numbers and real intentions: to wrap myself up in a similar cloud was common prudence, but would not have much advanced my knowledge, or answered the end for which I had been sent out; therefore I let my flankers on both wings spread to the right and left and make what dust they could, and I myself led on straight upon the enemy, to have nearer sight of them: in this I was gratified, for they stood and fought, till, for fear of my flankers, they began to move off rather disorderly. This was the moment to fall upon them with spirit; we broke them entirely—made a terrible havoc amongst them, and drove them not only back to a walled town in their rear, but even through it, contrary to our most sanguine expectation. The swiftness of my Lithuanian enabled me to be foremost in the pursuit; and seeing the enemy fairly flying through the opposite gate, I thought it would be prudent to stop in the market-place, to order the men to rendezvous. I stopped, gentlemen; but judge of my astonishment when in this market-place I saw not one of my hussars about me! Are they scouring the other streets? or what is become of them? They could not be far off, and must, at all events, soon join me. In that expectation I walked my panting Lithuanian to a spring in this market-place, and let him drink. He drank uncommonly, with an eagerness not to be satisfied, but natural enough; for when I looked round for my men, what should I see, gentlemen! the hind part of the poor creature—croup and legs were missing, as if he had been cut in two, and the water ran out as it came in, without refreshing or doing him any good! How it could have happened was quite a mystery to me, till I returned with him to the town-gate. There I saw, that when I rushed in pell-mell with the flying enemy, they had dropped the portcullis (a heavy falling door, with sharp spikes at the bottom, let down suddenly to prevent the entrance of an enemy into a fortified town) unperceived by me, which had totally cut off his hind part, that still lay quivering on the outside of the gate. It would have been an irreparable loss, had not our farrier contrived to bring both parts together while hot. He sewed them up with sprigs and young shoots of laurels that were at hand; the wound healed, and, what could not have happened but to so glorious a horse, the sprigs took root in his body, grew up, and formed a bower over me; so that afterwards I could go upon many other expeditions in the shade of my own and my horse's laurels. CHAPTER VI The Baron is made a prisoner of war, and sold for a slave—Keeps the Sultan's bees, which are attacked by two bears—Loses one of his bees; a silver hatchet, which he throws at the bears, rebounds and flies up to the moon; brings it back by an ingenious invention; falls to the earth on his return, and helps himself out of a pit—Extricates himself from a carriage which meets his in a narrow road, in a manner never before attempted nor practised since—The wonderful effects of the frost upon his servant's French horn. I was not always successful. I had the misfortune to be overpowered by numbers, to be made prisoner of war; and, what is worse, but always usual among the Turks, to be sold for a slave. [The Baron was afterwards in great favour with the Grand Seignior, as will appear hereafter.] In that state of humiliation my daily task was not very hard and laborious, but rather singular and irksome. It was to drive the Sultan's bees every morning to their pasture-grounds, to attend them all the day long, and against night to drive them back to their hives. One evening I missed a bee, and soon observed that two bears had fallen upon her to tear her to pieces for the honey she carried. I had nothing like an offensive weapon in my hands but the silver hatchet, which is the badge of the Sultan's gardeners and farmers. I threw it at the robbers, with an intention to frighten them away, and set the poor bee at liberty; but, by an unlucky turn of my arm, it flew upwards, and continued rising till it reached the moon. How should I recover it? how fetch it down again? I recollected that Turkey-beans grow very quick, and run up to an astonishing height. I planted one immediately; it grew, and actually fastened itself to one of the moon's horns. I had no more to do now but to climb up by it into the moon, where I safely arrived, and had a troublesome piece of business before I could find my silver hatchet, in a place where everything has the brightness of silver; at last, however, I found it in a heap of chaff and chopped straw. I was now for returning: but, alas! the heat of the sun had dried up my bean; it was totally useless for my descent: so I fell to work, and twisted me a rope of that chopped straw, as long and as well as I could make it. This I fastened to one of the moon's horns, and slid down to the end of it. Here I held myself fast with the left hand, and with the hatchet in my right, I cut the long, now useless end of the upper part, which, when tied to the lower end, brought me a good deal lower: this repeated splicing and tying of the rope did not improve its quality, or bring me down to the Sultan's farm. I was four or five miles from the earth at least when it broke; I fell to the ground with such amazing violence, that I found myself stunned, and in a hole nine fathoms deep at least, made by the weight of my body falling from so great a height: I recovered, but knew not how to get out again; however, I dug slopes or steps with my finger-nails [the Baron's nails were then of forty years' growth], and easily accomplished it. Peace was soon after concluded with the Turks, and gaining my liberty, I left St. Petersburg at the time of that singular revolution, when the emperor in his cradle, his mother, the Duke of Brunswick, her father, Field-Marshal Munich, and many others were sent to Siberia. The winter was then so uncommonly severe all over Europe, that ever since the sun seems to be frost-bitten. At my return to this place, I felt on the road greater inconveniences than those I had experienced on my setting out. I travelled post, and finding myself in a narrow lane, bid the postillion give a signal with his horn, that other travellers might not meet us in the narrow passage. He blew with all his might; but his endeavours were in vain, he could not make the horn sound, which was unaccountable, and rather unfortunate, for soon after we found ourselves in the presence of another coach coming the other way: there was no proceeding; however, I got out of my carriage, and being pretty strong, placed it, wheels and all, upon my head: I then jumped over a hedge about nine feet high (which, considering the weight of the coach, was rather difficult) into a field, and came out again by another jump into the road beyond the other carriage: I then went back for the horses, and placing one upon my head, and the other under my left arm, by the same means brought them to my coach, put to, and proceeded to an inn at the end of our stage. I should have told you that the horse under my arm was very spirited, and not above four years old; in making my second spring over the hedge, he expressed great dislike to that violent kind of motion by kicking and snorting; however, I confined his hind legs by putting them into my coat-pocket. After we arrived at the inn my postillion and I refreshed ourselves: he hung his horn on a peg near the kitchen fire; I sat on the other side. Suddenly we heard a tereng! tereng! teng! teng! We looked round, and now found the reason why the postillion had not been able to sound his horn; his tunes were frozen up in the horn, and came out now by thawing, plain enough, and much to the credit of the driver; so that the honest fellow entertained us for some time with a variety of tunes, without putting his mouth to the horn—"The King of Prussia's March," "Over the Hill and over the Dale," with many other favourite tunes; at length the thawing entertainment concluded, as I shall this short account of my Russian travels. Some travellers are apt to advance more than is perhaps strictly true; if any of the company entertain a doubt of my veracity, I shall only say to such, I pity their want of faith, and must request they will take leave before I begin the second part of my adventures, which are as strictly founded in fact as those I have already related. CHAPTER VII The Baron relates his adventures on a voyage to North America, which are well worth the reader's attention—Pranks of a whale—A sea-gull saves a sailor's life—The Baron's head forced into his stomach—A dangerous leak stopped a posteriori. I embarked at Portsmouth in a first-rate English man-of-war, of one hundred guns, and fourteen hundred men, for North America. Nothing worth relating happened till we arrived within three hundred leagues of the river St. Laurence, when the ship struck with amazing force against (as we supposed) a rock; however, upon heaving the lead we could find no bottom, even with three hundred fathom. What made this circumstance the more wonderful, and indeed beyond all comprehension, was, that the violence of the shock was such that we lost our rudder, broke our bowsprit in the middle, and split all our masts from top to bottom, two of which went by the board; a poor fellow, who was aloft furling the mainsheet, was flung at least three leagues from the ship; but he fortunately saved his life by laying hold of the tail of a large sea-gull, who brought him back, and lodged him on the very spot from whence he was thrown. Another proof of the violence of the shock was the force with which the people between decks were driven against the floors above them; my head particularly was pressed into my stomach, where it continued some months before it recovered its natural situation. Whilst we were all in a state of astonishment at the general and unaccountable confusion in which we were involved, the whole was suddenly explained by the appearance of a large whale, who had been basking, asleep, within sixteen feet of the surface of the water. This animal was so much displeased with the disturbance which our ship had given him—for in our passage we had with our rudder scratched his nose—that he beat in all the gallery and part of the quarter-deck with his tail, and almost at the same instant took the mainsheet anchor, which was suspended, as it usually is, from the head, between his teeth, and ran away with the ship, at least sixty leagues, at the rate of twelve leagues an hour, when fortunately the cable broke, and we lost both the whale and the anchor. However, upon our return to Europe, some months after, we found the same whale within a few leagues of the same spot, floating dead upon the water; it measured above half a mile in length. As we could take but a small quantity of such a monstrous animal on board, we got our boats out, and with much difficulty cut off his head, where, to our great joy, we found the anchor, and above forty fathom of the cable, concealed on the left side of his mouth, just under his tongue. [Perhaps this was the cause of his death, as that side of his tongue was much swelled, with a great degree of inflammation.] This was the only extraordinary circumstance that happened on this voyage. One part of our distress, however, I had like to have forgot: while the whale was running away with the ship she sprung a leak, and the water poured in so fast, that all our pumps could not keep us from sinking; it was, however, my good fortune to discover it first. I found it a large hole about a foot diameter; you will naturally suppose this circumstance gives me infinite pleasure, when I inform you that this noble vessel was preserved, with all its crew, by a most fortunate thought! in short, I sat down over it, and could have dispensed with it had it been larger; nor will you be surprised when I inform you I am descended from Dutch parents. [The Baron's ancestors have but lately settled there; in another part of his adventures he boasts of royal blood.] My situation, while I sat there, was rather cool, but the carpenter's art soon relieved me. CHAPTER VIII Bathes in the Mediterranean—Meets an unexpected companion—Arrives unintentionally in the regions of heat and darkness, from which he is extricated by dancing a hornpipe—Frightens his deliverers, and returns on shore. I was once in great danger of being lost in a most singular manner in the Mediterranean: I was bathing in that pleasant sea near Marseilles one summer's afternoon, when I discovered a very large fish, with his jaws quite extended, approaching me with the greatest velocity; there was no time to be lost, nor could I possibly avoid him. I immediately reduced myself to as small a size as possible, by closing my feet and placing my hands also near my sides, in which position I passed directly between his jaws, and into his stomach, where I remained some time in total darkness, and comfortably warm, as you may imagine; at last it occurred to me, that by giving him pain he would be glad to get rid of me: as I had plenty of room, I played my pranks, such as tumbling, hop, step, and jump, &c., but nothing seemed to disturb him so much as the quick motion of my feet in attempting to dance a hornpipe; soon after I began he put me out by sudden fits and starts: I persevered; at last he roared horridly, and stood up almost perpendicularly in the water, with his head and shoulders exposed, by which he was discovered by the people on board an Italian trader, then sailing by, who harpooned him in a few minutes. As soon as he was brought on board I heard the crew consulting how they should cut him up, so as to preserve the greatest quantity of oil. As I understood Italian, I was in most dreadful apprehensions lest their weapons employed in this business should destroy me also; therefore I stood as near the centre as possible, for there was room enough for a dozen men in this creature's stomach, and I naturally imagined they would begin with the extremities; however, my fears were soon dispersed, for they began by opening the bottom of the belly. As soon as I perceived a glimmering of light I called out lustily to be released from a situation in which I was now almost suffocated. It is impossible for me to do justice to the degree and kind of astonishment which sat upon every countenance at hearing a human voice issue from a fish, but more so at seeing a naked man walk upright out of his body; in short, gentlemen, I told them the whole story, as I have done you, whilst amazement struck them dumb. After taking some refreshment, and jumping into the sea to cleanse myself, I swam to my clothes, which lay where I had left them on the shore. As near as I can calculate, I was near four hours and a half confined in the stomach of this animal. CHAPTER IX Adventures in Turkey, and upon the river Nile—Sees a balloon over Constantinople; shoots at, and brings it down; finds a French experimental philosopher suspended from it—Goes on an embassy to Grand Cairo, and returns upon the Nile, where he is thrown into an unexpected situation, and detained six weeks. When I was in the service of the Turks I frequently amused myself in a pleasure-barge on the Marmora, which commands a view of the whole city of Constantinople, including the Grand Seignior's Seraglio. One morning, as I was admiring the beauty and serenity of the sky, I observed a globular substance in the air, which appeared to be about the size of a twelve-inch globe, with somewhat suspended from it. I immediately took up my largest and longest barrel fowling-piece, which I never travel or make even an excursion without, if I can help it; I charged with a ball, and fired at the globe, but to no purpose, the object being at too great a distance. I then put in a double quantity of powder, and five or six balls: this second attempt succeeded; all the balls took effect, and tore one side open, and brought it down. Judge my surprise when a most elegant gilt car, with a man in it, and part of a sheep which seemed to have been roasted, fell within two yards of me. When my astonishment had in some degree subsided, I ordered my people to row close to this strange aerial traveller. I took him on board my barge (he was a native of France): he was much indisposed from his sudden fall into the sea, and incapable of speaking; after some time, however, he recovered, and gave the following account of himself, viz.: "About seven or eight days since, I cannot tell which, for I have lost my reckoning, having been most of the time where the sun never sets, I ascended from the Land's End in Cornwall, in the island of Great Britain, in the car from which I have been just taken, suspended from a very large balloon, and took a sheep with me to try atmospheric experiments upon: unfortunately, the wind changed within ten minutes after my ascent, and instead of driving towards Exeter, where I intended to land, I was driven towards the sea, over which I suppose I have continued ever since, but much too high to make observations. "The calls of hunger were so pressing, that the intended experiments upon heat and respiration gave way to them. I was obliged, on the third day, to kill the sheep for food; and being at that time infinitely above the moon, and for upwards of sixteen hours after so very near the sun that it scorched my eyebrows, I placed the carcase, taking care to skin it first, in that part of the car where the sun had sufficient power, or, in other words, where the balloon did not shade it from the sun, by which method it was well roasted in about two hours. This has been my food ever since." Here he paused, and seemed lost in viewing the objects about him. When I told him the buildings before us were the Grand Seignior's Seraglio at Constantinople, he seemed exceedingly affected, as he had supposed himself in a very different situation. "The cause," added he, "of my long flight, was owing to the failure of a string which was fixed to a valve in the balloon, intended to let out the inflammable air; and if it had not been fired at, and rent in the manner before mentioned, I might, like Mahomet, have been suspended between heaven and earth till doomsday." The Grand Seignior, to whom I was introduced by the Imperial, Russian, and French ambassadors, employed me to negotiate a matter of great importance at Grand Cairo, and which was of such a nature that it must ever remain a secret. I went there in great state by land; where, having completed the business, I dismissed almost all my attendants, and returned like a private gentleman; the weather was delightful, and that famous river the Nile was beautiful beyond all description; in short, I was tempted to hire a barge to descend by water to Alexandria. On the third day of my voyage the river began to rise most amazingly (you have all heard, I presume, of the annual overflowing of the Nile), and on the next day it spread the whole country for many leagues on each side! On the fifth, at sunrise, my barge became entangled with what I at first took for shrubs, but as the light became stronger I found myself surrounded by almonds, which were perfectly ripe, and in the highest perfection. Upon plumbing with a line my people found we were at least sixty feet from the ground, and unable to advance or retreat. At about eight or nine o'clock, as near as I could judge by the altitude of the sun, the wind rose suddenly, and canted our barge on one side: here she filled, and I saw no more of her for some time. Fortunately we all saved ourselves (six men and two boys) by clinging to the tree, the boughs of which were equal to our weight, though not to that of the barge: in this situation we continued six weeks and three days, living upon the almonds; I need not inform you we had plenty of water. On the forty-second day of our distress the water fell as rapidly as it had risen, and on the forty-sixth we were able to venture down upon terra firma. Our barge was the first pleasing object we saw, about two hundred yards from the spot where she sunk. After drying everything that was useful by the heat of the sun, and loading ourselves with necessaries from the stores on board, we set out to recover our lost ground, and found, by the nearest calculation, we had been carried over garden-walls, and a variety of enclosures, above one hundred and fifty miles. In four days, after a very tiresome journey on foot, with thin shoes, we reached the river, which was now confined to its banks, related our adventures to a boy, who kindly accommodated all our wants, and sent us forward in a barge of his own. In six days more we arrived at Alexandria, where we took shipping for Constantinople. I was received kindly by the Grand Seignior, and had the honour of seeing the Seraglio, to which his highness introduced me himself. CHAPTER X Pays a visit during the siege of Gibraltar to his old friend General Elliot—Sinks a Spanish man-of-war—Wakes an old woman on the African coast—Destroys all the enemy's cannon; frightens the Count d'Artois, and sends him to Paris—Saves the lives of two English spies with the identical sling that killed Goliath; and raises the siege. During the late siege of Gibraltar I went with a provision-fleet, under Lord Rodney's command, to see my old friend General Elliot, who has, by his distinguished defence of that place, acquired laurels that can never fade. After the usual joy which generally attends the meeting of old friends had subsided, I went to examine the state of the garrison, and view the operations of the enemy, for which purpose the General accompanied me. I had brought a most excellent refracting telescope with me from London, purchased of Dollond, by the help of which I found the enemy were going to discharge a thirty-six pounder at the spot where we stood. I told the General what they were about; he looked through the glass also, and found my conjectures right. I immediately, by his permission, ordered a forty-eight pounder to be brought from a neighbouring battery, which I placed with so much exactness (having long studied the art of gunnery) that I was sure of my mark.
i don't know
The doomed Royal Navy ship HMS Thunder Child appeared in which Sci Fi classic?
H.M.S. Inflexible, 1874, 1:200 - Page 28 - PaperModelers.com H.M.S. Inflexible, 1874, 1:200 Location: Free Hanseatic City of Bremen Posts: 1,012 Total Downloaded: 1.93 MB I think, we can fill this thread - a little bit away from HMS Inflexible - with assumptions. I'm not a friend of riddles - if Carl has new things to show, I presume, he'll do it! With lovely greetings Posts: 197 Total Downloaded: 0 Greg is clueless as to GB's mystery project. The rudder shape is different from the French predreadnought drawings I've copied from the French archive collection. Perhaps fitted for a double-ender? Greg S. Total Downloaded: 0 HMS Thunder Child I think Carl's thread hasn't been hijacked in a while, so allow me to do the honors: HMS Thunder Child figures in H. G. Well's "War of the Worlds", published in 1898. He gives this description: "About a couple of miles out lay an ironclad, very low in the water, almost [...] like a waterlogged ship. This was the ram Thunder Child. It was the only warship in sight, but far away to the right over the smooth surface of the sea [...] He sprang to his feet and saw to starboard, and not a hundred yards from their heeling, pitching boat, a vast iron bulk like the blade of a plough tearing through the water, tossing it on either side in huge waves of foam that leaped towards the steamer [...] Big iron upperworks rose out of this headlong structure, and from that twin funnels projected and spat a smoking blast shot with fire. It was the torpedo ram, Thunder Child, steaming headlong, coming to the rescue of the threatened shipping." To give it away: the Thunder Child manages to destroy two martian tripods before being burnt to a crisp by the Heat-Ray of a third. 1906 Illustration. Thunder Child looks more like a pre-dreadnought here There is some speculation whether Wells conceived the Thunder Child with HMS Polyphemus in mind. Polyphemus was the only "torpedo ram" ever commissioned in the Royal Navy. It was designed to attack the enemy with torpedoes fired from underwater tubes, and then with her ram (which also housed a torpedo tube, covered with a cast steel cap). What always gets me here is that the speed of the torpedoes was 18 knots - same as the ship! Polyphemus in dry dock Naturally, there's a Wikipedia article on the Thunder Child: HMS Thunder Child - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and on the Polyphemus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Polyphemus_(1881 ) Cheers, Posts: 1,384 Total Downloaded: 0 Images of the attack of the Thunder Child invariably portray some huge battleship, as suggested by Wells' prose. He described it as a "vast iron bulk", a "giant", a "leviathan", a "monster" with "big iron upperworks" that cast "huge waves", and said that the martian war machines "appeared far less formidable than the huge iron bulk". What is curious is that Wells specifically labeled the Thunder Child as a torpedo ram, a small class of warship, not very "leviathan"-like by the standards of the day. The Polyphemous (below) certainly doesn't seem to live up to his imposing description. In fact, it looks like she would not have been much larger than the Thames sidewheeler from which the narrator described her charge. Maybe some "artistic license" on the part of Wells, but that seems uncharacteristic, his technical descriptions are usually very realistically detailed. Attached Thumbnails Posts: 236 Total Downloaded: 0 Well, I don't know how much time passed between the writing and the publishing of War of the Worlds, but the concept of the torpedo ram as a novel and dangerous weapon quite captured the imagination of the public. It's features were probably quite inflated. Let's not forget - there was at least as much hype going on about those new developments as was a hundred years later about the stealth bombers. I also think many of the illustrations, especially of the later editions must have been done without Wells' input. The aim of the illustrator was probably to make the Thunder Child as imposing as possible, and that meant making it look like the most powerful battleships of the day. Artistic license, yes, but probably not that of Wells. Incidentally, it's interesting to see how the concept of "let's throw our mightiest weapon at the Martians" changed over time. I believe in the 1950's movie, it was an all-wing aircraft that dropped the bomb on the Martians. In the most recent version I think there were F-16s and Humvees. Not nearly as impressive as the Thunder Child! Cheers, Location: I live in Florida mostly Posts: 1,125 Total Downloaded: 0 I am not knowing if it is to be any particular ship, but It is my idea that Wells, he wanted the Martians to fight the most modern weapon in the world in that day. So what is most powerful than a (then) modern Battle Ship or Torpedo Ram. The ship is to be more symbolic of the might of the British Empire than just the most powerful ship at hand. If the British Navy can not stop the Martian, then the Earth it is doomed (until God defeat the Martians with Germs). It is the same with the War of the Worlds movie (the first one). In the movie, in the 1950s years, the British Empire it is not so good. The USA is the one nation on Earth to fight the Martians. And then no one they do not use Battle Ships but they have the Flying Wing and the Atom Bomb. The most modern and destructive weapon on the face of the earth in the time of the story. So the ship it is more symbolic than just a real ship if I make sense? Keds_Girl_Lala
The War of the Worlds
By population what is the second city of Belgium?
H.M.S. Inflexible, 1874, 1:200 - Page 28 - PaperModelers.com H.M.S. Inflexible, 1874, 1:200 Location: Free Hanseatic City of Bremen Posts: 1,012 Total Downloaded: 1.93 MB I think, we can fill this thread - a little bit away from HMS Inflexible - with assumptions. I'm not a friend of riddles - if Carl has new things to show, I presume, he'll do it! With lovely greetings Posts: 197 Total Downloaded: 0 Greg is clueless as to GB's mystery project. The rudder shape is different from the French predreadnought drawings I've copied from the French archive collection. Perhaps fitted for a double-ender? Greg S. Total Downloaded: 0 HMS Thunder Child I think Carl's thread hasn't been hijacked in a while, so allow me to do the honors: HMS Thunder Child figures in H. G. Well's "War of the Worlds", published in 1898. He gives this description: "About a couple of miles out lay an ironclad, very low in the water, almost [...] like a waterlogged ship. This was the ram Thunder Child. It was the only warship in sight, but far away to the right over the smooth surface of the sea [...] He sprang to his feet and saw to starboard, and not a hundred yards from their heeling, pitching boat, a vast iron bulk like the blade of a plough tearing through the water, tossing it on either side in huge waves of foam that leaped towards the steamer [...] Big iron upperworks rose out of this headlong structure, and from that twin funnels projected and spat a smoking blast shot with fire. It was the torpedo ram, Thunder Child, steaming headlong, coming to the rescue of the threatened shipping." To give it away: the Thunder Child manages to destroy two martian tripods before being burnt to a crisp by the Heat-Ray of a third. 1906 Illustration. Thunder Child looks more like a pre-dreadnought here There is some speculation whether Wells conceived the Thunder Child with HMS Polyphemus in mind. Polyphemus was the only "torpedo ram" ever commissioned in the Royal Navy. It was designed to attack the enemy with torpedoes fired from underwater tubes, and then with her ram (which also housed a torpedo tube, covered with a cast steel cap). What always gets me here is that the speed of the torpedoes was 18 knots - same as the ship! Polyphemus in dry dock Naturally, there's a Wikipedia article on the Thunder Child: HMS Thunder Child - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and on the Polyphemus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Polyphemus_(1881 ) Cheers, Posts: 1,384 Total Downloaded: 0 Images of the attack of the Thunder Child invariably portray some huge battleship, as suggested by Wells' prose. He described it as a "vast iron bulk", a "giant", a "leviathan", a "monster" with "big iron upperworks" that cast "huge waves", and said that the martian war machines "appeared far less formidable than the huge iron bulk". What is curious is that Wells specifically labeled the Thunder Child as a torpedo ram, a small class of warship, not very "leviathan"-like by the standards of the day. The Polyphemous (below) certainly doesn't seem to live up to his imposing description. In fact, it looks like she would not have been much larger than the Thames sidewheeler from which the narrator described her charge. Maybe some "artistic license" on the part of Wells, but that seems uncharacteristic, his technical descriptions are usually very realistically detailed. Attached Thumbnails Posts: 236 Total Downloaded: 0 Well, I don't know how much time passed between the writing and the publishing of War of the Worlds, but the concept of the torpedo ram as a novel and dangerous weapon quite captured the imagination of the public. It's features were probably quite inflated. Let's not forget - there was at least as much hype going on about those new developments as was a hundred years later about the stealth bombers. I also think many of the illustrations, especially of the later editions must have been done without Wells' input. The aim of the illustrator was probably to make the Thunder Child as imposing as possible, and that meant making it look like the most powerful battleships of the day. Artistic license, yes, but probably not that of Wells. Incidentally, it's interesting to see how the concept of "let's throw our mightiest weapon at the Martians" changed over time. I believe in the 1950's movie, it was an all-wing aircraft that dropped the bomb on the Martians. In the most recent version I think there were F-16s and Humvees. Not nearly as impressive as the Thunder Child! Cheers, Location: I live in Florida mostly Posts: 1,125 Total Downloaded: 0 I am not knowing if it is to be any particular ship, but It is my idea that Wells, he wanted the Martians to fight the most modern weapon in the world in that day. So what is most powerful than a (then) modern Battle Ship or Torpedo Ram. The ship is to be more symbolic of the might of the British Empire than just the most powerful ship at hand. If the British Navy can not stop the Martian, then the Earth it is doomed (until God defeat the Martians with Germs). It is the same with the War of the Worlds movie (the first one). In the movie, in the 1950s years, the British Empire it is not so good. The USA is the one nation on Earth to fight the Martians. And then no one they do not use Battle Ships but they have the Flying Wing and the Atom Bomb. The most modern and destructive weapon on the face of the earth in the time of the story. So the ship it is more symbolic than just a real ship if I make sense? Keds_Girl_Lala
i don't know
Whales can be divided into two types Toothed and what?
Feeding | Whales Feeding Reproducing Feeding Whales can be divided into two types by the way they feed—baleen whales (Mysticetes) and toothed whales (Odontecetes). Baleen whales are “batch feeders”—they use their plates of baleen to filter huge numbers of tiny prey out of the water. They can be divided into three groups, according to how they filter their food: Rorquals, such as Bryde's whale, are gulpers. They take in huge amounts of water with their prey, their pleated throats billowing out to accommodate it. Then they force the water out with their tongues, straining the food through the mesh of baleen. Right whales skim feed. They cruise through the water with their enormous, arched mouths open, continuously filtering out prey. Gray whales are silt sifters. They pump water and sediment from the seafloor through one side of their mouths, across the baleen, and out the other. Toothed whales tend to eat individual animals, such as squid, fish, and in some cases, other marine mammals. These whales locate their prey by using echolocation—like human sonar. They either seize their prey with their teeth or suck them directly into their mouths and swallow them whole.
Baleen
Which whale has the largest brain of any creature on Earth?
Whale Biology Whale Biology Whale Biology Whale Diversity Using terms such as "whales," "dolphins," and "porpoises" can be misleading when people want a clear picture of how whales are related. The killer whale, for example, is actually the largest dolphin! Scientists need to be accurate and consistent in their descriptions. That is why they use specific characteristics to classify life forms such as whales into related groups. This practice is known as taxonomy. It’s an essential tool in gaining a systematic picture of living things. Common dolphin © Dr. Ingrid Visser, Orca Research Trust What’s the difference? Whales:  People often use the term "whale" to refer to the large animals in the group. These can be both baleen whales (the filter feeders) and toothed whales (which hunt single prey). Dolphins:  Dolphins usually have a beak and always have conical teeth that taper to a fine point. Porpoises:  Porpoises have no beak. Their teeth are flat and spade-shaped. Mammalian Features Sperm whale.  © Brandon Cole Whales are mammals and have many of the features and systems of mammal anatomy. For example, whales breathe with lungs, and females nurse their young on milk. But whales differ significantly from almost all other mammals—a result of their move from land to sea millions of years ago. Whales evolved a streamlined shape, they lost their external hind limbs, and their forelimbs became flippers. Their nostrils became blowholes. Their lungs and circulatory system adapted to spending extended periods underwater.  From these changes came the remarkable, fully aquatic lives of whales. Feeding Whale feeding case.  © Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008 Whales can be divided into two types by their ancestry and the way they feed—baleen whales (Mysticeti or Mysticetes) and toothed whales (Odontoceti or Odontocetes). Baleen whales, a group that includes blue whales, are "batch feeders"—they use their plates of baleen to filter huge numbers of tiny prey out of the water.  Toothed whales such as sperm whales hunt their prey one by one. They use echolocation to find it and usually swallow it whole. Navigating and Communicating The ability to produce and perceive sound is important for whales—to navigate, find food, and communicate.  Toothed whales can use echolocation to hunt their prey. They send out high frequency clicks then listen for their echo as they bounce back from objects—like the next meal! Baleen whales use low frequency sound to communicate, sometimes over considerable distances. Recent research suggests that they do this with their larynx—the ‘voice box’ in land mammals. Some baleen whales, such as male humpbacks, produce extremely complex ‘songs’. Echolocation diagram: How a sperm whale produces and receives sound © Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2007
i don't know
What was the Northern most slave state of the US Civil War?
Slave states - definition of Slave states by The Free Dictionary Slave states - definition of Slave states by The Free Dictionary http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Slave+states slave state n. 1. Slave State Any of the 15 states of the Union in which slavery was legal before the Civil War, including Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. 2. A nation under totalitarian rule. Slave State n (Historical Terms) history US any of the 15 Southern states in which slavery was legal until the Civil War Slave′ State` any of the 15 Southern states that permitted slavery before the Civil War. [1800–10, Amer.] Noun 1. slave state - any of the southern states in which slavery was legal prior to the American Civil War American state - one of the 50 states of the United States Confederacy , Confederate States , Confederate States of America , Dixie , Dixieland , South - the southern states that seceded from the United States in 1861 free state - any state prohibiting slavery prior to the American Civil War Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us , add a link to this page, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content . Link to this page: References in classic literature ? Why, public opinion in the slave States IS slavery, is it not? These cases did not ALL occur, it will be seen, in territory actually belonging to legalised Slave States, though most, and those the very worst among them did, as their counterparts constantly do; but the position of the scenes of action in reference to places immediately at hand, where slavery is the law; and the strong resemblance between that class of outrages and the rest; lead to the just presumption that the character of the parties concerned was formed in slave districts, and brutalised by slave customs. View in context It is there that the fugitive slave, and the Mexican prisoner on parole, and the Indian come to plead the wrongs of his race, should find them; on that separate, but more free and honorable ground, where the State places those who are not with her, but against her -- the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor. View in context It is there that the fugitive slave, and the Mexican prisoner on parole, and the Indian come to plead the wrongs of his race should find them; on that separate but more free and honorable ground, where the State places those who are not with her, but against her--the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor. View in context The flag of the Confederate States unified the slave states of America; it flew over armies dedicated to ensuring that the ownership of another human being was a right; that the colour of a person's skin meant they could be bought and sold, whipped into toiling in cotton fields; hung for looking too hard or long at a white person. Lincoln's Campaign Biographies Forget the rose-tinted view that was presented in films such as Gone With The Wind, 12 Years A Slave depicts - with harrowing realism - exactly what it was like for thousands of people who were deprived of their liberty in the American slave states. Brilliance from the brutality; It's a bleak tale of suffering at the heart of the American slave trade..but Brit director Steve McQueen's must-see movie is a masterpiece Not only this that the world mistakenly viewed the UN to be the liberator of slavery and inequality, but also the populations blindly trusted in its manifesto and purported mission designed and fabricated by the very brains and hands of the nations that would look for perpetuating their supremacy and domination over the rest of the world through this exploitative global platform; as a result, the slave-minded third world relied on the words delivered from the mouths of their former master states, and fell into deep sleep of negligence and ignorance without having least concerns and worries with regards to the statutes the Veto powers had articulated as the first and final draft while deciding the fate of the slave states for the future decades to go.
Delaware
Who immediately succeeded Abraham Lincoln as President?
Border State Civil War Secession Border States Slavery Map Delaware Border State Civil War History Delaware was a border slave state that unanimously voted to stay in the Union during the Civil War. Although Delaware is the second smallest state in the United States, its population was approximately 112,216 at the beginning of the war. Its size makes it a useful microcosm in understanding the divisiveness of the war.    Factionalism, from abolitionism to secessionism, existed in Delaware, but many of its citizens did not align with either extreme. For example, there are three counties in Delaware. New Castle, which contains the city of Wilmington, was a center of trade, industry, and Republicanism. The two other counties, Kent and Sussex, were agricultural and generally pro-Southern.  Thousands of men enlisted in the Union, but several hundred joined the Confederacy. Communities were divided, and Union troops had to patrol election polls to protect Republican voters.   After the colonial period,the agricultural economy of the state began to shift from tobacco to mixed farming, which created less need for slave labor. In 1860, there were 1,789 slaves in the state and 19,829 free African Americans. Many slaves ran away during the war, and some elected to serve the Union. In 1863, 954 African Americans joined the Union army, and handful of others served in the navy. However, many citizens of this state were not happy with the Emancipation Proclamation. In the 1864 election, they voted for George B. McClellan, the Democratic candidate. After the war, Delaware Democrats rejected the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and worked to disenfranchise African Americans for several decades.   Although Delaware was not a battlefield, the war did find its way into the First State. Fort Delaware became a prison for Confederate prisoners of war. The fortress was completed shortly before the war began and is located on Pea Patch Island. The fort earned a reputation for cruelty and the moniker “Andersonville of the North.” However, the death rate in Fort Delaware, which supported a prison population of over 30,000, was only 7.6%. Most northern prisoners had a rate of twenty-one percent. See also: Sectionalism  and  Causes of the American Civil War . Union, Confederate, Civil War Border States Map Union, Confederate, Border State Civil War Strategy Map Kentucky Border State Civil War History The Bluegrass State claims as native sons and daughters many of the leading figures of the Civil War era, such as Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. One of Kentucky’s more prominent nineteenth century Senators, Henry Clay, spent much of his career trying to compromise the issue of slavery before the war. His most well known efforts were in crafting the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the later Compromise of 1850.   As clear from these most prominent residents, Kentucky was a state of divided loyalties and families torn apart. The state provided 90,000 troops to the Union and 35,000 to the Confederacy. Nowhere was this division more evident than in the "First Family." Several members of Mary Todd Lincoln's family fought for the South. Another family similarly divided was that of U.S. Senator John Crittenden, whose two sons were generals on opposite sides. Some historians even say that the ensuing family feuds, such as the Hatfields and the McCoys, carried on the war in Kentucky long after its official end. Civil War Border State Election Map Results Civil War Border States and President Election Map Results In 1861, Kentucky’s governor, Beriah Magoffin, favored secession, but the legislature voted to remain neutral. The major slaveholding areas in the Bluegrass Region and the western counties favored the Confederacy and sent many recruits to its army.  Early in the war, however, the Union entered Kentucky. By the end of the Battle of Perryville in 1862, Confederate forces had retreated from the state. Although a rival secessionist government was formed, it had little power. For the remainder of the war, Kentucky was the target of Confederate raids by John Hunt Morgan, William Quantrill, Nathan Bedford Forrest and “Sue” Mundy. These raiders destroyed supply lines, depots, public and private property. When President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, it did not apply to Kentucky because it was a Border State. However, when he offered freedom to slaves who joined the Union army, numerous slaves fled to Camp Nelson, Kentucky, which became a recruitment center and major fugitive slave camp. Although the 13th amendment freed all slaves in 1865, the Kentucky General Assembly failed to ratify the 13th, 14th or 15th amendments to the Constitution (each need to be ratified by � of the states). As a symbolic gesture, the amendments were officially ratified by the state on March 18, 1976. See also: Kentucky Civil War Border State: A History , States' Rights , and Civil War Border States History: HOMEPAGE .   Missouri Border State Civil War History In 1820, Missouri gained national attention as the focus of the Missouri Compromise. It was the northernmost slave state in the Mississippi River valley, and when its neighbor Kansas wanted to enter the Union in 1854 as a free state, trouble erupted along the border.   Missouri Compromise of 1820: The admission of Missouri as a state in 1820 provoked a contentious national debate over slavery. Missouri was the second state to be carved from the vast territory acquired from France in the Louisiana Purchase and was to be admitted as a slave state. This aroused concern in the North. After much wrangling, a compromise was worked out. Under the terms of the Missouri Compromise, Maine was admitted as a free state at the same time that Missouri came in as a slave state, maintaining the balance between slave and free states. Additionally, Congress prohibited slavery in all western territories lying above 36� 30' latitude (the southern boundary of Missouri).   Compromise of 1850: As a result of the Mexican War (1846-1848), the United States won vast acreage in the West (present-day California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado and Texas). This acquisition renewed the controversy over slavery in the territories. California applied for admission as a free state in 1850. Southern political leaders were concerned that this would upset the balance of 15 free and 15 slave states. They also were disturbed by northern agitation to end slavery in the District of Columbia and by the passage of "personal liberty" laws in the northern states. The personal liberty laws aimed to restrict the cooperation of state officials in enforcing the federal fugitive slave law. Southern senators blocked the admission of California and a crisis was at hand. Prolonged negotiation finally produced a series of measures that became known as the Compromise of 1850. Aspects of the compromise included 1) admission of California as a free state; 2) a stronger fugitive slave law; 3) assurance that Congress would not interfere with the interstate traffic in slaves in the South; and 4) prohibition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia. Finally, an act allowed the citizens of the remaining territories to be carved out of former Mexican land to decide for themselves on allowing slavery. Optimists believed that these measures constituted a lasting settlement of the divisive issue of slavery, but this was not to be.   Kansas-Nebraska Act: In 1853-1854, the slavery issue got tied up with the effort to build a transcontinental railroad. In order to achieve territorial organization of land that a railroad to the West Coast might pass through, the Democratic Party had to make concessions to the South. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 gave the people of those territories the authority to decide on the legal status of slavery, effectively repealing the Missouri Compromise line. This act kicked off seven years of intense national dispute over slavery, culminating in secession and, finally, civil war in 1861. Northerners were outraged at the Kansas-Nebraska Act's repeal of a long-established compromise. Pro- and anti-slavery factions immediately converted the territory of Kansas into a bloody battleground.   Border Wars: The years of 1854-1861 were a turbulent time in Kansas territory. The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 established the territorial boundaries of Kansas and Nebraska and opened the land to legal settlement. It allowed the residents of these territories to decide by popular vote whether their state would be free or slave. This concept of self-determination was called "popular sovereignty." In Kansas, people on all sides of this controversial issue flooded the territory, trying to influence the vote in their favor. Rival territorial governments, election fraud, and squabbles over land claims all contributed to the violence of this era. United States in 1860 Map Border States, Free States, Slave States, and Territories Map Three distinct political groups occupied neighboring Kansas: pro-slavers, free-staters and abolitionists. Violence broke out immediately between these opposing factions and continued until January 29,1861, when Kansas entered the Union as a free state. This era became forever known in the state as "Bleeding Kansas."   As Missourians tried to influence internal politics in Kansas, random violence became commonplace. Missouri guerrillas and Kansas jayhawkers raided and killed at will. A major event in during this time period was the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision in 1857, which not only denied the slave Dred Scott and his wife their freedom, but went on to declare that African Americans per se were not citizens under the Constitution.  Scott and his wife had filed their first petitions in the courthouse in St. Louis, Missouri. The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 would legitimize the killing that had plagued Missouri for years. Union General Nathaniel Lyon, an ardent abolitionist, commanded all Union troops in the state. Former governor Sterling "Pap" Price became the commander of the pro-secession Missouri State Guard. The two sides met at Wilson's Creek in August of 1861. Lyon boldly attacked the Missouri State Guard that had been joined by a larger Confederate force, and even though he lost the battle and his life, he succeeded in keeping the state under Union control.   Although Missouri remained under Union control for the rest of the war, as a Border State, it provided troops to both sides, pitting neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother, and father against son. Guerrilla warfare reigned over the state for the remainder of the war, during which time William Quantrill, Bloody Bill Anderson, and Frank and Jesse James began their infamous careers. A unified Confederate force was not seen in Missouri again until late 1864, when Sterling Price failed in a desperate attempt to regain control of the state.   Legend has it that every general on both sides of the Civil War served at Jefferson Barracks at one time. Among those who did are Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, and William Tecumseh Sherman. During the war, Jefferson Barracks had one of the largest Federal hospitals in the country, with over 3,000 beds, accommodating patients from battles as far away as Vicksburg. The Jefferson Barracks Historical Park exhibits photos, medical equipment, uniforms and weapons housed in buildings that were used during the Civil War. Among the Civil War veterans buried in the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery are 1,140 Confederates. See also:  Missouri Civil War Border State: A History ,  Causes of the American Civil War , and Civil War Border States History: HOMEPAGE . Border State Reconstruction Map West Virginia Border State Civil War History The Mountain State entered the Union on June 20, 1863. Forming the western region of Virginia, West Virginia severed its ties from Virginia, and was only one of two states created during the Civil War (the other being Nevada). Not only did it incur revolutionary political changes, but it was the scene of several national events. The first shots of the impending war were fired on the night of October 16, 1859. Abolitionist John Brown led an armed band of twenty-one men to Harpers Ferry, a strategic location on the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers near Washington, D.C. (known as Washington City at the time). Brown and his men captured the federal armory, arsenal, and Hall’s Rifle Works. His men held sixty citizens as hostages in hopes of persuading their slaves to join them, but no slaves came forward. President Buchanan sent the federal militia to put an end to the raid. The state of Virginia charged Brown with treason. Southerners condemned the raid, while militant abolitionists proclaimed him a martyr. Western Virginians were acutely aware of the divisiveness of the Civil War. When the Richmond Convention decided to secede from the Union in April 1861, northwestern delegates immediately returned to their home counties to drum up Union support before Virginians voted on the Ordinance. John S. Carlile, an influential politician and powerful orator, called for the formation of a new state at this First Wheeling Convention, but other delegates believed such an act was illegal, since this act required the permission of the older state. When the Secession Ordinance was approved in May, a Second Wheeling Convention was called. The delegates formed the Reorganized Government of Virginia based in Wheeling. They elected a new Virginia governor (Francis Pierpont) and appointed new Virginia Senators (John Carlile and Arthur Boreman). Delegates were divided and argued throughout the whole process, debating the state’s size and the issue of slavery. Carlile was asked to draft a report on West Virginia statehood. As a conservative dismayed with the radical Congress, he tried to sabotage the bill. Boreman managed to save it with the addition of the Willey Amendment, which provided for emancipation. The bill was approved by Congress, but President Lincoln questioned the legality before he finally signed the bill December 31, 1862. It went back to the voters, who approved the amended bill. West Virginia became the 35th state on June 20, 1863. Present-day US Census Bureau Border States Map Present-day Census Bureau Border State Map The Union Army facilitated these revolutionary political changes when it achieved control of northwestern Virginia early in the war. The army was able to retain control through engagements in Philippi, Rich Mountain, and Carnifex Ferry. In 1862, Clarksburg native Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson swept through on his Shenandoah Valley campaign, resulting in skirmishes in the Eastern Panhandle. Despite general Union control, this did not mean West Virginians were safe from confederate raiders. Guerrilla warfare persisted after 1863 until the end of the war, including the Jones-Imboden Raid, Battle of Droop Mountain, and raids by McNeill’s Rangers of Hardy County.   For many years it was thought that West Virginians produced significantly more Union soldiers than Confederates, but recent scholarship indicates that the numbers are about 20,000 for each side. The divisiveness of this period continued long after the war ended. See also: West Virginia Civil War Border State: A History , Secession, Border States, and Civil War , and Civil War Border States History: HOMEPAGE . (Sources and related reading below.) Site search
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Prior to Sochi which country has won the most Winter Olympic medals?
Final Sochi Winter Olympics 2014 medal count: Russia finishes with most medals - SBNation.com Final Sochi Winter Olympics 2014 medal count: Russia finishes with most medals Rec Adam Pretty The 2014 Winter Olympic games are in the books, and despite the United States and Russia being tied in the medal count mid-way through Saturday, the Russians pulled away Sunday to win the most medals of any nation. • Sunday's results and updates • Canada claims hockey gold • Hockey star tests positive • Russia calls back ring failure • Russia finishes with most medals • Olympics medal tracker Russia finished with 33 medals overall, including an Olympic-high 13 golds. Launching them to first place were the country's men's cross-country 50 kilometer mass start racers on Sunday. Russia swept that event as Alexander Legkov took gold, Maxim Vylegzhanin took silver and Ilia Chernousov took bronze. The Russians also took gold in the four-man bobsled event. Team U.S.A. was second in overall medals with 28. Their lone medal on Sunday came in the four man bobsled as the team led by Steven Holcomb finished with a bronze medal. The United States' nine gold medals were just the fourth-most in the Sochi games as both Canada and Norway finished ahead of them in that category. Norway was third overall in medals with 26 and second on gold with 11. Canada's Mens Hockey gold medal pushed them ahead of the United States in that category; Canada will leave Sochi with 10 gold and 25 medals overall. Rounding out the top five in medal winners are the Dutch. The Netherlands finished with 24 medals overall this year and tied for fifth in the gold count with Germany as both countries took the top spot on the podium eight times. In this Storystream
Norway
Who was the only boxer to win a world title without ever having a manager?
The 10 most fascinating facts about the all-time Winter Olympics medal standings | For The Win The 10 most fascinating facts about the all-time Winter Olympics medal standings The 10 most fascinating facts about the all-time Winter Olympics medal standings By Chris Chase February 7, 2014 11:08 am Follow @firechrischase 81k shares Follow @firechrischase (Getty Images) Ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, For The Win looks back at the all-time Winter Olympic medal count to find some of the strange, interesting and notable facts from 90 years of Winter Games history. 1. The Soviet Union is still third on the all-time medal count. Despite not having competed in a Winter Olympics since the 1988 Games in Calgary, the old USSR is still No. 3 in gold medals and No. 4 in overall medals. 2. Norway has more gold medals than 100 countries have total medals. (USA TODAY Sports Images) The Norwegians have a record 107 golds in Winter Olympics competition. Only nine countries (United States, USSR, Austria, Germany, Finland, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland and East Germany) have won more total medals in the Winter Games. Though the tiny Scandinavian country won five of the first six medal counts, but only two of the past 15, it still has a stranglehold atop the count that its unlikely to give up in the next few decades. 3. We’re No. 2! (Getty Images) Americans are No. 2 in golds and silvers (behind Norway) and No. 3 in bronze medals (behind Norway and Austria). Overall, the U.S. is No. 2 in the medal count behind the Norwegians. 4. The United States is the king  (and queen) of speedskating and figure skating. (USA TODAY Sports Images) U.S. athletes have won the most medals in both those sports, as well as newer disciplines like freestyle skiing, snowboarding and skeleton. 5. Biathlon isn’t as kind to Americans. (Reuters) That’s the only sport in which an American athlete has never medaled. The U.S. only has one medal in cross country, ski jumping and curling. 6. Norwegian cross-country skier Bjørn Dæhlie is the Michael Phelps of the Winter Games. Daehlie competes in Nagano. (AP) Dæhlie won eight golds and 12 overall medals in his three Olympics, both of which are most in Winter Olympic history. Cross country and biathlon participants dominate the list of top individual medalists. Only Norwegian alpine skier Kjetil Andre Aamodt breaks the endurance skiing stronghold on the top 10. 7. Apolo Anton Ohno is also the Michael Phelps of the Winter Games. (Getty Images) If we’re going by American athletes dominating a Games, the short track speedskater gets the nod. His eight medals (two gold, two silver, four bronze) are the most for any U.S. athlete and ranks him No. 15 overall. Bonnie Blair’s six medals are second amongst Americans. Bode Miller is tied for third with five overall medals, a total he could add to in Sochi. 8. Which three countries are better in Winter than Summer? (Getty Images) Given that there are more medals to win at Summer Olympics than Winter Olympics (there were 302 medal events in London compared to 98 in Sochi), most countries have won far more medals in the summer. The U.S., for instance, has 2,400 Summer Olympics medals compared to 253 Winter Olympics medals. Only three countries buck that trend: Norway (303 winter, 148 summer); Austria (201 winter, 86 summer) and, you guessed it, Liechtenstein (9 winter, 0 summer). 9. Norway gets bang for its buck. (USA TODAY Sports Images) Norway is a nation of 5 million people, about the same as the population of Alabama. Per capita, the nation has won one Winter Olympic medal for every 16,556 residents. The United States, on the other hand, has one medal for every 1,237,154 residents. 10. Speaking of states, New York leads the U.S. medal count. (AP) Athletes from New York have won 23 gold medals overall, the most for any state. Minnesota (22) and Massachusetts (16) round out the top three. (Gold medals for hockey players  make up a large portion of these totals). Surprisingly, Colorado has only produced one Winter Olympic gold medalist, according to this AOL tally . That’s the same as Alabama, New Mexico and Nevada.
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